Dolls (1987)

The scene this dvd cover represents is AMAZING.

With Dolls, Stuart Gordon once again is our director. Who would have guessed that he, not Wes Craven or George Romero or somebody like that, would be the most represented director on my list?

A storm rolls in (via three different sets of stock footage clouds in rapid succession), forcing a family's car to get stuck in the mud and young Judy, her jerk-ass dad, and her Cruella DeVille-ish stepmom to seek shelter in a seemingly abandoned house.   

In fact, the house is occupied by the odd, elderly doll makers Gabriel and Hilary Hartwicke, and their creepy-ass doll collection.   They are soon joined by three other refugees from the storm and everyone is shown to their rooms for the night.

As you might expect, through the night, the guests are tormented and attacked one by one by the dolls, with only Judy knowing the truth of what is happening.  Not only are they being killed - they are being transformed, flesh and blood and all, into dolls themselves, and made to stay in the house forever.

The stop-motion animation on the dolls is excellent - no doubt, this is what led producer Charles Band to develop the Puppet Master series, which is similar to Dolls in many ways. (As a side note, Guy Rolfe, the actor who played Gabriel the old doll maker, went on to play a similar role as the title character in the surprisingly excellent Puppet Master 3 and its sequels.)

Furthermore, the gory special effects by John Carl Buechler (Friday The 13th, Part VII) are creepy and gross, just the way we like it. The killer teddy bear and the girl who pulls out her doll eyes in mid-transformation were spectacularly horrifying.

Dolls was a pleasant surprise, overcoming its relative cheapness to become an eerie, creepy, fun horror flick.  Stuart Gordon knows how to balance horror and humor and to get the most out of the resources he has.  Despite the transparent premise, no-name cast, and limited budget, Dolls is entertaining and satisfying, and short enough to not overstay its welcome.