Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Dollface’

Written by Scott Edwards

Knowing the history of where you live can come in handy at some point, especially when you want to scare people off from living in your town. If you had a brutal murder spree or nuclear weapons being tested nearby, it could keep many of the undesirables from moving in. Of course, you could make something like that up, but with the internet fitting into everyone’s pocket these days, a quick fact check to prove you wrong only makes you look bad. But if you are lucky enough to have something strange that happened in your town and it does not sit right with the people that you don’t want coming in, it is an easy thing to embrace.
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Needing to come up with a midterm project for class, David and James have come up with the idea to look into a major local legend, the legend of Dorchester Stewart or The Crinoline Head killer.  To their amazement, none of the class seems to have heard about this local legend that killed six people ten years ago, but they do know that their teacher, Mr. Donner, knows plenty about it. Being present for the murders, Paul Donner was befriended by Dorchester Stewart and was taken to the psycho’s lake house. Being lucky enough to escape with one other person, Paul has tried to keep the mentions about this travesty under wraps, because reliving it brings him nothing but pain.

Seeing the emotions of their teacher, the class knows much more now than they ever did before and David and Josh are allowed to move forward with their subject. Borrowing Mr. Donner’s file that he has kept on Crinoline Head for many years, the two have a huge advantage to where their story can take them and over the weekend, they are planning on visiting the site of the murders. Being stopped in the common area by their classmates Shelby and Donna, the two young men get a happy surprise when they find out the girls want to go with them to check it out. Finding out more about Dorchester Stewart and what he did has raised their interests in the story and Shelby wants to be able to get David alone for a while to see if he has interest in her, like she has in him.

Arriving at the address of the old lake house, the group is surprised that there is no house there, but a trailer occupied by Betsy who keeps an eye over the area. Since the Stewart house burned down years ago, Betsy has found her greatest job and wants the kids to leave, or get with her, whichever they prefer.  Allowing the four to stay and do their little project, the group is joined by more of their classmates who want to find out more about the murders as well. As the classmates start pairing off and try to find something to occupy themselves with, David and Shelby come across an old farmhouse that is filled to the brim with dolls and David knows that it has to be where Dorchester moved to after his childhood home burned down. Believing that the killer is alive and well and now being able to prove it will make his project earth shattering, but he and the group will have to survive the weekend to get the word out.

Talk about a messed-up tale about a young man that has turned into a killer. Still not knowing his true motivations, Dorchester Stewart is still on the prowl for meat and anyone that comes onto his property is fair game. I really enjoyed hearing the story from Mr. Donner about what happened ten years ago during the murders and was impressed that the story was simply told, and no flashbacks were shown. Leaving a little something up to the imagination is something that many movies have been lacking over the years. The cast was great, and you get to see Donna grow up in front of your eyes, well, get silly to try and impress a boy for the first time in her life. Betsy was a fun character and gives a couple life lessons in between her innuendoes that were just fantastic. This movie may have you wondering what is really happening at your local lake, especially if there is any sort of legend about it. Stay Scared.

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