First off, let me say that this isn't a bad movie. It just has some bad elements. The first being, the length of time the story takes to get going. I knew this was going to be an issue as they have a mysterious opening kill sequence, which should leave the audience unnerved and wondering what's going to happen next?

However, like most films using a similar lure, the writers take so long prepping, you forget about the middle-aged fat bloke getting axed in the opening sequence. What you get is a load of fill about the main characters. This isn't a bad thing to aim at as it makes the story more powerful if the audience relates to the characters. This, in turn, relies on the actors being believable in their roles and their portrayals. Shame that both the leads, Thomas Downey as Robert Holbrook and Trinity Simpson as his daughter Sammey, are wooden and quite staid. The good news is, if you stay with the film, as soon as Dee Wallace (Margaret) appears on screen the acting noticeably goes up a few notches. This has the knock-on effect of forcing both Holbrook and Simpson to push their acting skills. The surprise being Trinity Simpson is a pretty decent actress when she warms up and plays off others - she could have a career here.

The story is your basic possessed dolls scenario. This is perfect for a low budget flick like this, as the story doesn't count on them to move... because if you see them move it's too late for you. This gives the director plenty of scenes where he can build a spooky and eerie atmosphere. Unfortunately, Cuyle Carvin just misses the mark each time. He does give it a good try though.

It's the children's rhyme that works as a great hook. Carvin knows this as he overuses the poem trying to build ambience. It's even turned into a spooky song, including haunting kid vocals, at the end credits. It may have been a good idea to use an instrumental version and different arrangements of such throughout the film. This would have added to the eerieness of the story adding strength and enjoyment, for there is woefully little music throughout.

On the whole, Carvin does an average job with the direction, though he does better with the pacing of the film. The scenes where tension is needed are slowed down and drawn out. The death of the mother Lynn (Elise Muller) being the best example. Though you know what's coming, the butterflies still start fluttering with nervous tension in your stomach.

Then there are the special effects... there aren't any... well none to write home about. Even the death by hedge sheers is done is a non-penetrating fashion. This isn't a bad thing though as your mind fills in the blanks. The actress in this scene sells it well. Even though you don't see it you do think, ouch, that's gonna leave a mark...

Some people may think the dolls themselves are a letdown, The prop guy or gall must have hit a load of garage sales and thrift shops to find such a strange assortment of blandness. These dolls are UGLY and banal to the extreme. This works for me because when you get to the point of knowing why the dolls are possessed, you realise they were bought more for purpose than for their looks. These are the kind of things people pay you to take off their hands.

This is one of those "Watch Once" films. Though it's not too polished or original, and it's filled with some flaws, I found it to be quite an enjoyable movie.

If you like Dee Wallace and Devil Dolls and don't expect too much from your horror flicks this could be for you.

The cover looked very cool and freaky and the idea was a pretty decent one. Dee Wallace is a more than capable actress who keeps landing in mediocre or worse projects that she is better than. The idea was not an original one but the potential for it to work was there, because with the right resources 'Dolls' could have been agreeably creepy. Have made it clear in the past that there is appreciation for and not bias against the horror genre.

'Dolls' just fails to deliver. Wallace and an eerie setting keep it from being something without redeeming features, other than that it is a mess. It is the complete opposite of what the cover promised, being dull and cheap rather than freaky and any coolness is restricted solely to the cover. There is just very little to the film in atmosphere or in how the content is executed, instead of at least decent execution of an unoriginal but still intriguing idea, 'Dolls' is just so routine and with little momentum.

Wallace and the setting are the only good things.

Everything else in 'Dolls' however is a mess. There is nothing remotely unsettling about the dolls, the only scary thing about them is their lack of expression and they are used poorly, underused and when featured they don't really do much if anything. Didn't really get much horror, both in that there is too little of it and what there is is executed with no suspense or even with much effort or attempt to do anything fresh (very seen it all before). The far too thin story, which felt like a thinly plotted short film stretched with a lot of padding and non-stop sluggishness to feature film, and deadeningly dull pace drag 'Dolls' down significantly. In fact, they single-handedly spoil the film.

Furthermore, the script sounds very tired and cheesy, a big problem when there is far too much dialogue that makes many scenes drag, and the characters are both bland and annoying, motivations being poorly explored or not ringing true (both even). Other than Wallace, the cast fail to do anything with what they are given and seem stifled.

All in all, weak. 2/10

85 minutes of my life that I will never get back!Really can't get over how poor it was and how I actually got to the end of the film!