2/5 stars
In Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Pang Fatโs supernatural drama Reborn, Venus Wong Man-yik plays a young mother whose grief over her deceased son (Lokman Leung) takes a bizarre form when she adopts a rag doll said to be possessed by the seven-year-old boyโs spirit, much to the chagrin of her husband (Eddie Cheung Siu-fai).
While the toy is meant to serve as a surrogate, the film it inhabits proves a poor substitute for genuine horror. Curiously unwilling to plumb the psychological depths its premise hints at, Reborn (also titled Deadly Doll) offers instead a superficial portrait of loss that is neither scary nor unsettling.
The emphasis on family love over visceral thrills in Reborn may partially be a reflection of Pangโs own sombre, real-life circumstances; the film was reportedly made when he was on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of his wifeโs costly cancer treatments.