The Killer of Dolls

Miguel Madrid's second film after "Necrophagus" is a psycho thriller with dolls,mannequins and giallo elements."Killing of the Dolls" is even more bizarre than his campy debut as it features some surreal hallucinations seen by the main character,who enjoys killing sexually active women.The film is more competent than horrible "Necrophagus" and it has enough creepy looking dolls and mannequins to satisfy me.The camera work is shoddy and the acting is over-the-top,but there are some bloody murders via knife,axe and scissors plus cheesy musical number.I truly adore mannequins,unfortunately they are used in horror movies very rarely.During production of our third horror short "Nightmares of Mutantoid" we used many charred,dismembered and bleeding mannequins."Killing of the Dolls" was finally released in Spain on DVD by Filmax.6 out of 10.

I'm probably being rather generous here, but I enjoyed the film and found David Rocha's performance so bizarre it was mesmerising. Director Michael Skaife wrote and acted but only directed two other films. Rocha make a reasonable number of films, including a small part in Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire and not much larger part in Naschy's Night of the Werewolf. But back to the surreal film before us and that extraordinary performance by Rocha. Many horror films allude to manikins and dolls by way of introducing something of the uncanny but here there is barely a scene without one or the other or lots and Rocha seems to have been asked to move as if he too were some plastic zombie. Effective and strange and the teaming of him with a young lad who looks more like a young girl just ratchets up the weirdness. There is a back story surrounding his upbringing and the presence of a countess underplayed by Helga Line and of course there is death and destruction. indeed the film starts at a pace it barely lets up as we helter skelter from mangled dolls and manikin heads to the real thing. The music varies from sublime to something you might expect in a TV quiz show but never mind, there is surely enough here to keep the lover of the obscure well happy.

This is a very strange Spanish film that seems to have been equally inspired by the 1970's Italian gialli thrillers AND the earlier 60's British "psycho" films like "The Psychopath" or "Twisted Nerve" where handsome (and usually very effeminate) young men are driven to serial murder by their psychosexual neurosis. I actually like both of these "genres" a lot, but they don't necessarily mix very well (although they both do owe a significant debt to Hitchcock's original "Psycho").

The disturbed protagonist here is the sexually repressed son of a gardener who likes to play with--and mutilate--dolls he steals from a doll factory where he works. The lady of the house, a contessa (Helga Line), tries unsuccessfully to seduce him. He befriends a young boy, who he seems in constant danger of molesting and/or murdering. Meanwhile, he spies on couples having sex and subsequently murders the girls, turning them into more of his "dolls". Things finally come to a head though when he falls for the pretty daughter (Inma DeSantis) of the contessa.

The direction by Miguel "Necrophagus" Madrid is pretty incompetent and the camera-work is downright awful. This does not have the visual flair of your typical Italian gialli, but it is also way too overwrought and hysterical to succeed as a more mannered British "psycho" thriller. The lead has the right look, but his performance is often hilariously unsubtle. Helga Line meanwhile is largely wasted. Perhaps, the best reason to watch this is Inma DeSantis who, along with Sandra Mazurowsky, was one of young, ill-fated "lolita" actresses of 70's Spanish exploitation (both began working in films as teenagers and both died tragically young--Mazurowsky by her own hand and DeSantis in a car accident). DeSantis is very pretty and appealing, but doesn't show up unfortunately until at least halfway through the movie when it is way too late to salvage much. This movie is uniquely strange--if that can be considered a virtue--but there's not much else you can say about it.

This 'giallo-style' film from Spain is reminiscent of other films of it's time, that dealt with psychotic serial killers who are tortured by their own sexual repression. This is one weird movie, and the protagonist is even more strange. Paul is extremely handsome but mentally unstable, due to being raised as a girl! As children, Paul's sister dies in an accident and, not being able to cope with the loss, the mother deals with it by pretending her son is actually her lost daughter. Problems begin to surface when Paul comes of age, and starts to think about his sexuality. Up until this point his only companions were the dolls that he inherited from his sister; dolls which he grows to hate, as they are reminders of his sick and lonely upbringing. As he becomes more deranged, Paul begins to lose his ability to tell the difference between dolls and live human beings. That is when the killing starts.

