Dolls (1987)

   
Directed by: Stuart Gordon

Written by: Ed Naha

Starring:

Ian Patrick Williams .... David Bower
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon .... Rosemary Bower
Carrie Lorraine .... Judy Bower
Guy Rolfe .... Gabriel Harwicke
Hilary Mason .... Hilary Hartwicke
Stephen Lee .... Ralph Morris
Cassie Stuart .... Enid
Bunty Bailey .... Isabel Prange

Release Dates: Los Angeles International Film Festival: March, 1987; Houston Film Festival: April 18, 1987; Lyon Festival Hallucinations Collectives: April 20, 2014

 

 

 

Rating:

 

A precious girl named Judy Bower (Carrie Lorriane) along with her nasty father David and her stepmother Rosemary are stranded with their vehicle near an old mansion as they encounter a dollmaker named Gabriel Harwicke (Guy Rolfe) and his wife Hilary (Hilary Mason) as they all stay for the night including some wild teenage partygoers too.
Judy is excited about the dolls but they are very suspicious as she encounters one of the teenage girls named Isabel Prange (Bunty Bailey) being tortured to death by some of them.
She goes to the aid of a sensitive and caring man named Ralph Morris (Stephen Lee) who doesn't believe her story until he sees for himself and also talks to her parents but they get verbally abusive with her and accusing her for making up such ridiculous tales.
But the guests there are being offed one by one and possibly becoming dolls themselves.

 

The performances and everything else is incredibly stale and doesn't whip the film in shape all that much.
The first scene was not at all believeable that involves David, Rosemary and Judy when they are driving in their car in a storm and then trying to look for shelter after it breaks down.
However there's some interesting camera shots like on both Gabriel and Hilary as they look creepy in their first appearance especially when Gabriel himself is pointing a gun at the family for trespassing.
We see a great dream sequence with a teddy bear growing gigantic with fangs attacking both David and Rosemary giving it a nice low budget horrror feel to it.
There's also nice shots on the dolls when they start to have evil expressions on their faces as well as attacking many of the people at the house.
Towards the end there's a perfect shot on David transforming into a doll.
Also, there's an interesting set with Gabriel and Hilary mingling with Lorraine and Stephen Lee on what had happened trying to convince them that they had a nightmare.
Most of the discussions that were performed in this piece was rather slow like the writing involved.
Bottom line is that this was like a pre-version of Puppet Master and a very lame and boring one too. The film tries to be scary but due to a lack of a good budget and comedic conversations it fails miserably. However, there are some interesting effects so it is saved from bombing but that doesn't mean much. Good thing a sequel never arose.

The acting is badly performed by most of the cast members in this one. Lead actor Ian Patrick Williams (David Bower) is way too over the top as an abusive father in the film and really gets too carried away.
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon
(Rosemary Bower) is almost passable as a wicked stepmother and second wife of Williams' character but yet she is a little too silly.
Child actress Carrie Lorraine (Judy Bower) tries to be cute and charming as the daughter that's what I mean she TRIES to be and is very annoying.
However, Guy Rolfe (Gabriel Harwicke) seems to know his craft as the dollmaker in the film and carries on his trait as Toulon for the Puppet Master series.
Hilary Mason
(Hilary Hartwicke) also stands out well playing his wife and performs quite well.
Stephen Lee
(Ralph Morris) seems pretty good at being a comedic type to the film and so we should give him some credit too.

A woman's arm is bitten off by a monstrous gigantic teddybear
Eyeballs are popped out
A face is sliced off

Fuzzbee Morse has real lame synthesizer playing to the film as he tries very hard to make it sound original as possible but doesn't succeed.