A Beautiful Print of the Legendary Film!
Finally Available with English Subtitles!

       

Original Spanish Title: EL ASESINO DE MUNECAS [The Killing of the Dolls]

director: Michael Madrid (as Michael Skaife)
starring: David Rocha · Inma De Santis · Helga Liné · Elisenda Ribas · Marina Ferri · Lupe Rocha

      

Paul is the sexually repressed 20-year-old son of a gardener and an overbearing mother. He enjoys playing with - and mutilating - dolls that belonged to his deceased sister. The estate is owned by a Countess who attempts, unsuccessfully, to seduce Paul when his parents leave for vacation. Instead, the boy becomes romantically involved with her daughter Audrey. However, Paul has difficulties with his new sexual impulses, due mostly to a fractured gender identity from his youth [Paul's mother raised him as a girl after his sister died]. As a result, he harbors another personality which drives him to vicious murder against females, particularly when they get involved in sexual intercourse. This mania obviously causes intense turmoil in Paul's psyche which leads to bloody devastation.

While it's true that the film succeeds due to David Rocha's unhinged performance, it would not pave the way for stardom. DOLLS would actually be the high point in his career [probably cut short because of his character's creepy persona]. David would pop up in subsequent Paul Nachy films (e.g., the 'devil incarnate' TRAVELER) but his time in show business would come to an end in 1986 with a co-starring role in the Spanish television movie El Rey y la Reina [The King and the Queen].

Of course, anyone with an interest in Euro genre films already knows Helga Liné. She was born Helga Stein in Germany but soon moved with her family to Portugal where she studied as a dancer and joined the circus to become an acrobat. In 1960 - when Helga was 28 years old - she moved to Madrid Spain where she established herself as a sought-after genre actress, starring in many Euro Horror Films and Spaghetti Westerns. She worked with Jose Larraz in his controversial SEXUAL RITES OF THE DEVIL but is probably best known VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY, Umberto Lenzi's KRIMINAL and Amando de Ossorio's quirky monster movie LORELEI'S GRASP. After 150+ projects, Ms Liné has stopped making films today but often appears on Spanish TV variety shows.

Inma de Santis plays her daughter here. She was a popular child-actress who had appeared in numerous films (including 1970'S FOREST OF THE WOLF) before this shocking thriller. Immediately after KILLING OF THE DOLLS, Inma starred in LEONOR: MISTRESS OF THE DEVIL. Ms Inma de Santis died in an auto accident during a Christmas vacation in Morocco, December 1989. She was 30 years old.