Dolls (1987 film)
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- For the 2002 Japanese film, see: Dolls (film)
| Dolls | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Stuart Gordon |
| Produced by | Charles Band, Brian Yuzna |
| Written by | Ed Naha |
| Starring | Stephen Lee, Guy Rolfe, Hilary Mason, Ian Patrick Williams, Carolyn Purdy Gordon, Cassie Stuart, Bunty Bailey, and introducing Carrie Lorraine as Judy Bower |
| Music by | Fuzzbee Morse, Victor Spiegel |
| Cinematography | Mac Ahlberg |
| Editing by | Lee Percy |
| Distributed by | Empire Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1987 |
| Running time | 77 min |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dolls is a film directed by horror director Stuart Gordon and released in 1987, after Gordon's success with Re-Animator. The movie is about an elderly English couple who live in a spooky mansion and make dolls and other toys that kill people. Judy is a young girl that is traveling by car with her father and stepmother. A businessman named Ralph picks up two female punk rock hitchhikers. All six potential victims wind up at the dollmaker's mansion. One by one, some of the overnight guests are attacked by countless dolls who turn out to be cursed immoral people have been imprisoned in toys to pay for their crimes by the owners of the house who cliam to be witches. However the dolls like those who are pure at heart (like Judy) or young at heart (like Ralph) and will usually not hurt them. The film was shot in Italy in 1985. Dolls has taken credit for having inspired several similar "killer doll" movies since, most prominently Child's Play
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[edit] Plot Summary
Movie opens to a rather creepy cast and crew credits score, featuring pictures of dolls and an eerie kid friendly tune. We then see a family consisting of David Bower his newlywed, cruel wife Rosemary, and his daughter from his previous marriage, sweet Judy Bower. They are on their honeymoon, and discussing how Judy's mother should just take full custody of her, so they can go wherever they want without tending to the brat. Their car gets stuck in the mud as a storm approaches, and they find themselves stranded and forced to walk in the rain. While they are walking, Judy has her teddy bear thrown into the woods by Rosemary, and viciously imagines it growing twice its size and eating both her dad and Rosemary. The family eventually finds a mansion and breaks into the basement window to get in, after no one answers the front door. They are greeted by an old couple, Gabriel and Hilary Hartwicke, who own the house and bring them up to get tea and dry off. They are then joined by a nervous salesman, Ralph, who has picked up two punk rock hitchhikers, Isabel and Enid, and all six of them are given rooms. Judy swears she hears noises coming from one of the rooms, and Gabriel just tells her it's little people, meaning the dolls.
The six guests realize that the couple are doll makers and have dolls and toys all over their mansion, even in their bedrooms. Judy is given a separate room from her father and stepmother, and is given a toy jester doll named Punch by Hilary and Gabriel. Isabel and Enid, dressed in outrageous black punk rock outfits and otracious green and pink makeup, pull out their stereo, and begin blaring the music. They begin to discuss whether they should rob the couple and sell their antiques for money, Enid doesn't want to, but Isabel goes downstairs while everyone is supposed to be sleeping to stash some of the items. Judy, meanwhile has gotten up to explore with Punch, while Enid keeps watch for the couple and Isabel. Isabel is in the living room and accidentally sets off a music box, upon shutting it off she hears it again, and shuts it once more. As she is looking around the room, she notices all the creepy dolls and that they all are staring at her, right as the music box turns on! She turns around and sees that all the dolls that were around the ledge have disappeared and hears voices giggling around the room! All of a sudden she is forced to the ground and has her face rammed into the wall over and over, until her nose is broken and her lips split. Then she is dragged out into the hallway, leaving a trail of blood everywhere. Judy is out in the hallway and sees her get dragged away into another room, and runs to go get her father.
Ralph meets Judy first, and she brings him to the bloody trail, where he suddenly goes from disbelieving to complete horrorfied, and notices that Judy has disappeared. He runs back to the others with a candle, and gets them all to come out, and informs them that Judy has found blood and that there is a missing girl. David begins to suspect Ralph is a pedophile and has done something with his daughter and chases him through the house, while Rosemary stays back in her room to read. Enid however is listening to her stereo when all of a sudden it falls to the ground, shattering, causing her to look and see all the dolls staring at her. She quickly lights a candle and goes to find Isabel. Rosemary gets into her bed to read, when she notices that the sheets are moving, so she pulls them back revealing at least 10 dolls. She screams and quickly climbs out of bed only to be attacked by the dolls waiting with hammers, nails, saws, knives, and other sharp instruments. Dolls begin to hop on her and tear at her head and face, ripping open her wrist, and hitting her in the head with a hammer. She manages to run out into the hall, stepping on the dolls that begin to saw her foot in half, and realizes that there are several more dolls lining the hall. She goes to leap over them, but overjumps them all, going straight through the window to her death.
