«The Dolls Come to Life at Midnight» by Svetlana Mertsalova

A mysterious past, an uncomfortable legacy, a ghost that ends up haunting the walls of the protagonist’s mind: classic topos of the gothic tale, are interpreted here in a personal way, with a lens that we dare to define as decidedly feminine.

Svetlana Mertsalova, the director of this dark tale, takes on the challenge of using the atmosphere and contrasts of light and dark to create suspense and tension, rather than relying on creepy special effects.

The visual delight of horror cinema is extremely well crafted from photography and montage, showing mastery of its medium in a setting and story that amply offer opportunities, but we’d be really curious to see what the end result would have been without budget limitations – one of the reasons why we will certainly be keeping an eye on this director’s upcoming work.

«The Dolls Come to Life at Midnight» is the kind of movie that scares without blood and gore, relying instead on clever storytelling and endless tension, and prioritizing human drama over horror movie gimmicks.