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Powerful

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

"Dolly Dearest" is a very boring, extremely redundant and almost intolerably gore-free imitation of Tom Holland's unexpectedly successful shocker "Child's Play"; starring Brad Dourif as the voice of a toy doll possessed with the spirit of a psychopathic killer. This knock-off, released approximately at the same time as the second sequel to "Child's Play", replaces the one male doll with multiple female ones and the murderer's vengeful spirit with a 900-year-old Satanic curse, but pretty much all the other elements in the script are identical. The dolls aim to possess the body of an innocent young girl, the parents are initially blind for the horrific events destroying their family happiness and the killer dolls even shout out supposedly witty but dumb one-liners near the end of the film. The story takes place somewhere in Mexico, where the ambitious American businessman Elliot Reid bought a ramshackle doll factory with the intention of distributing beautiful and handmade dolls all over the planet. But the factory is located next to old mines where an archaeologist accidentally set free the ghost of the Sanzian Devil Child. The ghost seeks refuge in several dollies, one of them belonging to Elliot's cherubic 7-year-old daughter Jessica. The dolls actually look menacing, especially in their "normal" state, but the film is very slow-paced and uninteresting. The first doll-attack is reasonably exciting, but it comes too far into the film and around a time when most die-hard horror fanatics have already given up all hopes to seeing a good film. The character drawings are bland and unsympathetic and the acting performances (with the exception of Rip Torn as a grumpy university's archaeologist) are horridly miserable. Writer/director Maria Lease – previously an exploitation actress – thought up a couple of potentially great aspects, like for example the old factory setting and the mines, but stupidly only uses a small percentage of them. Doll parts, most notably broken and/or ancient, form some of the creepiest horror scenery imaginable, but the film only offers a bit of eerie doll-graveyard footage. Simply everything about "Dolly Dearest" is mediocre and unmemorable, including Mark Snow's dull music and the evil grimaces on dolly's rubber face. Usually rip-offs and imitations are far more exploitative (meaning gorier, sleazier and more demented) than the originals they're based on, but "Dolly Dearest" is a rare exception to this unwritten rule… It's "Child's Play" for actual child audiences.

I agree with the earlier review by Richard Wheeler: if you see this as a rerun of Child's Play you are not getting the gist of the film. The story centers on a classic horror device (one that I never get tired of) of pitting different realities against one another: the extinct Sanzia reality (the devil child spirit), the Mexican Catholic reality (nuns and candles), and the modern American reality (explosions). This occurs in relation to another classic device, the possessed doll -- although in this case the dolls derive more from Curse of the Doll People than from Child's Play. The story follows fairly predictable lines (the biggest twist: no sudden twist at the end -- thankfully!) but kept me entertained throughout. I also like Rip Torn in the older roles, and Denise Crosby was good. The child actors were also not annoying (and the little girl was on occasion pretty scary). The production designer also deserves kudos for the simple but effective crypt.My only complaint is that I could do without the animatronic doll faces, which were well enough done but not very original. Possessed dolls whose faces remain placid and serene are much scarier, plus they don't talk as much.

