Dolls is a 1987 horror film directed by Stuart Gordon and produced by Brian Yuzna.
A family consisting of innocent, neglected little girl Judy Bower (Carrie Lorraine) and her surly, abusive father David (Ian Patrick Williams) and stepmother Rosemary (Carolyn Purdy Gordon) are driving in the English countryside
when a thunderstorm brews up and their car gets stuck in the mud. They are forced to take refuge in a big, old mansion occupied by elderly couple Gabriel (Guy Rolfe) and Hilary (Hilary Mason) Hartwicke. Promptly, kind-hearted businessman Ralph (Stephen Lee) arrives with two British punk rock girl hitchhikers, Isabel (Bunty Bailey) and Enid (Cassie Stuart), in tow. The Hartwickes allow the six to stay the night. Something is not quite right about them... they are too charming and hospitable. Gabriel is a toymaker, and thus, every room of their mansion is piled high with mysterious antique dolls. Something is not quite right about the dolls either...
Was the
inspiration for a string of killer doll movies during
The Eighties, most notably
Child's Play.
This film provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: David and Rosemary.
- Adult Child: Ralph. He still loves playing with toys and is implied to by a child at heart.
- An Arm and a Leg
- Asshole Victim: David, Rosemary, Isabel and Enid. And how.
- B-Movie
- Bittersweet Ending: David, Rosemary, Isabel and Enid get mauled by the dolls and turned into dolls themselves. Gabriel forges a letter claiming that David and Rosemary abandoned Judy and that she is to go back to live with her birth mother in Boston, never to see them again. At first Judy is slightly sad, but she gets over it, and then Ralph takes her away back to Boston, wherein it is implied he will marry her birth mother.
- Blood from the Mouth
- Cassandra Truth
- Chairman of the Brawl
- Cheerful Child: Judy.
- Closed Circle
- Creepy Basement
- Creepy Doll: Well obviously.
- Dramatic Thunder: A lot.
- Drop the Hammer
- Everything's Worse with Bears
- Evil Laugh: The dolls chitter and giggle constantly.
- Ghost Butler
- Glowing Eyes of Doom
- Hostile Weather
- Insistent Terminology: "Elves."
- Knife Nut
- Living Toys: Also obviously.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Ralph.
- Monster Clown
- My Little Panzer: The soldier toys.
- Old Dark House: The old couple's house where all the characters end up taking refuge.
- Our Fairies Are Different: It is hinted the things inside the dolls are fairies. Very different fairies.
- Punch and Judy: Judy is given a Punch doll (not the one her father gets turned into), as it goes together with her name.
- Screaming Woman: Three of them!
- Super Window Jump
- Supernatural Proof Father
- Sword Cane
- This Is a Drill
- Transformation Sequence
- Wait Here
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gabriel and Hilary.
- What Could Have Been: Sequel was planned, but it never materialized.
- Whip It Good
- Wicked Stepmother: Rosemary.
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