Dolly Dearest (dir. Maria Lease, 1991)
Why not? Here’s another killer doll movie.
When an American businessman (Sam Bottoms) comes into possession of the Dolly Dearest factory, he, his wife (Tasha Yar herself, Denise Crosby) and their two children come to Mexico to refurbish the site and restart production at this maquiladora. The factory, of course, is right next to a Mayan tomb that houses a demonic entity who has been awoken by an archaeological excavation led by Rip Torn and has come to possess one of the Dolly Dearest dolls. The father gives his daughter this cursed doll, and death and chaos ensue.
This feels like a low point for many of the actors involved. Sam Bottoms had a start as strong as anyone could hope for with The Last Picture Show, although to be fair, there’s no way his experience on the set of Dolly Dearest could have been worse than having hookworm in the Philippines for Apocalypse Now. Denise Crosby had quit Star Trek: The Next Generation in its first season, which was a sensible decision at the time and in retrospect comes across like declaring “Peace for Our Time” in 1938. Rip Torn had descended from the heights of The Man Who Fell To Earth and hitting Norman Mailer in the head with a hammer to instead be third billed in a direct-to-video Child’s Play knock-off. It must have been a bad time all-around
But, hey, if you’re doing that 52 Films By Women challenge and need a breather between Chantal Akerman and Agnes Varda, there’s always Dolly Dearest…
October 7, 2018
oliveresque 