The Paper Dolls (2023)
The Paper Dolls is a Chinese horror movie that came out in 2023 in the language of chinese mandarin. This movie goes by multiple titles, see the end of my post for elaboration.
How I watched: Tubi
For the short of it: A journalist researches the truth behind the deadly paper doll folklore.
The long of it? Have your clean set of chonies handy...
Lovely day to have eyes, I tell ya what. This is why it pays off to have a cool looking movie poster because this absolutely stuck out to my ADHD ass for my next viewing and boy oh boy I am totes glad I did choose this.
So this movie is centered around a journalist named Lu Xiaosheng who is researching the folklore surrounding paper dolls whom has the superstition one's soul can be inhabited post mortem. Some 20 years ago there was an old tale connecting the Qiao family and these paper dolls with a very frightening and murderous history. Legend says that a family member used a paper doll to murder father dearest. Lu Xiaosheng's mission is to get to the bottom of this story attempting to find out just how much truth there is to this urban legend.
Initially this movie starts with a big fucking BANG with Xiaosheng walking in the dead ass of night following a mysterious man who guides him to Joe House (totally trying to refrain from immature jokes every mention of this throughout the movie). Lu Xioasheng is strongly cautioned against staying the night there but this dude being the ambitious person he is doesn't GAF so he chills there alone. Well, he ain't alone. He haz company. Haunted company. You might want to give your extra pair of chonies to this guy because he totally needs it now.
Full of nightmare inducing imagery. A little reminescent of the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. These dolls don't send you back in time or anything but their stoic haunting aura is undeniable.
The next morning he finds himself yeeted out of that house because the other dude kindly relocated him to his own house after he lost consciousness. Without skipping a beat, Xiaosheng inquires more and asks a favor on who he can pick the brains of to get to the bottom of this mysterious scary as fuck paper doll folklore.
The only reliable source is seeking out the paper doll maker's apprentice which is a woman named Nanshen that lives in Fushui Town not too far away. Upon arrival, Nanshen obliges his IRL request and tells him to sit his ass down because she is going to share a couple of stories and it's going to be rough ride.
The following that will be presented to you in this movie is a series of brief stories that goes without saying is all connected together but are told in a non-linear timeline. So if you are hella confused by the why's and what's...well you are supposed to be confused. Duh. Just not for long.
I won't go into detail for the stories but the gist behind it is to explain the origin of the paper doll maker's role and how the Qiao family got associated with it with dire consequences. Also, duh. It also delves into the tragic background of Uncle Ah Sheng, another associate of the famed paper maker of dolls.
Stories are beautifully told. The Paper Dolls is about 95 minutes long and I'll be honest here, it doesn't drag in my eyes. I was delightfully entertained as the opening scene like literally went straight to the horror-y spooky as fuck scene from the get go. That's totally a plus for me as I often have a hard time retaining attention. One critique that I think others will may bring up is that very thing. No build up to this penultimate opening scene and it may make you think you just walked in to the middle of the movie and missed everything that led up to that. So yeah, I'd imagine the potential confusion from the naysayers. Like I said, I loved how it opened it up like it did.
I will admit this to you that if you are expecting a movie to be ALL about murderous dolls who come to life and outright kills people to satisfy their bloodlust, then you are going to be in a world of letdown. The Paper Doll's storyline has a way deeper meaning than making you want to shit your pants. This is not a slasher movie, afterall. Move on if that's what you expected it to be.
I honestly wish you don't and proceed because The Paper Dolls is a beautifully written movie with amazing cinematography and I personally love it despite expecting this movie to probably have scathing reviews from hardcore horror fanatics. It's amazing how the execution on the inclusion of the paper dolls plays in this story and that's something you have to find out why and how for yourself.
You may even want to watch this movie twice like I did. Scenes may initially seem confusing to you (especially the beginning) and maybe even useless but this is definitely one of those movies that implores on your thinking outside of the box and symbolism, metaphors or whatever the fuck it's called thinking skills. There's a perfectly good reason why the opening scene with the dolls is the way it is. I'll just leave it at that. It made sense to me by the ending and it should to you too.
Concerning the alternate movie titles: The Paper Dolls came out around January 2023 so it's a relatively fresh movie to the streaming world. However, I can barely find any information on it! What's more confusing is that this movie has gone by alternate titles but clearly referring to the same movie (which could explain lack of info). There's articles associating this movie as either "The Paper Man Returns", "Get in the Dark" and "Paper Man Returning to the Soul". Bruh, WHO DO I BELIEVE?! I'm just going to keep referring to this as The Paper Dolls since that's what Tubi labeled it as and the movie itself has the title in the opening credits.
In addition to this, not many blog posts or even YouTube videos exist. Some actually do exist, but even this other more popular video refers to it as Get in the Dark. I guess it gets marketed in other countries under different titles. Not the first time I've heard of this. I just wanted to point that out for any confused individuals.
But hey, still an above average horror movie in my eyes so you should still give this movie a shot. I think the translations are a bit rough for his english speaking peeps too.
Without a doubt I absolutely recommend this movie for everyone to watch. I think you can even watch with the family too. If you can get past the scary as hell opening scene you would have no problem with the rest of the movie. Not for the littles.
With that being said, what is my verdict?
This is where I would usually give you a JustWatch link but NONE of the 4 alternate known titles even pop up for this movie. As of this writing, it's on Tubi and it's free :)
