Spoiler Warnings for...
Dolls (1987) dir. Stuart Gordon
★★★★1/2
Overview:
A little girl, alongside her parents, two punks, and a skittish man all get stranded at a roadside, rural, mansion, during a storm, where things aren't what they appear to be.
"I wanna preface this review by saying that I have not been afraid of dolls in horror films since 2011. When I was 6 years old, watching Tales from the Hood for the first time (a staple film in my home of black horror fans). I was terrified of those little black dolls, no matter how much my mother insisted that they wouldn't kill me, because "you're black, not an evil white politician Ophelia." That all being said, the dolls present in Dolls, while so goofy at points I had to pause and giggle, were actually quite unnerving to me. I always found doll horror to be a bit blasé blasé to me, simply because, most of the depictions I've seen portrayed the dolls as either little devils that gnaw at their victims or mischievous little things that'll push them down the stairs. Or, worst of all, I was met with the trope of things going wrong, and then the ensuing chaos being blamed on the child. I always hated that the most. However, the haunted little things in Dolls, were unafraid to be seen. Once they came out, they came out in full force, dozens of them standing with their creepy smiles and array of mini hacksaws, switchblades, and other weaponry. Something about that, as comedic as it was, was so horribly unnerving to me in a way that...I don't quite understand? I don't know much about all the practical, or otherwise, design/puppetry that went into the creation/control of these dolls, but props to whoever it was that was in charge! Seriously, I was stunned.
When they weren't being devilish, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the caring nature at the core of the dolls, and the elderly couple of witches that owned the house. By the end, even though they were extremely strange, I found that their motivations were...understandable? I mean, I too wanted to kill poor little Judys father and step mother when I saw how they were treating her. This story is a cute, albeit bloody, and whimsical children's story above all, in my humble opinion. There was a great message here about caring for and believing children, a message about children processing trauma in a way that you may not understand, but is still completely valid. A message about well...giving children grace. I don't know, I feel like all of these things are extremely obvious, but this is something I would, personally, show to my future children so that they know that they deserve to have someone out there who will believe them and protect them. (Hopefully, by less violent means, but hopefully you all get my point.) Also! The elderly couple being witches, I absolutely loved! I felt like they both sorta subverted the "witches in horror" trope in a way I really enjoyed, in the sense that they weren't doing all this specifically to steal peoples souls; rather that was just a consequence of their real goal; protecting the joy of children. This was especially refreshing in the face of witch depictions where they're trying to, y'know, eat the souls of children."
The Negatives:
"I feel like at times the behavior of the adults (aside from Ralph) could be...comedically evil. Like, almost unbelievably so, in a way I really didn't love. Other than that, however, I don't really have anything bad to say about this movie? I really enjoyed it...wow, big things happening when loud mouth, overly critical, Ophelia doesn't have anything too negative to say."
