Who of you out there has seen Heidi Moore’s 2016 comedy horror pic Dolly Deadly? No problem if you haven’t, because this sequel – also helmed by Moore along with Anthony David and Daniel Murphy – opens with a quick catch-up, detailing how young, trailer park dwelling Benji took revenge on those who tormented him, ultimately transforming into the lethal, titular drag queen.
Years later, and Dolly’s back! Actually, she never went away, having garnered a cult following among the citizens of Tromaville as she hacked and slashed her way to local celebrity status. Currently sitting pretty at the top of the Serial Killer Of The Year contest, competition emerges in the form of Slasherella (Amy Vodkahaus). In cahoots with corrupt Mayor Harry Cox (Tom Komisar), Slasherella’s schemes land Dolly (Donna Slash) in the insane asylum with little hope of release. Can Dolly escape and claim the title of Tromaville’s superior slayer?
If you’re not a fan of the Troma style of filmmaking, Kill Dolly Kill is unlikely to convert you. It’s packed with gonzo gore and attempts to mine as many laughs as it can from various bodily functions. With various combinations of farting, defecating or vomiting as the punchline to a number of gags, it’s safe to say that sophistication is not on the menu. If that wasn’t enough in terms of alienating a potential audience, Dolly’s adventures this time out take the form of a musical. This leads to regular pauses in the action to accommodate a slew of mostly rock- or punk-inflected numbers, written by Komisar.
In the main, the songs are fun, sporadically catchy, and fit well with the movie’s trashy aesthetic. At the same time, loading the film with tunes also points up just how little plot there is and Dolly’s extended stay in the Tromaville Psychiatric Ward has her treading water in the second act, when she should be treading on the balls of evil male nurses and breaking out. As a figure who embodies revenge, it’s a long, long time before Dolly gets back to what she does best.
The grab bag approach to the different visual styles employed by Kill Dolly Kill may indicate a project which is happy to throw what it likes at the wall and doesn’t really care if none of it sticks, but the mix and non-match approach endears just as much as it confounds. Animation, comic book panels, spoof sitcom scenes (with accompanying canned laughter) and a parody of a TV series’ opening title sequence sit alongside the plentiful nudity and splattery slaughter. Characters such as Public Defender Maxwell Weiner (a jittery Donny Gonzalez and Detective Walt Wednesday (Mark Justice) are introduced as possible main players in the ongoing mayhem and are then sidelined in quick order. Much of this feels developed on the fly with an anything goes ethos as to what might happen next. In short, prime Troma fodder.
This clearly takes its inspiration from the films of John Waters, with the featured competition possessing parallels with the “Filthiest Person Alive” crown so coveted in Pink Flamingos. It’s nice to see the homage being paid but the wit, satire and sheer bad taste of Waters’ most transgressive works is absent here. Yes, the kills are surprisingly brutal for something this daft and there’s an enthusiasm for crowbarring in unnecessary sexual content which is either admirable or repellent, depending on your viewpoint, but the whole thing lacks the verve and the skilfully effortless offense generated by Baltimore’s finest auteur.
It’s unlikely that your casual genre viewer is going to stick with Kill Dolly Kill but that could be said for any number of titles from the Troma stable. This is a micro-budgeted feature which is not looking to be the next indie breakthrough sensation. This is also a micro-budgeted feature which wants you to laugh at characters called Cox and Weiner and has someone call 911 to warn the forces of law and order of a “ho sighting”. I’m not going to lie, I laughed at that one.
Kill Dolly Kill ticks many of the boxes expected of a Troma release, including the now de rigueur Lloyd Kaufman cameo. Donna Slash’s performance is excellent and just about holds everything together, but for me the overall onslaught was too bludgeoning, too scattershot for the piece to work as a whole. If Dolly’s thinking of a trilogy, maybe next time the focus should be on murders rather than meanderings.
Kill Dolly Kill (2023) featured as part of the SoHome Horror Pride Festival 2024.