This week, we pay tribute to Ed Gale and Mark Snow while diving into the 1991 horror film, Dolly Dearest. We discuss the notable careers of Gale, best known for his portrayal of Chucky in the Child’s Play franchise, and Snow, the composer behind iconic TV themes like The X-Files.

We review the film’s plot, characters, and special effects, while also reflecting on its place in the horror genre. Join us on this strange ride through the eerie world of killer dolls and indigenous devil babies that drink the blood of children. Don’t forget to leave your thoughts and comments; we’d love to hear what you think!

Episode 453, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, why don’t we just keep going with tribute episodes. You know, it’s not like we haven’t done three or four already this time we’re killing two birds with one stone. There are two people, one in the acting world, one in the composing world. Uh, ed Gale, who was probably best known for playing Chucky, you know, when he wasn’t a doll.

Yeah, in the Child’s play franchise and Mark Snow, who is a composer, you know, probably not everybody knows who he is, but you have heard his music all over the place. Starting from the mid seventies. This guy was, uh, composing from TV series like Starsky and Hutch and The Love Boat and Heart to Heart Dynasty Cagney and Lacey PeeWee’s Playhouse.

Eventually, uh, did every episode of Smallville and every episode of the reboot of the Twilight Zone. As well as the X-Files theme song. Oh, cool. That is the one of the most iconic songs. I, you know, I didn’t realize this, just that theme song for the X-Files hit like the billboard charts in several countries.

Like really, really well. I’m not 

Craig: surprised. 

Todd: It’s so iconic. 

Craig: Yeah, it was, uh, I remember it was on my Pure Moods cd. Do you remember Pure Moods? I 

Todd: do. I loved that cd. I listen to it all the time. It’s a genius song, and apparently it didn’t come easy to him. He landed the job because he lived near the show creator, Chris Carter, and they could communicate with each other pretty easily.

So Chris Carter kept rejecting earlier motifs that he had that were more loud and bold, and he accidentally placed his hand on a keyboard. When there was an echo sound effect that was programmed and this ethereal sound that came out was so intriguing that he ended up using it as a model for the rest of the theme.

Yeah, yeah. So it’s so cool. Yeah. But, but yeah, he’s done movies as well, including this one. This was one of just hundreds of movies that he scored. He also was. A roommate of Michael Cayman in college, also very famous, uh, composer who, uh, did diehard Lethal Weapon franchises. I remember him as Robinhood Prince of Thieves.

That was huge when we were kids. He did the music for that. But anyway, Mark Snow Dolly Dearest, one of the horror movies. Uh. Kind of midway through his career that he did, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to hear some of his stuff as well as see some of Ed Gale’s acting as the, once again killer doll in this once again Killer Doll movie that was definitely accused of being a child’s play ripoff, one of many, but this film is a 1991 and it had a very brief release in the Midwest in theaters, but mostly went straight to video.

It was produced by Daniel Katy, who was a longtime producer of exploitation and porn films, and the director and writer of this, this is Maria Lease. She started out her career as an actress in exploitation films. Did a little bit of acting in some porn movies in the late seventies, and then, um, went into directing.

Porn and soft core stuff, and this seems to be one of the first more mainstream ish movies that she’s done, even though, I mean, do you call this mainstream? I mean, it’s, it’s horror in the nineties, so right. Low budget horror in the nineties. Very interesting movie. I had never seen it before, but I think I pass by it on the shelves all the time, so I was anxious to get a chance to see this and see what it was all about and how it held up.

How about you have, had you seen this before? 

Craig: Uh, maybe. I don’t know if so. I didn’t really remember it. I, I do remember the box art and if I’ve seen it, I passed it over many, many times before I saw it, because I thought the box art looks stupid. Oh yeah. It looks, and I’m just recalling this from memory, I didn’t even look back at it, but it, it looks like.

Kind of a person, but with a doll face, like in a kind of slumped doll pose. And like, it’s supposed to be scary, but I just thought it looked dumb. And even looking at the back of the box, I think there was a picture of the doll, like with angry evil face, and I thought it looked cheap. And so I just. Wasn’t really interested.

And you know, now having watched it, having watched it again, if I have seen it before, I’m not really surprised that I don’t really remember much about it. ’cause it’s pretty forgettable. It 

Todd: really is. Although I was surprised to see some of the faces in here. Yeah. What is ripped, torn doing in this movie?

Like 

Craig: right, ripped, torn, sir. He is making big movies at this time and would go on to be in some of the biggest. Movies and, and biggest blockbusters. Ever. I mean, this guy, I, I think of this guy as a reputable actor. Yeah. And I couldn’t believe when I saw his name in the credits. And then he just plays a dumb part.

Like Yeah. And I, I was shocked by it. But again, we’ve. Said it a million times. A check is a check. A job is a job. So you know, more power to him. I was just, I was really shocked. 

Todd: Maybe he needed a new truck. You know, that’s probably, maybe, who knows? Denise Crosby is in this and, uh, she’s been all over.

Actually, most of these actors have a lot of credits and television. Mostly that’s true. 

Craig: Denise Crosby, I, I really only know her as the mom from Pet Cemetery. The, the. Original film adaptation, but I think she was big on like Star Trek or something like that. 

Todd: Yeah. The next Generation She was Tasha Ya, that’s where I remember her from.

I wasn’t a real Star Trek guy growing up, but later in life I, I did get into it a bit and the next generation’s a solid series and she’s all over it. So. 

Craig: And then the guy that, the guy that plays her husband was in something big too. A big war movie, right? Like Apocalypse Now 

Todd: or something 

Craig: like that. 

Todd: Yeah, apocalypse Now.

Sam Bottoms. Oh, he is in Sea Biscuit, the Outlaw. Josie Wales, the last picture show quite a few older movies and then kind of coming into this era, you know, of the nineties, and he’s taking these sorts of roles. I think that tends to be pretty typical of a most actors, right? They kind of have their moment, if they’re lucky enough to have a moment, you know, unless you just hit the gold mine, you know, you find yourself, uh.

