We know him from his ghastly experiments with shows like Ghost Adventures and then with Deadly Possessions, where he compiled ominous objects for his Haunted Museum in Las Vegas; Zak Bagans is a horror mogul and has carved a career out of the supernatural.
Zak and horror filmmaker Eli Roth collaborated for The Haunted Museum, which aired on October 2021, streaming on Discovery+, which is a staged reality horror anthology that tells sinister backstories behind some of the bizarre things displayed in the museum over every episode of the show.
If you’re looking a movie or some show to tremble in your seat or be afraid even to sleep, you know who to watch, right? With movies and shows like Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Challenge and Demon House under his belt, Zak Bagans is regarded as a legend in the field of horror movies and has offered his horrific expertise to several productions that appear on the screen of horror fanatics.
His inability to restrain in restraint of regard to blood, guts and gore shows his undying passion and devotion for the genre, and many find it disturbing while the rest enjoy making the horror connoisseur a heavily popular figure in the community.
Is Dollhouse of the Damned Based on a True Story?
The entire series is a nine-episodes scripted anthology where every episode is dedicated to one particular eerie cursed object that Bagans has collected throughout his life for his museum.
While watching the premise of the show, it is presumable that it would be like a typical dramatic reenactment featuring brief narratives from the real people involved, but surprisingly, it is not. The storyline is based upon made-up fiction based on objects that he has collected.
Each episode takes up with Zak sharing his account of the object and the strange events that occurred around it. Following that, a hypothetical interpretation of the object and its potential effects on the individual is depicted for the rest of the episode.
Dolls, mirrors, statues, and even rocking chairs have the potential to alter the lives of ordinary people in the world of The Haunted Museum (both in the show and in the real life location), making it seemingly enough to scare off viewers from old antique stores and estate sales.
However, courageous fanatics can actually go and visit the show’s eponymous museum and view all the original source materials in person.
**Spoiler warning if you’re yet to watch the show**
Plot
Episode 1: Dollhouse of the Damned
The first episode of the anthology is written and directed by Justin Harding, it is definitely a rough ride filled with frightful and bloody scenes, and the story takes some liberties and dramatizes what the dollhouse is all about.
A grief-sicken father, Monty, mourning over his dead wife, presents his adolescent daughter, Ava, the dollhouse for her birthday. Bagans makes a claim that a psychic asserts that the dollhouse has a demonic portal inside.
Ava, has been pressed into a mothering responsibility for her brother Oscar, from a very young age because their mother, Kristin, passed away right after giving birth to Oscar. This was clear when Ava was more concerned about Oscar getting his formula than she was about her birthday present.
Monty crafts figurines that eerily resemble his family for the dollhouse. On the other hand, Ava starts to notice that the figurines keep moving around the house and alter their expressions, especially the one that resembles her mother, who makes her scared. A few days in, Monty is baffled when he discovers a figurine suspended from a stairwell with its face contorted from suffocation.
With time, Monty’s obsession with making the miniatures intensifies. Ava notices spirits lurking around the house as the figurines become more aggressive, as well as her real mother’s smiling face. Of course, neither of them will do any good.
So following the happenings, Monty finds a hidden spell in the dollhouse; he channels it along with the power of the doll house to try and raise Kristin’s spirit, making it the riskiest course of action so far and the ritual’s gruesome conclusion is a harrowing night that unveils the dollhouse’s sinister occupant and its true motivations.
The episode is like a short horror movie, with around 35 minutes of confined run-time. The characters aren’t given enough time for their brief introductions as the action gets underway so rapidly. It’s horror, it’s paranormal, and it’s definitely like a thrillingly wonderful short trip.
