Dolly Dearest (1992)

An American family moves to Mexico to fabricate dolls, but their toy factory happens to be next to a Satan grave and the toys come into possession of an old, malicious spirit.

Generic!

Every 30 minutes an overweight Mexican is killed by a deranged doll. This is a lame rip off of the Child's Play / Chucky series. If a horror movie is going to have so few kills they need to be good kills. The ones in Dolly Dearest are weak. April 24, 2008

THE BEST HORROR MOVIE OF THE WORLD !

"DOLLY DEAREST" is the best movie of the world ! The special effects are so good ! I recommend this film to the fans of the films of killer dolls!
BEST OF THE BEST MOVIE ! April 16, 2008

Doll movies

i have liked this movie since i was a child some habits die hard and mine is horror movies and vampire movies I like most doll horror films. i do not know why they have just always caught my attention. it isn't the best horror film but it is one that i enjoy. Dolls is also good if u like this movie. October 1, 2007

MOVE OVER CHUCKY DOLLY'S HERE!!

see, who said girls can't do everything boys do. just another movie to prove that wrong, and boy what a movie. chucky and dolly could rule the world if put together. two black hearts, two small bodies, and two killer minds what couldn't they do. dolly dearest is one of the ugliest dolls ever. but i guess that's what makes her creepy. that and that cute dress. this is a movie from way back, and it was eerie then, and it still hasn't lost it's touch. a doll gone demonic because of an acient evil spirit has been released. an unsuspecting family moves in, and the terror begins. dolly's taking over, and she goes in for the kill. what could be scarier than a pretty doll gone mad. of course the story was a little wacked, but all the dolls more than made up for it. it's great how something so dear and pretty can also be one of the deadliest things as well. dolly is why people feel uncomfortable around dolls. all those beady eyes staring at you, those stubby hands and feet, and that eerie smile. gives you chills. this movie is a good one and there need to be more like this. dolly and chucky are classics, and i can't wait to see what they'll come up with next. September 18, 2007

Abhorrent

'Dolly Dearest' finds itself with just enough filmmaking competence to become watchable, but we'd probably be better off had it not been able to conduct a coherent scene.

The story is derivative, and stupid. Family of four moves to Mexico -- Dad's opening up a doll factory! Nice big house in the country, with a nice fat Mexican maid to top; it's gonna be some goooooooooood livin'. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the first scene of the film finds some sort of evil spirit find its way into the factory, where some of the dolls' exist. Naturally, the little girl in the family wants a doll (dumb *)@%&!_). So, the doll comes home with her, and bad things happen.

Watching 'Dolly Dearest', all I could think of is how, by comparison, the 'Child's Play' films -- all three of originals -- are utter masterpieces. The first one, perhaps most importantly, with its unique and compelling idea, but moreover its execution of such a potentially disaster-ridden concept. Re-watching the original 'Child's Play' recently, and just now painfully absorbing 'Dearest', it's pretty easy to articulate why they're at two different ends of the "killer-doll" spectrum.

'Child's Play' had personality. Brad Dourif's vocal work with Chucky added so much; he had personality, wit, and growls of psychotic rage scary enough to make you run from a two foot doll without the slightest hint of shame. The doll(s) in 'Dearest', on the other hand, spout claptrap in the guise of a little girl's voice spliced with a predictably 'demonic' tone. God. Then, there's the dolls themselves. Granted, 'Dearest' didn't have the budget of Chucky, but that doesn't save it from criticism; these dolls are UGLY -- 'before' they are inhabited by the spirit of Voodoo McGee -- and once they began to walk and talk, I began to give up on the film, succumbing to the hate deep within me. I'm sorry, but utilizing the same %*#!U!J"FLQKA shot of the doll walking -- below the waste and only below the waste -- a shot which is laughable the very first time it's seen, is inexcusable. How am I to focus on the dolls' deliciously maniacal murders when I'm continually jolted out of whatever reality the film manages to evoke, courtesy of what appears to be a small manikin gliding on roller-skates, over and over? If that's not enough, I have to hear them, in their demonic-girly voice, spout tripe like 'this is fun!!!'. I noticed something was amuck towards the earlier bits of the film, observing the doll who's mentally thwarted sweet little daughter Jessica walk into the doll house, via a camera from afar. I could have 'sworn' that, in fact, this was no doll entering the doll-house, but a life-sized woman; or, at the very least, a midget. Maybe the Jesus-fearing maid? Couldn't have been; the spirits pounced Jesus and Mrs. Dusty ten minutes beforehand. What's funny, though, is that re-watching the scene, I came to the conclusion it was in fact a doll they used... Which brings me to the doll -- c'mon. The thing, below its neck anyway, is practically obese, spouting a beastly physique and the height of a power forward. It's just repugnant to the eyes, and when we have no choice but to look at its limited facial expressions (I could have sworn one of them looked either stoned or retarded toward the end, peering out of a dumpster in the factory) and robotic motion, we die inside.

The other thing is that this movie is tediously boring. The pacing is unbelievably slow, and very little action occurs. In 'Child's Play' we knew, as demonstrated conceptually and by repeated mannerisms, that Chucky was befriending little Andy merely as a ploy to take his physical body and get out of the plastic his spirit had been enveloped in. You'd think, after watching 'Dearest', that these demons inhabiting the doll are really in it all just so they can play tea-party with Jessica, or, even worse, play 'tea-party' with Jessica; i.e., they're doing some really awful things to her in the dollhouse behind closed doors, which the dolls are suspiciously prone to lock. At least maybe we'd get some sort of twisted commentary on the subject of ancient spirits -- these demons are dead on arrival, with the most anonymous of personality complexes and unknown intentions.

The acting ranges from decent to embarrassing, but by and large I withstood the apathy of the characters' pretty well. And idiocy... By the time Jessica growls at Mommy in a deep, jacked-from-The-Exorcist voice, and Mommy's subsequent reaction, though, it became harder to endure. The Dad/Husband comes running up; 30 seconds later they're out of the room. Mommy: "I -- think -- she's changing." (when Satan propels out of someone's mouth, I'd be a little more assertive in my beliefs. You THINK?). The Husband's reaction is priceless: 'No, the only one who's changing around here is YOU." Queue music. Tear. Such resonant, family melodrama. Bypass all rational analysis of possessed daughter -- you aren't connecting with your husband!. The last fifteen minutes of the film is somehow worse than that which precedes it, because all of a sudden out of this lethargy everything gets emotional, or at least the exaggerated motions' by the characters would make you think so. It's like -- oh, so you care now? It's a lose-lose situation; you want the dolls to dismember the whole family alive (I didn't mind the dork kid, though), and sacrifice Jessica to their primal Gods. But then, you also want to see each doll get hit repeatedly with a 4x4 -- on several specific points, upper body namely -- so how are you supposed to reconcile with such expectations? I honestly don't know.

The contemplation is there for anyone who liked Chucky's outings, but do not, please, venture into this abysmal pit of filmic vomit. October 20, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...