SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Let's be realistic.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Saw a trailer for this one a couple of months back & have to say I was looking forward to it. It was sinister, gritty & reminded of the Child's Play films! I thought it looked great & the highlights were added in the trailer which is why it probably looked better than what it was, which sadly, was the truth!The film starts with an archaeologist in Mexico who pulls down a door to a crypt inside, harbouring a 900-Year-Old spirit who worshipped Satan. The spirit gets unleashed & attaches itself to the conveniently placed dolls in the conveniently place factory adjacent to the mine shaft, where the crypt is situated. The spirits possess the dolls & an American family move to Mexico with the father of the family wanting to start up the production line of "Dolly Dearest" Dolls back up again! Uh oh!Now, although in 1991, the story was already clichéd, it's not something that bothered me that much. In fact, it was a slight difference from how Child's Play in '89 started. The sequels that followed, were also good until after Child's Plat 3 came out in the same year as this film here, that the next 3 sequels which came out years later sucked arse, but, that's another rant.Anyway, the film is 90 minutes too long, or should I say too long generally & is the main problem with the film, well the first problem which could've been corrected had it not been for the second problem which would've left none had the film not been so slow to start & drag on with story-line. In other words, the film lacked action & with only 2-3 deaths it was pretty tame & boring. Not to mention the lack of gore & violence which was also another extending factory which let this film down. Like I said, the length of the film wouldn't have bothered me as much had it had more deaths & action in it! It would've made the film seem shorter had it done that! The kills weren't all that great, OK, but not anything to brag about! Tame...!I also found the film to plod along too slowly for my tastes & again lacked action & kills in so many places! I mean, Child's Play 1, 2 & 3 were better than this! Especially 3, which somehow got negatively received, but so did this so...The only few good things I could say about this film is that the doll was pretty creepy, the premise was different & ended differently, if not a bit too simply & quickly. It ended & the dolls were killed! They were killed for good, which made me more happy as it's a change from these clichéd films which something always happens near the end to suggest a sequel/prequel taking place! So that was good I guess!Furthermore, I found the execution style of the dolls to be unique & humorous with the oh Sh...BOOM! That was funny! Along with the young lad, a wannabe archaeologist who stuck his nose where it wasn't wanted, who said: "Play with this, B!tch!" That was humorous too, though I would've liked this film better had it been shorter, or at least with a higher body count as after all, Child's Play was more upbeat & kept you on suspense, while this lost you at parts & had too much story-line & not enough deaths/kills/highlights in it, for it to be a great film! It was a bit weak in a lot of areas & the slow opening of 28-30 minutes didn't help too much either.I overall give this film a 4/10. It could've been a lot better had it had more deaths in it like the Child's Play films which delivered no problem & had kills & deaths throughout the story-line. Plus the deaths themselves could've been better & more gorier & the film could've been more "with it" as it looked faded & not that upbeat!

Arriving in Mexico to begin producing dolls, a factory owner and his family come to believe their daughter's fascination with a doll is behind a rash of strange murders plaguing the factory and tries to stop its deadly curse.This was quite a fun and highly enjoyable entry that has a lot of good points. One of its better efforts is the fact that it really does a fine job of bringing doubt to the adults about the doll's living abilities which is always a plus in here. The initial parts here seem innocent enough with the intention of being along together at all time and ignoring parental concerns before getting a little darker with the outbursts and selfish disregard for others but the doll both work well to bridge the second half which is a lot more action-packed with some great scenes. The discovery of the nanny is Gothic-influenced splendor with the searching in the dark house and basement, the raging thunderstorm blowing the doors open and the final reveal which is all quite shocking providing the best example of this while others are just as fun. The scenes inside the factory are generally creepy with the endless rows of body parts and boxes providing the best setting here for the big finale and the race to get out of the house before it takes over are just as much fun. This also manages to get some fun out of the rather impressive special effects for the doll, which uses a pretty creepy look with a fine amount of facial suggestions and moving body parts to look suitably creepy on-screen. There's not a whole lot really wrong with this one, as there's in fact only one big issue which is the sheer by-the-numbers plot this provides, falling into the typical clichés found in most similar genre pictures utilizing this familiar storyline which is really where the lone difference occurs of the curse providing some minor change but beyond that there's not a whole lot of change that comes from here. While the beginning of this does take a pretty long time to get going as it tends to focus a lot more on the family settling in and how they react to the doll, that this one ends up being so familiar and clichéd is really all that holds this one down.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Following in the tiny (and lucrative) footsteps of killer doll hit Child's Play (1988), Dolly Dearest sees the spirit of a murderous Mayan demon freed from an ancient Mexican tomb to possess the dolls in the factory recently purchased by American family, The Wades (Sam Bottoms, Denise Crosby, Chris Demetral and Candy Hutson). But where Chucky, the diminutive star of Child's Play, was a brilliantly expressive creation designed by FX genius Kevin Yagher and voiced by the very talented Brad Dourif, 'Dolly' is just dull, a forgettable lump of plastic with zero personality.Furthermore, the script for Dolly Dearest is extremely derivative, not just content with ripping off Child's Play, but several other horror classics as well (there are shades of The Omen, The Exorcist and Poltergeist); the direction is also uninspired, leaving the reasonable cast struggling against the odds to make matters entertaining. The film might have proved more bearable with more and much gorier death scenes, but all we get are a bloodless electrocution and a guy having a heart attack (having had his hand pushed into a sewing machine). Oh, and the only half decent scares are courtesy of a stray cat that makes a habit of leaping out from behind the boxes in the factory.

Dolly Dearest,however, comes across to most people as a "Child's Play Rip-Off" and a "Cheesey Low-Budget Horror Movie" when in fact, it's neither of what they think it is! Dolly Dearest is actually a very clever film produced with original ideas. It doesn't copy Child's Play that much because, the Dollies are not killer dolls, they are possessed by a devilish spirit that "wants children and would do anything to spread it's word to the children". Therefore, the evil spirit takes the form of toys because, it knows that children love dolls (mainly little girls). And it is an easier way to get to children and possess them and turn them into the "Sanzia Devil Child", just like what happened to little Jessica in this movie.If my review doesn't agree with you, that's OK! Because you are entitled to your opinion. If you don't, I suggest you watch it a couple of times and let your imagination run wild because, I think the idea of this film is mainly left to the imagination.