Although it’s far from perfect, writer-director José María Cicala’s The Dollmaker is one of those little extreme horror romps that’s fun if you just allow it to be itself, and of course if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s not heady or thematically brilliant, but what it is is just zany and different enough to be memorable. It’s absolutely derivative — think of it as an Argentinian version of the M. Night Shyamalan-produced series Servant crossed with MaXXXine and any other number of horror movies about off-putting nerds. However, despite its obvious influences and unique flaws, Dollmaker manages to be a calling card for Cicala, hopefully announcing him on the world stage as a name to watch in horror.
We follow dorky Tomás (Rodrigo Noya) as he juggles two jobs — he’s a doctor’s assistant in a mental health clinic and a Boy Scout uniform-clad video store sales clerk (the Boy Scout thing is a twisted tongue-in-cheek joke based on some of the film’s darker content) — and looks after his unwell mother. He also enjoys making life-size dolls from many different materials, some of which are used at the clinic for various purposes. You might think you know where some of this is going, but Dollmaker actually has enough twists to make its wacky final conclusion very involving.
Tomás’ crush, the lovely Argentina (co-writer Griselda Sánchez), is a patient at the clinic and seems to have a similar obsession/problem with dolls. The film seems to think that’s enough to convince us that Argentina would be interested in Tomás, but thanks to Noya’s slightly too eerie performance and the writing cranking Tomás’ creep factor to 11, the couple’s mismatch is my main snag with the film. I just don’t buy that someone as conventionally attractive as Argentina would be interested in someone as awkward as Tomás. It sounds odd to say for a film that is so extreme and weird in so many other respects, but I wish that key component had felt a bit more grounded.
Dollmaker actually gets better as it goes along, a rare feat for any film, let alone a small-budget horror picture. The derivative plot elements and characters (the priest, the bumbling cops, etc.) all converge in a surprisingly satisfying way, even if the film is about 15 minutes too long. I was almost astonished at how much wacky stuff I let go by un-bookmarked in my brain, but I think Cicala’s tone management despite the weak acting from his two leads really carries the film. It’s a weird, weird movie, no doubt about it, but Cicala maintains a balance between a straight face and a clownish provoking that rarely fails to feel fresh.
I would be remiss to not point out that there are a number of scenes of extreme violence against women in this film, and that even horror enthusiasts should tread lightly, given whatever content threshold one might have. Although I think these scenes tend to go a bit overboard in their execution, they’re still fairly brief, to the point where one in particular seemed unnecessary. Regardless, the concept of these scenes actually does need to be in the film for the story to work, so in a kind of exploitation vein, I think they serve the film. But, as I said, tread lightly based on your own tastes and boundaries.
All things considered, Dollmaker is certainly no masterpiece, but it’s no dud, either. It’s kind of spritely in its own way; the kind of film which somehow consistently coheres to be more than the sum of its parts, like one of Tomás’ paper mache dolls. | George Napper
