Closely Watched Films

Tag: shudder

Dolly (2025) Film Review: A Texas Chainsaw Massacre Wannabe

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Have you ever wanted to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) but much worse? If your answer is yes, then Dolly (2025) might just be for you.

Director: Rod Blackhurst

Running Time: 83 minutes

Rating: 🌟

Description

Dolly (2025) follows couple Chase and Macy as they go on a hike in a secluded wooded area. Chase intends to propose so he leaves his daughter Evy with her aunt. While he drops her off, Macy is in the car discussing her doubts on the phone. She is confident Chase is proposing but is unsure whether or not he’s right for her since she didn’t want to be a mother.

Once out in the woods, the pair stumble across a swathe of creepy dolls strewn across the floor and pinned to surrounding trees. Macy remains light-hearted and jokes about how the dolls look like herself and Chase. However, Chase fails to see the funny side and presses on further into the woods.

Eventually, they reach the viewpoint which is where Chase wants to propose. Just as he takes the ring out to bend on one knee, a mysterious tune emanates from inside the woods. Of course, Chase has to check it out since what else would you do if you heard a creepy noise coming from a creepy forest?

While looking for the noise, Chase finds a woman wearing a porcelain mask sobbing over a hole in the ground. He understandably asks her if she’s alright but comes to regret it when “Dolly” proves not to be friendly.

Later, when Macy eventually finds Chase, Dolly decides the hiker will make a good addition to her doll collection. What ensues is a twisted rollercoaster of cruel and tortuous scenes that fail to give the viewer a moment’s rest from the gore.

Time to leave or…? Image Source: Hooked on Horror

Review

I’m not sure what possessed Rod Blackhurst to make a film about women and motherhood but here it is. The two women we see throughout the majority of the film are horrific caricatures of female stereotypes. You have Dolly, who is supposed to be ugly and off-putting. She is compared with Macy who is beautiful but not very wise. This pitting of women against each other is uncomfortable to say the least.

Then you have the blatant ableism that’s present for the duration of the film. It seems clear that Dolly has some form of PTSD especially in the scenes with her father. However, there is no let up on the demonisation of her character. We get no backstory, no insight into how she became the way she is. She is one-dimensional and serves only one purpose – to beat the hell out of the other woman. I wasn’t sure why Dolly’s father was even there when he offers no further information about his daughter beyond that she’s a ‘monster’.

The decisions Chase and Macy make within the film are clearly to advance the plot and feel completely unrealistic. Would you go check out a random creepy noise in the middle of the woods you’ve just hiked through to propose to your partner? No, of course you wouldn’t. I don’t think anyone would, the decision is made purely so Macy can get kidnapped and spend the next hour being tortured.

Cruel torture is present through Dolly‘s entirety and I have to wonder whether this film is just poorly-hidden fetishism. There are several scenes where Macy is dressed up as a doll being beaten by various objects, including a paddle. I don’t see how you can read scenes like this in any other way. The violence is also completely gratuitous with no artistic flair or commentary on violence against women in general.

Pacing and structure are some other issues this film exhibits. Despite near constant action scenes, the eighty-three-minute runtime feels never-ending and I kept checking the time to see how long was left. Interspersed between the scenes of violence towards Macy are scenes of the somehow still alive Chase dragging himself through the woods. With the injuries he sustains, I imagine it would take longer than it does to reach the house Macy is kept in.

The film is on 16mm to mimic 1970s films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). In fact, it’s plain to see Blackhurst is desperate to go back in time and direct the notorious slasher. However, he doesn’t have the skills here to create something on the same level so it simply falls flat. Although I didn’t like Thrash (2026) either, it bewilders me that Dolly (2025) achieved a higher score on Letterboxd.

One of my main issues with Dolly is the ending, especially the twenty minutes leading up to it. For some reason, there is an Alice in Wonderland-type montage that is bizarrely out of place. It seems Blackhurst decides the solid hour of torture might border on too much for the average audience and starts trying to lighten the mood. Either that, or he is trying to add some last-minute style. Regardless, it doesn’t work and ends up just being somewhat confusing.

The reluctance to be a wife and mother that Macy displays at the beginning also goes out of the window at the first hint of trouble. This feels weirdly propagandistic, as though we are only going to avoid trauma if we go ahead and start making babies.

Soured milk leaves a sour taste. Source Image: Pop Horror

Recommendation or Regret?

I need to stop picking random films on Shudder, don’t I? Honestly sometimes they’re so good and then I end up getting two or three duds in a row and feel like never watching a horror film again. That’s obviously an exaggeration but Dolly is truly a terrible film.

I’m not entirely sure who I would recommend it to besides people who share Rod Blackhurst’s fetishes. The pacing, character choices, extreme violence and poor editing leave a sour taste in my mouth (not to mention the sour milk scene).

Let’s leave The Texas Chainsaw Massacre alone and try to come up with something original and exciting next time, please. The homages to seventies horror classics might have a time and place but this is certainly not it. Overall, a wannabe with little substance, disturbing fetishisation and some of the most absurd character decisions of all time.

