Director: Stuart Gordon
Year: 1987
Country: USA/Italy
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Killer Dolls
Plot:
Trapped together following a massive rainstorm, several groups of tourists in a roadside house find the owner's collection of hand-crafted dolls are alive and coming after them for their behavior towards them and must try to get away alive.
Review:
This here was quite the fun and enjoyable killer doll effort. One of the film's best points here is how this one manages to readily showcase the child-like innocence and charm associated with toys and dolls, not only how they can add to their development but also to their power as an adult in recapturing their inner youth, and that adds a lot here by allowing several threads to emerge from within. Being around the dolls as much as they are gives this a great feel for them and their unnerving appearance is good enough to have some really creepy moments here from watching the thief in the doll room and inside the girls' room that when it comes time for the other great part to come from this the film really scores nicely.
That other big factor here comes from the second half as the dolls spring into action and begin stalking the group in the house which leads to some really great stalking. The first attack in the doll room is really fun as the hidden nature of the attackers is really fun, while the two big attacks here are fun, lengthy sequences that get a lot of action here starting with the attack on the step-mother as the dolls swarm over her from all over the room and lead into their rather brutal series of bodily hacking and being trapped as the dolls close in on her to deliver the big death blow. As well, the other attack on the friend is really fun as the dolls begin knocking things over to get her attention and then swarm all over her before driving her out and attacking her there in a fun, frantic sequence. While the finale brawl in the doll room doesn't have that kind of action, there's a lot to like here of the brutal brawling and the frenzied attacks make for a fine, satisfying conclusion.
Along with the incredibly strong special effects work on the dolls as they're incredibly realistic and like-like, generating a lot of fun here in their scenes, these here are the film's good points against the few flaws. The biggest issue here is the film's length, which barely runs eighty minutes here, and with a pretty large portion of the time on demeaning and ridiculing her desires, which causes this to come as a way too clichéd manner to eat up time without really doing much else during that time. The only other main thing about the film is that it takes far too long in setting everything up that it then has to rush everything to get it completed. That does make the beginning a little hard to get through, as everything quickly happens then it slowly and surely takes its time before speeding up again at the end. It's a distraction from the other parts of the film. Otherwise, this here was a lot of fun.
Overview: ****/5
An impressive killer-doll effort without too much really wrong with it, there are a lot of likable enough features here to keep this one enjoyable without too much to hold it down. Give this a shot if you're a fan of this overall style or are a fan of the creative crew while only those that don't enjoy it should heed caution.
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