Sure. Doing, working. Yeah, just doing, working. Exactly. There’s nothing wrong with it. We talk about this all the time. I, I dunno why people give actors a hard time for this kind of thing. There aren’t enough roles for everyone to be in big budget movies all the time once they’ve made one. You know? I know 

Craig: My favorite, my favorite is when people hit it big and then people, you know, dig back in their filmography and find some bad movie they did before and like.

Bring it out to like embarrass them. That’s so stupid. Like, who cares? Everybody starts somewhere. So few people just, you know, have lightning strike and they’re immediately amazing and doing amazing work all the time. Right? And even, you know, like. Like I said, you know, rip torn at this point has been successful.

He’s, you know, a good actor, big deal. Maybe he was going through a sleepy period. I’m certainly not giving him a hard time. I was just surprised to see him here. 

Todd: Well, and they’re, honestly, they’re all, they’re all fine in this movie. This, they’re fine, to be honest with you. This movie was more solid than I expected it to be.

It was just slow paced and boring. It was boring, especially the first half. Yeah, there just wasn’t enough action with the doll. The script tries really, really hard. To build up this mythology of where the doll came from and how they discover the secret to it all. And there’s this archeological side alongside all this stuff, and it’s like, you know what?

Just like we can establish that and, and get that done with. Yeah. Like I think we all came here to see a killer doll terrorizing a family and it hardly happens. In the second half it does, but in the first half. Yeah. 

Craig: I, yeah, I agree with you. It’s a lot of buildup. I, I feel like they’re doing a lot to try to establish tone.

Like, yeah, this is spooky and creepy. I’m like, okay, I get it. I don’t need an hour of it. Like, let’s, let’s get to it. Yeah. You know, I don’t think this movie was going for the exact same thing, even though it is so much like. The original child’s play. I mean, right. There’s a point late in the movie where the dad makes these dolls, like he has moved his family to Mexico so that he can, I guess, make these dolls on the cheap in a factory that is really just a shed.

Yeah, I don’t even understand what is happening. There, but whatever. There’s a point late in the movie where in the factory you just see the dolls, faces like disassembled from the rest of their bodies, and it’s almost indistinguishable from the Chucky doll. Like 

Todd: it, it kind of is, except as a girl. 

Craig: Yeah, well slap a long-haired wig on it and a dress, and it looks a little bit different, but when it’s just the face, it’s almost indistinguishable.

It’s crazy. I don’t remember what point I was trying to make. 

Todd: Well, the dolls themselves when they’re not moving, actually look pretty good. I could see this being a real doll that, you know, kids would want. You know, I think they did a pretty decent job of designing these dolls. 

Craig: It’s funny that you say that ’cause I think it’s hideous.

Like, I can’t imagine any girl would ever want this doll. Oh. Oh, it’s ugly. Um. 

Todd: It’s like an almost full size, you know, doll? No, I didn’t think so. I thought they were pretty, I think they get ugly when their faces start scrunching up and they start moving around. Obviously, you know, I just couldn’t 

Craig: match and, and, and again, I realize this was a, a slightly different time, but you know, this was when we were, you know, in middle school or whatever.

I don’t recall girls carrying around like old timey dolls me. Oh. Whatever. No, it’s like an American, not just, yeah, like an American doll, but like the size. It’s almost as big as the girl. It’s kinda like Chucky. 

Todd: But that was the whole appeal, right? Like the My buddy doll, which the Chucky one’s based off of, yeah.

Was an almost full-size boy doll. That’s supposed to be your companion. That’s the shtick, that’s the novelty. The American girl dolls kind of the same Well. Maybe they’re not so big, they’re small. But anyway, it’s kind of the same thing. You know, you, you got this doll that’s almost as big as you are, and so it’s kind of like your little friend.

And I thought they did a decent job with it, but I did feel like it became very low rent. Chucky the minute the doll start moving because it was very clear they only had like one model for all these. And it was, uh, you know, not, not the same team, let’s put it that way. That put all the effort into the Chucky special effects probably ’cause they didn’t have the budget for it.

It was reminding me a lot of the, the baby doll from demonic toys. 

Craig: Yeah. Yeah. It was evident when it was the doll and when it was the actor, because they’re pretty distinctively different sizes. Yeah. But the whole, you know, the doll running around and you just kind of seeing it, you know, in the background or you’re just seeing its feet.

It, it was, and I, I, I’m gonna keep comparing it to child’s play because that’s the one that’s. The most, like with the doll that size and they look so similar, but you know, all these dolls movies, that’s what you see. You just get glimpses of it. Like it’ll kind of run across a doorframe in the back or you’ll just see its little feet moving.

Yeah. Something that child’s play one did well was the mislead where you didn’t know. If the doll was really doing this stuff or if the kid was just crazy for a while. I mean, you find out, you know, halfway through the movie or whatever, but for a while there was that little mister act. This, you know, it’s the doll the whole time.

And you know, it’s possessed by. Okay. Not Satan, but not 

Todd: Satan, but pretty darn close. 

Craig: So it, it, well, so the movie opens up with some old guy excavating some ruins and he like, you know, I don’t know, opens up something and it lets out this evil red light show 

Todd: animation. 

Craig: Yeah. That like. I don’t know. Bolts around into the factory, I think.

Yeah. Into the factory. Mm-hmm. Which is right next door. It’s like red light rays, but it’s also like shrieking and Yeah, giggling and stuff. It’s weird. And then it goes to the title. Okay. So we find out at some point. This family, oh God, I won’t remember their names. Elliot is the dad. Marian is the mom.

Jimmy. That’s easy is the son I recognized, like he was so familiar to me. Yeah. But I, for the life of me, can’t remember what I recognize him from. Like, I, I, I looked at his filmography and I’m like, yeah, I think I’ve seen a couple of those movies, but I just feel like he’s so familiar. I know. 

Todd: I think he just had a similar look to another kid that’s right on the top of my tongue, but I couldn’t tell you who.

