Director Stuart Gordon followed up his batshit crazy H.P. Lovecraft adaptations, Re-Animator and From Beyond, with Dolls, a deceptively simple but delightfully twisted haunted house movie that may seem out of place with the rest of his work (you can tell it was a director-for-hire job), but is still hard to ignore. If it lacks the psycho sexual elements and crazy gore of his earlier two features, it all but makes up for it in chilling atmosphere and demented looking toys. Gordon's touch is undeniably there, as we see early on during a strange sequence involving a giant teddy bear that sheds its fluffy shell to reveal a ravenous beast underneath.
The setup is as threadbare as it gets. Unpleasant couple David (Ian Patrick Williams) and Rosemary (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Stuart's wife) are on vacation with his young daughter, Judy (Carrie Lorraine), when their car gets stuck in front of an old mansion. Evil stepmother Rosemary complains about the kid being there, even throwing Judy's beloved teddy bear in the woods as they begin to trek through the pouring rain to shelter. Once inside the house, they are welcomed by the owners, Gabriel (Guy Rolfe) and Hilary (Hilary Mason), a strangely cheerful elderly couple who also happen to be doll makers and believe in the concept of always being a child at heart. Also joining the party is clueless drifter Ralph (Stephen Lee) and two punk rock hitchhikers (Bunty Bailey and Cassie Stuart) he picked up.
Once everyone's been shown to their rooms, Dolls really gets moving. The start of it has a nice slow build as the dimly lit hallways of the mansion are established, complete with Gabriel's creepy-as-hell dolls peering out of the darkness in every room. That feeling the eyes are following you is brought to literal life here and naturally, Judy is the first one to notice the dolls are alive. No one believes her, even after the adults start getting attacked. The violence in the movie is surprisingly effective given the absurd fact it involves toys. My personal favorite kill involves a firing squad, while I was also disturbed when a character is ambushed by a horde of angry dolls coming from all directions.
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What stands out most about Dolls is its message about the punishment dished out to those who have grown up and lost their sense of adventure and imagination. We know Judy will be safe since she's a child, but the adults who mock her are killed and then turned into dolls themselves! This is shown in graphic detail when a character smashes a doll's face and beneath the porcelain lies a zombified skeleton. Even more bizarre is a scene where a character's already transformed face loses its eyes and they struggle to retrieve them from a pool of blood on the floor.
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Thanks to Gordon and the efficiently witty script by Ed Naha, Dolls is a little more ambitious than the usual low budget horror offering. It would also be the beginning of producer Charles Band's obsession with evil playthings (he later released Puppet Master and Demonic Toys, to name a few). I like some of the other movies he's made in this genre, but none of them share the old school location of this one, with its creaky doors and narrow corridors. There's also something lovely about the stop motion effects by the late David Allen, who gives the dolls somewhat jerky movements that add another level of menace to go with their already ominous faces.
The real stars of Dolls, though, are Guy Rolfe (who later starred in a few of the Puppet Master movies) and Hilary Mason (the blind psychic in Don't Look Now). Pulling off sincerity with a hint of cynicism is not an easy thing to do, yet these two achieve it effortlessly, even when it comes time for them to let on what's really happening in their house. I also liked the friendship that develops between Judy and Ralph. He's the only adult who hasn't lost his childhood spirit, and he's played by Stephen Lee with a terrific knack for physical comedy.
Dolls might not be Stuart Gordon's best film, but it is a welcome addition to his filmography. I had not seen the movie since my early teenage years, so I was expecting to enjoy it for nostalgia purposes at best. Imagine how pleased I am to say that the movie still works quite well on its own terms. Good horror movies are rare, and entertaining ones, especially in a genre like this, are even rarer. Dolls fills its quota on both counts, and at a brisk 77 minutes, it doesn't run the risk of wearing out its welcome. Given how often horror movies let us down, the fact that this one actually gives us what we pay for is somewhat of a blessing.
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