(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A young woman is abducted by a monstrous figure intent on raising her as their own child.”
It’s often been said that Horror – as a type of storytelling all of its own – only works because its characters are fundamentally stupid.
Now, there’s really no reason to discount that reality. While some of the players who find themselves wrapped up in these dark and sometimes sordid tales aren’t clinically stupid, they’re still apt to – ahem – do stupid things: this is the very nature of dealing with heightened and life-threatening circumstances which interrupt the logical thought processes which comprise much of our living experience. When we have time, we think – we mull over the opportunities – and only then fashion a game plan or attack strategy to overcome obstacles. In horrific situations, we’re largely left to our instinct and impulses – maybe even muscle memory – and we just don’t have the kind of time required to develop an effective mission statement.
None of this changes the fact that Chase (played by Seann William Scott) and Macy (Fabianne Therese) make some incredibly dumb maneuvers in their time trapped and suffering from Dolly aka BabyGirl (Max The Impaler), a rather gargantuan incarnation of the preferred household figure of little girls around the world. Trapped under a kinda/sorta porcelain doll’s mask with one broken glass eye, Dolly is a living, breathing, hulking nightmare – one that cannot and will not be denied – who will stop at nothing to have a little human figurine to call her very own … even if she has to kill it in the process. As any potential victims in just about any Horror picture, neither Chase nor Macy know enough to ‘get while the gettin’s good,’ and they suffer some horrible pains as a consequence. Such is life … and film.
Essentially, Dolly works on a narrative level not all that dissimilar to 1974’s groundbreaking The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In that Tobe Hooper production, a gang of friends making a road trip to pay their last respects stumble upon a seemingly deserted country home to the strangest band of raving cannibals known to man. One-by-one, they’re dispatched by Leatherface and friends, leaving Hooper’s final girl Sally (Marilyn Burns) to finally flee for her life with what little remains of her sanity in tatters. Writer/director Rod Blackhurst does much the same here – Chase and Macy are taking an idyllic backwoods hike when things take their fateful turn – but, structurally, a lot of what unfolds does so formulaically. The particulars are changed, but the equation remains the same.
Where Blackhurst does falter will likely cause problems with sensible thinkers. In an early sequence, Dolly literally splits Chase’s face in two horizontally when she uses a shovel to viciously separate his jaw from his skull, then places the inert young man prone against a nearby tree as part of her assortment of woodland dolls. Doing so would likely have had the victim drowning from the flow of blood from an open wound, but – somehow miraculously or because the script required it – Chase survives and can even somehow magically speak and scream sounding reasonably normal. (Seriously, just try screaming the name ‘Macy’ without using your jaw. I’ll wait. It just can’t be done, but it happens here.) Our loving couple are eventually reunited, but their reunion really serves as little more than a chance for Dolly to finish off the unwanted man in even greater grisliness.
Additionally, Blackhurst script mostly spirals into – ahem – tortuous predictability once everyone knows that Dolly emotionally seeks to be a mother figure over those she captures well off the beaten path. She carries Macy back to the home, dresses her in a baby gown, and places her in an oversized crib. She tries to feed Macy, first, with chopped up gruel or a baby bottle until ultimately settling on – ahem – breastfeeding her captive. She longs to have the young woman held and rocked to sleep on her lap. Eventually, even Macy figures out the rather obvious psychological implications, and she uses this mother/daughter dynamic to turn the tables and make her escape. When it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it becomes the adage here; and Dolly definitely sticks to the mold, tropes and all.
Like a great many efforts that have come to pass in the past few decades, Dolly invests heavily on the physical and psychological torture of its victims; and because there are so few characters in this some might lose interest even though it barely clocks in at 80-minutes running time. It grows a bit wearisome watching all of this happen on only Chase and Macy – yes, there’s another player mixed into the shuffle, but I’ll leave that little spoiler to those wondering just how ‘family’ figures into it – and that’s a legitimate complaint. Macy is imbued with the usual endless girl power stamina (while looking all of 90-pounds soaking wet) that percolates throughout a great many thrillers and chillers, but who am I to rock the boat that’s stayed afloat all these years? At this point, Horror is what it is; and Dolly meets the standards appreciably while not quite rising to the level of being a ‘standard-bearer,’ if you catch my meaning.
