DOLLS (1986)

 

(Director: Stuart Gordon. Screenwriter: Ed Naha.)

Review

Two groups of pothole- and mud-stuck travelers, caught in a sudden, violent storm, seek overnight shelter in the old, spooky, and curiously charming house of Hilary and Gabriel Hardwicke, a canny elderly couple who make porcelain dolls, and might be witches.

The first group of travelers is made up of spouse-whipped David Bower (Ian Patrick Williams, RE-ANIMATOR, 1985), his rich, unpleasant wife (Rosemary, played with thorny perfection by Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, RE-ANIMATOR, 1985) and David’s charming, imaginative pre-tween daughter, Judy, who’s consistently, openly abused by her father and stepmother.

Second group of travelers: a sweet-natured businessman, Ralph Morris (Stephen Lee, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, 1991), and Enid (Cassie Stuart, SLAYGROUND, 1983) and Isabelle Prange (Bunt Bailey, SPELLCASTER, 1988), the latter two petty-thief hitchhikers intending to prey upon Ralph and the Hardwickes.

When post-bedtime, theft-minded Enid sneaks off to check out one of the rooms with antiques (which she pronounces as “ant-i-cues”), the underlying dark tensions between key characters explode into a cycle of gore-restrained, darkly humorous poppet vengeance.

Released stateside on May 29, 1987, this low budget, tautly scripted and edited hour-and-seventeen-minute cinematic morality play evokes, on all levels, its fairy tale/innocence-and-darkness influences. Everything works, from its sketched-out characterizations to its visual effects (courtesy of a team of FX artists, including John Carl Buechler [NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD, 1993], and stop-motion effects artist David Allen [THE HOWLING, 1981]). Its dreamlike cinematography (thank you, Mac Ahlberg, RE-ANIMATOR, 1985) helps accomplish this as well.

 

DOLL’s other, fun-as-their-co-stars players include:

Carrie Lorraine (POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE, 1986) as Judy, David Bowers’s charming, imaginative pre-tween daughter;

Guy Rolfe (PUPPET MASTER III: TOULON’S REVENGE, 1991) as Gabriel Hartwicke, child- and magic-appreciative dollmaker, witch, and husband to Hilary;

and

Hilary Mason (DON’T LOOK NOW, 1973) as Hilary Hartwicke, Gabriel’s equally canny wife and fellow witch.

 

If you’re looking for an above-average, modest, low budget and gore-restrained fairy tale with a happy finish, DOLLS might be your hour-plus thrill source.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

According to Wikipedia: Ed Naha’s screenplay was sparked by Bruno Bettelheim’s well-regarded 1976 nonfiction book The Uses of Magic. Director Stuart Gordon considered the film a modern take on the Grim Brothers’ 1812 fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” (aka “Little Stepbrother and Little Stepsister”).

Among Ed Naha’s other screenwriting/film-story work: TROLL (1986).

According to IMDb: DOLLS was “shot before” and “on the same sets” as FROM BEYOND (1986) but was “released almost a year after [FROM BEYOND] due to all the doll effects in post-production”.

Also according to IMDb: Stuart Gordon’s wife (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) and children (as well as friends of the Gordons) provided the whispering of the dolls.

Enid’s lack of a surname and over-the-top outfit mirrors that of “Material Girl”-era Madonna.

Also according to IMDb: actress Bailey Bunty, Isabel in DOLLS, appeared as the main girl in a-ha’s [1984] pop music video “Take On Me”

Also according to Wikipedia: a DOLLS sequel was considered, Stuart Gordon again directing. Its plot: Ralph and young Judy (from the first film) are now a happy Boston-based family after his marriage to Judy’s mother. Judy gets a package in the mail from England, containing doll versions of Hilary and Gabriel Hardwicke, the witches the first film. Plans for this follow-up movie ended before production resulted.

DEATHBED (2002)

 

(Director: Danny Draven. Screenplay by John Strysik, based on George Barry’s 1977 film DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS.)

 

Review

A young couple─children’s book artist Karen (Tanya Dempsey, SHRIEKER, 1988) and photographer Jerry (Brave Matthews, AMERICAN ZOMBIELAND, 2020)─move into a Los Angeles, California flat, unaware that it has a murder-haunted bed in its upstairs room. They find it and begin sleeping on the quaint-looking, metal-framed bed on which the deaths took place. The couple experience waking and sleeping nightmares about the 1920-30s psychosexual killings (shown in black and white flashbacks) of “Ghost Man” (Michael Sonye, billed as Dukey Flyswatter, HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS, 1988) strangling two of seven women (including Louise Astor, played by Meagan Mangum) with silk neck ties.

The effect of Jerry and Karen’s nightmares bleed into their work and relationships─particularly their dealings with their on-site landlord, Art (Joe Estevez, SOULTAKER, 1990).

Produced by Stuart Gordon, Charles Band (Full Moon Pictures founder) and others, DEATHBED is a loose remake of George Barry’s way-different 1977 flick DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS PEOPLE. This remake is a good, makes-great-use-of-its-low-budget work. The production design/art direction (courtesy of Johnny R. Long and others) is mood-consistent with its spare-but-effective soundtrack (composer: James T. Sale, THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY, 2008) and relatively restrained gory special effects (Mark Bautista, MANK, 2020). The direction, Hollywood(land)-centric story (which slyly references H.P. Lovecraft) and flow of the movie is tight as can be, given its mostly well-acted characters and their personalities/histories.

Sonye/Flyswatter, an actor, screenwriter, and lyricist/lead singer of several horror punk/metal bands, primarily Haunted Garage and Penis Flytrap, is fun and ghoulish as “Ghost Man,” the spectral creep/killer whose crimes and spirit continue on well beyond his death. Film nerds may appreciate the brief appearance of Constance Estevez,  billed as Constance Anderson, as a “Maternal Model”─according to IMDb, in 2004 she married Joe Estevez, Martin Sheen’s younger and equally prolific brother.

DEATHBED is a worthwhile movie if you don’t mind its solid-for-its-limited-budget effects, occasional lapses into questionable acting (by supporting players) and its overall low budget. The filmmakers achieve what they set out to do─create a solid, tightly shot and edited minimally funded film─and that's all any reasonable viewer can expect, given the filmmakers' resources.