Best Horror Movie You Never Saw: Dolls (1987)

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Welcome to Arrow in the Head's The Best Horror Movie You Never Saw, which will be dedicated to highlighting horror films that, for one reason or another, don't get as much love as we think they should. We know plenty of you horror hounds out there will have seen many of the movies we pick, but there will be plenty of you who have not. This column is for all of you!

This week we take a look at Stuart Gordon's magically morbid DOLLS (WATCH IT HERE – OWN IT HERE) starring Guy Rolfe, Hilary Mason and Stephen Lee. And a lot of hideous dolls!

THE STORY: Stranded in the middle of nowhere during a fierce storm, a family of three – mean-spirited father David, evil stepmother Rosemary, and lovable tot Judy – find refuge in a seemingly quaint cottage owned by a seemingly nice old couple. Joining them in the sanctuary are amiable tourist Ralph and obnoxious punks Isabel and Enid, and over the course of the night the six newcomers discover the seemingly nice old couple's vast collection of antique dolls don't appreciate disruptive strangers.

THE HISTORY: We have legendary B-movie producer Charles Band to thank for planting the seed for DOLLS. One day he called screenwriter Ed Naha (TROLL) into his office and simply showed him a poster that he wanted made into a movie, Roger Corman-style. The poster said THE DOLL and essentially depicted a similarly horrific scenario the infamous poster for DOLLS would later display, that of a doll-like figure holding out an eyeball. Band said the movie was to be about a killer doll and Naha took on the assignment – after ensuring he could add more than one doll to the mix. Ah, they don't make 'em like that anymore.

Stuart Gordon had a three-picture deal with Band's Empire Pictures and was preparing to make his follow-up to RE-ANIMATOR, another Lovecraft-inspired shocker called FROM BEYOND. Band had the idea (in another Corman-esque move) for Gordon to shoot DOLLS and FROM BEYOND back-to-back on the same soundstage in Rome. Gordon moved his family out to Italy and began the long, arduous task of making both films, which would prove as difficult as it sounds.

Though DOLLS was shot before FROM BEYOND, it was released a year later because it took so long to finish the doll effects, most of them courtesy of Dave Allen, who had worked on such films as THE HOWING, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE and THE HUNGER. Although Band wanted a movie that was gory on the level of RE-ANIMATOR, the end result of DOLLS was a film of a more gentle and fantastical spirit. Still, it more than earns its R-rating thanks to a bevy of bloody death sequences and those really nasty dolls.

WHY IT'S GREAT: Those of us old enough (and cool enough) to remember cruising through actual video stores will get a fuzzy nostalgic feeling remembering all of the amazing posters and VHS covers found therein. Naturally, a lot of us made crucial movie night choices based on those covers alone, but a great deal of them were so alluring that we probably ended up renting the majority of the options on hand over the course of a few years. Some of those images are plastered in my mind forever, and one in particular is the front of the DOLLS box. Who can forget that nightmarish artwork, the doll holding out its two eyeballs. Simple yet thoroughly effective. Turns out that was how DOLLS began, as mentioned above. Sometimes all it takes is one visual to set the creative ball rolling.

That visual really sets the tone for DOLLS, which is equal parts creepy and quaint. Striking such a balance is no easy task, and yet director Stuart Gordon – working off Ed Naha's screenplay – really makes this a bewitching fairy tale , although an R-rated fairy tale, to be sure. It's definitely a different experience to watch DOLLS as an adult – I think you appreciate its absurd sense of humor more – but when I saw it as a pre-teen kid it chilled me to the bone. When the stage has been carefully set and the third act kicks off with some really freaky doll-on-human violence, it's a hell of a thing to watch when you're about 9 or 10. Chucky never really scared me, to be honest, but these dolls were terrifying. Most of it comes from the way they move, specifically when they're being manipulated by stop-motion genius Dave Allen; they're given a surreal quality, the way you'd see them move in a dream. Not to mention the way they scowl and sneer is really hard to shake.

It's not quite a movie for kids and yet not quite a movie for adults, it's somewhere in between, for the young at heart. That's the whole point of the film, and that's what makes it so unique – especially in Gordon's filmography, since of course he's mostly known for his twisted Lovecraft adaptations and his more ambitious futuristic efforts like ROBOT JOX and FORTRESS. This film is more on the gothic horror side of the spectrum, complete with an old dark house (which contains seemingly endless hallways) and its eerie owners. Those owners provide a good portion of the creepiness prevalent in DOLLS, as Guy Rolfe and Hilary Mason present us with two very accommodating hosts – so accommodating that they can only be evil. But are they really evil? The movie has it both ways, making them horrifying and yet gentle. As with most morality tales, it's the people with rotten souls who get their just desserts – albeit it in truly ghastly ways – and the innocent who are looked gently upon. So let's just say these people have good intentions, they just have rather sick ways of teaching lessons to those who need them.

On a technical level, the film is practically flawless. The doll effects by Allen and many more are phenomenal (a little dated by 2019 standards, but that's what makes them so charming and, frankly, I'll take them over CGI any day), the cinematography by Mac Ahlberg is just the right amount of spooky, and the lush production design by Giovanni Natalucci is phenomenal, especially considering just about the entire film, even most of the exteriors, was shot on a soundstage. All of the performances are spot-on, even when they're a little hammy (hello, Stephen Lee!), because chewing the scenery fits in with the picture's overall atmosphere of strangeness. And, look at that, it's a blissful 77 minutes long, which is really just perfect for a movie of this sort. Longer than a short film but not long enough to wear out its welcome. DOLLS is a masterfully constructed horror fable, from the page to the screen, and it's arguably the most polished film made by the likes of Gordon, Band and producer Brian Yuzna.

BEST SCENE: (SPOILER) When father David (Ian Patrick Williams) agonizingly turns into a Punch Doll at the end… yikes… That still freaks me out because it looks painful as all hell.

WHERE TO WATCH: DOLLS was given a lovely Blu-ray release from Scream Factory a few years ago, complete with terrific audio commentaries and in-depth featurette. It can also be streamed on Amazon Prime, Vudu, and Tubi.

PARTING SHOT: If you're in the market for a movie that is, against all odds, both lovable and horrific, DOLLS is definitely for you. If you're a big kid like me, it may make you scared of creepy little dolls all over again.