vengeance20 Saw a trailer for this one a couple of months back & have to say I was looking forward to it. It was sinister, gritty & reminded of the Child's Play films! I thought it looked great & the highlights were added in the trailer which is why it probably looked better than what it was, which sadly, was the truth!The film starts with an archaeologist in Mexico who pulls down a door to a crypt inside, harbouring a 900-Year-Old spirit who worshipped Satan. The spirit gets unleashed & attaches itself to the conveniently placed dolls in the conveniently place factory adjacent to the mine shaft, where the crypt is situated. The spirits possess the dolls & an American family move to Mexico with the father of the family wanting to start up the production line of "Dolly Dearest" Dolls back up again! Uh oh!Now, although in 1991, the story was already clichéd, it's not something that bothered me that much. In fact, it was a slight difference from how Child's Play in '89 started. The sequels that followed, were also good until after Child's Plat 3 came out in the same year as this film here, that the next 3 sequels which came out years later sucked arse, but, that's another rant.Anyway, the film is 90 minutes too long, or should I say too long generally & is the main problem with the film, well the first problem which could've been corrected had it not been for the second problem which would've left none had the film not been so slow to start & drag on with story-line. In other words, the film lacked action & with only 2-3 deaths it was pretty tame & boring. Not to mention the lack of gore & violence which was also another extending factory which let this film down. Like I said, the length of the film wouldn't have bothered me as much had it had more deaths & action in it! It would've made the film seem shorter had it done that! The kills weren't all that great, OK, but not anything to brag about! Tame...!I also found the film to plod along too slowly for my tastes & again lacked action & kills in so many places! I mean, Child's Play 1, 2 & 3 were better than this! Especially 3, which somehow got negatively received, but so did this so...The only few good things I could say about this film is that the doll was pretty creepy, the premise was different & ended differently, if not a bit too simply & quickly. It ended & the dolls were killed! They were killed for good, which made me more happy as it's a change from these clichéd films which something always happens near the end to suggest a sequel/prequel taking place! So that was good I guess!Furthermore, I found the execution style of the dolls to be unique & humorous with the oh Sh...BOOM! That was funny! Along with the young lad, a wannabe archaeologist who stuck his nose where it wasn't wanted, who said: "Play with this, B!tch!" That was humorous too, though I would've liked this film better had it been shorter, or at least with a higher body count as after all, Child's Play was more upbeat & kept you on suspense, while this lost you at parts & had too much story-line & not enough deaths/kills/highlights in it, for it to be a great film! It was a bit weak in a lot of areas & the slow opening of 28-30 minutes didn't help too much either.I overall give this film a 4/10. It could've been a lot better had it had more deaths in it like the Child's Play films which delivered no problem & had kills & deaths throughout the story-line. Plus the deaths themselves could've been better & more gorier & the film could've been more "with it" as it looked faded & not that upbeat!

Leofwine_draca As you may have already guessed, CHILD'S PLAY is the influence for this lamentable C-grade horror movie which doesn't even have the decency of including any of the genre staples (eg. sex or violence) which would have made it more of an exploitation piece. Instead, we're treated to long sequences where little occurs (eg. the first half an hour), terribly wooden acting and a clichéd script which also draws in influences (or to put it plainly, rips off) from POLTERGEIST and THE EVIL DEAD. The best thing about this boring, cheaply-made effort is that I didn't have to pay to see it! At least it keeps a straight face throughout, which means that it's better than abysmal fare like the LEPRECHAUN series or that abomination, RUMPLESTILTSKIN. Sadly, though, the deadly serious tone only provides a couple of unintentional chuckles throughout the film.Things open with some of those poor computer effects standing in for an ancient Mexican evil force that immediately possesses a factory of dolls. The box makes this sound impressive, until you realise that there are only about four dolls in the "factory" (more like a run-down shed). After this we are introduced to an all-American family. These are a mixed bunch. Firstly we have the terrible actress Denise Crosby. For Denise, this was another step down in her career, which had previously gone from STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION(a popular, mainstream cult television series) to PET SEMATARY(a just about passable Stephen King adaptation). After this, things could only get worse, and the last I know of her, she was shedding her clothes for some erotic cable series.Her husband is an irritating, mindless idiot who must be blind not to notice the "odd" things going on in his household (daughter speaking in strange tongues, child's strange attachment to doll, son's obsession with archaeological site). He is played by Sam Bottoms, a wooden nobody. The daughter is an irritating, whining little girl, but the son is a likable geek. Another desperate actor appearing in the cast is Rip Torn, who plays a John Rhys-Davies type role of an intrepid archaeologist - at least HIS career could only go up from here.There is only one gore scene of note in the film, a painful moment where a man gets his hand caught in a sewing machine. There are three deaths in total. One occurs at the beginning, with a man getting crushed under a stone door. The second man has a heart attack (?), and then a woman gets electrocuted. Big deal. The film doesn't even offer up much in the way of doll rampage, with the limited special effects of an animated doll only appearing briefly throughout the film - what a rip off.Seriously, the best thing I can say about this movie is that it's short, and also at least the dolls don't keep coming back to life - once they're dead, they stay dead, which doesn't prolong the agony. A few of the scenes in the Mexican tomb are all right as well, particularly the discover of a desiccated, goat-headed corpse. And check out some of that hilarious dialogue, like "My daughter is possessed by a 900 year old goat-head, damn it!". All in all, though, this is a colourless affair, and one to be avoided like so many others, unless you're REALLY stuck for something to see.

