Don’t Look Away (Reviewed by Lisa Marie Bowman)

The main thing you need to know about 2023’s Don’t Look Away is that the killer looks like this.

Yes, the killer is a mannequin and a rather silly-looking one at that.  Silly or not, the mannequin is undeniably creepy, as mannequins tend to be.  The mannequin is apparently stalking a group of friends.  Frankie (Kelly Bastard) is convinced that the mannequin is alive and possessed by some sort of supernatural power.  Her friends disagree …. until they start dying, one-by-one.

Now, I should make clear that, for the majority of the film’s running time, we don’t actually see the mannequin kill anyone.  At the most, we see the mannequin suddenly show up behind someone.  He evens shows up in a swimming pool at one point.  Occasionally, his facial expression seems to change but, for the most, he always has the same goofy smile painted on his face.  The mannequin stalks one person-at-a-time and if you see him behind you and then look away, he’ll be closer the second time you look at him.

We do see the aftermath of meeting the mannequin.  As silly as it may seem to get killed by a mannequin (and I mean, seriously, how do you handle that shame while waiting in Purgatory), Kelly’s friends are actually dying, though it appears that they could all just be having unfortunate accidents or committing suicide.  Is it possible that the mannequin is just a mess delusion and that Kelly’s paranoia has poisoned the group?  The thing is, though …. if you were going to imagine a scary mannequin trying to kill you, wouldn’t you actually visualize something a lot more scary than a naked, emasculated wooden man with a silly smile on his face?

Don’t Look Away doesn’t quite work.  None of the friends really make a huge impression or even register as anything more than horror movie stereotypes.  There’s a scene set in a disco that I appreciated but that’s just because I appreciated anything that’s set in a disco.  Don’t Look Away suffers from a common affliction amongst horror films that were made after It Follows, in that the action moves way too slowly.  When the film should be fast-paced and silly, it’s somber and strangely self-serious.

The film’s big star, of course, is that mannequin.  Here’s another shot of him.

I mean, yeah, he’s creepy.  The first few times that you see him, he’s legitimately scary.  But then, after a while, he just become silly.  There’s only so much you can do with a goofy-looking mannequin.  I mean, don’t get me wrong.  I’ve seen some good killer mannequin films.  Mannequins can definitely be scary and I wouldn’t want to get locked in a warehouse with them or anything like that.  Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil makes wonderful use of the creepiness of mannequins.  But the mannequin at the heart of Don’t Look Away becomes less creepy and more goofy every time that you see him.  I’ll admit that I looked away a few times in an effort not to laugh.

Hmmm …. that may have been a mistake.