The horror in The Dollmaker follows the well-worn path first cut by Psycho. Nothing wrong with that, as some Psycho paraphrase remakes rank among the finest horror ever made, like Don’t Go In The House. However, it means that certain reveals down the line are already anticipated, as Norman Bates is as well known as Santa Claus. Cicala is able to play around a little with our suspicions, but our expectations are already set. This turns out to be a clever trap, one laid by choosing a well-known formula to follow to lull the audience members in the know into a false state of smugness. That state is completely obliterated by the totally out of left field wacko ending, one that is truly unexpected, and utterly glorious. It also adds an extra layer of fangs to the film’s impact, giving it a revolutionary context it didn’t have before.
Tomas (Rodrigo Noya) sits quietly among his handmade dolls in The Dollmaker.
“It is a trippy journey into a beautiful darkness that you can taste with your eyes.”
The Dollmaker is littered with cinephile Easter eggs, the kind that the rabbit from Donnie Darko would leave to disturb children. Cicala is at his best when he is being referential, particularly with so many nods to Lynch that he might as well be headbanging. However, your respect wavers when we ooze over the borderline from referential to derivative. Showing your respect for the masters through direct allusion can accidentally turn into ripping them off, a line we saw repeatedly crossed in the Kill Bill movies, as well as Di Palma’s handling of Hitchcock’s methods. This line is nearly crossed in a very specific tribute to The Shining that occurs, with Cicala recreating a key scene shot by shot. It just squeaks by, mostly due to the jaw-dropping performance put on by Sanchez, accentuated by Cicala’s painstaking attention to the recreation’s details.
While The Shining sequence showcases one aspect of Sanchez’s craft, the rest of The Dollmaker allows her to show off her massive talents as an actress. Her work as Tina is authentic and relatable, providing a likable character for the audience to identify with as the film’s moral compass. She maintains herself as the one thing that is sane in this world of crazy, meaning she also is the one who makes sure it gets as dark as it gets. It is her genuine reactions that punctuate the horror with bloody exclamation points. Also, being a true Lynch disciple, Cicala delivers highly detailed art direction that is shot with the precision of a painter. The visuals are hyper elegant with a playful artificiality that will make your brain glow. If you were curious as to what a Lynch directed slasher movie would look like, you will find it in The Dollmaker. It is a trippy journey into a beautiful darkness that you can taste with your eyes.
"…Norman Bates is as well known as Santa Claus."
