User reviews

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.

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.

When his grounds keeper parents go on vacation, a troubled young man fends off the advances of a lascivious Countess while romancing her virginal daughter on a large rural estate...

Made in Spain during Franco's regime, this lop-sided "Lady Chatterly's Lover" may sound like soft-core soap opera but the gardener's son, Paul, hates lovemaking and dons a porcelain doll's mask to murder any woman he catches in the act. The killer's identity is revealed early on with reasons going back to childhood so what suspense there is comes from wondering how the romantic complications could possibly turn out well. Complicating matters is a mixed-message homo-eroticism with the slightly effeminate anti-hero constantly cavorting in either tight short-shorts or his underwear when he isn't in a bed, bath, or shower and his only friend is a like-minded little boy who goes missing, of course. It's set almost entirely in and around a lonely landed manor house with lots of mannequins, doll mutilations and cheesy hallucinations for scenery and may not be very well made but some stabbing, throat-slashing, decapitation, at-home heart surgery, and handsome Helga Liné (a European Alison Hayes) as "The Countess" make this worth a peek. I don't know what I'd call DOLLS besides a silly slice of Eurotrash but "giallo" isn't exactly the first thing that springs to mind even though it's been sold as such. Writer/director Miguel Madrid (aka Michael Skaife) made just three films including the campy NECROPHAGUS (aka GRAVEYARD OF HORROR 1971) and this was the debut of androgynous star David Rocha who went on to not make his mark in such diverse films as Luis Bunuel's THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE (1977), GARY COOPER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN (1980) and NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF (1981) before fading back into obscurity by the mid-80s.

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.

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.

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.

The Killer of Dolls (1975) - original title: El asesino de muñecas, is one of the all time most bizarre movies I've ever seen! It seems to have elements of the Italian Giallo genre but with a very Spanish twist (it was made during Franco's regime.) Basically it's a study in abnormal psychology.

I found it so over the top bizarre and strange that although I'm sure it was intended to be a serious horror film it at times is so outrageously bizarre that it is absurdly humorous. And I see that as a good thing! It's a very, very weird move that does not always go where you expect it to go and may shock some viewers. They could never get away with making this movie today! The 1970s were even more weird than the psychedelic late 1960s.

One of the themes of this movie is the odd "friendship" between the protagonist Paul (...you know...the guy who likes to dress up as a doll and works in a doll factory then steals the dolls to dissect and 'kill' them...) and a neighborhood boy of around 9 named Robert (played by Rafael 'Indio' González Jr.) Paul bonds with the chubby looking boy Robert who comes to the park daily with his Grandfather. Robert enjoys smashing dolls and setting things on fire. Paul connects with the bratty kid's anarchy and rage.

There seems to be a strange undercurrent of homoerotic lust in Paul for Robert (and Robert is blissfully unaware of anything...always so cheerful, naive and guileless.) But this is not your ordinary horror movie...don't expect a happy ending. In fact it left me wondering...whatever became of Robert? Strange, weird, bizzare, absurdly over the top, sometimes disturbing movie. Keep an open mind and just go with it. If you hate weird movies you won't like it. But I liked it because it is indeed so beyond weird that it is entertaining.

Some delusional psychopath is fetishizing dolls to arouse his murderous obsession because of his dead sister and his abusive parents(?). I think. Killer Of Dolls is one of those movies to where the producers probably gave the filmmakers $50,000 and ten tons of smack and said "make a f···Ing movie about some r·tard's obsession with dolls." Anyways, this is a psychological thriller that is very bizarre and oddly directed. Maybe it's because I'm not familiar with Spanish style of filmmaking or maybe they just suck at making coherent movies but this looked spontaneous and all over the place. But even with its inconsistent tone and kooky direction, I was, somehow, able to comprehend this torrent of lunacy and it's psychological aspects. It also has plentiful bizarre and creepy moments too which makes the film more interesting like the usage of dolls and mannequins. It also has questionable moments because at one point I thought this male protagonist was gonna dry hump butt slam some little boy wearing these short shorts. Woo wee, dodged a bullet with that one. Wow! Anyways, I found Killer Of Dolls to be a unique piece of filmmaking and it should be viewed at least once by people who like cult, strange or obscure films.

After his sister died, Paul (David Rocha) was raised as a girl by his grieving mother, who made her son wear dresses and gave him dolls to play with; now, as a young man, Paul is very disturbed, wearing a doll mask and wig to go out and kill women, who he mistakes for mannequins. When not out murdering, gardener's son Paul is busy trying to avoid the advances of his boss, Condesa Olivia (Helga Liné), while romancing her pretty daughter Audrey (Inma de Santis). Of course, Paul's love for Audrey is doomed since he struggles to tell her apart from the mannequins he despises.

If you're a fan of really odd films, then The Killer of Dolls is a must see: the plot is extremely bizarre, with plenty of random weirdness (my favourite scene: the hippy rock band who appear out of nowhere to perform a groovy song), but it is the central performance by Rocha that makes the film something really special. Rocha's acting technique is truly remarkable, the guy doing nothing the way one might expect: he stands strangely, he runs strangely, he kisses strangely, he showers strangely, he laughs strangely. In short, he's bloody strange, which is great because his character is not exactly normal (his best friend is a little kid in tiny shorts who likes to burn dolls!).

Writer/director Miguel Madrid delivers a few brutal death scenes - a decapitation, a stabbing with scissors, and a sharp garden implement in the face - but the effects are laughably cheap: when Audrey is shown after having had her heart removed, the wound is wholly unconvincing and de Santis is clearly moving.

If I'm totally honest, this is not a good film, but I had such a fun time with the insanely daft nature of the whole thing that I can't bring myself to rate it poorly. 7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for that song, and the hilarious dancing that goes with it.