This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is obviously a ripoff of Child's Play, but I don't mind that. I don't really mind movie rip offs - if they are entertaining. If they bring something cool to the table, I'm all in. Doesn't have to reinvent anything, but they have to be entertaining.Problem here is that the movie is kind of boring. It's not directly bad in quality. Budget is alright. It works alright. But it is just not much fun.I got this movie in a horror 4-pack, so my expectations weren't exactly sky high, but it still was too boring for my taste.It's not scary. The doll is alright, but never scary.You will have to be pretty damn crazy about killer doll-movies to find this interesting.It's a shame they didn't do more with it, they could have brought in some new, cool elements, but nope. Just a bland ripoff. And the Childs Play movies aren't even that great. I mean, Chucky is cool and all, but I was a little disappointed by them. At least the first couple. The "Chucky"-ones are better.

A centuries old force gets unleashed from an ancient tomb and takes possession of a doll, thus making it come to life so it can embark on a murderous spree. Moreover, said doll has a strong hypnotic hold on innocent little girl Jessica (a sturdy and appealing performance by the adorable Candy Hutson). Writer/director Maria Lease relates the entertaining story at a steady pace, grounds the fantastic premise in a credible workaday reality, does a solid job of crafting a spooky mood, maintains a generally serious tone throughout (fortunately, the diabolical doll doesn't crack a bunch of cheesy one-liners just like Chucky in the "Child's Play" movies), stages a couple of kill set pieces with flair, and offers a flavorsome evocation of Mexico and its superstitious locals that never degenerates into condescending stereotypes. Moreover, the doll looks truly creepy and the animatronic puppet effects used to bring it to life are nicely done. The competent acting by the capable cast rates as another definite plus: Denise Crosby as concerned mother Marilyn, Sam Bottoms as decent dad Elliot, Chris Demetral as eager son Jimmy, Rip Torn as crusty archaeologist Karl Resnick, Lupe Ontiveros as chatty and cheery housekeeper Camilla, and Enrique Renaldo as the earnest Estrella. Both Mark Snow's spare shuddery score and Eric D. Anderson's sharp cinematography are up to speed. A fun little fright flick.

Dolly Dearest starts at an archaeological dig in Mexico where professor Bob Larabe (Brass Adams) opens an ancient tomb he believes to be Mayan, however in an accident Larabe is killed & evil spirits escape the tomb... Elliot (Sam Bottoms) & Marilyn Read (Denise Crosby) plus their two young children Jessica (Candace Hutson) & Jimmy (Chris Demetral) are about to begin a new life in Mexico having moved from Los Angeles, they have sunk all their money into a doll factory which they plan to run themselves. The factory isn't in the best of conditions but the Read's are prepared for the hard work ahead, while looking around Jessica notices a rack of large dolls & ask's her Mother if she can have one which she can. Unfortunately this is no ordinary doll, it starts to possess Jessica & make her say & do bad things while the doll itself has been possessed by an evil Sanzian spirit released from the tomb who likes to kill, terrorise & generally cause trouble...Written & directed by Maria Lease I thought Dolly dearest was an average horror film, it passed the time but wasn't especially good. The script has Child's Play (1988) written all over doesn't it? It also has a little bit of The Omen (1976) thrown in for good measure as well with it's child possession angle & evil spirits. Now, both Child's Play & The Omen are fine films so what's wrong with blending them together I hear you say. Well for a start it adds nothing of it's own & doesn't do a thing with the concept, this could have been a great little horror film if the filmmakers had delivered plenty of deaths, a quick pace to the story, decent character's, some decent exploitation & something that just wasn't so instantly forgettable. It's all rather predictable, it's far too slow (only one kill within the first hour?), the potential of having a factory of possessed dolls seemed to be wasted, it's set entirely within the confines of one house, a factory & an archaeological dig which gives it a very limited feeling. Having said that it's quite fun on occasion, it doesn't really try to be anything else other than a killer doll horror film & as long as you can cope with a slow pace it provides a reasonable amount of entertainment. At least it kept me watching until the end & I didn't want to stop it at any point. Nowhere near as good as Child's Play, Dolls (1987) or Puppet Master (1989).Director Lease proves that women can make horror films just as badly as any male although to be fair to her Dolly Dearest is competent & has a nice horror film atmosphere to it, it's not really scary though & there's an unforgivable lack of blood & gore, someone is stabbed with some scissors & someone gets their hand caught in a sewing machine but that's about it. The dolls themselves are really ugly & aren't scary or creepy & if I had children I wouldn't give them a doll as unintentionally freaky looking as this.Technically Dolly Dearest is alright, it could have been worse I suppose, the doll effects are OK although the red evil spirit effect's at the start look extremely dated. Set in Mexico it was actually filmed in Santa Clarita, California. The acting was average with the two children becoming increasingly more annoying as time passed, Rip Torn makes an appearance as an archaeologist.Dolly Dearest isn't the best killer toy film ever but it's not the worst either, I suppose it's smack bang right in the middle somewhere. I thought it was average, worth a watch if you've got nothing better to do & you can grab a copy cheap or catch it on TV for free.

When I borrowed this from a friend, he said that it was "just a stupid little movie that you could watch, if you didn't take it seriously... at all". Well, I must say, he was absolutely right. This film has no redeeming qualities whatsoever... it's just bad. The very idea is so stupid that it's no wonder that this was an independent film... I can't imagine a studio that would be so overbearing that it would fund a film like this. I have seen some bad horror films in my time, but this is just... it's hard to put into words just how bad it is. The plot is stupid and lame. The pacing is horrible. How can 90 minutes go by so slowly? The acting is awful with no exceptions. And I do mean awful. Not one single character is convincingly acted. Even Rip Torn, the one name on the cast list that is actually a recognizable actor, does a bad job in this. I'm going to have to assume that it's the quality of the direction that is to blame for this, as Rip does a fine job in everything else I've seen him in. The characters are poorly written and not even the least bit credible. They are paper-thin, stereotypical and clichéd as well. The dialog is poorly written, and can be divided into two sections, both equally bad. The first is all the standard dialog that you hear in all of these half-cooked horror films... the clichéd stuff. "Something is in there!" "It will kill again!" Stuff like that. The second is dialog made up to sound smart... most of this is said by the character of the son. This is something the writer put in to appeal to teenagers that see the film... which is a problem, because the son character is supposed to be an inquisitive, book-smart, intelligent kid. So it doesn't fit very well to have him say "dude" and "cool" in-between his smart lines. The doll was about as scary as a visit at grand-ma's... and that's being generous. The film has very few, if any, genuine scares or shocks. The premise is unoriginal. The only real reason to see this is to laugh at the pure ridiculous nature of it. The number of clichés, the amount of stupidity in the production, the ludicrous script, the lack of creativity... it can't be properly described. If you have a chance to do so for free, see it for yourself and you'll see what I mean. An unremarkable film that is only worth spending time on if you, like me, want to compare horror films(particularly bad ones). No one should have to spend money on seeing it, though, unless they are crazy about "killer doll" horror films. I recommend it only to people belonging in one of the two aforementioned groups. No one else. 1/10