Dolly Dearest (1991)

Episode 453, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, why don’t we just keep going with tribute episodes. You know, it’s not like we haven’t done three or four already this time we’re killing two birds with one stone. There are two people, one in the acting world, one in the composing world. Uh, ed Gale, who was probably best known for playing Chucky, you know, when he wasn’t a doll.

Yeah, in the Child’s play franchise and Mark Snow, who is a composer, you know, probably not everybody knows who he is, but you have heard his music all over the place. Starting from the mid seventies. This guy was, uh, composing from TV series like Starsky and Hutch and The Love Boat and Heart to Heart Dynasty Cagney and Lacey PeeWee’s Playhouse.

Eventually, uh, did every episode of Smallville and every episode of the reboot of the Twilight Zone. As well as the X-Files theme song. Oh, cool. That is the one of the most iconic songs. I, you know, I didn’t realize this, just that theme song for the X-Files hit like the billboard charts in several countries.

Like really, really well. I’m not 

Craig: surprised. 

Todd: It’s so iconic. 

Craig: Yeah, it was, uh, I remember it was on my Pure Moods cd. Do you remember Pure Moods? I 

Todd: do. I loved that cd. I listen to it all the time. It’s a genius song, and apparently it didn’t come easy to him. He landed the job because he lived near the show creator, Chris Carter, and they could communicate with each other pretty easily.

So Chris Carter kept rejecting earlier motifs that he had that were more loud and bold, and he accidentally placed his hand on a keyboard. When there was an echo sound effect that was programmed and this ethereal sound that came out was so intriguing that he ended up using it as a model for the rest of the theme.

Yeah, yeah. So it’s so cool. Yeah. But, but yeah, he’s done movies as well, including this one. This was one of just hundreds of movies that he scored. He also was. A roommate of Michael Cayman in college, also very famous, uh, composer who, uh, did diehard Lethal Weapon franchises. I remember him as Robinhood Prince of Thieves.

That was huge when we were kids. He did the music for that. But anyway, Mark Snow Dolly Dearest, one of the horror movies. Uh. Kind of midway through his career that he did, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to hear some of his stuff as well as see some of Ed Gale’s acting as the, once again killer doll in this once again Killer Doll movie that was definitely accused of being a child’s play ripoff, one of many, but this film is a 1991 and it had a very brief release in the Midwest in theaters, but mostly went straight to video.

It was produced by Daniel Katy, who was a longtime producer of exploitation and porn films, and the director and writer of this, this is Maria Lease. She started out her career as an actress in exploitation films. Did a little bit of acting in some porn movies in the late seventies, and then, um, went into directing.

Porn and soft core stuff, and this seems to be one of the first more mainstream ish movies that she’s done, even though, I mean, do you call this mainstream? I mean, it’s, it’s horror in the nineties, so right. Low budget horror in the nineties. Very interesting movie. I had never seen it before, but I think I pass by it on the shelves all the time, so I was anxious to get a chance to see this and see what it was all about and how it held up.

How about you have, had you seen this before? 

Craig: Uh, maybe. I don’t know if so. I didn’t really remember it. I, I do remember the box art and if I’ve seen it, I passed it over many, many times before I saw it, because I thought the box art looks stupid. Oh yeah. It looks, and I’m just recalling this from memory, I didn’t even look back at it, but it, it looks like.

Kind of a person, but with a doll face, like in a kind of slumped doll pose. And like, it’s supposed to be scary, but I just thought it looked dumb. And even looking at the back of the box, I think there was a picture of the doll, like with angry evil face, and I thought it looked cheap. And so I just. Wasn’t really interested.

And you know, now having watched it, having watched it again, if I have seen it before, I’m not really surprised that I don’t really remember much about it. ’cause it’s pretty forgettable. It 

Todd: really is. Although I was surprised to see some of the faces in here. Yeah. What is ripped, torn doing in this movie?

Like 

Craig: right, ripped, torn, sir. He is making big movies at this time and would go on to be in some of the biggest. Movies and, and biggest blockbusters. Ever. I mean, this guy, I, I think of this guy as a reputable actor. Yeah. And I couldn’t believe when I saw his name in the credits. And then he just plays a dumb part.

Like Yeah. And I, I was shocked by it. But again, we’ve. Said it a million times. A check is a check. A job is a job. So you know, more power to him. I was just, I was really shocked. 

Todd: Maybe he needed a new truck. You know, that’s probably, maybe, who knows? Denise Crosby is in this and, uh, she’s been all over.

Actually, most of these actors have a lot of credits and television. Mostly that’s true. 

Craig: Denise Crosby, I, I really only know her as the mom from Pet Cemetery. The, the. Original film adaptation, but I think she was big on like Star Trek or something like that. 

Todd: Yeah. The next Generation She was Tasha Ya, that’s where I remember her from.

I wasn’t a real Star Trek guy growing up, but later in life I, I did get into it a bit and the