PLOT: A younger lady, Macy, fights for survival after being kidnapped by a deranged, monster-like determine who desires to boost Macy as their youngster.
REVIEW: It looks like there’s little or no effort in placing collectively a model new slasher villain, as a substitute counting on relics of the previous. Don’t get me mistaken, I really like the previous guard as a lot as the remainder of you, however I’m all the time craving one thing new. Fortunately, with shades of different well-known horror villains, there’s a brand new killer on the town. And she or he likes to put on porcelain doll masks and put on attire.
Dolly follows a pair as they head into the woods to an exquisite lookout, with the prospect of a proposal on the horizon. Sadly for them, they’re interrupted by a loopy lady obsessive about dolls and should battle for their very own survival. It’s a reasonably primary setup, however most slashers are. It’s actually in regards to the environment and the stress. Oh, and the kills. Can’t overlook about these. A lot of the story follows Macy as she’s being held captive by the loopy lady often called Dolly. I all the time favor when a movie tells a singular story and doesn’t attempt to add too many components to attempt to spice issues up.
The movie is shot in a little bit of a grindhouse type, with correct grain and movie imperfections. There’s additionally what appears to be a bleach bypass, which lowers the saturation and offers the visuals a worn-out look. These varieties of films will all the time profit from being shot on movie versus digital, and I want extra would take this path. I actually loved it, and it helps with the backwoods aesthetic. All of the performances are good, with Fabianne Therese actually impressing. Sean William Scott isn’t round as a lot as you’d assume, and Ethan Suplee continues his streak of splendidly disturbed characters.
Dolly goes in some fairly surprising instructions and will be fairly brutal. The deaths are few however very impactful. I used to be additionally impressed with how the FX work is dealt with, with a jaw rip being an absolute standout. They seemed to be sensible, possibly with a little bit of CGI enhancement, however they all the time look nice. Nevertheless, a few of the blocking in the case of the kills generally is a bit “let me simply stand right here so you might have sufficient time to kill me.” That can all the time annoy me, and it feels a bit lazy.
It’s cool to see a slasher villain that’s not only a hulking man (even when as a substitute it’s a hulking lady). There is no such thing as a doubt loads of comparisons to be made to Leatherface, particularly the extra Subsequent Technology model of the character. In reality, it might get a bit blatant, particularly with a few of the mannerisms. However I nonetheless discovered Dolly to be creepy sufficient that she’s in a position to overcome the apparent similarities. There’s solely a lot you are able to do with a brutish slasher villain. Skilled wrestler Max the Impaler brings physicality to the position. And I like that her essential software of destruction occurs to be a shovel, as we don’t see that usually.
I believe the place it stumbles is its betrayal of the grounded nature of all of it. As a lot because the movie desires to be on the extra sensible facet, it might get a bit absurd at instances. There’s one second specifically that had me rolling my eyes with how excessive it bought. It doesn’t assist that a few of the character choices are simply colossally silly. Particularly within the third act. I’ve heard the time period “Fairy Story” bandied about, however outdoors of some summary pictures, it doesn’t actually match the motif. I all the time like a film that makes me really feel like I have to take a bathe afterwards, however Dolly feels a bit misplaced. There are some actually attention-grabbing concepts right here, however it typically devolves into dumb slasher territory when it might have caught with its extra attention-grabbing cat-and-mouse, psychological method. And it’s going to be powerful to keep away from the Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath comparisons once you blatantly recreate one of the well-known scenes.
Dolly is taking part in in theaters on March sixth, 2026.
