Dolly has its moments, but would have worked much better as a short film due to lots of drawn-out sequences that take away from any scares.
Dolly tries really hard to be terrifying, but despite its very creepy main villain, Dolly, it just never accomplishes anything truly scary. The movie starts off with a lot of promise, but the longer it goes on, the more I couldn’t help but think it would be much better off as a short film.
There are only a handful of characters, and each actor does what they can to make them interesting enough. I found myself invested in the love story between Chase (Seann William Scott) and Macy (Fabianne Therese), which unfortunately ends up quickly overshadowed by a strange person in a doll mask who lives in the woods.
What follows is a few grotesque (but fantastic) scenes shoved into an overly drawn-out storyline. Due to the fact that Dolly never talks, things feel especially slow. Of course, there are serial killers and villains of horror movies that can pull this off, but usually there are many characters – supporting and main – to fill the silence. Without a lot of dialogue, it is unfortunately very easy to lose interest in this one.
Thankfully, there are a few fun surprises, twists, and turns along the way. It is easy to root for the main characters, which is always a plus, and there is even a moment or two where some viewers will feel sorry for the killer. It is always nice when a film can pull this off, and Dolly does, to some extent.
At the same time, there are several scenes that are beyond silly, causing me to be completely taken out of the movie. One of which is towards the very end, ultimately leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth.
I do not want to name names, but there was another horror movie released semi-recently that featured a deformed character simply wanting to be a mother to its victims that pulled the bizareness of it all off far better than Dolly did.
This proves that even with a creepy killer and a great performance by the actor portraying them, you need more to successfully pull off a horror movie. As someone who is very afraid of dolls, I expected to be a lot more scared watching this one. Instead, I was quite bored at times.
Still, Fabianne Therese does what she can with what she is given, and I rather enjoyed her performance. Would I watch a sequel should one come out, though? Probably not. That said, I cannot wait to see what Therese does next.
About Dolly
Chase and Macy drop off Chase’s daughter, Evy, and then hike to a nearby overlook where he plans to propose. Those plans are soon forgotten when they discover a weird ‘art installation’ of dirty, broken dolls.
Unfortunately the dolls are actually more of an altar to the victims of Dolly—a violent, hulking, child-like person in a tattered dress and a porcelain doll mask—who arrives to bury the decapitated corpse of their latest plaything. While they have little interest in Chase outside of violence, Macy catches their eye and is taken home to become their newest doll.
With the help of a voice in the walls, Macy quickly realizes she must navigate her captor’s delusions and family trauma to have any hope of surviving the nightmare and the filthy house she finds herself in. Of course that means playing her role of a doll—including diaper changes and feedings—until she can find the right moment to make her move.
Dolly played at Fantastic Fest 2025.