Yeah, I would’ve 

Craig: sworn that he was in clown house. I would’ve sworn that he was the middle brother in clown house, but I looked it up and he wasn’t. Anyway, they are moving to Mexico to like start over because it seems like they’ve been in financial trouble or something. And the dad has bought this factory and he’s gonna make these dolls.

And it just so happens that this factory is right next to the, these Mayan ruins that are being excavated and like archeologists are checking them out or whatever. 

Todd: Yeah. It’s like a tunnel. 

Craig: Yeah. And, and so you’ve got this, what we realized very quickly, this doll is possessed by whatever this is that comes from, it’s just such, I don’t wanna say lazy, it’s just so paint by number, like Yeah.

Oh, the house. The house was built on an ancient Indian burial ground. Like Okay. Like, huh? Sort of, yeah. So like the factory’s right next door to a Mayan thing, which ends up not being Mayan. It ends up. It. They call the people are like the Sania people. 

Todd: Sania, Sania, Sania. Yeah, I think that’s right. Sania, which means literally supposedly Satan on Earth.

Great. Which he just casually says. Yeah. It’s weird because like you say, being paint by numbers, we go into this knowing it’s gonna be a killer to all movie. We see the Mayan ruins thing. We see this family move in, the kids go to with their dad to this factory, and we see that it’s a shed, which was very disappointing.

But then the dad is also questioning the guy. Oh, it’s a great pleasure 

Clip: having handled this for you, Mr. Wade. It’s my first sale, Mr. Australia. The appraisal documents indicated the factory had been kept up. After Sonora DeLuca’s death? Yes, sir. We have been very careful to keep everything just as it was when no one ever comes to the factory.

Not for any reason. See, of course, in your, I understand that we need a little cleaning perhaps. The market projections, the inventory analysis, the assessments. Who prepared that material? I did that, Sarah. I copy from American Business Book. Nice work. 

Todd: To which the dad just sort of seems to shrug his shoulders like, okay, it seemed like this was a famous Mexican doll maker who passed away.

And so the dad was coming in and buying up the factory in hopes of starting that off again. And there already these dolls in there. There’s a whole lineup of ’em, and the girl takes one. So I guess a few days ago that ruins had broken open and those dolls had been possessed and they were just sitting up on the counter waiting to be.

Plucked. So she takes one and is like, oh, good night, Dolly. You’re gonna be my new playmate. You’re gonna be my only playmate. And as she’s falling asleep and the dolls on the chair in her room, it turns its head right. So boom, right away, first 10 minutes, it’s that. But then like, I don’t know, like you said, it’s just like they spend a lot of time just building and building and building, and we don’t really see the doll much.

Craig: No. Well, there’s a good 15, 20 minutes at least of the girl just carrying the doll around a lot and talking to it and, and there’s mm-hmm this dollhouse slash playhouse kid size playhouse in the backyard, and the girl just hangs out in there with the doll all the time. She starts getting bratty and talking back, and it’s obviously the influence of the doll, but as is always the case in these movies, the.

Parents, the mother attribute it to the stress of moving or blah, blah, blah, whatever. Yeah. But yes, this goes on for a long time and like we can hear the doll talking and at times it seems like the mom can hear the doll talking and like the girl is locking the mom out. And like I said before, like.

Talking back and being sassy, and it’s building towards something, but it builds so slowly, like we’re introduced to the housekeeper, Camilla. Mm-hmm. Very, very early on. And she’s a, I presume, very famous Latina actress because I. Recognize her from everywhere. She’s been all over the place. I don’t have her name in, I don’t have her name in front of me, but I remember her distinctly, the movie Selena, with Jennifer Lopez.

She played the woman who was her like friend and, and the woman who ended up murdering her salazar or something like that, I think. And she was 

Todd: very good. She’s Lupe, ROS. Remember the housekeeper in Goonies who comes in in the beginning and. They’re messing. Oh my God. That was 

Craig: her 

Todd: Rosata. Yeah, Rosata. Oh my God.

That was her. She has been in everything. Television, movies, you name it. She might be the most decorated actress in this, uh, in this whole show. It’s pretty cool. Oh yeah. 

Craig: Everywhere. And she’s good. Yeah. And I like her. She’s probably my favorite character. I may jump around a little bit in this. Beginning part because nothing really matters.

She thinks there’s something strange going on. The little girl like SAEs her and like, you know, knocks dishes out of her hands and then says something in a foreign language, and she’s like, oh, it’s the language of the sania. And she’s like, I gotta get outta here. But not right away. No, not right away. But she, but because she also, I guess, without the owner’s knowledge, brings a priest in to bless the house, which freaks out the girl.

The girl freaks out, like has a conniption, like screams. And you know, all of this is so obvious and stupid. 

Todd: Well, the problem is there is nothing new here it is checking. All the boxes because this is how these movies often go. There’s like no variation here. 

Craig: This scene is a carbon copy of that scene from the Omen when they’re taking Damien to church and he’s getting closer and closer and they’re doing tight shots on his face, and then they’re showing like the religious iconography and back to his face, and it’s the exact same thing.

It’s the quick 

Todd: cuts back and forth. Yeah. It’s a, it’s a direct call out, but I mean, they do a nice job with it. I’ll have to say. I mean, that’s just the problem. There’s nothing distinctive about it, but it’s nice. It’s fine. I mean, eventually mom get, starts to get a little more freaked out about the girl talking to the doll.

She thinks she sees two shadows moving in the dollhouse. You know, when they’re back there playing, she thinks she hears the doll talking. Of course she’s disturbed by her behavior change. There’s a moment where the lights go out or something and the wind blows the door shut. Camilla goes out to bring the girl back in from the dollhouse, but she can’t get back into the door.

So then, uh, she can’t get in the front either. She goes, ends up going to the cellar. Now we are 30 minutes into the movie and I was like, God, this better be a kill coming up. Something big needs to happen ’cause we’re already a third of the way through this. Yeah, she’s in the cellar. There are lots of doll parts down there and Dolly closes the latch and then we get one of quite a few doll jump scares where the doll just like springs over someone’s shoulder and goes, go

and wide-eyed mouth open just like shaking. And I laughed every time that happened. It’s just like, it is funny

and Knox are down the stairs, stabs are in the shoulder, yada, yada, yada then, and the music here, by the way, is all quite good. ’cause you know, we’re talking about. The composer here. I really liked the motifs that he had. I liked the intro music. I thought the music here was really nice and intense. I know it’s just a guy with a, a room full of equipment.

