The Best in Horror 2025-2026 So Far…

#31 – DOLLY (GATOR FACE)

It’s my favorite time of the year, October and like many of you, I don’t wait until the end of the month to celebrate Halloween. On MLMillerFrights we celebrate horror all year long, but we party extra hard in October. This is my 16th Annual countdown of the Best of the Best in Horror since last Halloween! Most count down their best of the year in January, but I feel that celebrating the best in horror during the month of October is much more appropriate. This is MLMillerFrights’ Best In Horror Countdown 2025 – 2026!

#31 – DOLLY (2026)

Released on March 6, 2026!
Streaming on Shudder from Vertigo Releasing, Shudder, and IFC!
Directed by Rod Blackhurst.
Written by Rod Blackhurst, Brandon Weavil.
Check out the trailer here!

Chase (Sean William Scott) and Macy (Fabianne Therese) are a young couple who set out to have a romantic hike in the woods. Chase has brought a ring and intends to propose to Macy at the perfect time, but this time is interrupted by Dolly (played by someone known as Max the Impaler), a hulking mountain of rage that has a penchant for turning people into her own personal playthings.

What makes DOLLY stand out is not that it delivers the most original story. The guy and gal go hiking with intentions a proposal in the air is the setup for at least five movies I can think of released in the last few years, most notably BACKCOUNTRY and SIGNIFICANT OTHER, that hang the horror around this setup. But what makes the film stand out is how simple the premise is and how it is all executed in a claustrophobic and intense way. While there are a few twists and turns along the way, for the most part, DOLLY is a straightforward slasher in the woods story most reminiscent of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE in that Dolly lives in a house of horrors in the middle of the woods and her mannerisms reflect the way Leatherface was portrayed, specifically in the first TCM. More on that later. But the story basically only has two protagonists and one of them is taken care of quickly in the first chapter of this seven-chapter tale. Along the way, a few others stumble into the spotlight, but for the most part, this is Dolly stalking her victims through the woods and that’s that.

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Sometimes a stylish representation of a simple stalk and slash is just what the doctor ordered. Dolly is savage and vicious, forcing her playthings to do what she wants them to do and unafraid of breaking her toys in the process. The way Dolly situates her playthings and then punishes them when they disobey them is disquieting, to say the least. DOLLY focuses much of its screentime on putting the victims in different play scenarios in Dolly’s secluded house in the woods, only venturing outside of those creepy walls at the beginning and end of the film. This delivers a horrifyingly claustrophobic feeling as Dolly smothers her playthings with a warped kind of affection, not really knowing how to be gentle with the things she holds precious. The unsettling juxtaposition of Dolly’s affectionate actions causing so much pain and unease for the victim really makes for an uncomfortable watch, specifically, one scene where Dolly forces her victim to eat. I won’t spoil it, but it makes for the freakiest scene of the entire movie.

Whomever Max the Impaler is, he sure does a good Leatherface impression in Dolly. While it might be a little bit too close of a similarity to the way the original chainsaw maniac behaves, there are a few nice details setting the two apart. Dolly’s love of her dolls seems to be her prime motivator with her twisted sense of motherhood causing more harm than good. Dolly seems to have a strong natural instinct to play the motherly role but simply lacks the skills to do it properly. Still, as much as I think seeing Dolly rock back and forth and twiddle her fingers frantically is downright disturbing, it is very much like Gunnar Hansen’s performance in the original TCM, specifically after the second marvelous meat hook kill where Leatherface checks the windows to see if anyone else is coming to visit for dinner. Of course, Dolly is female, or at least seems to be that, but her hulking frame and simple savagery doesn’t seem ladylike. All of this put together makes for a new slasher with infinite possibilities for her to go.

