Quick Rating: **

 
A dark little film, which for the most part, works.  Rick is a man in crisis.  He's quit his dream job.  He's got a great girl who wants to marry him (even though he's about 20 years older than her) but he keeps turning her down.  And he's having trouble sleeping as of late.  He has the same dreams every night - a beautiful girl dances before his eyes, amidst clouds.  I don't see why that's such a bad thing, but it's very troubling for Rick.  He can't handle life while some woman dances in his dreams.
 
So, Rick is suspect to wandering aimlessly.  On one such excursion he passes by an old doll shop.  And in the window ?  A doll with the face of his dream girl!  The next day, his fiance Donna and he go to the shop.  The owner of the shop (Neil Hamilton, who you'd remember as Commissioner Gordon from the Batman TV series!) seems to know Rick and tells him that the doll was his order.  Rick denies knowing the owner to Donna (and himself), and then they see a doll that looks just like Donna.  Commissioner Gordon tells them that the doll is of someone else, not Donna.  He again tries to see the dream girl's doll to Rick, telling him that it's already been paid for.  The couple decide against it, and leave.
 
Commissioner Gordon doesn't look too pleased, and he takes the Donna doll and heads to the basement of the shop.  There, a black man is beating on bongos for no apparent reason or audience.  I wonder how long his drum beating shift goes on a normal day!  Anyway, Commissioner Gordon then gets a snazzy cape and takes the doll to a fancy podium and stabs the doll.  At that same moment, Donna has a terrible pain, and Rick brings her to the hospital.
 
That night Rick has another dream, and this time, the girl talks to him.  She tells him to get her doll from the shop and bring it to her, and she will answer his questions.  Well, he does just that, and the dream girl attempts to seduce him (and succeeds).  She also gets him to join her religion - a cult that worships the devil god of evil, whose name is Gamba!   Turns out, Commissioner Gordon is the head of this cult, and they have some deadly practices.  Rick's soul, relationship, and loyalty will be tested!
 
It's not a bad movie, though not particularly good, either.  But it handles the topics well, and the acting is decent.  Commissioner Gordon adds some hammyness to his role and the film, which helps, and of course the voodoo dolls are a big draw.  I could do without the extended dance sequences during cult ceremonies.  And the sacrificial swords seemed to be awfully flimsy.  But, other than that, not bad for a low budget B film about the occult.
 

 
 

Quality: 4.5  Visuals: 3.5  Intensity: 5.0  Laughability: 3.5 
OVERALL RATING: 4.1