Agreed. It was like they used a combo of real life serial killers to base their character on - the hints from the timed sequence of trailer releases - using codes like the zodiac killer. Yet when the movie started - none of that type of suspense or detective work was used in the plot. Then there's the Ed Gein comparison - only that was achieved much more successfully, using frightening details of him sewing human skins together to make his new suit ( silence of the lambs). The doll thing.. Nah- that's been used in several horror flicks - only they were mysterious & scary Chucky, Annabelle, etc.. This movie didn't concentrate efforts on any one genre & totally lost me when it went from horror - to thriller - to fiction fantasy. Really fell flat.
Good start - was suspenseful... Couldn't quite put my finger on what went wrong. You have summed it up well. I also felt that this movie was half - ass horror / half -ass psychological thriller...but not excellent in either genre. There was too much detective type work interrupting any of the ( short ) suspense scenes. That might of worked - if only the detective scenes were interesting - & made sense. There really was no mystery to be solved - nor was the movies plot based upon a serial killer. It's weird - almost as if they changed writers half way through movie & decided to change the genre from horror to drama,- then the last 1/4 of movie it was switched to fantasy! Out of the blue- make believe B.S which completely removed any suspense - as the film began with a realistic plot - only to get boring in the middle & morphed into a fiction fantasy plot. It was disappointing. It has real promise - could of been a horrific suspenseful thriller - with scenes of intense realistic horror. But it fell flat.
