Friday, October 21, 2016

Horrors of October - Dolls



Dolls (1987)

A group of strangers all end up with car trouble and stay the night at a mansion in the woods, whose maze-like hallways and plethora of handmade dolls leads to a long nightmare. DOLLS is practically a 77 minute stretching of the famous Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll", for better or worse. It's overall enjoyable to watch if you're in the mood for a good haunted house flick but the majority of the characters are pretty one note. The parents are beyond unlikable, the kid is "ain't I precious?" levels of annoying, the dated Madonna-looking punks just squeal in British slang, and the child-like salesman is a bumbling Shaggy. The only two characters I wished to see more of are the mansions' elderly English owners, played by Guy Rolfe and Hilary Mason, who obviously have something up their sleeves but remain pleasant to their heartless guests. Of course the main reason to see this is the sight of murderous toys and the film does that in spades. Though helmed by Stuart Gordon, the film feels more like it was entirely supervised by its producer Charles Band, as it is very much a precursor to his PUPPET MASTER series and his other tiny villain works. DOLLS doesn't have a lot of substance on its bones but it's a quick watch and perfect for those you want to a simple scary movie.


FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5

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