The Hot Spot Rating
Dolly Dearest (1992)
Cast: Denise Crosby, Sam Bottoms, Rip Torn, Chris Demetral, Candace Hutson, Lupe Ontiveros
Director: Maria Lease
Synopsis: The Omen meets Child’s Play, resulting in a hoot of a hybrid. Ludicrous, laughable, but never less than thoroughly enjoyable.
“It’s a lot better than Child’s Play III” – Pyschotronic Video Guide
“You thought Chucky was yucky – Creature Features
“An entertainingly creepy Child’s Play knockoff.”— retrospective horror review
“Dolly herself is genuinely unnerving.”— cult horror commentary
“One of the better post-Child’s Play evil-doll movies.”— modern genre reassessment
“The Mexican factory setting gives the film an unusual atmosphere.”— horror retrospective
“Ridiculous, derivative and surprisingly watchable.”— cult-film review
“The film embraces its absurdity with admirable sincerity.”— exploitation cinema commentary
“Dolly Dearest has enough weirdness to distinguish itself from the killer-toy pack.”— modern horror review
“The doll’s facial expressions remain nightmare fuel.”— horror fandom commentary
Dolly Dearest is a blatant Child’s Play rip-off with shades of The Omen thrown in for good measure. Shunning originality or subtlety in approach, the film dives into its cause with relish and gusto and ends up hitting the target with its bar set low on originality but high on campy, entertaining hammy horror of a sumptuous kind. Subtlety and originality be damned, Dolly Dearest goes for the fun factor and succeeds in delivering unrelentingly goofy fun in spades. Everything about the movie is overwrought and played with deadpan seriousness, which enhances its campy deliciousness to the hilt.
The opening scenes set the tone with some cheap and hokey special effects as an excavator is struck down in some sort of ancient tomb, which is subsequently turned into a doll factory. A typical all-American family of four are moving to Mexico, where they aim to make millions marketing beautiful dolls to the world. The parents and their young children move into a plush home with a local maid, but things soon start to take an unexpected turn as the young girl brings home a doll taken from the doll manufacturing and storage plant. Very soon, the cherubic young girl is spending far too much time with Dolly, and within moments, there are ominous sounds of pitter-pattering little steps around the house.
Borrowing from The Omen, the young girl is taken to the local church for a blessing ceremony, but turns nasty as the church draws closer, throwing a tantrum and absolutely refusing to get out of the car. 
The Mexican maid, typically religious and versed in local superstition, suspects that there is something evil about Dolly and the effect she is having on the young child. She resorts to chuntering prayers under her breath, which has the child seething with rage. Dolly strikes her first deadly blow, and the threat from the maid is nullified in the most electrifying manner.
Soon, the young girl starts to become inseparable from the doll, and her mother feels as though the obsession with Dolly is increasingly disturbing. The girl starts turning nasty and occasionally aggressive when she is told to spend less time obsessing over the doll.
Dolly’s unrelenting control over the girl starts to manifest ever more, and the family is increasingly under duress as Dolly’s influence grips the child to obsessive levels.
Dolly is now in control, and the mother finds herself reeling and replaced as the head of the family. Anyone who dares to separate Dolly suffers a terrible fate, and the victims start to multiply.
The question is, will Dolly destroy the family and reign supreme, or will Denise Crosby, the mother, be able to fight back and reclaim her family and rescue her child from the grip of pure evil?
Dolly Dearest plays by the book but does so with gusto and verve. The evil doll scowls and is exceedingly nasty, and takes little time getting down to the business of doing evil.
The film moves swiftly to its devilish showdown and is quite predictable but never dull. Dolly is suitably fiendish, and the film rarely suffers a dull moment along its way to its showdown between good and evil.
For those who enjoy their evil doll movies, this one is unrelenting fun, even if it’s perhaps more amusing than it is frightening. For some good old-fashioned popcorn horror fun spiced with heaps of cheese, you can’t really go wrong with Dolly Dearest. Highly recommended for those who relish their horror movies with a heavy accent on the camp!
This Dolly, though splendidly silly, has all the right moves!
