User reviews

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.

This was one of those bad movies that had some good effects, but wasn't really scary, except to maybe a five year old.

The acting was good, but, the characters were annoying, and very stereotyped.

The life of the show was the terrific appearance of Rip Torn. He always seems to enjoy his work, and he has that kind of sarcastic side about him that you can chuckle at and not feel bad about it.

So good scares for the young or the faint-at-heart. Otherwise, just a standard possessed-doll-raising-hell-type movie.

And I Just re-watch Dolly Dearest 1991

I had only seen it once before, it thought i liked but I could remember how it's ended,

I liked how the plot started and the movie made some tense moments, I loved Mirror scenes, where get to see doll standing and again she was gone.

The doll it's self was very creepy and I thought kill scenes were really well done, it still work these days .

But felt some of script was bit weak in some parts of the movie, made it's feel a bit outdated and I found the ending a little rushed.

I would not mind if this movie gets remake but it's not of best killer doll movies, well it was not as fun as Chucky or even The Dolls, were fun watch, I didn't really find this movie that fun

The acting was decent. 6 out of 10

When I first started watching this movie I was already thinking "Yet another killer doll movie", "this is going to be a Child's Play ripoff".

And yes indeed, you could consider it as a Child's Play ripoff but then again; which killer doll movie isn't?

Maybe it's not the greatest or scariest movie ever made, but this movie genuinely surprised me mostly in terms of the storyline.

All of that being said, I would definitely recommend watching this one, it's really worth the watch.

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.

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.

not as bad as some make out. the doll(s) are quite scary & the effects are ok. the film chugs along nicely. if your a fan of killer doll movies then check it out. better than some stuff Full Moon churn out... if anyone's interested this is available as a cheap region zero Hong Kong DVD. rated 6/10.

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.

In DOLLY DEAREST, dollmakers, Marilyn and Elliot Wade (Denise Crosby and Sam Bottoms), along with their two children, relocate to Mexico to manufacture the doll of the title. They find the factory in disrepair, and an archaeological dig going on nearby.

We know from the opening scene that tragedy struck this site, and something supernatural was unleashed. The Wades are oblivious to this fact. A doll just happens to be sitting in the factory, so, it's given to the Wades' daughter. It's not long before we hear the pitter patter of tiny feet in the night.

Horror and death unfold.

Like CHILD'S PLAY, there's a killer doll on the loose. Unlike that movie, DD also has a demonic possession story that goes beyond the doll. Ms. Crosby is very good in her role as the one who suspects that something weird is going on.

Is the doll itself terrifying? No, but it is menacing enough, and scary in spots. However, it does have its pungent moments of cheddar, usually while strolling around, or somersaulting backward through a doorway.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The utterly bonkers, all-dolls-on-deck, dynamite finale!...

"Dolly Dearest" is a little early 90's horror flick with some pretensions. The storyline can be considered as a mix between the late 80's hit "Child's Play" and "Poltergeist II".

The whole "son of the devil" plot is quite interesting considering that it's linked with the delightful Maya civilization (a mystery sorrounds it's banishing from earth). The plot is imaginative until the dolls come to life.

"Child's Play" excuse to bring the doll to life is actually believable for people that are familiar with occultism, black magic, and voodoo.

"Dolly Dearest" copied the Chucky idea in order to seduce horror junkies but it failed big time.

The premise of the movie doesn't help it because the idea had been taken years before and the publicity campaign for the movie didn't say anything about the whole "son of the devil" thing.

OK the plot is something you've seen and it doesn't helps that the acting is AWFUL, the direction is boring and dull, the score is lame, and the f/x are laughable. To me, the best moment of the movie is when Rip Torn's character discovers the skeleton of the "son of the devil" (the body of a boy with the head of a goat). That was the only creepy moment.

Most of the situations are absurd. For example, the brat blonde girl talks with a possessed voice (like in "The Exorcist") and her geeky brother says something like "wow you learned how to speak". The line is stupid but you need to see the scene to get as mad as me. Also there are 2 huge goofs: The first one is when police determines that Luis death was caused by a heart stroke but they don't mention that his hand was almost cut in half! Then, you can hear from the police car's radio American people talking trying to imitate the Mexican accent. Why would American people work for the Mexican police!? The producers couldn't find more Mexican extras.

"Dolly Dearest" had potential but it's problem came when deciding which movie ideas to mix. The "Poltergeist" inspiration went well but stealing the idea of "Child's Play" didn't work while trying to put it on the storyline.