He didn’t tend to get his music played by, uh, orchestras and things like that, but it doesn’t sound like that at all. This isn’t your typical Cynthia score that you would get with a movie like this at this particular time, with this particular budget, and for that. I thought it was pretty nice. 

Craig: You know, it’s funny you told me to pay attention to the score ’cause we were gonna be talking about this guy and so in the very beginning I was really trying to pay attention to it and I was thinking this is something that I could put on in the background, like when I’m reading a scary book or something.

’cause I do that. But then it completely faded into the background. Like it, nothing really stood out to me. It didn’t stand out to me as being. Bad for any reason, but it just kind of faded into the background. And I suppose that’s, that’s good. 

Todd: I would say so. 

Craig: Yeah. I mean, that’s what you’re going for, I guess it.

Right. And in these moments. These spooky moments, these, you know, like Camilla’s death where she eventually gets pushed into some kind of tub in the floor, in the basement, and then the doll throws like an electrical wire in there and it electrocutes her, whatever. What was that? I could not, for the life of me figure it out.

It would be, I would say like. Three by three square in the floor of the cellar that was like full of water and it looked like there was a hose that was like draining into it. Whoa. Do you have any idea what that was? My thought was maybe some kind of sump pump arrangement. That was the only thing that I could think of.

I had no idea, but it was deep. Yeah. ’cause later the, the dad comes home, I get, I don’t know if they’re all at home. I think they come home and the electricity’s out. Yeah. And he goes down to, you know, check the. The fuse box or whatever. Mm-hmm. He eventually, you know, I, I feel like there’s cat scares ’cause there, there’s also a cat in this house and it scares people all the time.

More than one cat scare in this, uh, in this one there are a couple, like right after each other, like somebody gets scared by the cat, then they get scared by the cap again. Like it was really funny. But eventually he like is down on the floor, like, I don’t know if he trips or whatever, but he’s down on the floor by that pool of whatever it is.

Her body shoots out and it’s clearly not her body. It’s some kind of dummy, it doesn’t look anything like her, but it shoots out as though it were, you know, trying to grab him or something. Yeah. And, and, and as though it were standing fully erect. Four feet underwater and shot out. It’s so weird. I have no idea what was going on there.

It was weird, but, but even that, like you said, oh God, please tell me that we’re getting to a kill soon. We skipped a lot. Like to get, to get to her first. That first death takes a and it’s not really the first, the, the archeologist in the beginning died too. 

Todd: That’s true. That’s true. 

Craig: But that took a long time to get there.

There’s also like a side story with Rip Toren, professor Resnick, who, I guess he’s in charge of this excavation, but he’s been like, he’s a professor at a university, so he’s been like supervising it from afar. But now that there’s been this incident, he’s going there himself and he’s been looking at pictures from the excavation and he sees that though.

They thought it was Mayan, it’s not. It’s the Sania. Tribe or whatever, and they keep cutting back and forth to that. And they also try at some point to make a cute little buddy movie between him, Resnick and Jimmy, like, oh God, Jimmy’s very curious. He’s very curious and very smart and inquisitive, and he, you know, when he finds out that they’re right next to like a, a Mayan temple excavation, like he reads a huge book on the Mayan people, and he’s very interested and he’s like exploring the excavation.

And then so when Resnick shows up, he’s there and he’s very, he’s annoying. He’s annoying, but he’s like. He like, they’re going for short round is what they’re Yeah. You know, like he’s gonna be the funny young sidekick. I feel like he even makes a joke about that. 

Clip: How far back have you 

Craig: been in there? 

Clip: Uh, only by halfway, but I think Introduce you to the end.

Let me show you. I can do it. I can be like, your eyes and Airstream. What you think. Does your father know you’re down here? Sure he does. Uh, my father’s always looking ways to further my education, so, um, lemme crawl on top and take a look for you. I’ve done it before, but it’s 

Craig: kind of dark in there, if you know what I mean.

But that, that’s what he wants. He wants to help this guy. And of course, rip torn is. Crotchety older guy who doesn’t want anything to do with the younger kid, but they, they still kinda, yeah. They, they have this kind of relationship and they help each other out. And when that started, I was like, we were probably, I don’t know, at least 20, 25 minutes into this movie when they started to try to establish this relationship.

And I was like, no, I don’t have time for this. This is a different movie. Right, 

Todd: exactly. No, you’re right. It’s maddening because honestly, like we just need to get to the point of this excavation thing faster. It’s not interesting enough to keep us going back there and slowly drip feeding us little tidbits of information about this.

So we go back to him and Jimmy. And Jimmy helps him crawl in, and then they have some Byplay tells him not to help him crawl in, and then he goes in and then it gets. Scared out. And then he goes back in at night and goes in himself and he sees inside the crypt and is reading along the walls about it being a, it is a crypt.

Uh, and there’s skulls in bed in the walls and it’s inscriptions about the coming of evil on earth. And he looks down and says, ah, this must be the coffin that held the demon child. And. You’re not supposed to cross the threshold and oh, all this stuff, but I mean, it’s, it’s like bits and bits and bits and pieces coming.

I just wanted ’em to get in the fricking place, open up that stupid thing and be done with whatever they needed to do in there. 

Craig: From this point forward, there are two or three times where we get. Some pretty long exposition about these people and how they made a demon child and like, yeah, okay, we get it.

They fed it. The blood of children. It’s like so weird. Jimmy explains it at some point and then Resnick explains it to somebody else at some point, and I guess each time there’s maybe a little bit of extra information, but it’s totally unnecessary. We get it. They were evil. They worshiped Satan. They made a demon child.

It’s in the. Tomb. We get it. We know. 