To the film’s credit, Dolly has earned a wee bit of extra attention from screenings on the film festival circuit; and – for what it’s worth – that comes as no surprise to this viewer. Festival audiences tend to be a bit more enthusiastic about damn near any and all oddities, and the motion picture rather capably capitalizing on the kinds of tropes that make for acceptable genre entertainment. The sum total of the pieces may not reach the level of praise required for wider audience adulation – positive curves tend to flatten out when casual viewer impressions are factored in – but it’s still worth mentioning that Horror (unlike other film types) is built on the backs of small audiences because they’re more cheaply produced. That’s why we see so many of them.
Lastly, there is a brief – very brief – after credits scene for those who still like and appreciate those bits. Disappointingly (without spoiling anything), it’s really hardly worth the effort, but it is there if you’re willing to fully go the distance.
Dolly (2025) was produced by Gentile Entertainment Group, Mama Bear Productions, Mama Bear Studios, Monarque Entertainment, Set Point Entertainment, and Witchcraft Motion Picture Company. A quick Google.com search indicates that the film will be available for streaming on Shudder effective April 24, 2026. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I can assure readers that there’s a fair amount of herky-jerky camerawork across the film that occasionally gets in the way of appreciating the weird visuals. As for aesthetics? This isn’t the first flick to maximize creepy children’s dolls for set dressing, but it might be the one remembered most for it. There’s also one sequence where the light levels were clearly not matched up from scene to scene (some obvious blue lighting), and it shows. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Since I viewed this one via streaming, there were no special features to consider.
Recommended.
While it’s safe to suggest that Dolly (2025) isn’t going to be to everyone’s like, Horror – unlike other genres – maintains a core audience to generally shows up regardless of how gut-wrenching, exploitative, or downright depraved a project might be; and that almost guarantees that this weirdly fetishistic film might someday earn at least a cult status. Though it may not break new ground, the film still maintains a pervasive gruesomeness – think ‘torture porn’ – that harkens back to what The Texas Chain Saw Massacre did back in 1974. Terrorizing the ‘final girl’ is one thing, but dragging her all the way from sane to clinically insane definitely hits that sweet spot for those willing to endure the journey in order to reach the destination.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Shudder provided me with complimentary streaming access to Dolly by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A young woman is abducted by a monstrous figure intent on raising her as their own child.”
It’s often been said that Horror – as a type of storytelling all of its own – only works because its characters are fundamentally stupid.
Now, there’s really no reason to discount that reality. While some of the players who find themselves wrapped up in these dark and sometimes sordid tales aren’t clinically stupid, they’re still apt to – ahem – do stupid things: this is the very nature of dealing with heightened and life-threatening circumstances which interrupt the logical thought processes which comprise much of our living experience. When we have time, we think – we mull over the opportunities – and only then fashion a game plan or attack strategy to overcome obstacles. In horrific situations, we’re largely left to our instinct and impulses – maybe even muscle memory – and we just don’t have the kind of time required to develop an effective mission statement.
None of this changes the fact that Chase (played by Seann William Scott) and Macy (Fabianne Therese) make some incredibly dumb maneuvers in their time trapped and suffering from Dolly aka BabyGirl (Max The Impaler), a rather gargantuan incarnation of the preferred household figure of little girls around the world. Trapped under a kinda/sorta porcelain doll’s mask with one broken glass eye, Dolly is a living, breathing, hulking nightmare – one that cannot and will not be denied – who will stop at nothing to have a little human figurine to call her very own … even if she has to kill it in the process. As any potential victims in just about any Horror picture, neither Chase nor Macy know enough to ‘get while the gettin’s good,’ and they suffer some horrible pains as a consequence. Such is life … and film.
Essentially, Dolly works on a narrative level not all that dissimilar to 1974’s groundbreaking The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In that Tobe Hooper production, a gang of friends making a road trip to pay their last respects stumble upon a seemingly deserted country home to the strangest band of raving cannibals known to man. One-by-one, they’re dispatched by Leatherface and friends, leaving Hooper’s final girl Sally (Marilyn Burns) to finally flee for her life with what little remains of her sanity in tatters. Writer/director Rod Blackhurst does much the same here – Chase and Macy are taking an idyllic backwoods hike when things take their fateful turn – but, structurally, a lot of what unfolds does so formulaically. The particulars are changed, but the equation remains the same.
