Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet
Doll Factory
Directed by Stephen Wolfe
Fan Fiction Cinema / Wild Eye Releasing / MVD
Entertainment
90 minutes, 2014 / 2019
The way I see it, in a
gross generalization kind of way, there are three types of dolls movies. The
first – and one of the oldest – is where a lap dummy has a life of its own,
usually in the mind of the ventriloquist (but not always). The second is where
the doll is haunted, as seen in the Annabelle franchise. Then there is
the third where the doll either comes to life, such as with the old “Talking
Tina” episode of “The Twilight Zone” (“Living Doll”; 1963), the Zanti Warrior
episode of Trilogy of Terror (1975), Stuart Gordon’s Dolls (1987),
and the Puppetmaster series (starting in 1987). This comedy falls into
the latter category.
After a prologue of
previous events, as is typical of these kinds of things, we meet a group of
friends at a Halloween party in modern times. Nearly everyone – well,
especially the men – are real dicks (pun both intended and not intended), just
screaming of male toxicity. This is displayed in macho posturing, not listening
to advice (or anything else) especially from women, hyper-sexualizing
everything, bullying, etc. Some characters, all I could think was “boy, I hope
you die by the end.”
 |
| Nicole Elliott, Andy Palmer, Justin Herman |
The lead couple are Kay
(hyper-cute Nicole Elliott) and her boyfriend/scuzbucket Mark (Justin Herman).
Along with two other couples, Allison (Tracy Collins) and Miguel (Milo Rubi), and
Erika (Jade Warren) and horndog Blake (Will Allday), plus Derek (Eric
Schneider), the third wheel (why is it that there is always one odd guy or gal
in these groups? Oh, well, more fodder for the splatter, I guess) they decide
to ditch the shindig after Ian (Nasir Villanueva), Kay’s equally macho moroon ex-,
and his hostile crew shows up and gets into a fight with Mark.
They head out to the
old doll factory and perform some ritual from a book, which raises the cracked
baby dolls into a murderous and gore-hungry group (to our delight, of course).
Soon the rubber reprobates are roaming the town seeking victims/souls for their
“master” (a hysterical turn by Patrick Sane); Kay and Mark rustle up Kay’s
nerdy gamer bro Melvin (Andy Palmer) to help fight them off. Also joining the good
guys is the redneck sheriff (Chris Fender) and an older African-American
grump, Darius (Boo Gay, who steals all his scenes), who were introduced in the 1976
prologue.
 |
| SFX |
Like the first Scary
Movie (2000), this film borders on the ridiculous, but that is also a large
part of its charm. Let me put it this way: remember when Popeye would mumble
and then one day you paid attention and realized what he was saying was
hysterical? Similarly, the dolls are straight-up Freddy Kruger wiseacres, and
what they are speaking through their high pitched and silly voices is pretty
funny, even if you have to listen to it very carefully. The dolls themselves
obviously move via strings, and I’m not sure exactly how many there are in the
story compared to how many were made (I’m guessing by the sheer number of them,
their number were digitally enhanced). There is a fine mix of digital and
practical SFX, and it actually all works well; some of the effects look damn
good, and others a little goofy.
Of course, you know
there’s going to be a showdown between our intrepid group of five who are to
stand up to the legion of devil dolls, and the Master (I write this before I
know for certain, as I’m about two-thirds through the film at this point).
Other than the men
being complete assholes and most of the women not that smart, the writing is
actually quite intelligent in its goofiness, if you’re willing to dig a bit and
pay attention between the beer and chips you’re probably eating while watching this,
because that is the correct fare for this kind of film. It’s definitely one
that you’ll be laughing and talking about while it’s on, but I caution you to
perhaps back up once in a while and listen to the dialogue. Man, I wish there
were subtitles, which would have made it a lot easier to make out what the
dolls were chattering about.
There are certain
scenes that I definitely laughed out loud, such as one of the dolls partying
with a couple of stoners (reminiscent of the similar pseudo-Ghostface scene in Scary
Movie), or the re-introduction of Darius, who is wearing a stuck-on Santa
beard and wig.
The first extra is a
“Making of Documentary” (29 min.), which is a mix of interviews with the crew
and some cast, and describes the beginning of the concept on through. It’s varied
with lots of behind the scenes footage that are enjoyable. Next is the “Gag
Reel” (7 min.), and like most of these things, there are some funny flubs. Then
there is the “Concept Trailer” (2 min.) which is basically an exercise in both practicing
for the shoot and a way to get some funding. It’s certainly a bit rough as far
as concept goes with different actors, but still amusing to compare with the
feature to see how far they came. There are also a few Wild Eye Releasing trailers.
For the full length
commentary, it’s the director, Palmer (who is also an executive producer, as
well as playing Melvin), and Herman (who portrays the male lead of Mark).
Sometimes it is a bit hard to tell who is saying what, but that’s okay. The
conversation is a bit stilted, and rarely deep. If you play this you won’t
necessarily be wasting your time, but if you skipped it, I don’t believe you’ll
miss a whole lot.
The only real regret I
have, as I said before, is that there were no captions, so it was easy to miss
some of the doll dialogue; when listening to a commentary track, it certainly
makes it easier to follow along. But that’s a piffle in the scheme of things.
My fear is that a lot
of people are just going to see this as a goofy excuse of a comedy, but, again,
I think it’s worth paying attention to what’s happening. It’s not just a silly
film about killer baby dolls, but rather a comedy that is quite funny, even if
its (mostly male) characters are a bit annoying. I’m hoping there will be a
sequel in there somewhere at some time, as is somewhat hinted in a classic
trope way.