Todd: Well, I was hoping that all of this would be building to something like The Dolls have a purpose, right? Instead of just running around killing people, the dolls are trying to like reestablish their rituals or whatever. Like maybe they’re drinking the blood of these things or they’re going after kids or, so, you know, something.

But no, it, it is just a, this is a big, bad, evil thing. And now somehow it’s in a bunch of the dolls and it wants the children. 

Craig: For what? I don’t know, but Right. We find out that that’s like, it wants the children and it will get to them anyway that it can. And so that’s why it’s getting to this girl. Well, it’s got the 

Todd: girl, I mean, it could do whatever it needs to do with the girl.

I mean, why is it killing the adults when it’s got the girl? Do your thing with the girl, do your thing with the boy. It, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. No, 

Craig: it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Now the girl is continuing to be like, seemingly kind of possessed. Like at some point they say she cut her own hair, but she didn’t, they just curled it so it looks shorter curled it and more like more doll like.

And it does look more doll like at some point. You know, I think before Camilla died, she said something to the mom, or maybe it was immediately after Camilla died and the mom is getting scared or whatever. ’cause so she tries to take the doll away from the girl and the girl’s like, no, she’s mine in a devil voice.

And so like, which Jimmy comments on. Yeah. Like, yes, he totally notices. He’s like, whoa, what’s going on with your voice? Then the dad and the mom go out in the hall and the mom’s like, I’m really concerned, and the dad’s like, you’re crazy. And like, I didn’t think the mom was. Upset enough, right? This is not an appropriate reaction.

You just heard Satan speak through your child and she’s like, I’m a little worried. The dad’s like, you’re crazy. Uhhuh. 

Todd: Yeah, 

Craig: it’s nuts. God, it was stupid. So that’s happening. She’s, she’s getting more possessed, 

Todd: but she’s just becoming mean. That’s all you know, just mean like she’s not sabotaging the family.

Louis. Is this guy, I guess he’s a late night worker at his factory. Yeah, that’s what I was getting at. I could tell that they were 

Craig: setting up a death scene for him, but this is also movie because this is a new guy we’ve never seen before. Yeah, and and I, I was asking myself, I think the exact same thing that you were about to say, like.

Why, why him? What did he do? Right? He just seems like a nice guy. He’s not bothering anybody like I was. I wasn’t mad ’cause I didn’t care, but I was like, this is dumb. Why are you killing off Luis? 

Todd: He seems like a good dude. And I was kind of thinking the girl would be getting involved. Like, why is this doll okay?

I know, I get it. The doll wants the child. I don’t know what the doll, the doll wants. Uh, does the doll wanna kill the child? If the doll wants to kill the child, let’s just kill the child and let’s move on and kill the other child and do whatever it needs to do. No, the doll, the doll is grooming the child.

But to what end? I don’t know. Like the child isn’t helping the doll in any way. I thought this scene that. We would see the child like, I don’t know, unlocking the door of the factory for the doll or coming in afterwards. Sure. Or like helping the dolls with the, with this murder of Luis or whatever. But no, it just, it’s just the other dolls inside the factory are also possessed.

And there’s a bit of a scene in there where he’s cooking his meal and. Hears the noise and he goes outside and then comes back in, and then he gets tripped up by a doll and then he starts getting attacked by dolls and a cat scares him and then he runs away, but then he runs into a doll. Then we get another one of those dolls jumping out, 

Craig: which is, that’s so funny.

Jumping out, like he’s, he’s standing in front of some shelving and like there are boxes on the shelves and like the doll just pops out from behind the bus and like, it’s so funny. Like, it seems like a prank. Like it, yeah, it looks like something that you would see like on a prank show. Like, because it’s a, it’s not like it jumps out to attack him.

It’s like it jumps out to scare him. Oh my God. It is so funny. I laughed out loud. But this is the part where the movie started getting interesting to me because I still really have no idea ultimately what was going on. But this is the part where you realize that it’s not just that one doll that the girl has been packing around the whole time.

Right. She could have picked any doll off of that shelf. You know, they kind of make it seem like she picked a particular one. No, it doesn’t matter because apparently they are all haunted. They’re all 

Todd: possessed. Yes. 

Craig: By, by this thing. And. I enjoyed it. Then when there were a bunch of them and they were like talking to each other and like, let’s have some fun, but I am also thinking, what are you, because now they basically become like gremlins or something like mm-hmm.

They’re, they’re, they’re just having a good time. Terrorizing people. What are you and what is the point? Like what are you doing? 

Todd: Yeah, I don’t think the movie has answers for that. 

Craig: I’m having a good time watching it. It’s funny to watch these dolls, you know, several of them, you know, one will run across the screen in the foreground and then you’ll see one run across the screen way up in the background and, and I don’t even have any idea how many of them there are.

Probably not more than four or five, I don’t know. But like even the doll parts, like I said, and I feel like this happens later, I don’t remember exactly what it happens. Mm-hmm. But at some point Jimmy is in the factory. They’re like menacing Jimmy for a long time while he doesn’t know it. But Jimmy is in the factory with the dolls and there’s another cat scare.

The cat scares him, and then he walks up next to this rack of just the faces. Now mind you, this is supposed to be, this is supposed to be a factory, but as I’ve said before. It, it is not a factory like, and they do not make really any effort to make it look like a factory. Right? When the nice factory worker got killed, there was a great effect where his hand got put in a, uh, sewing machine, one sewing machine in this factory that is supposedly mass producing these dolls, like there’s no machinery in there.

It looks like a dirty. Abandoned warehouse. I have no idea what’s going on in this factory. It 

Todd: looks more like where you would be storing the dolls and, and not a very good place for it maybe. 

Craig: No, it’s, it looks horrible. But anyway, Jimmy walks up and he’s standing right next to this rack and just the faces is hanging on it and, and the faces are just.

You know, motionless for a second. Then all of a sudden one of them sticks out like a foot long tongue and goes like,

and his eyes kinda go crazy. Oh. And Jimmy sees that and then he’s scared. Oh my God. Did he see it or did he 

Todd: turn around and 

Craig: not quite catch it? I don’t, I don’t remember. I don’t remember. Oh, I 

Todd: laughed so hard at that, uh, that bit. 

