Zombos Says: Good, in spite of what some other critics may say.

Sticking demons in jars probably isn't the best approach to containing them, especially when the jar is made of glass. Getting the beastie into the jar in the first place can be a painful and terminal experience too. But all of that Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) and  Sam (Megan Suri) already know, in this effective chiller directed by Bishal Dutta. 

Trying to fit in at an American school is bad enough, but deciphering the cryptic book left behind by a family that left the neighborhood the hard way, and a mother (Neeru Bajwa) who expects she follow family traditions, is making it all very difficult for Sam, her new boyfriend, and her school councilor, Joyce. Her friend, Tamira, has it worse since she is the one left holding the jar. Until Sam smashes it in a fit of disgust. Cue the terror and screaming for both of them.

In true horror movie fashion, the adults are clueless and little help, so Sam and her boyfriend check out the house where that other family didn't stay long. A scary mural matches a drawing in the book and is also not much help at that moment. When the demon goes after her and those around her, the story picks up speed and bloodletting. 

While Joyce (Betty Gabriel) becomes a believer in Hindu demonic entities–the hard way–Sam and her mother  embrace their culture to fight against the monster and save who they can. Not so surprisingly, it involves a lot of cooking. The ending leaves an opening for more mayhem, but don't they always?

Some critics have reviewed this one as derivative, too cliche-heavy, and the usual freaky creepy tropes kind of effort. I admit the use of oh-it-was-a-nightmare-moments are cheap these days to foster scares and pad the story, but the creature design is beautiful (in a demon sort of way of course), and filming its presence is nicely handled: glimpses at first, then full-0n, run for your life reveals as the situation worsens. And Sam thought fitting in at school was difficult?

I will say the use of yet another cryptic book, filled with incoherent Crayola scribblings and drawings as the key provider of clues, like the overused Internet and YouTube search for just about anything evil, is getting wearisome as go-to ways of moving a story forward. Especially when those books are always beaten, leatherbound, and look like they were buried and dug up a few times while being chewed on. Why not use a Mead notebook for damn sakes, like everyone else?

Zombos Says: By all means, see it!

I was robbed! Here I'm thinking, with a title like Don't Look Away, and let's face it, a crazy premise, I had all the snarky review taglines ready: like You Must Look Away! or No, Really, Don't Look! And then they throw a curveball and make an entertaining romp with a devilish mannequin that just stands there like, um, a mannequin. And it works.

I can imagine the pitch party with this one.

"Hey, you know those Weeping Angels in Doctor Who? Cool right? What if we take 'em and add a little Zuni Fetish Doll Warrior-lethal craziness from Trilogy of Terror (1975), toss in some cockamamie curse angle like they do in those J-Horror movies where you don't have to explain the backstory coherently, and punch it up to a mannequin-sized monster that goes after people that see it?"

"Sounds great! But…"

"What buts?"

"Big buts. But the CGI blows our budget out of the water, and, really, how goofy would that look on screen watching a mannequin butcher people? I mean, but how does he move or hold onto things or rip out their throats and do slasher stuff like that? Practical effects would suck, period"

"Oh, that. Thinking, thinking…I know! He doesn't move! We just move him around a lot, do some quick edits, and bam! A quantum singularity mannequin! He appears, cut to people mauled five ways to Sunday, he disappears."

"That's the stupidest thing I've heard and yet, brilliant! Let's go sell this baby!"

And here we are. 

Frankie (Kelley Bastard) winds up hitting a truck driver running from a heist gone bad. Seems the sole cargo on the truck was a big box of whoop ass courtesy of a mannequin after the lid is taken off. Eventually Frankie tries to describe what she saw at the crime scene when she's asked if she saw anything, but one of the cops, after the two of them look at each other, asks "like a Bloomingdale's mannequin?" But Kelley has seen the mannequin-stein and that kicks off the cat and mouse game of survival; mostly for her friends though, because she points out the mannequin to them when it hangs (well, stands actually) around her house.

Her friends are also hard to get buy-in on They just head to a nightclub to cheer her up. Bad idea. Of course, Jonah (Michael Mitton), the guy who wants to be her boyfriend, starts to realize she isn't crazy, but her live-in guy, Steve (Colm Hill), who's kind of loopy to begin with, thinks she's imagining things. He has a The Shining moment later on, though, as the mannequin proves it just doesn't stand around. All of which is foreshadowed by a television glimpse of The Shining as the Scooby-Don't team debates Frankie' delusion. 

Of course, the one black guy, Drake (Abu Dukuly), suddenly pulls a gun from his drawer to give to his girlfriend, Lucy (Rene Lai). One of these days we'll actually see the one white guy pull a gun from his drawer and give it to his significant other too. But for now, even with a bat in hand, Drake isn't as tough as he looks. None of them are. Even trying to burn it has dire consequences.

Cue the viral video online that alerts them to others who have experienced the mannequin's evil. Reaching out, they learn a few things to save themselves. They also discover Malick (Michael Bafaro), who was the one having the thing shipped to his estate. He certainly doesn't look the type to have an estate, but let that one slide. This is where the J-Horror aspect comes in because Malick tells them they are all cursed but turns out to be less informative than they hope (hell, I think they already knew that), and prone to mischief himself. 

This is a franchise-building entry that provides chills through a simple premise with great bang for the buck ratio: an indestructible monster that has to be the cheapest practical effect ever devised, and a story that is crying out for a backstory as to how this evil, demonic thing, came to life. Don't Look Now makes you feel a bit 1980s, and that's a good thing. And I dare them to show me Malick's estate in the sequel. Or explain how this thing can stay locked in a box when it can appear and disappear all over the place in microseconds. I will take whichever comes first.