Dolly
When Chase (Seann William Scott, "American Pie," "Goon") postpones his proposal plans during a hike with his intended, Macy (Fabianne Therese, "John Dies at the End"), to go check out the source of some toy music, Macy warns him that he's breaking his own boy scout rules by straying from their path. When she goes looking for him, she'll find him back at the creepy site they'd found earlier. Unfortunately, she'll also find "Dolly."
Laura's Review: C-
Cowriter (with Brandon Weavil)/director Rod Blackhurst (TV's 'John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise') serve up yet another film attempting to follow in the footsteps of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" but faceplant in the mud instead. Cinematographer Justin Derry achieves a 70's look shooting on 16mm and the film's trailer goes heavy on the "Texas Chainsaw" influence, but Blackhurst offers gore instead of scares in a film that is merely unpleasant. Even the dolls aren't creepy.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," which I happen to think is the greatest horror film ever made, was rooted in the zeitgeist, a family having lost its livelihood because of slaughterhouse modernization having descended into madness. We are introduced to two families here and neither is well established, the film opening to Chase and Macy dropping off 'Biscuit,' the daughter of one or both of them, with Aunt Sadie, never to be mentioned again. While this is going on we're given a flash of the titular Dolly (professional wrestler Max the Impaler), a burly woman in a red frock and black boots with a large porcelain doll's head topped with a bright blonde wig affixed over her own caressing a headless body we will later deduce is her mother. Why Dolly decides to snip off one of the corpse's fingers with poultry shears is never explained, just there to gross us out like so much else in this movie. She'll bring it out to a spot in the woods where she's assembled a collection of baby dolls, creating an altar out of them for the open gravesite.
Chase and Mary come across the dolls, hanging and nailed to trees, and move on until Chase's search for music leads him back to the same spot to be quickly attacked by Dolly and her weapon of choice, a shovel, which she uses to cripple him before severing his jaw for good measure. When Macy, who's found her engagement ring in his backpack, comes looking for him, she'll see both and run, promptly tripping and knocking herself out. She'll come to dressed in a short, frilly frock, draped over cradle in what is clearly a child's room. While getting her bearings, she'll hear a male voice from the other side of the wall advising her that 'It's all a game, you have to play along.' Macy is now Dolly's dolly, subjected to a pacifier, diaper, high chair and feedings.
The film, which only runs (a long) 82 minutes, has been unnecessarily broken into six chapters, one of which is a bit of a spoiler for those who haven't already figured out that Macy should beware her helpful next door neighbor (Ethan Suplee, "Remember the Titans," "Dog"). In addition to threadbare world building, Blackhurst ignores spatial integrity, Dolly suddenly appearing in the back of the basement after having just been left upstairs. The old house in the middle of the woods may have a foreboding exterior, but looks incredibly normal inside given its residents, mom's head in the basement notwithstanding. In addition to the cinematography, Therese is a plus, convincing us of the horror of her situation and a mind working overtime to survive even as the script forces her to make one poor choice after another, namely always seeming to turn her back on Dolly. Max the Impaler has clearly studied Gunner Hansen's performance as Leatherface, then taken just one aspect of it to use over and over. And I'm still trying to figure out how someone with a severed jaw can articulate anything, let alone make the 'M' sound.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is classic horror that has inspired countless other films. Rarely do they come close to Tobe Hoopers 1974 masterpiece. "Dolly" falls shorter than most.
Independent Film Company releases "Dolly" in theaters on 3/6/26.
