The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Dollhouse
Horror · Mystery · 2025
After losing their child, a mother finds solace in a life-sized ancient doll she finds on the market. When a new daughter enters the family's life, strange things begin to happen and no matter how hard the family tries to get rid of it, the doll always finds its way back.
Movie details
Dollhouse
“It Wants to Play.”
2025 Horror · Mystery 1h 50m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
7.6 / 10
Community rating
After losing their child, a mother finds solace in a life-sized ancient doll she finds on the market. When a new daughter enters the family's life, strange things begin to happen and no matter how hard the family tries to get rid of it, the doll always finds its way back.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Dollhouse?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Evil of Dracula
Horror · 1974
Professor Shiraki arrives at an isolated girls' boarding school to take a new position. Upon arrival, he learns the principal's wife died in a car accident and is being kept in the cellar, according to local tradition. The principal startles Shiraki by asking him to become his successor, but Shiraki soon discovers that the principal has much darker motives.
Ju-on: The Curse
Horror · 2000
When elementary school teacher Kobayashi investigates the absence of one of his young pupils from the classroom, he finds himself at the doorstep of an anonymous suburban house that harbours a horrible secret, and into which all who enter are doomed.
Pulse
Horror · 2001
In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.
Reincarnation
Horror · 2005
A Japanese actress begins having strange visions and experiences after landing a role in a horror film about a real-life murder spree that took place over forty years ago.
House on Haunted Hill
Horror · 1959
Frederick Loren invites five strangers to the party of a lifetime and offers each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in the reportedly haunted house. Armed with a gun for protection, each guest arrives in a hearse and will either leave in it much richer…Or dead.
Chime
Horror · 2024
A chef's life is disrupted by a chime that brings with it an increasing sense of dread.
Uzumaki
Mystery · 2000
The inhabitants of a small Japanese town become increasingly obsessed with and tormented by spirals.
Silver Bullet
Horror · 1985
The small city of Tarker's Mills is startled by a series of sadistic murders. The population fears the work of a maniac, but sightings of a mysterious, hairy creature soon spread. People lock themselves up at night, but there's one boy who's still outside…
The Cellar
Horror · 2022
When Keira Woods' daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house in the country, she soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity controlling their home that she will have to face or risk losing her family's souls forever.
The Others
Horror · 2001
Grace is a religious woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the family begins to suspect the house is haunted, Grace fights to protect her children at any cost in the face of strange events and disturbing visions.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Shinobu Yaguchi
Written by
Shinobu Yaguchi
Masami Nagasawa
Yoshie Suzuki
Koji Seto
Tadahiko Suzuki
Tetsushi Tanaka
Kanda
Aoi Ikemura
Mai Suzuki
Naomi Nishida
Ryoko Takeuchi
Hiroki Konno
Terashima
T
Totoka Honda
Mei Suzuki
Court is in session
Put Dollhouse on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.