Dolly

How you reacted to the X-Files episode Home, but more so The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, may go some way to how you take to Dolly.

The film opens making no bones that this is going to be a harrowing exercise, with loads of dolls, the sound of flies all around, a sense of complete destitution and a headless body cradled by a figure in a mask, in a child’s red dress with white frills.

Macy (Fabienne Therese) is with her partner Chase (Seann William Scott) dropping of his daughter so that they can have some time to themselves. Macy is at a crossroads, not sure that being a stepmother is what she signed up for, although by all accounts, and friend advice, Chase is a good one.

They decide on a forest hike where they find themselves surrounded by dolls hanging of the tree, everywhere. It’s creepy to say the least. They are separated and Chase has a terrible confrontation with Dolly (Max the Impaler). It’s not long after that Macy encounters Dolly, is captured and taken back to her house.

At homes Dolly dresses Macy as a child and goes about treating her as if she was her offspring. In a bizarre, and at times nauseating sequence, Dolly tries to feed and change Macy, with some patience. Even a stabbing doesn’t put her off, Dolly just spanks Macy. Meanwhile Chase is still alive, barely and they are not the only ones in the house.

Director Rod Blackhurst, co-written with Brandon Weavil have expanded their short Babygirl (2022) and developed an interesting, deceptively complex story. That actually works quite well in a film that is very bloody and violent. The practical effects are excellent not least the dreadful mask that Dolly wears.

Another major factor is the palpable sense of decay that hangs around the house, in fact the entire film, which is down to the use 16mm. It adds another layer of grunge to what is an already a grimy film. As gruelling as it is however, as the story develops the destitution helps to provide an element of sympathy for Dolly, just an element.

There is some dark comedy here if the viewer decides that some elements are just too ridiculous. These tend to be while Dolly is a her most pathetically maternal with Macy, who is by no means at her wits end and all the time thinking how to escape, if necessary, using extreme violence.

Dolly had its UK premiere at Halloween FrightFest 2025.