REBORN aka DEADLY DOLL (致命玩偶) (NETFLIX) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: Devastated by the death of her son, a mother begs a mysterious woman to summon his soul into a doll but something far more sinister may have returned.   

MOVIE REVIEW:

Danny Pang, one half of the Pang Brothers who once terrified audiences with the now-classic horror The Eye, returns to the genre that made his name though not with the same success.

In this direct-to-streaming horror flick, TVB actress Venus Wong (daughter-in-law of Eric Tsang and wife of filmmaker Derek Tsang) plays Xue Ting, a grieving mother who loses her young son (Lokman Leung) to a illness. Instead of seeking psychiatric help to cope with her loss, Ting turns to a one-eyed medium, Aunt Mui (veteran actress Helena Law Lan), who gives her a rag doll said to be possessed by her son’s spirit. Ting accepts it against the wishes of her skeptical husband, Ho Wah (Eddie Cheung).

Much like adopting the cuddly Gizmo from Gremlins, the doll comes with a single ominous warning: “Never damage the doll.” Predictably, once it enters the household, eerie happenings ensue or at least, they should. At a lean 85 minutes, the film feels more lifeless than chilling.

As often with the Pang Brothers, the concept is stronger than the execution. Reborn aka Deadly Doll, a remake of Pang’s own little-known Reborn (2022), suffers from a total lack of suspense and genuine scares. The result feels less like a professional production and more like a middling student project.

Rather than embracing a straightforward horror setup, Pang tries to inject psychological ambiguity into the narrative. Is Xue Ting merely hallucinating her son’s presence? Or is it truly his spirit roaming the home? Unfortunately, Pang is no Mike Flanagan whose adaptations of Stephen King’s works skillfully balance grief and terror. Here, the heavy use of flashbacks and backstory undermines rather than enriches the story, and the supposed twist ending lands with a thud, more lazy than revelatory.

To their credit, the cast do what they can. Wong delivers a believable performance as a mother consumed by grief, Cheung does his best as the weary husband and the 90-year-old Law Lan continues to lean on her horror icon status. But even their efforts cannot rescue this sinking ship.

The truth is, Danny Pang's career has been in free fall for years, and films like Death Stranding and now Deadly Doll only cement his recline. At least The Eye remains a watchable relic of their legacy unlike this pointless exercise. And no, despite the original title, this is nowhere near a “Chinese Annabelle.”

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee