Don't play with this "dolly."

      Dolly, directed by Rod Blackhurst (based on a short film directed by the same), is irreverent, gruesome, and (mostly) fun, a throwback to 70's and 80’s slasher films with enough gore to satisfy diehard horror fans.

            Macy (Fabianne Therese) and Chase (Seann William Scott) are a young couple who have driven to a wooded area in Tennessee to get away. Extremely nervous, Chase plans to propose while there, which Macy suspects. As they trek into the woods, they encounter large shrines and creepy displays of classic baby dolls arranged oddly and nailed to the trees (never a good sign). Right when Chase is summing up the courage to pop the question, they hear an odd noise in the woods, and Chase commits the ultimate slasher film faux pas by going to investigate. He encounters a hulking woman in a creepy doll-face mask and creepy doll-like outfit in the process of hacking up and burying someone. Dolly, we’ll call her, whose weapon of choice is a shovel, takes out Chase and kidnaps Macy, where she makes her a “baby,” dressing her, giving her a pacifier, putting her in a diaper, and punishing her when she’s bad. In short, pretty cringey, creepy stuff.

            Filmed entirely on 16mm film, Dolly has a gritty, old-school look, complete with scratchy footage, jerky camera work, and some odd 70’s-esque effects, giving the movie a classic slasher vibe, which was kinda cool. “Dolly” (Max the Impaler) herself - never actually called this in the film - is effective in an 80’s silent-slasher kind of way. She’s big, quiet, and the cracked doll mask (what is it about classic dolls that is so scary, anyway?) is freaky. Her jerky movements and pantomiming communication made me think of Leatherface and other classic slashers.

            There are some really disturbing scenes in this picture that I won’t spoil for you here. Be advised: if you are squeamish, there are definitely a couple of scenes to look away from, along with one or two that might make you gag. I am not known for getting grossed out while watching a horror movie, but this one had me contemplating hurling my lunch during a couple of points. That being said, there are other parts where the gore is comically silly, which provides a nice contrast to the really disturbing stuff.