Dolly Dearest

There's no getting around the densely populated territory this movie plays in. The "evil doll" notion has been around seemingly forever, and dominated for a long time by the 'Child's play' series that saw the first three entries released all within a few short years (or months!) all before this. Though specifics differ, scenes and story beats recall Don Mancini's brainchild, 'The omen,' and various other genre flicks even including 'The exorcist,' while plot development is decidedly direct and swift. 'Dolly Dearest' is modestly enjoyable, but it also isn't anything to get especially excited about.

I don't think this is altogether bad. It's fairly well made, in fact. The picture ably carries slight measures of atmosphere at times, and a few small moments are almost mildly hair-raising or thrilling. Such as it is, I think 'Dolly Dearest' is reasonably well written and directed; some scenes come off better than others. I like Mark Snow's score in and of itself, dramatic and dynamic; post-production visuals are dated, but effects at large look good. The production design and art direction are swell generally, and the cast are fine - Hey! Denise Crosby! Rip Torn! A job well done, young Candace Hutson! It's hardly gripping and essential, but when all is said and done this is passably entertaining genre fare.

There are issues, however, and the biggest is that there's nothing here we haven't seen before. No matter how well done this or that may be, nothing particularly inspires, let alone elevates one's pulse. It's not quite accurate to say this is "horror by numbers," but such a phrase does loosely approximate how it looks and feels. More concretely, 'Dolly Dearest' is almost certainly at its best where the genre element is more suggested than shown; a dash of subtlety can go a long way. While they look good in and of themselves, the more a scene shows us of the titular toys in action, the more dubious it all becomes. And while the screenplay is suitable enough in the broad strokes, some of the dialogue and scene writing is overly tired, if not outright hackneyed. For all the hard work and care that went into making this, there are definite rough patches throughout the writing, and in some parts that really shows. With this said, the actors on hand perform admirably overall, but there's no doubt they're restricted by the material.

I can't say I didn't have a good time watching. If it's a horror movie you want, a horror movie you'll get. Only, there's a splendid array of other features past and present that are more original, more chilling, more compelling, and all around better. For as fundamentally solid as 'Dolly Dearest' is, weaknesses and shortcomings hold it back to the point that this is best reserved for a lazy, quiet day; file under "why not." Most recommendable specifically for fans of the cast, there are much worse things you could see, but plenty other horror flicks should top your watch list first.

Think of it as the Mexican feminization of "Child's Play". This movie has an incredibly slow start, but is a good watch for fans of movies like the "Child's Play" series, "Dolls", the "Puppet Master" series, and any other movie where dolls can walk and talk. "Dolly Dearest" is your typical, satanically possessed inanimate object movie, containing such well-known actors like Candy Hutson (some of the "Land Before Time" movies), Chris DemetraI ("Somethimes They Come Back") and Denise Crosby ("Pet Sematary"), and comedic favorite Rip Torn. Set against the beautiful background of Mexico, much of the plot of this movie was involved with an ancient black magic curse associated with a pre-Mayan civilization.

It takes nearly a half hour before the movie really starts to get juicy, but once it does, you can't take your eyes off the screen for a second, or you miss something important. Dolly is a terrifying creature, with a tiny, tinny laugh that makes the viewer want to crack up. If you're expecting intelligence and deep meaning to a film, this isn't the horror film for you, but it's an excellent slasher pic. It's not too bad, since there's only a small amount of gore (about the same amount you'll find on a TV movie) and absolutely no nudity, but the satanic overtones may have many viewers picking another movie.

The little girl in the movie, Jessie Wade (Hutson), is written excellently, both as an exuberant young child, and as a slightly satanically possessed creature. Her brother Jimmy (Demetral) is also equally well-written. Where the movie falls short, however, is in the characterization of the mother. Denise Crosby is wasted in the role of this paranoid, semi-psychotic mother who is convinced from the start that her daughter is abnormally obsessed with Dolly (a correct assumption, but a little odd), yet doesn't even notice when her daughter's personality completely changes and she starts acting like an automaton. And never mind that no one notices the few dozen satanically possessed dolls wandering around.

On a scale of one to ten, this movie rates about a six and a half. The storyline behind the movie is mediocre, but the walking and talking dolls make up for it. The young boy is obviously the smartest of the entire lot, something that is typical of horror movies with children. It has the standard horrible ancient curse, but almost any movie regarding satanism or Central America does. I'd recommend it to anyone who's a fan of cult movies or cheezy horror films, in particular "Child's Play" (the first one) and "The Lightning Incident" (with Nancy McKeon), which are both extremely similar.

A lot of "Dolly Dearest" seems like a "Child's Play" ripoff, with a doll possessed by an evil spirit. In this case, the evil spirit comes from an ancient cult in Mexico, and the doll starts controlling the girl who owns it. Most of the movie is pretty predictable but still entertaining.

As is often the case with horror flicks, the cast creates some interesting connections. A noticeable cast member is the recently deceased Lupe Ontiveros as the housekeeper. She played a number of roles over the years; one of her notable roles was that of the woman scorned by Jack Nicholson early on in "As Good as It Gets". The mom is Denise Crosby, aka Bing's granddaughter and best known as Tasha Yar on "Star Trek: The Next Generation"; it seemed as though her character is supposed to look like Marilyn Monroe or Grace Kelly or someone like that. The dad is Sam Bottoms, best known as Lance in "Apocalypse Now". The archaeologist is Rip Torn, most recently known as the chief in the "Men in Black" movies. Crazy stuff.

So, it's basically some cheap entertainment. Still an OK choice for Halloween.

I saw this movie once, when I was very young-nearly ten years ago-, and it truly creeped me out. There's just something about the dreamlike feeling this movie has going for it. It works so well with such a small budget, and it's clearly a rip-off of the Child's Play flicks I adore so much.

The animatronics and design of the possessed doll is absolutely horrific, and anyone with a phobia of such a thing will be as bothered by it as I am.

Definitely a big recommendation from me-and easily one of the best living-doll-genre movies to ever exist. I can't believe how underrated Dolly Dearest is.

One of the worst movies i have EVER seen, I can't believe that i sat all the way through thinking to myself "it'll get better, it'll get better"...but it didn't get better! The characters were so underdeveloped and just plain annoying! i couldn't believe the mother could just let her daughter do as she pleased, and how she would manipulate her mother and the mother was TOO blind to see it. the main character(s) in the film talks all together for about 5 minutes! It wasn't even scary, you could tell instantly that this sorry excuse for a movie was just a rip off of the very popular movies 'Child's Play' and 'The Exorcist'! to the people who think they'd like this film...YOU'RE WRONG!TRUST ME!! i give this crap 1/10