Dolls

Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on:
Director: Stuart Gordon
Cast: Carrie Loraine, Ian Patrick Williams, Carolyn Purdery-Gordon, Guy Rolfe
Year: 1987
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The Movie:

On a dark and stormy night in the English countryside, a vacationing family's car breaks down. Inside the vehicle are adorable child Judy (Carrie Loraine), her nasty dad David (Ian Patrick Williams) and one mean mutha of a step-mother named Rosemary (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon). Forced to abandon the wheels, the quasi-family take refuge in a nearby gothic mansion right out of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Owned by eccentric toymaker Gabriel (Guy Rolfe) and his sweetly creepy wife Hilary (Hilary Mason), we know something strange is up when we see that the enormous home is stuffed to the gills with beautifully crafted but often disturbing dolls. Hundreds of them. Everywhere - on shelves, in rooms, artfully displayed on floors and haphazardly tossed about - dolls.

Stuart Gordon's DOLLS has some unsettling violence in it and even a taste for old-testament style justice, but at its heart the film is a fable. Even when some extra potential victims get shoehorned in (in the form of two obnoxious punk rock girls and a sweet childlike male traveler), we know we aren't in the grip of a slasher. The focus of the film is the child - a sad girl mistreated by both her biological father and vicious stepmom. When the elderly Gabriel gives her a Punch doll and starts acting grandfatherly towards Judy we have a feeling he's going to solve her problems. Her other ally (the bumbling male traveler Ralph played by Stephen Lee) is also a crucial part of Judy's deliverance. As the long night progresses, bad people start disappearing and our inanimate friends became significantly more ambulatory.

The overall setup of DOLLS is quite simple. And unlike Gordon's earlier effort - the wild and wooly RE-ANIMATOR, DOLLS doesn't have outrageously exploitative set pieces and isn't really subversive. What it has in spades is heart and some wonderful performances, as well as terrific set design and cleverly balanced humorous elements. While Patrick Williams and especially Purdy-Gordon play their roles broadly for the cheap seats, Rolfe and Loraine give the film something much deeper. There's a genuine tenderness in Rolfe's interactions with her. Rolfe had a long and distinguished career stretching back to classic Hammer films and William Castle's horror chestnut MR. SARDONICUS. Often playing exceedingly serious and even melancholy characters in his earlier career, Rolfe finally gets to show the twinkle in his eye for DOLLS. Loraine has a very naturalistic quality that puts her in a very small group of child actors like Danielle Harris who never exude a whiff of being heavily coached in "professional cute". Lee is also strong. Despite playing a comic bumbler, he remains likable and engaging. You never laugh at him - only with him. And the two punk rocker girls are tolerable because we don't have to put up with them much in the film.

The effects for this era of film are outstanding. Using a complicated mix of mechanical puppetry, stop motion animation and green screen work, fx maestro John Carl Buechler (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI) makes the dolls in the film come brilliantly to life. There are a few herky-jerky bits but overall this is a great display of pre-cgi wizardry. As someone with an actual phobia about ventriloquist dummies and weird dolls, this movie actually freaks me out quite a bit. The film's set piece attack - with a veritable mini-army of dolls killing someone with a plethora of pointy weapons - won't be leaving my memory anytime soon. As if the Zuni fetish doll in "Trilogy Of Terror" wasn't bad enough, DOLLS had to feature a legion of these things?

VIDEO/AUDIO/EXTRAS

Shout Factory!'s AVC encoded 1080p Blu ray presentation framed at 1.78.1 looks quite good for the most part. Detail and contrast are strong and while there are minor flaws (like some occasional print damage), the transfer fundamentals are solid. Much of DOLLS was shot dark, so the fact that black levels are good and that detail is significantly increased in the darker segments is an important point in the plus column. DNR and sharpening tools are not in evidence and the color palette looks natural.

The film's dual audio tracks (a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and a DTS-HD 2.0 lossless stereo) don't really differ that much. The surround option spreads things out a bit, but isn't particularly adventurous. Fidelity and LFE are good to average on both tracks, with audio balance and dialog clarity having no negative issues. Natural sounds like thunder and rain are well-rendered as is the film's slightly overbearing score. Subtitles in English are also provided.

Writer Ed Naha and director Stuart Gordon kick off the extras with the first of the disc's two commentary tracks. This is a mostly meaty offering with some silent stretches but the two go through all the important aspects of the film from inception to the problems of location shooting to a fair amount of discussion about the trials of dealing with the puppets for the movie. Luckily nothing gets too technical or dry and this is a neat potted history of DOLLS. The "actors commentary" is next. Featuring Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Stephen Lee, Carrie Lorraine and Ian Patrick Williams, this one is a bit chaotic. With this many people simultaneously at the mic things get a bit confusing at times. There are some good stories here though and fans of the film will definitely want to give this a listen.

The nearly half hour Toys Of Terror featurette is a typical high quality Red Shirt Productions offering that brings together the principal players for interviews and a comprehensive history of the film. Michael Felsher and his team do a fine job and manage to get some key players not present on the commentary tracks like producers Charles Band and Brian Yuzna in front of the camera. Everyone is in good humor and some interesting facts are unearthed like how Full Moon Productions used theatrical releases of their films as a loss leader to bolster the later and far more profitable home video release. There are also two still galleries included on the release - a traditional one and one focused on the film's storyboards. The extras are topped off with a theatrical trailer and one showcasing some of Shout! Factory's other releases.

THE FINAL WORD.

Horror, comedy and whimsy don't usually coexist well together. Throw in a child lead and you have a recipe for potential disaster. Stage it in a haunted house and it could be cliches gone wild. But DOLLS avoids almost every pitfall and delivers a fun ride with some effective chills and good performances from a strong cast. The set design and fx are first rate too. Between the film's strengths, the appealing slate of special features and the above average technical presentation, Shout's DOLLS is an easy recommendation.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!