Dolly Dearest

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.

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But felt some of script was bit weak in some parts of the movie, made it's feel a bit outdated and I found the ending a little rushed.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

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.

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.

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.