DOLLY Review

You know a Shudder movie is a big deal when it gets a full theatrical release before it hits the horror streaming service.

Previously, such films have included Late Night With The Devil and In A Violent Nature. These were efforts where there was clearly enough sentiment that they would do well in cinemas and draw in some more profit for the company, so they were released in theater months before they made their way to the service.

In A Violent Nature finished with a modest box office take of between four and five million dollars. That's obviously not much in the 2020's, but for what appeared to be an extremely low budget outing (I tried to get some cost information, but details are sketchy; it appears to be somewhere between less than $500,000 and $3 million), it was likely looked at as a successful outing. I'm sure Shudder was pleased with its numbers before they pulled it from cinemas.

If they were pleased with In A Violent Nature, they were likely over the moon for Late Night With The Devil. Another movie whose budget is not easily dug up, it's estimated at under $2 million, and it grossed almost $16 million for its theatrical window. Not exactly chump change for an indie horror outing without many guaranteed bankable aspects (I mean, I like David Dastmalchian, but he's not a proven leading man or anything).

The newest Shudder production to merit at least a small cinema release was this year's Dolly. It had an estimated budget of $600,000, and it bested that with a gross of just shy of $800,000 before it was finally released on the service on April 24th.

Dolly, like In A Violent Nature before it, is a 2020's take on the slasher genre. It is the tale of a couple heading into the woods for a hike who eventually comes across what seems to be a doll graveyard, with dolls hung from trees and planted throughout the woods. When Chase hears a strange sound, he's off to investigate. He soon encounters a hulking figure wearing a porcelain doll mask who assails him.

Macy eventually wanders off to find her boyfriend, and she meets up with the doll-faced character, as well. Dolly attacks Macy and takes her home to be her new playmate, and the film goes from there to see if Macy can escape Dolly's mammoth clutches!

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Dolly is "proudly" (the film declares in the credits!) shot on 16mm film, and that gives everything a grainy effect that makes the movie feel older and dirtier than what it is. It's the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre principle of making the viewer feel like they are watching something they should not be privy to. It works for this picture, too, so credit to it there. 

I will cop to not being enough of a film snob to generally care if something is shot on film or digitally, but there are plenty of folks who are and do, and this will likely be a boon to them!

+ Max The Impaler is credited as Dolly, the film's monstrous antagonist, and Max does a very fun job with the physical acting of the character. The hand movements and the head ticks all ring true for this mentally unwell, childlike beast that doesn't know how to handle the situation in which she finds herself.

Also, there is a constant stream of background sounds that are supposed to be Dolly's coos and gasps and cries from behind her mask, and they are low-key and insidious enough to worm their way into your head and make the movie feel creepier than it otherwise would.

- Our protagonist, Macy, has all the terrible trappings of horror victim characters in the worst of tropes. She's helpless and panic-stricken, and when she gets any advantage, she takes one futile shot and then flees. You end up screaming at the screen for this character to be more competent, but you never get it, all the way through to the end.

In 2026, I want horror heroes or heroines to act like they've ever seen a movie before in their lives. By the third time she had an open chance to strike back at her assailant and just stabbed them once and then backed away, I really just wanted her to die for her mistakes.

- The movie co-stars Sean William Scott as our protagonist's boyfriend / would-be fiancé. He's the most recognizable face you'll see on screen, and catching him in the beginning creates a sense of familiarity and comfort. Unfortunately, Dolly gives him nothing to do. You can probably guess why, but that's not important; I wanted more of SWS because he's a proven commodity in cinema. Fabianne Therese does a solid job as the movie's actual lead, but this could have been a pairing of co-leads in the film instead. I'd have bought it. There's no such thing as too much Sean William Scott.

OVERALL

Dolly is a modern slasher / attacked-in-the-woods horror outing that doesn't have anything new to say. Compared to In A Violent Nature, which took the conceit and filmed it from the killer's point of view, Dolly is just another in a long line of flicks. And it has a bad habit of falling into the tropes of those that came before it. That said, I do typically like this genre of movie, so I wasn't too disappointed. If you are an old school fan of characters like Jason and Michael and Chucky, you'll probably at least appreciate Dolly, too. If you are a more modern and meta horror fan, this outing will probably underwhelm you.

🍿 SCORE = 42 / 100