HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2021: Curse of The Doll People (1961)

Today our sponsor is known as The Beast.  He's one half of the Schmoedown Tag Team Deep Thirteen and one half of the massive Voltron of Film Criticism that is the Critically Acclaimed Podcast Network, William Bibbiani!  William also designs soaps for his partner M. Lopes da Silva's Salt Cat Soap, so check that out if you need to clean yourself up!  William is representing The Los Angeles LGBT Resource Center!

Bibbs has chosen for me the 1961 Mexican horror film Curse of The Doll People.  While I am unfamiliar with the film's director, Benito Alazraki, I am extremely familiar with its writer, Alfredo Salazar.  Mr. Salazar wrote and/or directed a slew of Mexican spook shows from the 50's on through the 70's that made their way here as part of an American-International TV package, and I've seen a number of his films, particularly the notorious Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy.  Hell, I saw his brother Abel Salazar's masterpiece The Brainiac, on the big screen at the downtown Thalia back in the 90's...you know, back when there was room for two Thalia revival houses in the New York market!

As part of a party of four people on a trip to Haiti, some dumbass steals an idol that looks suspiciously like an embryonic Jar-Jar Binks from a voodoo bocor.  Said bocor curses them to die in 'thirteen moons' time' and, sure enough, they start dropping dead from mysterious causes thirteen moons later.  While the local...police? (the script, as with most Salazar joints, isn't very clear at all as to what this particular trio has to do with this situation) are perfectly happy to write things off, local doctor Karina (Elvira Quintana) is convinced this is the bocor's handiwork and she's right--the priest is utilizing dolls animated with the souls of the murdered men delivered by a zombie to wreck his vengeance.

Now, this film is more typical of the Salazar Brothers' output than the glorious weirdness that is Brainiac.  It is trim seventy minutes (the reason I suspect AIP picked them up for television distribution, as they'd fit smoothly into a ninety minute time slot), yet it drags badly.  The special effects are primitive, being confined to a rubber mask for the zombie and little people in admittedly creepy plaster of paris masks standing in for the dolls.  And even though everyone else is dressed in 50's chic, the bocor is dressed like a 'yellow peril' villain from a WWII serial and lives in a basement filled with scientific equipment, cemetery stuff...and a disco ball.  This is not a good film a'tall.

...and I say that to say this.  There is something compelling about this film in its presentation.  Even though this was made in 1961, a point where cinematic horror was slowly starting to change, the style of Curse of The Doll People is firmly entrenched in Universal Horror.  The shadow-drenched cinematography seems right out of one of those films, and some of the compositions and blocking seems straight out of their playbook.  There are a couple of shots, like the ones of our zombie friend returning to his master's house, that are really remarkable in the context of that influence.  I found that strange dissonance between the modern world and a storytelling style with it roots of an early age of the medium enough to pull me through even at those points where I was beginning to zone out.  

Curse of The Doll People is not that difficult to see--I found it on Tubi for free, where the ad breaks actually helped, as this is how AIP intended these films to be seen.  A casual fan of horror would find this insufferable, but people like me with an interest in the history of horror as a whole might find this an interesting curio...and at seventy minutes, it can't hurt.

Tomorrow, our sponsor is West Coast Film Critic and Christmas Movie Authority Alonso Duralde!  And not surprisingly, Alonso has decided to bring a little flavor of his favorite holiday to the Horrorfest with a 1972 Long Island shot, Massachusetts set obscurity that tends to be forgotten in the shadow of another Holiday Horror that was released two years later, Silent Night, Bloody Night.  Alonso will be representing The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

There are presently fourteen open slots for this year's festival, and if you'd like to be included, there are four ways to get your share of the spotlight:

1) You can become a Domicile of Dread Patreon.  Patreons always get a free slot, as well as advance access to podcasts and other goodies!

2) You can buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi.  Suggested donation is $3

3) You can make a donation to Queens Community House Covid-19 Relief and Recovery Campaign.  Suggested donation is $10.  Please forward your receipt to me as proof.

4) You can choose to make a donation to the charity chosen by a sponsor on his/her/their day. Like with the third possibility, please forward me proof of donation.

It is not necessary to choose a rat-based horror film.  However, if you do, I will forward you a special Ratapalooza banner you can display on your website.