Review of Dolly Dearest (1991) by Mekkah D — 04 Mar 2013

Some creative minds say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but I bet those people are inwardly seething... grinding their teeth, wishing misfortune upon those perps who capitalise on their success. When a film like Jaws came along it was followed by a string of creature features riding it's coat tails... from Piranha and Alligator to Razorback and Devil Fish... but these were tongue in cheek and paid homage to their inspiration.

In 1975 Trilogy of Terror featured a killer voodoo doll and then it wasn't until 1985 that Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) made a modest little horror movie called Dolls. Few people saw it until years later when Child's Play came along and terrified audiences... both were inventive and well crafted interpretations of the creature feature and Child's Play affectively played with film noir. What followed was an onslaught of copycat flicks. Puppetmaster and Pin were two popular examples and of course, Dolly Dearest. This is perhaps the most blatant of the Child's Play clones and while its similarities are shameless, the movie still has a charm of it's own. A family moves to Mexico to take over an abandoned doll factory where one of the toys is possessed with an ancient Mayan curse. A pretty little doll comes to life and channels evil through the family's young daughter. Denise Corsby and Rip Torn add a touch of genre cred and the script moves at a steady pace, making for an easy watch. The death scenes are well staged and creative and the doll is wisely kept in the shadows, avoiding lots of tacky puppet crap. Mark Snow of X-Files fame provides an affective and eerie score to help bring together a nice little genre pic that manages to shake the rip-off stigma and stand on it's own. It might have been poorly received at the time but 20 years later I think it offers a guilty flashback with fonder perceptions. But hey, that's just me.