Fans of obscure and bizarre horror films should seek out this rare title. Reminiscent of more well-known cult horror movies like "Peeping Tom," and "The Collector," and particularly the low budget "I Dismember Mama," "El Asesino de Munecas" is a creepy, stylish "giallo-style" gem. It is also one of the first films I recall that utilizes the "shaky- cam" style that is so popular today, but only in several intense scenes. It features an excellent score too. This has become a personal favorite of mine.

Spanish surprise with disjointed scenes, terrible moments and some atmospheric horror scenes. A weird European gothic without much sense, terror events with a gruesome killer, extreme weirdness and overacting. This begins with a brief presentation by the director Michael Skaife or Miguel Madrid himself, exposing the case of double personality and its dire consequences. After a time away, a young man named Paul (David Rocha) returns home. Paul is the son of the gardener (Gaspar 'Indio' González) of the palace of a countess (Helga Liné) who returns to her home after failing at medical university, deciding to go to live with his parents. Shortly after his arrival, several murders occur. He suffers from a split personality, which leads him to disguise himself with a wig and a mask to murder the couples who come to the park and his victims are subjected to strange surgical practices. Meanwhile, Paul falls in love with the daughter (Imma de Santis) of the rich countess. However, the young man continues with his obsession and follows his criminal wave, but he cannot remember what happened. There's a deranged beast lurking inside! Don't be fooled by his cutesy and friendly side!

An unconventional Giallo/slasher film with a strange theme: a killer with a split personality and a lot of latent homosexuality, this is combined with a crazy and sometimes embarrassing rhythm. A twisted and sometimes absurd entanglement whose results will leave you with your mouth open due to the incredible events developing throughout. 'Killer of Dolls' accelerates little by little towards its own frequency of deranged madness, plunging the mind into a deep abyss of bewilderment and barely allowing you to take a breath of logic. A weird and creepy horror story with thrills, chills, plot twists, beheadings, blood, the strangest showers, turning out to be really surprising. It contains such a peculiar and fantastic vibe that it eventually seems to morph into some sort of unintentionally strange comedy. Starring David Rocha who gives a bizarre and exaggerated performance as an emotionally unstable young man who collects dolls, the reason being that, after the death of his sister, he was raised as a girl. Some regular Spanish secondary characters appear: Helga Liné, Gaspar 'Indio' González, Luis Induni, Enric Majó, José Lifante, Antonio Molino Rojo or Red Mills, all of them common in all types of genres from the sixties and seventies such as Spaghetti, Paella Western , from the Euro-spy subgenre, from Giallo or from Jesús Franco films. And special mention for Inma de Santis, an 'infant terrible' who began as a child actress, developing an interesting career until her early death at the age of 30 due to a car accident.

This pure, off-the-wall, relentless madness showcases colorful, reddish cinematography by Alfonso Nieva. It was filmed on location in Barcelona, Sitges, Catalonia, Spain, and especially in the wonderful gardens of Castelldefels, Barcelona, where most of the action takes place. As well as an anticlimactic and inappropriate musical score by Alfonso Santiesteban. The film was regularly directed by Miguel Madrid, who often uses the pseudonym Michael Skaife, and here delivers a morbidly extravagant horror entry with plenty of nightmarish flashbacks too. Miguel Madrid was a writer and director of horror and erotic films. He only made three films, "Necrophagus" or "The Butcher of Binbrook" or "The Graveyard of Horror" 1971, an erotic film titled "Bacchanal Live" 1979 and this giallo horror film, the really outlandish "The Doll Killer" 1975. Rating: 5.5/10. An offbeat and mediocre but original film. This might be one of the strangest and most unintentionally hilarious movies I've seen in a long time.