Written and directed by José María Cicala, co-written by Griselda Sanchez, in a quiet village, charming young Tomás leads a simple life: caring for his mother, working at the video store and town clinic, and collecting dolls. As women begin disappearing, newly arrived Inspector Porter investigates. Starring: Rodrigo Noya, Arturo Puig, Mario Alarcón, Alejo Garcia Pintos, Griselda Sánchez, Guillermo Zapata and Alejandra Baldoni.
The concept behind The Dollmaker is a good one, to take the quiet, unassuming, unthreatening, local good guy and peak behind the curtain, what truly goes on behind that boy scout exterior? Add in creepy dolls, an eclectic small town, and a complicated relationship with his mother, and that’s really a classic horror combination. José María Cicala also starts the film out on a great note that strikes a lot of familiar horror chords for fans to enjoy. Unfortunately, it’s all simply downhill fast from that point.
Quickly both the writing and visual style are trying much too hard, and borrowing far too much from other pieces of horror. Homage is always appreciated but there needs to be enough original style in-between to balance that out, and unfortunately, Cicala doesn’t achieve that, particularly in the film’s later scenes which are almost attempts at carbon copies rather than homage. There’s also a strange quality to the tone, it matches more of a quirky comedy than a dark, gritty, bloody horror. There’s a lot of different energies being thrown at you and it makes The Dollmaker’s tone become all over the place.
There is however one key glaring issue with The Dollmaker and that’s that this ‘charming young Tomás’ never really exists. It’s blatantly obvious from the very beginning who Tomás (Rodrigo Noya) is and the consequence of that is the film doesn’t really have anywhere to go, except to keep doubling down on what it already has. Credit to Noya, he does give a deeply creepy performance, and taps into his unhinged side, but the character doesn’t make for a strong lead. They needed another character to follow, to give viewers someone to root for, rather than simply following Tomás down an increasingly gruesome rabbit hole.
The Dollmaker had a good idea and clearly wants to pay tribute to the many horror classics of cinema history, but it falls short. It quickly goes off the rails and finds itself with no true destination. The tone doesn’t match the intentions, the aesthetic is overly dark, the style constantly feels like it’s trying far too hard and there’s no character to really care about. It becomes a little difficult to get through when you know there’s little chance of a satisfying resolution, and the journey is very messy, in the wrong way.
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