With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
Dolls is what happens when you combine the writer of Troll and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ed Naha, with the horror sensibilities of Re-Animator director, Stuart Gordon. A fairytale horror movie with teeth, Dolls follows a group of people seeking shelter at a secluded mansion from a storm, and it happens to be owned by a pair of elderly toy makers and their collection of magical, haunted dolls. It was a complete tonal shift from Gordon’s gory, gooey previously released horror films, but the irony is that Gordon worked on Dolls between Re-Animator and From Beyond. The lengthy, time consuming special effects required for Dolls meant that it didn’t see release until a year after From Beyond.
Planning and pre-production on From Beyond was already well underway when producer Charles Band handed Gordon the script, with the expectation that the small scope of the story meant Gordon would be able to knock the film out in the couple of weeks before shooting began on his current project. Gordon wanted as much actual puppetry as possible, which meant a lot of the marionette work required innovative ways to hide the puppet strings. But it was the stop-motion animation, created by David Allen, that caused the biggest strain on the production both in time and money.
Inspiration for the porcelain Victorian style dolls in the film came from Gordon’s own terrifying personal encounter. He visited the doll collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society building on campus of the University of Wisconsin, and was accidentally locked in. After a period of being in confined space, he started to get freaked out at the possibility that the dolls’ eyes were moving and watching him.
The special makeup effects were designed by John Carl Buechler (Prison, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood), but Gabe Bartalos (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, the Basket Case series) did a lot of heavy lifting on set as the chief makeup artist and onset supervisor. Like Gordon, both Buechler and Bartalos had already been hard at work prepping for From Beyond before shifting gears to hop into work on Dolls.
Just what type of horror movie Dolls was evolved a lot during production, especially in tone. It was an originally a much darker, gorier film. The death of Rosemary (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) initially involved a doll pulling out her intestines via pitchfork but was cut when Gordon realized this was much darker fairytale that encapsulated a childlike innocence than straightforward horror-drenched in blood. Bartalos and special makeup artist John Vulich were also tasked with creating inner zombie-like skeletons of the dolls, as the process and backstory of how the Dollmaker transformed humans into dolls became more fleshed out.
Dolls tends to be more overlooked on Gordon’s roster in favor of his gorier efforts, and it’s a shame. There’s an inherent innocence and sweetness at the core of the story, and the doll designs and effects are far different from most in this sub-genre. The film also boasts a high pedigree of horror talent, with names like Guy Rolfe (Mr. Sardonicus) as the dollmaker Gabriel Hartwicke and Hilary Mason (Don’t Look Now) as his wife Hilary. Gordon at one point had ideas for a sequel that would have seen little Judy (Carrie Lorraine) receive a package from England containing the dolls of Gabriel and Hilary, but Dolls holds up well on its own as it is.
