Dolls (1987)

Directed by: Stuart Gordon

I've never been creeped out by dolls, but after having watched this movie I'm happy there are no dolls in my home - who the hell could sleep with those damn things around? Killer dolls movies were pretty popular in the 80's/early 90's with movies like Child's Play, Puppetmaster, Demonic Toys etc, but this one might have been the first in that wave. It was released in 1987 (Child's Play was released in 1988 for example), but filmed already back in 1985.

This was director Stuart Gordon's follow up to Re-Animator and From Beyond and anyone could of course understand that this movie couldn't top those two. Not that I think that it was ever the intention as this is a very different kind of movie. It feels like a very dark fairytale rather than the usual horror movie, and at times I almost get a feeling I'm watching a children's movie... with some damn fine gore here and there. It's probably because the main character that we get to follow in the movie is a seven year old girl and I do feel the movie get a bit too cute here and there because of her. She's adorable as hell, but skip the kid and show me the violence!


I know I usually go on forever when describing the plot of a movie in my "reviews", but with this one I could probably do it in one sentence: Some people end up in a mansion one stormy night and those who are bad are killed off by some dolls coming to life... Something like that! Well, as I enjoy being boring I will at least try and expand the plot description.

Seven year old Judy (Carrie Lorraine) is stuck for the summer with her father, David (Ian Patrick Williams), and his new sugarmama Rosemary (Carolyn Purdy Gordon). And they seem to feel stuck with her as well as neither of them are being very nice towards little Judy (and already here we realize that these two won't survive the movie - it's that kind of movie, act bad and you'll get killed). They're out driving during a thunderstorm and manage to get stuck in some very shallow looking mud, good thing there's this big mansion just by the side of the road... Our dysfunctional family unit knocks on the door, but as no one opens the door they break into the cellar to get away from the rain. There they are found by the two residents of the mansion, Gabriel (Guy Rolfe) and Hilary (Hilary Mason) and instead of telling them to get the hell outta there the family is asked to stay the night.


Hm... not sure I would want to spend a night with those creepy looking old people around... Like we didn't already had enough people to have a little party even more people turn up trying to get away from the rain. Ralph (Stephen Lee) and two hitchhikers, Isabel (Bunty Bailey - the chick from the Take on Me video by Aha) and Enid (Cassie Stuart), that he picked up (and probably thought he could sex up later on as well ;-)). Being the good (and creepy) hosts that they are Gabriel and Hilary invites them to spend the night in the mansion as well.

It turns out that Gabriel is a doll maker and the whole building is stuffed with dolls, creepy looking dolls... When it's time to hit the sack our two hitchhiking "punks" (although one is very much trying to look like Madonna did in the mid 80's, so I'm not sure how much punk they really are) decides that the place should have a lot of valuables that would be easy to steal. Isabel starts checking out the place on her own and is taken care of by some dolls... in a quite nasty way as she gets her face bashed in against a wall. Judy is a witness to this and tells her dad and the bitch he's together with and as this is a movie no one believes her, of course.

No one except for that Ralph guy as apparently he is still a "child at heart", they find blood on the floor where Isabel was taken care of, but no Isabel. And Gabriel has an explanation for the red stuff as well, so everyone goes back to bed. Or at least they're trying to as there are still some bad people alive in the house and the night is still young...

Hm, felt like I ran out of steam there, but I'm trying to keep my ramblings shorter when it comes to tell the story of the movie. I'm not here to write a damn book adaption of the movie... well, something that I hopefully will get better at with time... Aaaanyway, I have said this about other movies before, but I'll say it again. At times this movie remind me a little bit of the 90's TV show Tales from the Crypt, the movie mixes horror with some dark humor (just like the TV show) and it's that whole thing about "if you're naughty you WILL get punished" that feels taken straight out of most episodes of that show. Didn't they all end like that, by the way?

I mentioned earlier that this flick could of course never top Re-Animator or From Beyond, but it's still an entertaining movie. I wouldn't go so far to call it a great movie, but it's without a doubt well worth spending the 75 minutes it takes to watch it. I was quite impressed with the gore in this flick, not that there is that much of it, but what there is is great looking and effective. The pace of the movie is also quite good, with such a short movie there really isn't time to drag things out and we get some action quite early on in the movie. It was also great to see stop motion used to give the dolls life and it looked damn good. All in all an entertaining movie that delivers on the horror and even some chuckles.