The filmmaking brothers behind Playhouse return with Black Daruma, a
horror film with a dark sense of humor and an inventive twist on the doll subgenre.
Black Daruma follows Ryan, a struggling man in his 30s, who buys a
Japanese lucky ‘Daruma’ doll to turn his life around—only to have it spiral out
of control in hilariously dark ways. Fionn, one of the directing duo, describes
the film as “Gremlins meets Paranormal Activity,” with a playful yet sinister
vibe. “We shot the whole film from the doll’s POV—it’s like the audience is the
doll, watching the madness unfold,” he says.
Shot in just eight days, the film draws inspiration from the found footage
genre and is inspired by character-driven horrors like ‘Creep’ and ‘Be My Cat’.
Toby, co-director, notes, “The disorienting POV keep things unpredictable. We
wanted a bizarre, voyeuristic descent into imploding masculinity.”
‘’What’s weird,” says Fionn, “is that we wrote the script not knowing that
Japanese luck dolls actually exist. Daruma dolls come in different colours and
the black one, it turns out, is known for warding off bad spirits, and that just fit
perfectly with our story and made the whole thing even more absurd.”
Black Daruma promises a sharp, darkly funny twist on doll horror that will
both humor and spook you in equal measure.
Black Daruma is now available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video in the
US and the UK.
Black Daruma stars Richard Galloway (Wasteland), Louise O’Leary (Dead
Ringer), Julie Higginson (Red Dwarf), David Castleford (Hatched) Ross
Marshall and Rowe David McClelland (The Zombie King).
Watch Black Daruma now: linktr.ee/wattsbrothers