When Sophia Rojas (Gabriella Rivera), a successful fashion designer, moves into a historic factory building to work in, she is unaware of what happened on the premises before she moved in. Her sister, Liana Rojas (Isabella Gomez), is feeling insecure because she has a crap job, a boyfriend who has a vaguely embarrassing and inconvenient supernatural podcast, Peter Adler (Maxwell Hamilton), and all their mutual friends are doing well. Nadine Yang (Shireen Lai) is engaged, and Hazel Miller (Lindsay LaVanchy) has a good head on her shoulders. When Sophia dies, and the coroner rules it as suicide, it stuns everyone. One year later, Liana moves into the space, which sparks concern that flares up when strange things start to happen to everyone. While all the pieces may not fit perfectly, writer and director John Berardo’s sophomore feature, “The Mannequin” (2025), still comes together nicely.
Initially, Liana seems like the main character, but as “The Mannequin” unfolds, the characters take turns occupying center stage. Rivera makes Sophia such a vibrant, confident and occasionally obtrusive character that it is convincing that her loss shakes the foundation of their world. If the story has a central theme, it is that adulting and becoming secure is hard, and no matter how well you prepare, something dreadful is awaiting. The ensemble has great chemistry, is likeable and flawed. If you were stuck next to them on a plane, it would be fine. Berardo is really great at writing characters, including women.
Gomez was very relatable in the introduction as the failure to launch friend who is really trying but cannot get out of the rut. She knows enough to see the problem, but not to escape it. It is slightly unbelievable that no one suspected Liana of foul play when she single white females her sister after death. It is downright creepy but played off as survivor’s guilt and trying to live two lives for her sister. It is a great character development, but when the movie is resolved in a supernatural way with a link to her family’s past, it does not feel resolved in a quotidian way.
I love Hazel. I do not know how to explain it but with social media ablaze about a certain music star’s insecurity around women of color, Berardo and LaVanchy crafted Hazel in a way that made her stand out as a person without resorting to toxic narratives that would make her character problematic. As someone who watches a lot of movies, this ability is rare and makes “The Mannequin” stand out. Instead, Hazel is the blunt, single friend, and there are not a lot of details about her. Berardo never led with her relationship status or her career, but she is not underwritten. Hazel navigates the world like a knife and calls out the elephant in the room. LaVanchy stole every scene and will leave viewers wanting more.
Nadine is a realistic woman who also calls people on their crap, but it is mixed with a little denial as she prefers playing wifey and armchair psychologist with Google before leaping to a supernatural explanation. She is also so male centered that after she faces a devastating, physical loss that is probably quite painful, she is more concerned what her husband will think than anything else. Lai manages to make a person that could be written off as shallow into a substantial, centered person who knows her limits and accepts them unapologetically.
When Peter reemerges in “The Mannequin,” I started howling. Slow eighties clap of appreciation. I did not see the shlub boyfriend propaganda coming even though it was obviously an issue considering his involvement in the supernatural. Once he is on the scene, the rest of the characters become supporting characters. He becomes the expert that everyone relies on. Berardo makes this twist easy to swallow because it is Peter’s first rodeo, and Hamilton plays him as scared out of his mind, but determined and protective. Also, there is a mixture of horror that Berardo could have elaborated on: the self-involved boyfriend who should have known basic facts about his girlfriend instead of just focusing on glory and fame.
“The Mannequin” mythology draws on the vibe of the Black Dahlia unsolved murders, ghosts and possession. It is a lot, and it mostly works. There was a serial killer, Jack Bernard (Jack Sochet), and Berardo shoots it in “Sin City” style though less noir with occasional bursts of color looking more like red paint than blood and the blue light from the police car’s roof-mounted emergency light. It looks great but is not an original concept. Still since Berardo is doing better than “Game of Thrones” and plenty of other filmmakers when shooting at night and not making everything into an indiscernible mess, let’s give him his flowers. The end felt rushed because once everything was revealed
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it kind of does not make sense that the women’s ghosts would still be under the killer’s control and terrorize the women instead of warning them. On one hand, it is only because there is a friend group that anyone survives because the ones who are not possessed intervene. Hazel for the win calling on grandma to snap Liana out of her homicidal stupor. Still since Jack did not have any inherent supernatural powers, it feels like a stretch that he could continue to control them in death. Also, if he could, what happened to Sophia’s spirit, since she was his most recent, virtual victim.
It was a cute move for the Building Manager (Berardo pulls a Hitchcock) to be related to the killer as his grandson, but is he possessed or just a different kind of crazy trying to make it big in that business called show? Jack Barnard feels like a play on the filmmaker’s name and adds a nice meta twist. Depending on how you feel about this revelation, it could range from a complete turn off to a shoulder shrug of indifference to excitement over the connection. Still after what that group went through, I find it impossible to believe that they would not report finding body parts in the titular object and/or burn it. It should not be standing there waiting for the next unsuspecting tenant (Catherine Jacobs).
“The Mannequin” mostly works and had my complete attention though it lost a little momentum when it came to the supernatural face off. After seeing some truly horrible horror movies, it was great to remember what it felt like to be completely engaged and invested in the characters and the story. If the movie had a fatal flaw, it was the minute that group stopped taking center stage because all five were engrossing, different and unique. Maybe it is a cheesy, but I wish that I knew how they were doing though the brief stand at the grave says it all except where is Mark? What does Mark think!?! J/k. Lol.
