Movie Review: ‘Don’t Look Away’

Review by Hunter Miele

Have you ever been in a department store and caught a glimpse of an eerie, looming silhouette out of the corner of your eye, like an aviator game? You stop dead in your tracks and slowly turn to face the uncanny figure, and when you lay your eyes on it you stifle a shriek. There, before you, a grinning mannequin stares down at you with eyes that- despite their lifelessness- still manage to mock and torment. You shudder as you turn away, but while you rifle through the racks of discounted denim, you can still feel those blank, beady eyes piercing through your soul. You leave the store, telling yourself that you won’t waste another moment thinking about that ungodly beast in its preternatural pose, but you know all too well that when sleep finally comes, it will be plagued by visions of that otherworldly nightmare from the menswear department.

We’ve all been there.

Now imagine if that same mannequin wasn’t confined to the department store, but instead it followed you everywhere you went, watching your every move. “Don’t Look Away,” written and directed by Miceal Bafaro and Micheal Mitton, tells the story of a group of friends enslaved by a haunted mannequin, with no hope for escape.

“Don’t Look Away” opens with a trucker cruising down a highway in New Jersey. He’s accosted by a group of thieves who are shocked to discover that a lone, coffin-sized box makes up the truck’s only contents. They open the box and we see the haunting silhouette of a human-like shape laying inside. The figure eviscerates the thieves, and the trucker, attempting an escape, is hit and killed by an oncoming car. The driver of the car- Frankie (Kelly Bastard)- catches a glimpse of the murderous figure, an act which will forever change the course of her life and the lives of her friends.

We later learn that the mannequin attaches itself to its victims, as soon as they lay eyes on it, and it will continue to follow them until their brutal, untimely demise. With sunken eyes and a huge grin that contains teeth that are just a little too long, the mannequin is horrifying in its uncanniness. The mannequin’s supernatural abilities allow it to travel in the blink of an eye in the seconds that it isn’t being watched. Frankie and her friends soon discover that as long as they never take their eyes off it, it can’t move in on them to deliver a fatal attack.

“Don’t Look Away” has its moments. A handful of gorey scenes lend way to some cringe-inducing, quality horror. The film’s biggest flaw is in its plot: At no point do we ever learn anything about where the mannequin comes from. Its lack of backstory makes it significantly less terrifying and far more goofy. Towards the end of the film, a character is introduced that’s responsible for having the mannequin shipped in the first scene. This leads the viewer towards believing that this character- an old, blind man, also with no backstory to speak of- will reveal the secrets that the mannequin holds. But much to our dismay, we’re left with no terrifying story and instead only one line from the old man when asked where the mannequin comes from: “Only the devil himself knows.” This huge gap in the plot, coupled with the less-than-adequate acting make this film more uninteresting than fun and scary. That being said, the film did provide a good amount of tension to make up for its lacking plot. So if you’re looking for a corny, modern horror flick with some decent gore and a silly story, then “Don’t Look Away” might have you entranced.