Craig: But the dolls, they’re also talking like when they’re, I think it’s, I don’t know.

I think it’s. I don’t remember who they’re going after, but they’ll be like, surprise, we got you.

And like, now we’ll have some fun. Oh my God. It, it sounds funnier than it is, but Yeah, it really does. It is funny. It is funny, but it’s kind like funny because it’s so stupid 

Todd: and funny, but, and thank God there are these moments in there, because otherwise it would just be so tedious, you know? I mean, it still is tedious, but at least there, there are moments, you know, there are moments in here that I think are inspired and kind of nice like that bit.

It’s silly, but it’s cute. And I thought that, like you said, that whole effect, the whole, how he was taken down was pretty good and it was well filmed and everything. By the way, he tore open his shirt for some reason. Oh my God. Todd, what was that? Something was bubbling up in his chest right 

Craig: as he was falling down.

He very clearly intentionally opened his shirt. Now, when I say intentionally, I mean like he was directed. Yeah. As, as you’re falling down, make sure you accidentally rip open your shirt. And I’m like, yeah, why? Like, I, I thought that the dolls then would, you know, come stab him or something. But no, he just falls down on the ground.

And his chest starts bubbling and blood comes out of his mouth and he dies. I have 

Todd: no idea what that was supposed to be. I thought I was seeing things I had no, I, yeah, because later they just come and they, their conclusion is that he had an accident. I, I don’t even know what their conclusion is. They just know he’s dead 

Craig: and people are dropping dead all over the place and they just act like nothing happened.

Like, yes, they, they, they, they find, they find the maid in the basement dead. Unexplainably. You know, and now it’s time for new maid. Yeah. Her, yeah, her, her, the dad comes upstairs, like her family’s gonna take care of it. That’s it. Like they never, that’s it. Say anything about it again. Then this guy dies and they’re like, oh, an accent.

That’s terrible. Right? The kids go about their business, everybody goes about their business. It’s 

Todd: kind of funny. 

Craig: At, at, at some point, Resnick. Is, you know, excavating at night or something and he comes outside and somebody’s trying to set the site on fire and it’s a woman and she’s like, 

Clip: you must stop this.

Everybody will be killed if you do not stop this. What are you talking about? Who are you? You’ve brought their evil back with your peaks and your shovels. Close the tomb now and leave the are dead. He opened up the gate to hell and the killings began. There will be others. 

Craig: And he’s like, what? And then she just runs away and we never see her again.

Just these crazy, weird exposition things. My favorite exposition thing is when, earlier on Camilla or whatever the name’s the, the sisters, oh my god. The maid, whatever the maid’s name was. Oh yeah. She said that she had a sister who was a nun. And so after she’s dead and weird things are happening and the mom’s getting nervous, finally she’s like, I have to go see the sister.

Maybe she’ll be able to tell me something. And she goes there, and it’s a dumb scene. And it’s a like visiting the nun. Like, yeah. It, it’s, it’s either visiting a nun in a convent or visiting somebody who hasn’t spoken for years in the mental institution or, or whatever. Yeah. Just so. It can give some exposition and in this case, like it’s set up and it’s filmed exactly like you see these scenes every time.

Like she goes and she’s like, I need to see this nun. And they’re like, you can’t see her. She’s in seclusion. She’s like, it’s an emergency. I have to see her and they’re fine. Um, so they let her and, and she goes and she talks to the nun, and the nun doesn’t give, really give her any news that we don’t already know.

No, that there was no need for this. No, we already know. Now, maybe to, to be fair, maybe the mom hasn’t heard all of this yet, but we have, so it’s no new information for us. Evil, you know, evil child wants the kids, we’ll get to the kids, however, whatever. So then the mom comes out and, I don’t know, I was trying to set up, there’s some line where.

Somebody, I, I, I, I think it’s her husband maybe, is like, you’re gonna believe that crazy nun. And she’s like, I don’t know, like a bunch of people are dead and our daughter is acting like a crazy person and blah, blah, blah. How do you explain that? Fair enough.

Like the mom actually. For a moment towards the end becomes the voice of reason. Yeah. When her husband is like, ah, you’re crazy. She’s like, okay, well everybody’s 

Todd: dead so well, I mean, a husband is so useless in this. He really has no role. No, he has no purpose at all. Yeah. All he is is to just, uh, keep, keep, keep her from panicking when she should be panicking.

Otherwise, he, well, he’s also s when you think about it, he’s also barely in it compared to everybody else. 

Craig: Mm-hmm. 

Todd: But yeah, you would think that when he finds one of his workers dead in his factory, that he would’ve taken a bit more of a, of a role in all this. 

Craig: Is that the, is that also the part I feel, so I’ve got, the mom goes to visit Camilla’s sister in the convent.

Jess, the girl is now dressed. Like a Victorian doll, but they Right. It bothered me that they couldn’t be bothered to dress her just like the doll, I guess. Yeah, I guess that would be even sillier, like why would she have the exact same outfit as the doll? But she’s now in, you know, kind of a frilly dress and looks much like a doll and she’s acting super weird.

And then there’s that dumb nun scene, and I think at the end of it. The mom says, listen to me. I am not losing my daughter to a 900 year old goat head. I don’t even know where that came from. Like did they say that they made it with a goat head? I don’t even remember. 

Todd: No, God. Yeah. But 

Craig: she’s on a mission now, and she comes home and the house is seemingly empty and she’s looking around and she finds Jimmy hiding in the closet.

Yeah. And he’s like, I guess. Has he, I, I guess he’s been attacked by the doll. I don’t remember. She says, where’s your sister? And he’s like, they’re in their room. I, I, I heard them talking. The doll talks. Okay. So the mom walks in the room and the doll is just sitting in a chair and it is just straight evil looking.

It is like it’s gnarling at her. Oh yeah. 

Todd: It’s got this evil face. Uh huh. It, well, it’s just hilarious ’cause she comes in and it is just snarling at her and she just continues to stare at the doll. And finally she’s like, what have you done with her? And she’s like, uh, I have her now. You’ll never get her back.