3/10. Boring early 90's cheese. No gore, no scares.

Following in the tiny (and lucrative) footsteps of killer doll hit Child's Play (1988), Dolly Dearest sees the spirit of a murderous Mayan demon freed from an ancient Mexican tomb to possess the dolls in the factory recently purchased by American family, The Wades (Sam Bottoms, Denise Crosby, Chris Demetral and Candy Hutson). But where Chucky, the diminutive star of Child's Play, was a brilliantly expressive creation designed by FX genius Kevin Yagher and voiced by the very talented Brad Dourif, 'Dolly' is just dull, a forgettable lump of plastic with zero personality.

Furthermore, the script for Dolly Dearest is extremely derivative, not just content with ripping off Child's Play, but several other horror classics as well (there are shades of The Omen, The Exorcist and Poltergeist); the direction is also uninspired, leaving the reasonable cast struggling against the odds to make matters entertaining. The film might have proved more bearable with more and much gorier death scenes, but all we get are a bloodless electrocution and a guy having a heart attack (having had his hand pushed into a sewing machine). Oh, and the only half decent scares are courtesy of a stray cat that makes a habit of leaping out from behind the boxes in the factory.

"Dolly Dearest" is a very boring, extremely redundant and almost intolerably gore-free imitation of Tom Holland's unexpectedly successful shocker "Child's Play"; starring Brad Dourif as the voice of a toy doll possessed with the spirit of a psychopathic killer. This knock-off, released approximately at the same time as the second sequel to "Child's Play", replaces the one male doll with multiple female ones and the murderer's vengeful spirit with a 900-year-old Satanic curse, but pretty much all the other elements in the script are identical. The dolls aim to possess the body of an innocent young girl, the parents are initially blind for the horrific events destroying their family happiness and the killer dolls even shout out supposedly witty but dumb one-liners near the end of the film. The story takes place somewhere in Mexico, where the ambitious American businessman Elliot Reid bought a ramshackle doll factory with the intention of distributing beautiful and handmade dolls all over the planet. But the factory is located next to old mines where an archaeologist accidentally set free the ghost of the Sanzian Devil Child. The ghost seeks refuge in several dollies, one of them belonging to Elliot's cherubic 7-year-old daughter Jessica. The dolls actually look menacing, especially in their "normal" state, but the film is very slow-paced and uninteresting. The first doll-attack is reasonably exciting, but it comes too far into the film and around a time when most die-hard horror fanatics have already given up all hopes to seeing a good film. The character drawings are bland and unsympathetic and the acting performances (with the exception of Rip Torn as a grumpy university's archaeologist) are horridly miserable. Writer/director Maria Lease – previously an exploitation actress – thought up a couple of potentially great aspects, like for example the old factory setting and the mines, but stupidly only uses a small percentage of them. Doll parts, most notably broken and/or ancient, form some of the creepiest horror scenery imaginable, but the film only offers a bit of eerie doll-graveyard footage. Simply everything about "Dolly Dearest" is mediocre and unmemorable, including Mark Snow's dull music and the evil grimaces on dolly's rubber face. Usually rip-offs and imitations are far more exploitative (meaning gorier, sleazier and more demented) than the originals they're based on, but "Dolly Dearest" is a rare exception to this unwritten rule… It's "Child's Play" for actual child audiences.

'Dolly Dearest' a somewhat decent yet very uneven killer doll horror flick from the early 90's that despite its flawed execution and sluggish pacing it still has just enough going for it to be entertaining and a pure guilty pleasure cheesefest thanks to its interesting plot, solid special effects work, decent performances, and some creepy moments. Sure, this will never be considered as a classic in the horror genre or even the killer doll sub-genre, but it's an okay time waster.

The Plot = Elliot Wade (Sam Bottoms) moves to Mexico along with his wife Marilyn (Denise Crosby), and 2 kids Jessica (Candace Hutson) & Jimmy (Chris Demetral) so that he could take over the Dolly Dearest factory. But the factory happens to be next to an ancient Indian burial ground where an evil spirit takes refuge in one of the dolls and trouble soon follows.

