Boneca Assassina

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.

In Mexico, an archaeologist releases the evil spirit of a devil child from a tomb of an ancient tribe called Sanzia that worshiped Satan on Earth and dies in an accident. Immediately after, an American family with two children arrives to live and reactivate a factory of dolls in a site nearby the archaeological field. Elliot Read (Sam Bottoms) invested the savings of his family in this business to manufacture dolls. He finds many dolls left by the previous owners of the factory, and gives one of them, which is possessed by the fiend, to his daughter Jessica Read (Candy Hutson). The girl changes her behavior, speaks an ancient language and the maid tells to the mother Marilyn Read (Denise Crosby). Meanwhile, the archaeologist Karl Resnick (Rip Torn) arrives to investigate the finding of his colleague. However, the demon has been already released.

"Dolly Dearest" is a clear rip-off "Child's Play" franchise, but is not as bad as the expectation a reader may have with the IMDb Rating of 3.8. Indeed it is a reasonable horror movie, with characters and situation well developed for this type of movie. Denise Crosby plays again the role of a mother new arrival in a different environment that faces problem with his daughter, recalling her performance in "Pet Sematary" (1989). There are some accidentally funny scenes, like for example when Elliot Read is stabbed on his thigh and runs like a hell when the factory is blowing up but in general "Dolly Dearest" is watchable and entertains. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Boneca Assassina" ("Killer Doll")

Note: On 26 May 2024, I saw this film again.

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.

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.

Stumbling upon the 1991 horror movie "Dolly Dearest" here in 2022, I opted to sit down and watch what writers Maria Lease, Rod Nave and Peter Sutcliffe had to offer. I recall one of my friends once commenting on how bad the movie was, so of course I had to sit down and watch it, now that I had the opportunity to do so.

Well, I will say that I didn't find director Maria Lease's 1991 movie "Dolly Dearest" to be all that bad. Sure, it wasn't a milestone in horror cinema, but it was a watchable enough movie for what it turned out to be.

The movie feels somewhat like a watered down cash-in on the success of the first three "Child's Play" movies from 1988, 1990 and 1991. However, "Dolly Dearest" was just lacking the witty banter and humor, and all the killings that the "Child's Play" movies had. But hey, if you enjoy movies with killer dolls and possessed dolls, then you should check out "Dolly Dearest".

The acting performances in the movie was okay, taking into consideration the limitations imposed by a somewhat stale script. It was nice, though, to see the likes of Denise Crosby, Chris Demetral and Rip Torn on the cast list.

Visually then "Dolly Dearest" was okay. I mean, the special effects were adequate, but you're not in for a grand cinematic experience in special effects.

All in all, watchable for what it turned out to be, though I doubt I will ever return to watch it again.

My rating of "Dolly Dearest" lands on a five out of ten stars.