And she belongs to me now. She’s like, no, that’s not true. And meanwhile, we see actually she’s just around the corner, hiding behind the curtains. She’s behind the curtain, hide the 

Craig: curtain 

Todd: listening, mom runs out, grabs a gun. And then. What they like run out of the house or something. Right. I like, why don’t you go back in after the, the doll?

They, they, oh, she does go back in after the doll, but the doll’s gone. 

Craig: No, they, they, they try to leave. The mom grabs the daughter. Right. And they try to leave, but Dolly blocks the door and then Dolly starts saying like, we’ll have some fun now, or something like that. And she tells the daughter. To attack the mom, and she does.

So like right the, the daughter’s attacking the mom and Jimmy grabs the gun that the mom had grabbed at some point and points it at Dolly and says, play with this bitch.

Todd: They’re going for a catchphrase here 

Craig: and shoots her. And, and the doll like, you know, blows back through the door 

Todd: outside. This is where it’s all coming to head. Because, yeah. At the same time, two other things are going on. 

Craig: Well, it just is back to normal. And then the only thing that I have next is terrible.

A DRI don’t, I don’t know why that was. I don’t know if they had to do, I don’t know what it was. Anyway. Yeah, go ahead. There’s several. Yes, it’s coming to a head. 

Todd: Yeah. One thing is that the professor is. Back excavating in the tomb. He’s been trying to open the coffin. ’cause he’s not a superstitious guy, so he’s at night.

’cause he for some reason is always trying to do his things at night, decides he’s gonna go back and open the coffin. It’s so interesting this excavation because you see him there during the day and it looks like a busy site with like multiple workers and things. I don’t know what the hell they’re doing.

But then whenever it’s nighttime, it’s just him alone in there doing like the most important stuff. Like in this case, cutting open the top of the tomb. He opens up the lid of the sarcophagus, sees that indeed there’s this, uh, mummified body of a little child with literal devil horns on. It freaks him out so much that he trips all over himself, running out of it, 

Craig: and he says, oh my God, it’s true.

What have I done? What I 

Todd: thought you weren’t superstitious anyway. So funny. And then the dad is for some reason just prowling around. Did he hear a noise or something? I dunno. He’s prowling around his factory. 

Craig: They’re looking for Jimmy because they can’t find him and they think that he’s probably there because he’s been showing up there to help out Resnick all the time.

Ah, so he’s, he’s looking for Jimmy. They couldn’t find him on the site, so he’s looking for him in the factory and all the dolls are there. 

Todd: Yep. And then this is the whole big, this is the big climactic scene where multiple dolls, they’ve, they’ve set up traps. They’ve got dad up at a by his legs at one point.

And I don’t know, there’s just some weird contraption thing that isn’t really explained. And this irritated me as well. It’s like the dad’s steps into a loop of string, like some Bugs Bunny cartoon and gets. His leg pulled tight and the doll start is dragging him across the floor, but then it lifts him up in the air when ano, when another doll is by the wall pulling on some pipe that doesn’t really look like it’s connected to anything and he’s getting lifted into the air at the same time, the professor comes running in and then he runs to a another pipe in another corner and tries to like.

Turn a valve, but it sparks, I mean, I was like, what is this weird thing happening? And then the dude’s getting lifted in the air and it almost looks like he’s getting dangled over a big vat of something. But we never really see what that is because he just kinda reaches up and unties himself. Oh, it’s, it’s just kind of clunky.

But the idea is that he narrowly misses getting dropped from a height or something, and the dolls are everywhere. Poking around from corners, popping their heads outta barrels, taunting them. The professor saves the day, grabs him and they leave. Well, they don’t leave somehow 

Craig: for, they’re outside, but they’re, yeah, they’re some, everybody somehow reunites right outside the site.

Like the whole family in Resnick are together. Right. 

Todd: Outside the door where they just left all these dolls inside who were all up in their faces. I, I just, I just don’t get these things like, come on, put the, keep the pressure on. Why aren’t those dolls running out after them? You know? Why are they, 

Craig: yeah.

Not confined in there. Like, no, I don’t know. But the, it, the, I thought it was kind of a funny scene when the two adult men. Are gonna go into the factory, or, I don’t remember if it was the factory or the site or both, I don’t remember. But they were gonna blow it up and they are conveniently have multiple bundles of stick.

Dynamite. Yeah. And, and they’re running around and they’re lighting the dynamite and they’re throwing it and the dolls are just running around behind them, putting it out. And I thought that was hilarious. 

Todd: That was really funny. They’re pulling it out. They’re like pulling the wicks out. They’re like pouring water over.

One. One of them grabs it, just tosses it after the kid. As he’s running out, it doesn’t look like this is gonna work 

Craig: well, and, and somehow Jimmy. Sneaks off and blows the shaft. I don’t know what the shaft is. I don’t know what that means, but he blows up the shaft and then a doll stabs the dad in the leg.

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: It’s early 

Todd: on, you know? Yeah, 

Craig: yeah. And this whole thing, and then they’re thrown around the dynamite, all that blah, blah, blah. And so then I guess everybody gets out and the factory explodes and the two men like jump over an embankment and like this big action shot. It’s kind of funny. I 

Todd: guess it’s just like.

Some of the dynamite ended up. Working. You know, I, I guess there’s just not, there’s not like a twist or a big moment. There’s just a, they’ve been tossing this dynamite around, by the way, no dolls are attacking them while they’re doing this. No, they’re just running around putting the wicks out. It almost seems completely empty on the shots, but, and these guys also don’t seem to care and about, you know, they’re just running around like they’re doing business, not really looking left and right sneaking.

It’s just, uh, like the dynamite throw it, like the dynamite throw it. Dolls are putting out, dolls are putting out, dolls are putting it out. It just, it, it’s leading you to believe that the dolls are successfully thwarting them at every turn until they run out of there and it explodes anyway. Yeah, so 

Craig: I don’t know.

