“Dolly”

Old dolls are creepy as hell, and “Dolly” knows it.

The film starts with one heck of a terrifying opening and the imagery doesn’t let up. And from the moment dozens of crumbling, old dolls show up nailed to trees in the woods, you’ll know you are in for something completely unsettling.

The plot is simple and effective. Rachel (Kate Cobb) goes on a hike with her boyfriend Chase (Seann William Scott), and they stumble across what looks like a creepy art installation in the woods. It’s not art but a graveyard for past victims of Dolly (Max the Impaler), a hulking, childlike figure in a tattered dress and a terrifying porcelain mask. After a terrible accident, Rachel’s taken to Dolly’s house to become their new “doll,” complete with diaper changes, feedings, and some deeply messed-up pretend play.

The film has clear DNA from films like “The Hills Have Eyes” and “Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but it’s not just a lazy copy. Themes about identity, control, family trauma, and what it means to be “raised” are presented through an extremely horrific lens.

Rod Blackhurst directs the hell out of this, and he is clearly someone who knows the language of horror. Everything from the pacing and the way he builds tension, to the gnarly and bloody practical effects feels crafted with love for the genre. In fact, the vibe of the movie really took me back. It feels like one of those grimy, gritty indie horror films you’d discover by accident at the video store in the ‘80s (when you were probably way too young to rent it, but you did anyway and it led to months of nightmares). It has that same homegrown, lo-fi, no safety net energy, with legit scares and a real story driving it forward.

Shot entirely on Super16mm, the film has a richly vintage and textured visual quality that’s best described as dreamlike. It’s beautiful in a grimy way. The production design is top-notch too, especially when it comes to Dolly’s house (which is buried in layers of filth, toys, decay, and dread).

Scary, stylish, and with just the right amount of deranged, “Dolly” is a true indie horror gem.

By: Louisa Moore