bean-d "Dolly Dearest" (1991) is a poor imitation of "Dolls" (1987) and "Child's Play" (1988)--certainly its only financial hope being to cash in on the others' success. The cinematography is pedestrian, the story predictable. I saw the preview for "Dolly Dearest" on the "Servants of Twilight" (1991) video--both straight-to-video releases. The preview, I must say, was quite frightening, giving the impression that "Dolly Dearest" would be more like the straightforward plot of "Child's Play." But "Dolly Dearest" posits a Mayan devil-child taking over the bodies of some Mexican dolls. (Why dolls? Why not!) However the children of Satan apparently can be easily killed with a shotgun and some dynamite. Not much to worry about here.Comparing "Dolly Dearest" and "Dolls" shows the absolute need for 1) a modicum of imagination from the director, and 2) a smidgen of creativity from the cinematographer. The plot of "Dolls" is rather ordinary, although it does have an E.C.-revenge logic to it. But "Dolls" just plain looks better. If you're going to sit through an hour-and-a-half of dumbness, at least make the dumbness look good. The cinematography of "Dolly Dearest" is usually plain, sometimes plain ugly. Also, the camera does absolutely nothing to increase the tension. The director apparently felt that a grimacing girly doll would be scary enough.

insomniac_rod "Dolly Dearest" is a little early 90's horror flick with some pretensions. The storyline can be considered as a mix between the late 80's hit "Child's Play" and "Poltergeist II". The whole "son of the devil" plot is quite interesting considering that it's linked with the delightful Maya civilization (a mystery sorrounds it's banishing from earth). The plot is imaginative until the dolls come to life."Child's Play" excuse to bring the doll to life is actually believable for people that are familiar with occultism, black magic, and voodoo."Dolly Dearest" copied the Chucky idea in order to seduce horror junkies but it failed big time.The premise of the movie doesn't help it because the idea had been taken years before and the publicity campaign for the movie didn't say anything about the whole "son of the devil" thing. OK the plot is something you've seen and it doesn't helps that the acting is AWFUL, the direction is boring and dull, the score is lame, and the f/x are laughable. To me, the best moment of the movie is when Rip Torn's character discovers the skeleton of the "son of the devil" (the body of a boy with the head of a goat). That was the only creepy moment.Most of the situations are absurd. For example, the brat blonde girl talks with a possessed voice (like in "The Exorcist") and her geeky brother says something like "wow you learned how to speak". The line is stupid but you need to see the scene to get as mad as me. Also there are 2 huge goofs: The first one is when police determines that Luis death was caused by a heart stroke but they don't mention that his hand was almost cut in half! Then, you can hear from the police car's radio American people talking trying to imitate the Mexican accent. Why would American people work for the Mexican police!? The producers couldn't find more Mexican extras."Dolly Dearest" had potential but it's problem came when deciding which movie ideas to mix. The "Poltergeist" inspiration went well but stealing the idea of "Child's Play" didn't work while trying to put it on the storyline.3/10. Boring early 90's cheese. No gore, no scares.