The comparisons to a certain Chucky franchise are there, but I wouldn't really call this a total knock off as this tends to focus more on the supernatural elements which works quite well with the killer doll aspect of the story, and it does separate it from the Chucky films even if there's no real logic behind it. The movie does have its fair share of problems though as it's painfully slow at times and doesn't feature enough killer doll action with a very minimal amount of kills and carnage. There are a few effective jump scares and quite a bit of suspense and tension to keep you intrigued throughout its runtime and the production value of the film is quite decent and the direction by Maria Lease is quite solid and if you're into killer doll flicks then I'd recommend you check this out.

The performances here are really good with Candace Hutson giving a solid performance as the daughter going from sweet and innocent to menacing quite effectively. Denise Crosby's quite good as the mother but could have done with a bit more emotion from her as she comes across as quite cold at times. Sam Bottoms does an okay job as the father but wasn't all that memorable. Chris Demetral gives the strongest performance out of the family here and brings a lot of energy to his role.

Overall 'Dolly Dearest' is not the most original horror flick out there, it still manages to be quite entertaining.

An archaeologist frees an evil spirit, which then possesses a doll known as Dolly Dearest.

You know exactly what you're getting with this horror movie.

I love evil, creepy dolls. Of course, Child's Play is the big hitter of this subgenre. But I prefer the other films that followed, such as this movie, Toys and Demonic Toys.

I love the little girl who owns Dolly Dearest and the fact that she seems to be just as demonic as her doll. The scene in which she freaks out on seeing a priest is very Omen.

This isn't a multi-layered, intelligent horror film, but every horror movie doesn't have to be. If you want a shocker which is visceral and has you rooting for the villain, then you can't go wrong with Dolly Dearest.

When I borrowed this from a friend, he said that it was "just a stupid little movie that you could watch, if you didn't take it seriously... at all". Well, I must say, he was absolutely right. This film has no redeeming qualities whatsoever... it's just bad. The very idea is so stupid that it's no wonder that this was an independent film... I can't imagine a studio that would be so overbearing that it would fund a film like this. I have seen some bad horror films in my time, but this is just... it's hard to put into words just how bad it is. The plot is stupid and lame. The pacing is horrible. How can 90 minutes go by so slowly? The acting is awful with no exceptions. And I do mean awful. Not one single character is convincingly acted. Even Rip Torn, the one name on the cast list that is actually a recognizable actor, does a bad job in this. I'm going to have to assume that it's the quality of the direction that is to blame for this, as Rip does a fine job in everything else I've seen him in. The characters are poorly written and not even the least bit credible. They are paper-thin, stereotypical and clichéd as well. The dialog is poorly written, and can be divided into two sections, both equally bad. The first is all the standard dialog that you hear in all of these half-cooked horror films... the clichéd stuff. "Something is in there!" "It will kill again!" Stuff like that. The second is dialog made up to sound smart... most of this is said by the character of the son. This is something the writer put in to appeal to teenagers that see the film... which is a problem, because the son character is supposed to be an inquisitive, book-smart, intelligent kid. So it doesn't fit very well to have him say "dude" and "cool" in-between his smart lines. The doll was about as scary as a visit at grand-ma's... and that's being generous. The film has very few, if any, genuine scares or shocks. The premise is unoriginal. The only real reason to see this is to laugh at the pure ridiculous nature of it. The number of clichés, the amount of stupidity in the production, the ludicrous script, the lack of creativity... it can't be properly described. If you have a chance to do so for free, see it for yourself and you'll see what I mean. An unremarkable film that is only worth spending time on if you, like me, want to compare horror films(particularly bad ones). No one should have to spend money on seeing it, though, unless they are crazy about "killer doll" horror films. I recommend it only to people belonging in one of the two aforementioned groups. No one else. 1/10

Dolly Dearest,however, comes across to most people as a "Child's Play Rip-Off" and a "Cheesey Low-Budget Horror Movie" when in fact, it's neither of what they think it is! Dolly Dearest is actually a very clever film produced with original ideas. It doesn't copy Child's Play that much because, the Dollies are not killer dolls, they are possessed by a devilish spirit that "wants children and would do anything to spread it's word to the children". Therefore, the evil spirit takes the form of toys because, it knows that children love dolls (mainly little girls). And it is an easier way to get to children and possess them and turn them into the "Sanzia Devil Child", just like what happened to little Jessica in this movie.

If my review doesn't agree with you, that's OK! Because you are entitled to your opinion. If you don't, I suggest you watch it a couple of times and let your imagination run wild because, I think the idea of this film is mainly left to the imagination.

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