Weird Movie Wednesday:Dolly Dearest

Hello, Hello, Hello and welcome to Weird Movie Wednesday. If this if your first time checking out WMW, as it is affectionately known in my note book, today is the day when I pick one of my favorite weird movies and tell you a little bit about it. It is all in an effort to convince you to watch the obscure title. Think of it as my movie diary. Today's pick is one that I kind of have to be in a mood to watch, but when I am I have a good time. The title is Dolly Dearest and I have more than a few things to say about this one, but first a brief summary.

                                   *Spoiler Alert*

Dolly Dearest is about doll maker Elliot who moves his family to Mexico after having bought an old doll factory there. Nearby lies an old, underground Mayan Tomb of Sanzia or Satan on Earth. Disappointed by the state of the factory, Elliot and his children have a look around, while his wife sets up their new home. While exploring, he finds several beautiful dolls left by the previous doll maker. Immediately, Elliot's daughter falls in love with one of the dolls and he allows the young girl to take it home. Gradually, strange happenings begin as the daughters obsession with the doll grows. The child becomes more distant and angry any time anyone tries to separate her from the doll. Meanwhile, the son of the family befriends the archaeologist who is digging in the Mayan tombs. Against his father and the archaeologist wishes, the boy sneaks into the tomb to learn more about the terrifying history behind it. It is discovered that the tomb was the birthing ground for a devil child, also known as Sanzia. With the body of an infant and head of a goat, the devil child is fed only the blood of other children. It is also learned that the myths surrounding the tomb are true when the remains of the devil child are found. Now, the evil devil spirits have possessed the dolls that, in turn, have started to possess the little girl. To stop the horror, the doll maker, his family, and the archaeologist plant dynamite in and around the factory and set it off in a blaze of glory. As the family watches the factory burn, they hear a demonic cry emit from the flames. Finally, the Sanzia spirit is dead and everything is back to normal.
                                                              *Spoilers are over*

Okay, let's begin. I have mentioned something before, in other post, about how movies like the Blair Witch Project propelled a string of bad movies imitating their greatness. I call it the Paranormal Activity effect, even though this phenomenon has occurred before then. You know exactly what I am talking about, too. A bunch of movies that are relatively the same thing over and over again. Dolly Dearest is no exception. This movie is not original at all. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it's lack of originality is astounding. In my opinion, Dolly Dearest is an accumulation of three different horror films: Child's Play, The Omen, and The Exorcist.

We know, for obvious reasons, how Dolly Dearest mimics Child's Play; the possessed doll aspect. In this movie, we have a doll that is creepily anthropomorphic and is possessed by an evil spirit. It may not be possessed by a deranged serial killer but it is possessed nonetheless. Not to mention the handful of scenes they recreated from the original possessed doll movie. I mean the ones where the child would be asleep and the doll would be watching the kid or its head would move, things like that. All the subtle moves we got from Chucky in Child's Play are not so subtle in Dolly Dearest. Plus, the doll would kill anyone who tried to protect the child in order to maintain the possessing process. Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it?

Now you may not know how I relate The Omen with this movie and that's okay, I'll explain. There is several scenes in the movie, after the little girl is given the doll, that the child repels religious symbols. More specifically, there is a scene where the family is driving past a church and, just like in The Omen, the child begins to lash out. Kicking, screaming and scratching at anybody that tries to coo her. It is so aggravating every time I see it that I can't help but laugh and shake my head. Could they think of nothing else to do? It's crazy.

 Last but not least, The Exorcist. They not so subtly made the doll to look almost identical to Regan from The Exorcist, but the resemblance is not the only nod to the horror classic. As the child becomes more and more possessed, she starts looking and acting different. While asleep, closer to the end of the film, her mother tries to take the doll away from her. She wakes up, angry that her mother would do such a horrible thing. Her eyes glow and her voice takes on a demonic tone. That's not the only scene to rip off The Exorcist. During a confrontation between the mother and the doll, the doll takes a quote straight from the movie. The mother says something along the lines of "where is my daughter?" and the doll replies with "in here, with us". IF,and that's a strong IF, you have never seen The Exorcist this is what a possessed Regan replies to Father Damien Karras. If you think I am done, then get ready because there is one more aspect that really gets me. In The Exorcist, the senior priest, Lankester Merrin is doing archaeological study in Iraq where he finds an amulate of Pazuzu, that later possesses Regan. In Dolly Dearest, there just so happens to be a Mayan Tomb where the remains of a devil child is found by an archaeologist, who's spirit would later possess the little girl.  When I first saw this I thought that it was the craziest thing I have ever seen. How did they get away with plagiarizing a classic horror film to fit it in this abomination of a film? It is so crazy it makes my weird movie list because I don't know how all this came to be. What elements of nature came to be to make this movie a reality? The world may never know.

There is one more thing that I needed to add before we wrap this one up. Despite all the blatant movie stealing in this film, there is one saving grace and that is a showing stealing, tongue wagging doll head. If this movie has one thing going for it, it would be it's sense of humor. There are scenes that are genuinely funny, this being the funniest and most memorable. Just look at that picture. There is no warning before hand that this disembodied head was gonna just start wigging out. I thought it was so funny the first time I saw it that I had to rewind it several times. It's just one of the things that brings me back to this movie.

That's the end of my rant, I swear. I need you to watch this movie. I think that you know you need to watch this movie. Any horror nut who watches this has to draw these comparisons because I know I'm not the only one who see's it. I can't be. So, watch it for yourself and tell me what you think. If any of you have ever seen it then let me know what you think. Am I right on the money or do you think that I am completely off base? I don't think so, but I am dying to know your opinions. You can watch Dolly Dearest free on YouTube and on Amazon Prime, if you pay for that service. It used to be on Netflix, but not anymore. Of course, you can find this movie in some stores, usually in a compilation disc, my very favorite. With all that said, feel free to leave me a comment and subscribe here, on my Instagram (@cameronmothershed) or Twitter (@Cameronmarie96) I check them all the time, so don't be a stranger. Until next time, friends. Stay spooky.