Dolly Dearest starts at an archaeological dig in Mexico where professor Bob Larabe (Brass Adams) opens an ancient tomb he believes to be Mayan, however in an accident Larabe is killed & evil spirits escape the tomb... Elliot (Sam Bottoms) & Marilyn Read (Denise Crosby) plus their two young children Jessica (Candace Hutson) & Jimmy (Chris Demetral) are about to begin a new life in Mexico having moved from Los Angeles, they have sunk all their money into a doll factory which they plan to run themselves. The factory isn't in the best of conditions but the Read's are prepared for the hard work ahead, while looking around Jessica notices a rack of large dolls & ask's her Mother if she can have one which she can. Unfortunately this is no ordinary doll, it starts to possess Jessica & make her say & do bad things while the doll itself has been possessed by an evil Sanzian spirit released from the tomb who likes to kill, terrorise & generally cause trouble...
Written & directed by Maria Lease I thought Dolly dearest was an average horror film, it passed the time but wasn't especially good. The script has Child's Play (1988) written all over doesn't it? It also has a little bit of The Omen (1976) thrown in for good measure as well with it's child possession angle & evil spirits. Now, both Child's Play & The Omen are fine films so what's wrong with blending them together I hear you say. Well for a start it adds nothing of it's own & doesn't do a thing with the concept, this could have been a great little horror film if the filmmakers had delivered plenty of deaths, a quick pace to the story, decent character's, some decent exploitation & something that just wasn't so instantly forgettable. It's all rather predictable, it's far too slow (only one kill within the first hour?), the potential of having a factory of possessed dolls seemed to be wasted, it's set entirely within the confines of one house, a factory & an archaeological dig which gives it a very limited feeling. Having said that it's quite fun on occasion, it doesn't really try to be anything else other than a killer doll horror film & as long as you can cope with a slow pace it provides a reasonable amount of entertainment. At least it kept me watching until the end & I didn't want to stop it at any point. Nowhere near as good as Child's Play, Dolls (1987) or Puppet Master (1989).
Director Lease proves that women can make horror films just as badly as any male although to be fair to her Dolly Dearest is competent & has a nice horror film atmosphere to it, it's not really scary though & there's an unforgivable lack of blood & gore, someone is stabbed with some scissors & someone gets their hand caught in a sewing machine but that's about it. The dolls themselves are really ugly & aren't scary or creepy & if I had children I wouldn't give them a doll as unintentionally freaky looking as this.
Technically Dolly Dearest is alright, it could have been worse I suppose, the doll effects are OK although the red evil spirit effect's at the start look extremely dated. Set in Mexico it was actually filmed in Santa Clarita, California. The acting was average with the two children becoming increasingly more annoying as time passed, Rip Torn makes an appearance as an archaeologist.
Dolly Dearest isn't the best killer toy film ever but it's not the worst either, I suppose it's smack bang right in the middle somewhere. I thought it was average, worth a watch if you've got nothing better to do & you can grab a copy cheap or catch it on TV for free.
Written & directed by Maria Lease I thought Dolly dearest was an average horror film, it passed the time but wasn't especially good. The script has Child's Play (1988) written all over doesn't it? It also has a little bit of The Omen (1976) thrown in for good measure as well with it's child possession angle & evil spirits. Now, both Child's Play & The Omen are fine films so what's wrong with blending them together I hear you say. Well for a start it adds nothing of it's own & doesn't do a thing with the concept, this could have been a great little horror film if the filmmakers had delivered plenty of deaths, a quick pace to the story, decent character's, some decent exploitation & something that just wasn't so instantly forgettable. It's all rather predictable, it's far too slow (only one kill within the first hour?), the potential of having a factory of possessed dolls seemed to be wasted, it's set entirely within the confines of one house, a factory & an archaeological dig which gives it a very limited feeling. Having said that it's quite fun on occasion, it doesn't really try to be anything else other than a killer doll horror film & as long as you can cope with a slow pace it provides a reasonable amount of entertainment. At least it kept me watching until the end & I didn't want to stop it at any point. Nowhere near as good as Child's Play, Dolls (1987) or Puppet Master (1989).
Director Lease proves that women can make horror films just as badly as any male although to be fair to her Dolly Dearest is competent & has a nice horror film atmosphere to it, it's not really scary though & there's an unforgivable lack of blood & gore, someone is stabbed with some scissors & someone gets their hand caught in a sewing machine but that's about it. The dolls themselves are really ugly & aren't scary or creepy & if I had children I wouldn't give them a doll as unintentionally freaky looking as this.
Technically Dolly Dearest is alright, it could have been worse I suppose, the doll effects are OK although the red evil spirit effect's at the start look extremely dated. Set in Mexico it was actually filmed in Santa Clarita, California. The acting was average with the two children becoming increasingly more annoying as time passed, Rip Torn makes an appearance as an archaeologist.
Dolly Dearest isn't the best killer toy film ever but it's not the worst either, I suppose it's smack bang right in the middle somewhere. I thought it was average, worth a watch if you've got nothing better to do & you can grab a copy cheap or catch it on TV for free.