Right now Shudder seems to be the go to place for good original films as they do release films like In A Violent Nature and Dark Match to name but a few. With them now releasing another new film that whilst it does have a very familiar slasher setting that being the woods it does tell a unique story with unique characters and heck it could even be argued that the films villain is unique as there hasn't a villain quite like the one in the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then join me as I review the film that deserves more love at the box office with the film in question being called simply just "Dolly" enjoy.
The plot of this film is a boyfriend and girlfriend go out in the woods to do some camping where the boyfriend has plans to propose only for the couple to find themselves in the fight for their lives against someone wearing a baby doll costume and mask. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With this films plot being one that is oddly refreshing to see due to the fact that it's not as cut and dry as it might appear to be on the surface as the plot of this film is one that whilst yes it does have the familiar setting with the film being set in the woods the story on the whole is one that's quite new with this being something that the film should be applauded for as unlike the Scream sequels it's not telling the same story over and over again it's giving us something new with the plot being one that does work really well due to the fact that the film does tell in chapters with each of it's seven chapter titles corresponding to something that happens in that chapter and while yes the films plot isn't as strong as it could have been with the plot feeling more like an afterthought to the films films this is also something that could be said for alot of eighties slasher films as well as the film does have a plot that would feel right at home in an eighties slasher film with the only thing that makes it stand out being the fact that the film do a solid enough job in telling it's plot whilst also keeping us the audience fully engaged with it's plot as well with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III and John Dies At The End star Fabianne Therese as Macy , Russ Tiller as Billy , Kate Cobb as Rachel and Michalina Scorzelli as Aunt Sadie. Also starring in this film is Mallrats and The Wolf Of Wall Street star Ethan Suplee as Tobe , Pro Wrestler Max The Impaler as Dolly and The Dukes Of Hazzard and American Pie star Seann William Scott as Chase.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With this film not rally having that many known actors with the only somewhat known actor being Stifler from the the American Pie films therefor no one would have had any clue of what to expect from this film from an acting point of view as it really could have gone either and thankfully we did manage to get some really good acting in this film which was something that would take alot of people back as by all rights this films acting should have been at best OK and while yes granted it doesn't raise to anything above average it's also not as bad as it really could have been either with the best actor in the whole film not being any of the films slightly known actors but oddly enough being Max The Impaler as Dolly as while everyone else has there face to get across emotion and is able to speak lines of dialog Max doesn't have that as the character of Dolly where's this big fiberglass head designed to look like the head of a baby doll and doesn't talk at all therefor they only have body language to get across just what it is there character is thinking or feeling and that's in and to be fair they do get across just what it is that there character is thinking and feeling all by there actions and there body language alone with the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is just so good that all this films actors have to do it just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
While the films characters aren't the best characters out there they are quite easily alot more better then the characters that we got in The Bride. As this films characters are actually pretty well done characters for the amount of time that alot of them have on screen as for no other reason other then scheduling alot of this films more well known actors don't get to appear in this film all that often and yet even with that working against them the makers of this film still managed to have some really well done characters with Dolly herself being a good example of this as while she's basically every other eighties slasher villain only now she's in a doll mask there is more of a warmer side to her as she doesn't just attack people at random she only kills people that are mean to her with her only injuring alot of people something which a character in the film does push her to that limit and while she will kill you if you get in her way she's the type of character where if you stay out of her way she'll stay out of your way. With another decent character being Macy as she is someone who isn't really afraid of commitment as she does want to marry Chas what she doesn't want is to be left raising a kid which Chas has and yet over the course of the film we do see other parts of her character like we see how resilient that she can be and how quick she can think on her feet and whole she doesn't always make the smartest choices when she's captured by Dolly that is something that could be said for any horror character and isn't something that exclusive to her character with the thing that is exclusive to her character being that she is far to trusting of a person as she trusts that someone want harm her when she helps them out when she's trying to escape Dolly when everything about the person says that he's untrustworthy and low and behold he turns on her the very first chance that he gets. Which is a good example of how just how well done that alot of this films characters are when compared to The Bride as in that film that characters are at best cardboard cutouts of characters and here they feel like actual people.
Due to how this film visually looks it gave of very strong Grindhouse vibes as much loke in those films the picture did break alot of the time. The film did also have feel like it was very cheaply made like lot of grindhouse style films were and while this is something that would work against a more modern big studio film for a smaller independent film it's something that does work in the films favor as it helps to make the film feel more real almost as if we the audience are there watching the characters going through these terrible events and while the film doesn't push things as far as Grindhouse itself did interms of it's content it pushed them far enough to make you feel uneasy about what might happen next and to be fair that's all it had to do as with this being a straight up horror film that's designed to look cheap and nasty it didn't need to give you any big expensive looking set piece or give that alot of make up effects it just needed to create tension and let it sit with you and that is something that alot of these smaller independent horror films do when there done right as they know that they can't compete with films like Weapons or Sinners for example but what they can do is give an expirence that those films can't give you due to the fact that there being paid for a big studio. With a studio like Shudder taking the reigns and due to that we do het alot of unique films and expirences as again much like with Grindhouse or other low budget films your not going to forget this film in a hurray as it is a film that is that unique and is that fresh with it feeling like a true successor to the slasher films of eighties in both spirit and tone.
