Macabre…ish Horror Review: The Revenge of Robert the Doll

 


The Revenge of Robert the Doll, 2018/ 1 hr 20 min

 

In 1939, Germany, at the home of Joseph Von Hammersmark (David Imper), the author of the book, Officer Dietrich (Lee Mark Jones) arrives to discuss how the book was compiled and to negotiate a price.

 

Joseph found and wrote down mystical recitations and spells from practices observed in Tibet and Egypt. The price he wants is so large, he writes it down. But Dietrich wants proof that it works first and so Joseph proves it. Dietrich is amazed and promises to release half of the money immediately and will inform the commissioner of the book’s authenticity.

 

As the Officer leaves, Joseph catches his wife, Eva (Eloise Juryeff), eavesdropping and he assaults her.

 

That night, Eva breaks into the box where the book is kept and sneaks away with it, she has her own plans. She takes the car and leaves. On her way, she picks up a man on the side of the road, Frederick Voller (Gareth Lawrence).

 

She attempts to steal his gun as he slept but he’s on to her. He threatens her and demands she keep her promise and drive him to Kulmbach. Turns out he’s not just a stranded man, broken down on the side of the road. At a check point, Frederick shoots the guards after hitting her because he thinks she alerted them. Frederick is a bad man, he finds a guard still alive and smothers him to death. Meanwhile, Eva is making a run for it on foot.

 

She doesn’t make it. After the car gets a flat they go to a nearby house so Frederick can call someone. Helmut, a seemingly kind and unusually perceptive man, welcomes them inside and immediately sees through Frederick’s lies. Frustrated, Frederick draws his gun and then Eva draws one of Helmut’s guns on Frederick.

 

Frederick ends up with a bullet in his head after preaching too and trying to strangle Eva. Helmut says he’ll bury his remains in the garden and while doing that, Ava also ends up in the garden. Helmut, is not the kind gentleman he appears to be, he is actually Col. Von Braun (Nicholas Anscombe). He recovers the book and calls Ofc. Dietrick, who returns to the Hammersmark residence and executes Joseph.

 

 

Germany, 1941

 

Col. Von Braun tells the story of The Muller Family’s execution, the book ending up in Amos Blackwood’s (Lee Bane) possession, the animation of the dolls and the deaths of Von Avenslaven (Erich Hayden) and his men. He has intelligence that the toymaker is boarding a train and the orders are to board the train at Munich and retrieve the book and kill the toymaker.

 

Meanwhile, another agency has the same intel but their directive is to save the toymaker before the train reaches Nuremburg. The nazis will be waiting there to take the book into possession.

 

Amos Blackwood boards the train unaware that his movements are being tracked and that he’s in danger. Also Amos has been seeing Esther’s (Harriet Rees) ghost who warns him that the ghosts of the past will always haunt him, if he doesn’t do something about them.

 

Amos explains why he calls his dolls his children. He was once married to a woman named Mary (Josephine Partridge) and had a family, a son, Hans and daughter, Agnes (Olivia Lee). Mary found someone else because Amos worked too much. But her lover rejected her when she announced she was leaving Amos. He told her his family expected him to marry but not to a woman who already had children. He could not raise another man’s offspring. He just found her to be fun. So Mary went home and drowned the children, returned to her lover and he rejected her again, in horror, at what she’d done.

 

Amos found his children in the pond and his he was inconsolable. Esther dying in his arms reminded him of his daughter, Agnes.  He’s suffered ever since. And now his dolls are his children.

 

Back on the train, one of the people searching for Amos is killing a lot of people. Train employees, nazis, anyone who looks at him wrong. That man, Fuchs (Derek Nelson), finds Amos just as the nazis find him. Unfortunately, that man is not on Amos’ side, the double agent who also worked for British Intelligence he killed before, was. But luckily, Amos has his toys and they come to the rescue, right on time.

 

Unfortunately, some of the dolls are injured and it hurts Amos just as badly as seeing his own children’s lifeless corpses.

 

As the train comes to a stop in Nuremburg and nazis board the train for the book. The toys are waiting and so is the toymaker.

 

United Kingdom, 2012

 

Agatha (Judith Haley) approaches Amos to complain that her employers, The Ottos, aren’t treating her very well. She requests the use of the book. She wants to hurt them. And Amos refuses. Agatha is pissed. As Agatha storms off she takes Robert with her, unbeknownst to Amos.

 

 

This is the fourth movie in the Robert franchise, written and directed by the late Andrew Jones. This is also a prequel that tells the earlier story of the last prequel, Robert and the Toymaker. But this is an earlier story about the author of the book and how it made it into the hands of Amos Blackwood. It’s a nice winding tale and this story is more about the lore of the book and history of Amos, than it is about killer dolls.

 

If you like a nice long story, you might really like this franchise. There’s still plenty of death but not necessarily via the dolls. There is cg blood that isn’t great but it’s not too ridiculous and the ghost scenes feel a little like ‘jumping the shark’ but I think because the execution is so well done, it’s more a story issue than a movie issue.

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