Murderous mannequin makes maintaining glimpses mandatory mitigating merciless ominous misfortune among ambivalent companions whom momentarily misbehave

Don’t Look Away is a new Canadian independent slasher film about a young woman who has a chance encounter with a supernatural entity. Once you see the mannequin, there’s no end in sight except for maybe your own. Will she be left at a standstill?

Directed by Micheal Bafaro, he utilizes tracking shots in long takes following characters to subvert expectations when jump scares are anticipated. This includes blink and you’ll miss moments like a shadowed figure in open doorways when passing by. At times I thought a jump scare was coming but it was a fake out. He sets up great scares like the pool scene because when they do come it’s genuinely surprising. Instead of coming from the obvious place the scares they’re more shocking. Some jump scares got me but the frequency is inconsistent. He also uses other imaginative framing when he plays with light and shadow. For example, there’s a scene entirely lit with cell phone flashlights. It’s not gory either. The kills are primarily off-screen. You might be disappointed if you go in expecting a gore fest. That’s not what this is. The mannequin looks silly when it’s shown in the light too. Seeing a dark silhouetted figure, not knowing what’s coming after you, is creepy enough. Showing too much of the mannequin severely hindered the fear factor.

Written by the Michaels, Don’t Look Away takes itself too seriously for a flawed concept. Every time someone looks away, the mannequin sporadically gets closer like The Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. Sillier ideas have been explored but it’s all about execution. The main plotline is about as cliché as it gets though. No one believes the main character because she’s viewed as crazy. By the time they do get convinced it’s too late. What’s the killer mannequin’s power set? It seems like they were just making up powers like teleportation or possession when it’s convenient for the plot. What’s the supernatural entity exactly? Is it demonic? Alien? An interdimensional being? Something else? There was no explanation. Did I miss something?

The cast members include Kelly Bastard, Michael Mitton, Colm Hill, Rene Lai, Abu Dukuly, and Micheal Bafaro. The characters are bland and the actors are either emotionless or overacting. There’s no happy medium. Every argument or dramatic moment feels forced. They don’t even look believable when trying to be scared. It’s distracting.

Overall, Don’t Look Away has its suspenseful moments but the unevenness of the effectiveness of the scares took me out of the experience. This is a writing issue. The superior directing tactics elevate the tension but maybe another draft of the script could’ve fixed the atmospheric tone. It’s not about how scenes were filmed, it’s how they were written. This film and something like Truth or Dare didn’t work, whereas It Follows and Smile did because they developed suspense and surprise for a massively consistent fear factor.

I couldn’t even take the mannequin in Don’t Look Away seriously once it was revealed. Too many unanswered questions took away from the experience, too. I wouldn’t recommend this to hardcore slasher fans. This isn’t a splatter fest and seems to be for the horror uninitiated. It’s unclear, unfocused, and unbalanced. And remember, should you look away? Man, I can.