Where Blackhurst does falter will likely cause problems with sensible thinkers. In an early sequence, Dolly literally splits Chase’s face in two horizontally when she uses a shovel to viciously separate his jaw from his skull, then places the inert young man prone against a nearby tree as part of her assortment of woodland dolls. Doing so would likely have had the victim drowning from the flow of blood from an open wound, but – somehow miraculously or because the script required it – Chase survives and can even somehow magically speak and scream sounding reasonably normal. (Seriously, just try screaming the name ‘Macy’ without using your jaw. I’ll wait. It just can’t be done, but it happens here.) Our loving couple are eventually reunited, but their reunion really serves as little more than a chance for Dolly to finish off the unwanted man in even greater grisliness.
Additionally, Blackhurst script mostly spirals into – ahem – tortuous predictability once everyone knows that Dolly emotionally seeks to be a mother figure over those she captures well off the beaten path. She carries Macy back to the home, dresses her in a baby gown, and places her in an oversized crib. She tries to feed Macy, first, with chopped up gruel or a baby bottle until ultimately settling on – ahem – breastfeeding her captive. She longs to have the young woman held and rocked to sleep on her lap. Eventually, even Macy figures out the rather obvious psychological implications, and she uses this mother/daughter dynamic to turn the tables and make her escape. When it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it becomes the adage here; and Dolly definitely sticks to the mold, tropes and all.
Like a great many efforts that have come to pass in the past few decades, Dolly invests heavily on the physical and psychological torture of its victims; and because there are so few characters in this some might lose interest even though it barely clocks in at 80-minutes running time. It grows a bit wearisome watching all of this happen on only Chase and Macy – yes, there’s another player mixed into the shuffle, but I’ll leave that little spoiler to those wondering just how ‘family’ figures into it – and that’s a legitimate complaint. Macy is imbued with the usual endless girl power stamina (while looking all of 90-pounds soaking wet) that percolates throughout a great many thrillers and chillers, but who am I to rock the boat that’s stayed afloat all these years? At this point, Horror is what it is; and Dolly meets the standards appreciably while not quite rising to the level of being a ‘standard-bearer,’ if you catch my meaning.
To the film’s credit, Dolly has earned a wee bit of extra attention from screenings on the film festival circuit; and – for what it’s worth – that comes as no surprise to this viewer. Festival audiences tend to be a bit more enthusiastic about damn near any and all oddities, and the motion picture rather capably capitalizing on the kinds of tropes that make for acceptable genre entertainment. The sum total of the pieces may not reach the level of praise required for wider audience adulation – positive curves tend to flatten out when casual viewer impressions are factored in – but it’s still worth mentioning that Horror (unlike other film types) is built on the backs of small audiences because they’re more cheaply produced. That’s why we see so many of them.
Lastly, there is a brief – very brief – after credits scene for those who still like and appreciate those bits. Disappointingly (without spoiling anything), it’s really hardly worth the effort, but it is there if you’re willing to fully go the distance.
Dolly (2025) was produced by Gentile Entertainment Group, Mama Bear Productions, Mama Bear Studios, Monarque Entertainment, Set Point Entertainment, and Witchcraft Motion Picture Company. A quick Google.com search indicates that the film will be available for streaming on Shudder effective April 24, 2026. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I can assure readers that there’s a fair amount of herky-jerky camerawork across the film that occasionally gets in the way of appreciating the weird visuals. As for aesthetics? This isn’t the first flick to maximize creepy children’s dolls for set dressing, but it might be the one remembered most for it. There’s also one sequence where the light levels were clearly not matched up from scene to scene (some obvious blue lighting), and it shows. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Since I viewed this one via streaming, there were no special features to consider.
Recommended.
While it’s safe to suggest that Dolly (2025) isn’t going to be to everyone’s like, Horror – unlike other genres – maintains a core audience to generally shows up regardless of how gut-wrenching, exploitative, or downright depraved a project might be; and that almost guarantees that this weirdly fetishistic film might someday earn at least a cult status. Though it may not break new ground, the film still maintains a pervasive gruesomeness – think ‘torture porn’ – that harkens back to what The Texas Chain Saw Massacre did back in 1974. Terrorizing the ‘final girl’ is one thing, but dragging her all the way from sane to clinically insane definitely hits that sweet spot for those willing to endure the journey in order to reach the destination.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Shudder provided me with complimentary streaming access to Dolly by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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