If your struggling to choose which film to go and see in the theaters either this film or The Bride then choose this film. As not only are you getting a well crafted original story with characters that you actually like but this is a smaller independent film and yet it's only made a little under five hundred thousand dollars right now and yet it deserves to make so much more then that while yes this film does have alot of flaws in it like the fact that the film is somehow split up into seven chapters when it really didn't need to be and the fact that the film doesn't really have alot of kills in it this is a film that is still a really enjoyable film due to the fact that it's made by people that quite clearly have a love for the genre and whereas with The Bride you get the impression that the people making that movie have never seen a horror film in their life or if they have it was once and that was it and while yes this films plot isn't the strongest one out there and while yes the films characters could need a little bit of work as could the story it doesn't matter as this film feels like a thrown back to the slasher films of the eighties and those didn't have the best plots in them and they very rarely if ever had the best characters in them and yet they were still fun to watch as they knew to be a horror film first and everything else second and that's what this film was proud of being and it's also something that makes this film perfect for Shudder as this is a film that wouldn't get made by a major studio as they don't like to make the typical horror film let alone one that's a throw back movie of sorts and while yes this film could be better in alot of respects it's also one that's really so unique in it's approach to telling it's story that you can't help but fall in love with it.
Where this film does somewhat fail is in it's twist as while the twist is something that won't be given away here in this film review. It is something that would have been more better if they didn't sign post it to you that this person was untrustworthy to begin with as the second that Macy unlocks this person that Dolly has chained up in the room next to he starts acting all creepy and saying these creepy and heck he even starts saying them before he's unlocked which does give it away that he's not a trust worthy person with this being where Macy starts to act dumb as the character until that point had been pretty smart and while she wasn't the smartest tool in the shed she did know when to use her brain and when to act like a goofball and yet here near the end of the film she just trusts this person who is acting like a creep all for no one good reason. Heck she even gets out of the car that she's in near the end of the film just to pick her engagement ring this is despite the fact that the killer is mere few feet away from her which is just stupid as Dolly very easily could have come back to life for that one last scare with this being made even more dumb when you take into account that she technically never accepted the proposal in the first place therefor she would have no reason to grab the ring or even obsess over at let alone risk her life to go and get it back with this being something that could have been fixed with a rewrite of the films script as then it could have been explained why she wanted to get the ring back and why she risked her life to get it back and while it doesn't hurt the film with her acting as dumb as she does in the film it is something that does feel at odds with her character.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and sixteen minuets and fifty three seconds. Which to be fair to this film is pretty much the exact grand total running time that you would expect a film like this one to have as this film is meant to be a throwback to the slasher films of the eighties and those didn't typically have that long of a running time with this film having more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place and yet even with this mind this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely. As the film doesn't really take the time to fully develop it's plot with this being due to the fact that the film quite literally stops it's plot every fifteen minuets to start a new chapter and while that is something that would work for a film like The Hateful Eight that film also had a much more longer running time to it and therefor could afford to do it where as here in this film they don't have that privilege therefor the every single scene from when the characters first enter the woods needed to be about advancing the plot of the film with this kind of effecting the films lack of character development as the film doesn't really give the characters that they needed to be more well developed characters with the only character who gets some sort of character development being Dolly herself when she goes to being the villain to being somewhat of a hero when she kills the person who was going to hurt Macy just because he was taunting with going right back to being the villain when she realizes that Macy doesn't want to be her living her doll with the rest of characters not really getting any kind of character development whatsoever with this being something that could have been addressed if the film was even just ten minuets longer but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a slasher that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt tat the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. While this films kills are pretty decent the film doesn't really have enough kills in the film with there really only being about two kills in the whole film and that's really it with the rest of the film being spent with Dolly torturing Macy which is fine but for a slasher film you really do want to have more kills in it as that is why you come to a slasher film in the first place the best comparison would be going to a Scream film and not having the mystery of who Ghostface is in it as it would just feel weird. With the best kill in the whole entire film being when Dolly breaks Chase's jaw with her shovel which might not seem like much but then he spends the rest of the crawling to get to Macy and when he does finally reach her at the end of the film Dolly sees him and after him begging her to kill him and she finally rips the rest of his jaw off killing him which is just such a cool kill as it's one that we very rarely if every get to see in films with it being something that does work in this film as it's something that does make you wonder just how it was that they managed to pull that effect of. With the only thing that lets the kill down being the fact that we don't get to see Chase and Macy together all that much in the film and that's really it with the rest of the films kills being just as good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall it doesn't really need saying at this point but I really did like this film as while Scream 7 is easily the better of the two films this film has something that that film was never going to have on it's side that being the fact that this is an original film that is well made in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in his very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally use in this very review from Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment