Horror cinema presents yet another persuasive reason why you should never go camping, with this gory thriller that proves no good can come from walking in the woods, seeking pretty hilltop views or communing with nature in any way.
The attractive and therefore doomed couple who learn this lesson the hard way are Macy (up and coming scream queen Fabianne Therese) and Chase (Seann William Scott, for ever Stifler from American Pie). As the story begins, Chase is planning to propose to Macy, and intends to pop the question at the top of a mountain after a hike, because he is a fool who has clearly never seen a horror film. But Macy has doubts about whether she is ready to become a full-on stepmother to Chase’s daughter Evy (Eve Blackhurst, possibly related to the film’s writer-director Rod Blackhurst).
These misgivings about maternity are echoed by the mayhem that erupts later on, when the couple are attacked by a deranged figure dressed to look like a 6ft doll, with a blond wig and a pseudo-ceramic, infantile-looking head mask with just one fake blue eye. The other eye socket has been knocked open to reveal a blackened void from which weird, babyish whimperings can sometimes be heard. This figure (played by non-binary wrestler Max the Impaler) doesn’t really speak, but their gestures and nonverbal displays suggest they are fixated on childhood games, and that they want to adopt Macy as their newest toy. Dolly has quite a few toy dolls already in a creepy, dilapidated house to which they drag poor Macy back after incapacitating dumb, hapless Chase.
The rest of the film is one long game of catch and release, as characters escape each other, are recaptured, attack one another with shovels and other dirty, no doubt tetanus-bearing household implements, and then escape again. As such, it’s a bit of a snooze, but Therese is very good at channelling terror and distress; she really gets to go hog wild with those modes at the end in one long tribute to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Although aren’t all these type of films tributes to that one way or another?
• Dolly is in UK and Irish cinemas from 6 March.
