Miss Leslie's Dolls

Like so many cheesy horror films, Miss Leslie's Dolls opens with a group of youngsters - Roy, Martha and Lily (Charles Pitts, Kitty Lewis and Marcelle Bichette) - and their uptight teacher, Miss Frost (Terri Juston), experiencing car trouble during a storm and, after setting off on foot, chancing upon an old farmhouse where the owner, Miss Leslie (Salvador Ugarte), invites them to stay until the bad weather subsides. Unperturbed by the fact that their host is clearly a man in a dress (lip-synching badly to a woman's voice), and that 'she' obviously has a few screws loose, the guests remain for the night. The discovery of a strange room housing an altar with several scarily realistic life-size figures (so realistic that they sway gently from side to side) doesn't seem to concern them. Not even the blatantly obvious dead body under a sheet has them running scared. Basically, they deserve everything that happens to them for being so dumb.

During the night, Roy and Martha hook up to have sex, and their teacher shows that she's Frost by name but not by nature by seducing Lily (and who can blame her? Bichette is a babe!). Lily then hops into bed with Martha and Roy, who decides that he would rather have a whisky than a threesome. Meanwhile, Miss Leslie provides some awkward but much-needed exposition by talking to the skull of her dead mother in the basement: turns out that the crazy woman killed her mother and sister by causing a fire in their toy factory, and now intends to use an occult ritual to reincarnate herself in the nubile body of young Martha, who is the exact double of her dead sister.

When Roy arrives in the kitchen for his drink (that had better be a damn fine whisky!), he is attacked by Miss Leslie, who chokes him to death with the handle of an axe. Lily comes a cropper when she investigates, receiving an axe blow to the face. Somehow, Martha also dies (I can't remember how). Miss Frost wakes from a trippy dream to find everyone missing and searches the house, finding Lily's bloody body (we get to see the girl's messy axe wound - the one in her face!). Miss Leslie attacks Miss Frost, and in the struggle the teacher discovers what we all knew from the outset: that Miss Leslie is a man (like the 5 'o'clock shadow and burly frame weren't a dead giveaway). Miss Leslie decides that, with Martha dead, she'll have to possess Miss Frost instead...

Up until the final act, I wasn't very impressed with Miss Leslie's Dolls, the odd spot of nudity failing to compensate for a rather plodding pace and the clumsy dialogue. It also wasn't anywhere near as bizarre or original as I had been led to believe (the film's trans-killer clearly inspired by Psycho). However, the ending is a doozy. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's worth hanging in there.

4/10, plus an extra point for the stunning Marcelle Bichette, and for Miss Frost's final act of vengeance.

Vintage clothing lovers or those who aspire to be so can find some interest in the costuming of this film. For those looking for um... something else there is some nudity and light gore. LOOK out for Miss Frost!

For those looking for LGBTQ representation this movie can be seen as friendly considering the time period. Though the difference between "drag queen" and "transgender" seems lost at least to whomever wrote the synopsis.

Miss Leslie's Dolls wears its low budget and limited resources on its sleeve and feels like it was cobbled together over a holiday weekend, but there's so much charm and spirit that one can overlook any major flaws and appreciate it for the bizarre freak show that it is.

Like in many horror films, a car full of fresh blood breaks down in the middle of nowhere and the inhabitants (in this case, 3 college girls and one guy) find shelter in a spooky house by a graveyard where an eccentric middle aged woman named Miss Leslie lives. Miss Leslie is immediately drawn to one of the girls who bears a striking resemblance to someone she once knew and loved. As the night goes on, the group of young folks find out that Miss Leslie isn't as harmless as they once thought and their lives could be in danger.

Miss Leslie's Dolls suffers from many quirks that a lot of low budget films have. Some of the acting isn't so great, nighttime scenes are sometimes impossible to make out, pacing is off and can feel padded at times, and most of the gore effects amount to someone throwing a bucket of fake blood on the floor. Still, your jaw will rarely leave the floor throughout its run time.

I had the privilege to catch this at a single BFI Southbank screening in London last night. I loved the introduction from Julian Marsh III, who told of how he discovered the last remaining print in his hallway and I loved his recorded telephone conversation with second male lead, Charles W. Pitt. The film itself starts very predictably in a graveyard at night in the rain. Inside a nearby dwelling the three lost students and their teacher are given some sort of welcome by the statuesque but clearly male, Miss Leslie. Despite the fact that the central character is in drag for the entire film almost nothing is made of it. The film is rather slow but does pick up with the frantic bed swapping of the teens and their 'liberated' teacher and the nocturnal wanderings of the axe man (lady). There is corny dialogue to laugh at, an unbelievable acceptance of the goings on by the youngsters but a sinister tone is established and when the dolls appear we know we are watching something, just that little bit different. Great fun and after that slow start very enjoyable.

'Miss Leslie's Dolls' is an early 1970's attempt at satanist horror in the grindhouse style. Imagine, if you will, a high school theatre production put on celluloid, the acting in this flick is far worse! Having said that, it kept my attention and some of the ideas were fairly original. You might find the titular character odd, but don't let that interfere with the movie. Glad I watched it, but really for horror lovers only.