The evil doll movie subgenre continues to embrace new titles involving more and more filmmakers even on the independent film circuit. Animated by malevolent entities, dolls, puppets, wooden figurines, and mannequins thus become the essential protagonists of an imagery that has its full-bodied following.
From famous films such as Dolls, via the well-known franchises Puppet Master and Chucky and other titles such as Dolly Dearest, Damned spell, as well as even lesser-known ones (Ooga Booga, Zapatlela), this subgenre seems to be drawing new blood thanks to mainstream films such as Annabelle but also to the recent Sorority Slaughterhouse and Puppet Killer (quest'ultimo attualmente in post-produzione). Riusciti o meno che siano questi titoli esercitano comunque un certo fascino sugli appassionati degli evil doll movie.
Also part of this fascinating context is Silently Within Your Shadow, a low-budget British short film written and directed by Scott Lyus in 2015. The film deals with ventriloquism, a theme already addressed in several films such as. Hypnosis, The Triloquist, The Dummy 1995 and The Dummy 2000, The Murders of Brandywine Theater, or the more famous Magic and Dead Silence for example.
Silently Within Your Shadow therefore could be considered as a tribute to this subgenre. A tribute that boasts the valuable presence of Bill Moseley in the cast. In fact, it is the celebrated American actor who gives the voice to Hugo, the possessed puppet. In the film, Lucette (Sophie Tergeist) is so obsessed with ventriloquism and her inanimate co-worker Hugo that she neglects her relationship with her partner Jace (Byron Fernandes). Fights between the two become more and more frequent because of the puppet but the girl cannot get rid of him because she considers him her best friend.
Silently Within Your Shadow dà subito spazio al ventriloquismo regalando primi piani alla protagonista e al suo pupazzo Hugo mentre si esibiscono davanti al pubblico di cui si odono solo gli schiamazzi e gli applausi. Le brevi ma intense sequenze sul palcoscenico, messe in risalto da un buon uso delle luci, mantengono viva l'attenzione dello spettatore che altrimenti va affievolendosi durante le scene riguardanti il contesto casalingo, tra l'altro gravato da una regia statica.
Although predictable, the ending breaks the monotony in which Lyus's film tends to lapse because of the couple's constant bickering, which proves to be an end in itself and quite forced. At the same time, the final minutes of the short fully satisfy fans of evil doll movies who expect to see the doll in action. Silently Within Your Shadow thus respects the clichés of killer doll movies by proving to be a title worthy of attention.