Dolly Dearest has been my favorite horror movie since I was 11 going on 12 and that is not all, it was the first killer doll film I have ever seen in my entire life. This is a late 80s early 90s sophisticated movie with style! The story begins when an archaeologist unearths this interesting tomb and suddenly, the stone door crushes him and the spirit of the "Sanzia Devil Child" was set free and head towards a run down, Mexican doll factory called "Dolly Dearest". I find the horror music and especially, the music which represents the film very addictive. I love that melody, it so beautiful. And the noises which the Sanzia Devil Child makes are addictive as well. THAT IS EVIL!!!! Any ways, back to the story, an American family called the Wades relocate to Mexico because Mr. Wade (Sam Bottoms) was reopening the Dolly Dearest Manufacturing Company. When Mr.Wade arrived at the factory, he was shocked to find it in the condition it was in. It was VERY dilapidated. I can understand why the doll factory was in terrible condition because Mexico is the third most poorest country in the world, and they do not have enough money to keep things up.Soon, Mr.Wade's daughter, Jessica ( Candy Hutson) discovers a neat live of dolls in a hidden place in the factory and Mr.Wade allowed her to keep one as a toy. OOH! When I heard the blow sound as the camera went around the dolls, it make me think I could hear the Sanzsia in them. And back home, when Dolly was in the darkness of Jessica's bedroom and turned to the camera making a strange noise, I could sense the creature that lived was evil. And more, you can hear the noise outside or wherever it goes! The four things that freaked me out about this movie were when Dolly walked into Mrs.Wade's room (Denise Crosby) as she unpacked her stuff and I saw her reflecting in the mirror standing at the bed. As for the other, Jessica crept me out when she said to her mother : "Dolly says we are going to like it here". And when I heard the priest's voice getting louder and softer ( this was what Jessica heard). OH MY GOD! THE SANZIA HAS MADE HER BECOME CHRISTAPHOBIC! And lastly, later on in the movie when Marilyn returns home, searches for Jimmy and Jessica, she passes the closet, out comes Jimmy's hand and she screams.Later on in the film, the Mexican housekeeper Camilla ( Lupe Onterveros) was aware that evil was lurking in the home. And not so soon, she died and on the same night when Marilyn Wade and Jimmy Wade ( Chris Demetral) were looking for Jessica, the wind blew so hard that the windows shattered and they found Jessica in the lounge in the pouring rain! THAT"S THE POWER OF THE SANZIA!!! And worse, when Dolly was scheming in the doll house, the blew stronger by the minute and when Marilyn opened the door of the doll house, the wind stopped blowing! A day later, Marilyn notices from Day 1 that Jessica has had an extraordinary attachment to her new toy and doesn't know what to do about it. Meanwhile, at the burial which Jimmy keeps poking at, he gets a shock to find the archaeologist Karl Resnick (Rip Torn) from the university has arrived and from there, Jimmy became Resnick's assistant. Later on in the evening, a night watchman named Luis ( Will Gotay) accidentally insulted a doll and he had his mangled in a sowing machine and it gave him a massive heat attack. That sure was gory with all that blood. And soon, Jimmy snuck out of the house, ended up in the doll factory, the dolls screwed with his head, tripped him with a crow bar, Jimmy saw the body, he screamed and ran away!After the incident, back home Marilyn tried to take Dolly away from Jessica and Jessica fought back aggressively saying in a demonic voice: "I WILL KILL YOU SHE'S MINE!" When Eliot came in, he thought it was Jessica putting on an act! Don't worry, these characters are just stereotyped.The next day after when Marilyn saw Resnick in connection with the Sanzia Devil Child, she visited the Convent because, she wanted to speak to Sister Alva ( Alma Martinez). Fortunately, Alva believed it was too late for Marilyn to save her daughter but Marilyn wouldn't give up. When Marilyn returned home to face Dolly. I loved it when the suspense built as the camera moved towards Dolly. It makes you wonder. And then Dolly tells Marilyn that Jessica belongs to her and she laughs! IT WAS SO FREAKY! She sounded like a demonic witch. As we all know, Dolly is very fast moving especially when it came to that kiff scene when Dolly wanted to play rough with her mother. Another kiff scene when the coffin lid of the ancient coffin blows off and the remains of the Sanzia Devil Chils are revealed. IT LOKKED FRIGHTFUL! And lastly, it was suspenseful when Eliot was being dragged into a tub of hot plastic and then he was saved by Resnick! PHEW! that made my heart pound! And the final laugh of my review, was when one of the dolls pick up dynamite and says: " Uhh?" and then BOOM!!!! And the movie ends with the dolls being blown to kingdom come.This movie had a beautiful set and a cool doll house in the backyard. It was a very interesting film from start to finish, the house was beautiful I LOVED THAT HOUSE!!! The dolls had striking dresses: Red is for beauty and back is for deadly, the characters developed as they went along and the acting was stunning. This film MUST go on! It needs a sequel.

When I borrowed this from a friend, he said that it was "just a stupid little movie that you could watch, if you didn't take it seriously... at all". Well, I must say, he was absolutely right. This film has no redeeming qualities whatsoever... it's just bad. The very idea is so stupid that it's no wonder that this was an independent film... I can't imagine a studio that would be so overbearing that it would fund a film like this. I have seen some bad horror films in my time, but this is just... it's hard to put into words just how bad it is. The plot is stupid and lame. The pacing is horrible. How can 90 minutes go by so slowly? The acting is awful with no exceptions. And I do mean awful. Not one single character is convincingly acted. Even Rip Torn, the one name on the cast list that is actually a recognizable actor, does a bad job in this. I'm going to have to assume that it's the quality of the direction that is to blame for this, as Rip does a fine job in everything else I've seen him in. The characters are poorly written and not even the least bit credible. They are paper-thin, stereotypical and clichéd as well. The dialog is poorly written, and can be divided into two sections, both equally bad. The first is all the standard dialog that you hear in all of these half-cooked horror films... the clichéd stuff. "Something is in there!" "It will kill again!" Stuff like that. The second is dialog made up to sound smart... most of this is said by the character of the son. This is something the writer put in to appeal to teenagers that see the film... which is a problem, because the son character is supposed to be an inquisitive, book-smart, intelligent kid. So it doesn't fit very well to have him say "dude" and "cool" in-between his smart lines. The doll was about as scary as a visit at grand-ma's... and that's being generous. The film has very few, if any, genuine scares or shocks. The premise is unoriginal. The only real reason to see this is to laugh at the pure ridiculous nature of it. The number of clichés, the amount of stupidity in the production, the ludicrous script, the lack of creativity... it can't be properly described. If you have a chance to do so for free, see it for yourself and you'll see what I mean. An unremarkable film that is only worth spending time on if you, like me, want to compare horror films(particularly bad ones). No one should have to spend money on seeing it, though, unless they are crazy about "killer doll" horror films. I recommend it only to people belonging in one of the two aforementioned groups. No one else. 1/10