Goodbye Dolly!

As the movie begins, we see somebody in a cabin in the woods with a lot of dolls, blood, and flies. But we soon realize it may not be a somebody, because it has a doll mask on. At least we think it’s a doll mask. So it must be some kind of otherworldly character.

You know the new IFC Films and Shudder horror movie “Dolly” is going to have that elevated quality, especially when that villainess has dolls nailed to trees in the forest. You also know that it wants to have that 70s-80s B-movie quality with the cinematography, weird special effects, and little trinkets to help make it a cult film. And you also know it wants to be like “Saw” when we see a toy baby carriage with a baby entering a room.

Okay, okay. These things might keep me watching, but what I dislike about the film is its sense of direction. What I’m about to tell you in the story basically goes on repeat and will do anything to qualify itself as a movie running at 82 minutes. I’m all for B-movie horror movies, but there are those that need to do more than just scare us or gross us out with the blood and gore.

This doll person-let’s call her Dolly-is played by a non-binary wrestler named Max the Impaler. It kidnaps a young woman named Macy (Fabianne Therese), who was on a camping trip with her boyfriend Chase (Seann William Scott). Just as he plans to propose to her, he comes across Dolly, who tries to murder him by ripping his jaw off, and takes Macy to its house, where it treat her like a baby. It put baby clothes, a pacifier, and a diaper on her, it force feeds her gross baby food and bottled milk, and even breast feeds her to the point of a painful escape.

Another comedy star in the mix is Ethan Suplee, who plays a man trapped in the house, where Macy hears him through the walls. He tells her that she needs a key in order to escape. And if we can only hear him through the walls at that point, we can tell something is up.

“Dolly” goes on repeat with the girl fighting and knocking the monster out, only for it to come back to life to kill more people and attack her. It’s annoying and predictable, and it should have just qualified itself as a short film in a horror anthology film. Every time the girl escapes, about 30 or 40 or 50 minutes into the movie, we know it’s not over yet. And it has to be given the obligatory chapters to open or close the next scene.

And speaking of short film, this is a feature length remake of the 2022 short film of the same name, made by the same filmmaker Rod Blackhurst. I see where he’s going with the look and ambiance of the film, but he seems to be extending a short film without really delving into the story or trying different angles of the monster treating its victim like its own baby. And this baby is a grown woman.

Therese does a good job playing Macy with her sense of fear and has more skills than Olivia Holt did in the zombie movie “This is Not a Test.” And Max the Impaler does a solid job playing Dolly with their built and consistency. But sadder still, they (and I mean both these actors for clarification) do the same thing for most of the movie. “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” and see another movie.