Dolly, 2025.
Directed by Rod Blackhurst,
Starring Fabianne Therese, Sean William Scott, Max the Impaler, Ethan Suplee, Kate Cobb
SYNOPSIS:
A young woman struggles to survive after being abducted in the woods by a mask-faced creature who wants to raise her as their child.
A loving tribute to the all-out excesses of grindhouse-style horror and backwoods 1970’s rampages such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Dolly plays out its influences in glorious technicolour and at full volume. It even has a few speckles on the screen denoting a sort of vintage filter. This all adds to the horror flavour of the piece, which has obviously been undertaken by a filmmaker with a keen eye for detail. Blackhurst has adapted his short, Babygirl, into a feature here, and while, in truth, there is not much in terms of plotting or story, there is quite a bit to focus on in terms of weird scares and lurid embellishments.
The story, such as it is, focuses on the grim struggle for survival of Macy (Fabianne Therese). She has been out on a woodland hike with boyfriend Chase (Sean William Scott) when they encounter a collection of antique dolls lying around. Pretty odd, they reckon, and continue their countryside rambles. However, a hulking porcelain-faced creature has other ideas, and it quickly turns nightmarish for the couple. Chase is in all sorts of trouble, while Macy finds herself being kept as some kind of surrogate child by the masked creature in creepy rural lodgings. There’s also someone else there, as she can hear calls from someone trying to get her to help them escape.
When Dolly moves quickly with the action sequences, it is a good, unsettling laugh, but I got the feeling that it was really an idea stretched a bit too far for even its sub-90-minute run time. I liked that the back story did not distract too much, but we never really had a proper handle on why the creature is doing this. The addition of Ethan Suplee’s Tobe character and some of the confused backstory of the twisted history of Dolly did not add much to the experience for me.
Aside from rooting for Macy to survive and some comical bits from wrestler Max the Impaler’s smoothly choreographed moves as Dolly, for me, the film did not amount to all that much. I felt that it needed a bit more momentum, as there were sequences which felt really slow. As there was not much that was truly frightening about the piece, for me, it just seemed a bit like plodding through mud, rather than running for your life.
Lovingly put together and fun for a while, thanks largely to the visual effects and creative sound design, but instantly forgettable due to a weak story and plot, Dolly is worth a quick look for dyed-in-the-wool (died in the woods?) fans of vintage slashers, but for many, it just won’t prove nasty, nightmarish, or original enough.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert W. Monk
Originally published March 6, 2026. Updated March 5, 2026.