I guess maybe one or two of the dynamite bundles worked and that triggered the others. I don’t know. It also doesn’t make any sense, like you said before, why wouldn’t the dolls just run out? Like Yeah, leave. As far as we know, they’re not bound there. But anyway, the whole factory blows up and the doll spirits scream.

Now, I guess that’s how you kill evil. Dolls, like blow them up. 

Todd: Like, 

Craig: like 

Todd: I, it, it, it, where do the spirits go now? Exactly. And I mean, if they could possess dolls, they could possess anything. Right. Anything. 

Craig: Right. It it, what are the rules? Like how do you kill an evil spirit with dynamite? Like, uh, like it had to be bound, like it had to be bound in like this special tomb before and it lived there for thousands of years, but now you just blow up the factory and then the mom.

Looks at the daughter and says, honey, it’s over. And it is. That’s the end. Like that’s just the end of the movie. Yeah. Like, well, okay. I guess you win. 

Todd: I mean, thank God it is. I mean really. I don’t know if I could have seen much more of it, but it’s very anti climactic. Yeah. It was going for a big climactic action scene.

There is a giant explosion. It just emotionally it, I felt like it stumbled instead of landed, so yeah. It was, uh, it was interesting. I think it’s a movie you could enjoy with friends. It’s definitely something you could laugh at. It’s better, I think, than a lot of, I mean, there’s some truly unwatchable stuff that we’ve seen Oh, yeah.

In this era. Along the same lines that for one reason or another. 

Craig: Yeah. Some of the newer, is it Full Moon? Is that the company that does like all the demonic toys and stuff? Yeah, some of those newer ones, like there’s these newer like baby Oopsie movies that are super low budget and I think intentionally bad and there are people that are into that kind of thing.

I am not really one of those people. This isn’t intentionally bad. They’re, you know, they’re going for it. I just, you know, like especially the mom, whatever you said her name was, the actress, Denise Crosby, like mm-hmm. She is playing it a hundred percent sincere. She seems exactly the same as her character in Pet Cemetery.

Maybe slightly less bitchy, but other than that, almost exactly the same. True just the mom or whatever. But she is playing it with. Full sincerity and, and I think everybody is, which is a little odd because it feels like it should be campy. Yeah. And it’s really not as campy as you would expect. It plays it pretty straight.

I think I might have, I don’t know. I, you know, I, maybe I’m contradicting myself ’cause I just said, you know, there’s those, you know, goofy full moon movies and they are intentionally campy, but I, I, I could’ve. Done with a little more camp in this movie. Yeah. For me, it just fell a little flat. Like child’s play is better.

I, I’ve seen other doll movies. I like dolls better. You know, I’ve seen a lot of other doll movies that I like better. It’s okay. It’s not terrible. Like you said, I think that you could enjoy it with friends in the right context. I would also say you could skip it. And you’d be fine. 

Todd: Dolls has sort of that fairy tale ish type atmosphere and child’s play has the character of Chucky.

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: And those are the things that hold up those movies and make them interesting. This movie has nothing to really make it interesting. It’s checking all the boxes. Like we said, it’s so typical of these movies. It is a. A hundred percent paint by numbers script. They’re trying to have these goofy moments where the dolls are, he like, like, now we’re gonna have some fun, but they don’t really, it’s just a, a little flash.

Otherwise, it seems like they’re trying to be very, very sinister and the dolls are coming across as very, very sinister, but without really knowing what the potential end game is gonna be, besides just. Kill everybody. You come across, I guess, mischief and what their weakness is. None of that is really, is ever hinted at the movie.

Doesn’t have answers for those things. So there’s nothing to anticipate and look forward to. I don’t know. I just can’t, I can don’t know how else to explain it. It’s just, it’s not horrible. It’s just. It’s kind of basic. Yeah, yeah. That’s 

Craig: a good word for it. Yeah, it’s very basic. 

Todd: And I mean, what can you say about Ed Gale?

I mean, you don’t, you just see flashes of a, of the dolls and it’s clear in those moments that Yeah. Of him running around. 

Craig: But you know, when, when he passed, you know, it was news in the horror world because he’s been around for a long time and he’s done a lot of stuff. It, it was just kind of a coincidence that we were able to talk about him and what was the name of the composer?

Uh, Mark Snow. I thought it was kind of a nice coincidence that we could kind of talk about both of them at the same time because they are the kind of people who work all the time and are so integral to a lot of the films that we have enjoyed over the years, but they don’t get. A lot of acclaim. 

Todd: Right.

Craig: They’re, they’re, they’re not the, because they disappear, they’re in the background. Yeah. They’re not the face of the movie. Right. You know? Mm-hmm. They, you know, they, hidden figures is totally the wrong word, but, but they’re, they’re more behind the scenes. Now, of course, you know, ed Gale’s in front of the camera, but he’s always in prosthetics or a mask or something.

You. Next to never see his face. So it’s not like he’d be somebody that you would necessarily recognize except for his stature and with a composer. Music is such an essential element to film and television and, and art in general. And it can really. And you know, I don’t wanna say make or break, but it can really enhance a film.

Now, I don’t know. Like I said to you, this score kind of faded into the background to me, which I don’t think is a bad thing. It wasn’t anything that I would necessarily say was remarkable, but I appreciate that we can also give some flowers to those people who maybe don’t get them as often as some of the other people that we talk about.

Todd: Yeah, exactly. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and if you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can find us online, chainsaw horror.com, direct people there for all of our back episodes. We’re also on all the podcast streaming services. You can, uh, leave us a message, a voice message on our site when you click Speak to us and uh, record a quick file to get sent to us.

And if. And if we, if you do that, we’ll definitely play it on air and respond. We also have a newsletter, a weekly newsletter that you can sign up for that’ll let you know what’s coming up. And also a little bit of horror news and what’s happening with our patrons in the back. We love our patrons and we love doing special things for them.

We have a book club going on right now. We have mini SOS that are exclusive just for them, and of course, they also get our complete unedited phone calls that lead to these podcasts. That sounds like something you’d be interested in. Go over to patreon.com/chainsaw podcast. Sign up for just five bucks a month.

Until next time, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.