Gleefully grisly throwback to 70s horror cinema by director Rod Blackhust. This begins with Chase (Seann William Scott) surprising his girlfriend Macy (Fabianne Therese) by taking her out in the Tennessee woods to a scenic overlook in anticipation of proposing to her.
Along the way, they find all these weird dolls nailed to trees, which they laugh off as someone’s art project. But when Chase follows the sound of some eerie lullaby music box, he encounters this hulking woman, wearing a cracked porcelain doll mask, who brutally attacks him with a shovel.
Macy is dragged off to a weird house in the woods and dressed in a little girl ensemble, and deposited in a rocking crib in some shabbily decorated child’s room. Filled with even more dolls. And her nightmare begins. She hears a voice through the wall who encourages her to play along like it’s a game but, “find the key.” As her terror in this boarded-up, chained prison of a horror house continues, her wounded boyfriend crawls through the forest vainly hoping to rescue her.
Told in chapters like “Mother,” “Daughter,” “Home,” and, eventually, “Fight,” there’s a creepy, claustrophobic feel to the film. Sure, it may be derivative, but at least it pays homage to the best, like Tobe Hooper. I have to admit, Dolly is real nightmare fuel.
This Shudder & IFC Films production opens in theaters Friday, March 6.
