Everything about Dolly feels like a midnight drive-in movie. it's gruesome, bizarre, and bold. Its nightmarish images, especially its killer's eerie porcelain doll mask, certainly leave an imprint. The film's gritty grindhouse aesthetic makes for a blood-fueled trip into the woods, with a standout performance from professional wrestler Max the Impaler as the terrifying big bad.
Directed by Rod Blackhurst, who co-wrote the script with Brandon Weavil, the film stars Kate Cobb as Rachel and Seann William Scott as Chase. The two are a happy couple who venture into the woods for a typical hiking trip. In fact, Chase plans to propose to Rachel and tucked a ring in his backpack. However, their plans go horribly awry when they first encounter dolls pinned to trees, before ultimately meeting the towering and hair-raising Dolly.
I can't understate just how eerie Dolly looks. There's something so creepy about an adult dressed up like a doll, complete with a pink dress and a cracked porcelain mask. The character unleashes pain and mayhem, using a shovel as the weapon of choice. Max the Impaler turns in one heck of a performance, too, without uttering a word. He's imposing, comedic, and erratic. Dolly is, by far, one of my favorite new horror movie characters. In a second, Dolly can change from a mothering figure to a homcidial brute.
The splatterfest veers down an even stranger and darker path when Dolly kidnaps Rachel and treats her like a baby. She wakes up to find herself in a crib. Dolly later force feeds her baby food and even breast milk. These sequences are all kinds of uncomfortable, and Cobb deserves kudos for such a harrowing performance. Her character really goes through the ringer and makes a strong final girl. She spends a lot of the runtime fighting to free herself from Dolly's locked and boarded-up home, where another prisoner whispers from a nearby room, trying to assist her. However, his true intentions are initially unclear.
Meanwhile, it's cool to see Scott in another indie horror film, after his performance in 2023's The Wrath of Becky. Here, he generally plays a loving and supporting boyfriend and has absolutely no traits of his most famous character, American Pie's Stifler. After his first grisly encounter with Dolly, there's a scene in which he literally crawls through the woods to find Rachel. If anything, Scott is a little too underutilized in this film, but I hope he continues his horror trajectory.
The film's grainy aesthetic resembles The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other 70s drive-in staples. The feature feels like it belongs to a bygone era, where horror still felt dangerous and you weren't quite sure what would happen next from scene to scene. Dolly's style makes it all the more likely that it'll find its fans among gorehounds and grindhouse lovers.
Overall, Dolly ventures down one twisted path after another. This film is unabashedly grimy and gory. Max the Impaler plays one heck of a horror villain, and I'd love to see Cobb in more horror movies, too. Boy, can she scream when doused in blood. This film is one wild trip into the woods. Now, we need a sequel and more of Max the Impaler as Dolly.