If you’d like to check out more horror film reviews, try Bodycam (2025) and Thrash (2026).

18th May 2026
Bodycam (2025) Film Review

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Bodycam (2025) is a found footage film that pairs cops and demons with a horrifying result. But, is it a decent entry in the genre or one of the worst found footage films of all time?

Director: Brandon Christensen

Running Time: 75 minutes

Rating: 🌟1/2

Description

Two police officers go to a domestic incident at a house in the suburbs. They assume it’s what they consider to be a run-of-the-mill incident involving addicted people. However, once they arrive, things quickly get out of hand and carnage ensues.

Upon entering the house, they find a couple who appear to be under the influence of a substance. The mother is covered in blood and the father attempts to get help for his baby. Bryce, one of the police officers, mistakes this attempt and fatally shoots both the father and his baby.

Subsequently, Bryce pleads with Jackson to cover the incident up. His wife is pregnant with their first child and he doesn’t want to lose everything he’s been working for. Jackson is understandably reluctant and there are conversations about trust and duty.

A strange symbol in drawn in the house and in various places around the neighbourhood, often in blood. The suburb is reminiscent of LA’s ‘Skid Row’ with users and tents lined up down the pavements. Because of this, Bryce assumes these symbols are the product of someone’s high.

Local hacker Esposito agrees to erase the bodycam footage for Bryce. When she hears the mother in the footage mention ‘The Underman’ though, she changes her mind. She wants nothing to do with it and refuses to erase the camera, running out and leaving the pair to fend for themselves.

What follows is a battle of spirit between the police officers and ‘The Underman’. There is also some input from Jackson’s mother who is a priestess of the light. Despite her attempts to help, bloody scenes unfold and the ending is equal parts gross and disorienting.

Review

Initially, it seems that the film is critiquing police officers, which makes sense given the sheer amount of deaths they cause, especially in the USA. Yet, the jarring ending and descent into chaos pulls away from any possible commentary that might have been there.

Found footage films can be so incredibly hit-or-miss. This one starts off as something unique but devolves into one of the worst ones I’ve seen for some time. The sole use of bodycam and dashcam footage is fairly interesting. Yet, by the end, its sole purpose is to deliver one corny jump scare after another which ruins its effectivity.

There is a decent story in there but it loses against the supernatural storyline. The atrocious acting from some of the cast members also removed me from the setting. It made me all too aware I was watching a questionable found footage film I found on Shudder.

The low budget is plain to see, especially at the end with the makeup. Clearly, they have taken some inspiration from Slenderman in terms of story and costume. The result of this is just a bit weird. Rather than being a unique tale with its own quirks and intrigues, it’s riffing off a different folktale and it doesn’t even do it better.

Jackson’s mother, the priestess of the light, is the most interesting character. There seems to be an intersection between ‘The Underman’ and drug use. She talks about how Jackson scared the former because of his refusal to inject drugs, presumably heroin, into his veins.

Catherine’s daughter passed away due to addiction so she now spends her time trying to help other young addicted people to ‘see the light’. This could have been an interesting point but they don’t explore it in much depth. ‘The Underman’ apparently wanted Catherine because of her work against him but the story ends up being overly bland instead of reaching its full potential.

Some reviews have claimed Bodycam is also socially tone deaf and inappropriate considering the rhetoric surrounding ICE and police officers in the USA at the moment. I can understand this. Beside the couple of conversations the pair have about informing control, Bryce’s behaviour is not necessarily criticised in a concrete, human way. There is an incident with ‘The Underman’ towards the end of the film but this is supernatural rather than reality so the story doesn’t punish him in a way viewers can relate to.

The film’s sound is one aspect that is effective. Throughout, you only hear situational sounds, like talking, moving around the house and doors closing. However, when Bryce rushes home to try and protect his wife and unborn child, his wedding song plays. It then plays during a couple of integral points later in the film which amps up the atmosphere and makes it clear something unnerving is about to happen.

Recommendation or Regret?

I do think this found footage film had potential but it never managed to realise it. Rather, it is one of the worst found footage films I’ve seen and it’s unfortunate. Despite having a low budget, there’s more that could have been explored in terms of story, especially if they redirected the makeup budget which was not very well spent.

Although the film is only seventy-five minutes in length, it feels much longer as it begins to drag in the latter half. Found footage films are generally unpolished so I find it’s better if they’re pacy and efficient, which this one sadly wasn’t for the most part.

From time to time, I do watch random films on streaming services like Shudder and I don’t necessarily regret doing that. However, on this occasion, I regret the film I chose.

If you’re on a masochistic mission to watch every found footage film there is, then by all means, watch this one. On the other hand, if you’re a regular film viewer though, you can probably give it a miss.

If you want to read about more horror films, you can read my post on Upcoming Horror Releases for May 2026.

17th May 2026