Horror Watch: Dolls (1986)

Watched:  10/25/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  I'll call it a first viewing

Director:  Stuart Gordon

Sometimes I just want to know what the story is or was about a movie more than I care about the movie.

One day I'll do a full de-brief on Stuart Gordon's From Beyond, but the movie which is the subject of our post - Dolls (1986) - and From Beyond were apparently shot back-to-back re-using some of the same locations and sets.  They certainly share some of the same producers and a Director of Photography, Mac Ahlberg.

I'm guessing Dolls was shot as a sure-fire money-maker - and it's worth noting one of the producers involved with Dolls wound up writing Puppetmaster - which has a cameo by our own Barbara Crampton, star of From Beyond.  

All that aside, Dolls was a movie I saw at least in part around 8th grade.  I was staying the night with my pal, Peabo.  Peabo had all the movie channels, something we did not have at our house, but that night he fell asleep early - and fell asleep hard while we were in the living room.  His mom was a movie-fiend, sometimes driving us to the movies and then sitting a row or three behind us instead of dropping us off (she even came to RoboCop 2).  She observed Peabo drooling onto the sofa and pulled up her own seat, and so it was I remember watching at least part of Dolls with my friend's mom circa 1988, lasting til like 1:00 AM.  Phyllis was always all right.*

I don't think we finished it, because I only remembered bits til about the halfway point, but that was almost forty years ago, so who knows.  

Dolls, itself, is a very un-serious movie that is probably best categorized as "horror-comedy" and feels more like a sketch of an idea than a full movie.  

A young girl, Judy, is travelling with her dad (Ian Patrick Williams) and his new wife (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) on a "family" vacation.  The step-mom is a Cruella DeVille sort of terrible human, and the dad is not thrilled to have to take care of his own child, but it's part of the divorce settlement.  

They're lost on their road-trip when the car breaks down in front of a spooky, big old house.  With a wild storm blowing in, they break into the house.  Inside they meet the owners, an older couple, Gabriel (Guy Rolfe) and Hilary (Hilary Mason).  Gabriel is a toy and doll-maker.  

Immediately, three people crash the house to get out of the weather - two British punk-rockers and Ralph, a nice fellow.  One of the girls is played by Bunty Bailey.  And if you don't know her, she's the woman from the Take on Me video by A-ha.  Here, she's dressed like punk Madonna.  The other woman is Cassie Stuart and Ralph is Stephen Lee.

Bunty Bailey goes to steal things from the house when she gets abducted by *dolls*.   Judy sees them snatch her away and she goes to tell her father, who tells her to take a hike, and then Ralph, who believes *something* happened.

And that's it.  It's a kindly old couple insisting nothing is up as the guests are picked off and transformed into Dolls.  

Oddly, I probably like it more than Puppet Master, which came out of the gate with so much "lore" it could have used the simple through-line of Dolls.  But I did dig that they have full sequences with stop-motion mixed with puppetry and other visuals.  And the creepy transformation of Bunty Bailey is pretty interesting.

It's not a *bad* movie, but no one seems like they think this is much more prestigious than an episode of an anthology show.  I do appreciate that Stuart Gordon's sense of zaniness is ever-present, including a completely unnecessary fantasy sequence in which a teddy bear takes out the parents (this is in the first minutes and is in the trailer). 

Probably a good first Rated-R horror for some kid out there.

*she also didn't rat me and Steanso out for the time she was watering her plants when Steanso, then 16, drove past their house and I had to exit the car while it was moving and she watched me log roll down the street.