[7]

Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) and Donnie Wahlberg star in this stylish horror film from James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring). Kwanten plays a man whose wife has been murdered by a creepy-looking ventriloquist doll and Wahlberg plays the detective convinced that Kwanten killed her. The two pursue their separate lines of investigation, both of which lead to an abandoned Guignol theater where they uncover the base of operation for the vengeful ghost of Mary Shaw, a spirit who attacks the living by embodying one of a hundred different dolls. The demon doll thing has been done many times, but Wan proves adept at building tension and I dig his hyper-stylized approach to the material. The film also offers a few nice surprises in the final act.