Ralph has managed to hide from David, who spots Judy, and tries to grab her. She wretches from his hand, leaving behind Punch who bites her father, and springs away out into the house somewhere, leaving a baffled David. Enid meanwhile has come across Hilary wheeling a baby doll like a real baby down the hallway, and quickly blows out her candle. She feels a breeze and goes towards it, finding the attic door and blood leading up the stairs. She flips on her lighter and begins to search for Isabel, who is sitting in the corner, telling her to go away. She goes up to Isabel to ask what's wrong and watches in horror, as Isabel's now plastic eyeballs have fallen out of her now plastic face! Enid begins to freak out and is attacked by several dolls that have found their way into the attic, she fights them off with her belt, breaking them open and exposing several miniturized skeletons and rotting bodies, realizing that the dolls were once people. She runs back downstairs and finds that she has been surrounded by toy soldiers, and as she is about to hit them with her belt, they open fire shooting bullets into her body, killing her. David goes back to his room, knowing that Judy is safe and finds that Rosemary has buried herself under the covers, so he takes a shower, hoping to have sex with her when he's done. Ralph finally meets up with Judy and tells her that they need to get the hell out of there, and begins to take her to their rooms.
After his shower, David sees blood forming on Rosemary's sheet, and uncovers her, and sees that half her face has been exposed, including the brain and parts of skull. He now assumes that Ralph killed her as well as Isabel, and begins to look for him, and Judy. While Judy and Ralph are making their way back, they spot Gabriel and Hilary and hide in a room, not knowing that it is filled with dolls. Ralph begins to freak out as they move and talk, and Judy tells him not to be afraid, because he is a kid himself, but he tells her he is not, and is attacked by the dolls. Judy stops them from killing him and her innocence and his child like heart let the dolls set them free of the room, where they are promptly chased by David. They make it down in the basement and a battle ensues, in which David realizes that the dolls are indeed alive, when he is attacked by Punch, in which he tears it to pieces. He knocks Ralph out, and is greeted by Gabriel and Hilary who explain that they are magical and have the power to turn bad people into dolls, and since he destroyed Punch, must now take his place. David is then morphed into a new Punch and Judy faints.
The next morning, Ralph and Judy awaken to find themselves dressed and on the couch in front of Gabriel and Hilary. They tell them that they were dreaming and can leave, and that David has written a note to Judy telling her that him and Rosemary want her to live with her mother, and that the two girls got a ride. Then Gabriel throws the "note" into the fire, and gives Judy the punch doll, who says he loves her, and Ralph quickly takes Judy out to his car which has been brought out in front of the house. Gabriel puts the David doll up on the mantle with the other dolls of Rosemary, Isabel, and Enid who all look at eachother in fear. Judy finds Teddy in the front seat and her and Ralph drive off back to the civilization. During the end credits, we see another car driving near the mansion and gets stuck in the mud. There are two people: a man and a woman. The man sees the mansion and tells his wife they should stay at the mansion until they get help. They get there stuff out of the car, and they head toward the mansion, possibaly leading to a sequel.
[edit] Cast
- Ian Patrick Williams - David Bower
- Carolyn Purdy Gordon - Rosemary Bower
- Carrie Lorraine - Judy Bower
- Guy Rolfe - Gabriel Hartwicke
- Hilary Mason - Hilary Hartwicke
- Bunty Bailey - Isabel
- Cassie Stuart - Enid
- Stephen Lee - Ralph Morris
[edit] Sequel
- Stuart Gordon was, at one point, very interested into directing a sequel to this film. The initial storyline would have followed Judy and Ralph back to Boston in which Ralph would have indeed married Judy's mother and they would all become a family. Until, one day Judy would received a box sent from England which would contain the toy makers, Gabriel and Hilary, as dolls.
[edit] Reception
The film had an average 57% and 5.5/10 at Rotten Tomatoes, it had an average 2/5 at Allmovie, and an average of 6.1/10 at IMBD.