The look of the film stock of DOLLY is what will really remind you of the gritty and grindhousey original TCM. The grainy footage feels unearthed, especially during the scenes inside of Dolly’s house. The darks are deep and while it seems a lot of production was made for the house and the woods decorated with dolls on the trees, the blown-out film stock makes it all hard to register. It reminded me of trying to figure out specifics from the old VHS copies of TCM, knowing there are all these details that are too blurred out to really see. It’s ironic that new cleaned up versions of TCM make it feel like a brand-new movie, removing all that grimy schmutz from the film, but a newer film like DOLLY seems to work overtime to digitally make things look grainy and blown out.

Fabienne Therese is strong in the role of Macy. I remember the actress from SOUTHBOUND and STARRY EYES and it’s great to see the actress headline this film. I hope it leads to bigger and better roles as she really delivers the goods in DOLLY. It’s also refreshing to see Sean William Scott in a film like this, meaning a no-frills slasher. Not that he has never been in horror, but this seems an especially gnarly turn for the actor.

So, while DOLLY isn’t the most original, something has to be said about how it does everything just right in terms of delivering a brutal and electrifying feature length chase sequence in the woods with a hulking maniac wanting to cuddle someone to death. Coming in at just under an hour and a half, DOLLY may not have the deeper themes of TCM, but it has the look and feel down pat. And since TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE is my favorite movie of all time, I have to say, I appreciate the effort to recreate that harrowing experience in DOLLY is viewed as a high achievement in my book. If you’re a fan of TCM and slashers in general, DOLLY is a bare bones stalk and slash you need! Just be prepared to be skeeved out more than a few times. I highly recommend this one.

Worth Noting – GATOR FACE (2026)

Released on September 11, 2026!
Available On Demand on from Epic Pictures and DREAD!
Directed/Written by Padraig Reynolds.
Check out the
trailer here! !

A trio of vacationing gals encounter a building with “3-Dead Inside” written on the wall. When they go in to investigate, they encounter a live gator, a dead body, and a gator-masked man with an axe aptly named Gator Face.

Director Padraig Reynolds previously helmed RITES OF SPRING and OPEN
24 HOURS, both formidable slasher-esque horrors in their own right. With GATOR FACE, Reynolds offers up a gnarly and grisly ode to grindhousers everywhere. There’s a grit on the lens that filmed GATOR FACE. It feels like a few bloody innards got on the camera lens and it was never wiped off properly. Sure, this most likely is a filter, but GATOR FACE really is convincing as if it were some lost film from the seventies, unearthed and presented for the first time.

Like the recently released STRAIGHT ON TIL MORNING, GATOR FACE emulates the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. It’s obvious in every scene. But unlike STRAIGHT ON TIL MORNING, it doesn’t copy scenes or details. GATOR FACE has a different kind of killer—one who uses an axe and his pet gators instead of a chainsaw. GATOR FACE simply nails the rugged and raw feel of TCM and that’s why it’s such an achievement.

Adding to the madness is a cult who worships alligators and somehow ties it in with the bible. I liked these scenes as they again are very TCM without copying it all outright. Instead of a dinner scene, there’s a ritual. But again, the look and feel of this movie, which makes the Florida landscape as hellish as Hooper did so with Texas, feels like you’ve been transferred to another horrible world.

The action is intense pretty much from the get-go. You don’t even really get to know the three gals before they are being chomped on by a gator or swacked with Gator Face’s axe. I loved the furious pace this film takes from scene one until the end as the survivor of one group runs into a new group only to have them whittled down as well. It’s this rampant pace that keeps the tension high.

All the actors involved as the soon-to-be victims of Gator Face are personable and distinct. One of the leads, Amariah Dionne who plays the panting ginger Jess is a real standout. That’s right I said ginger. I can say that. I’m a ginger myself. I’ll even put a hard R on the end. Anyway. Dionne is a strong actress, but she looks like she might need a sandwich or two as she has no muscles in her arms and looks to struggle simply holding the axe that she manages to get away from Gator Face. Scot Scurlock is solid as well as Father Eli, the leader of the Gator Cult. But all the actors feel natural, even though most of them are simply running for their lives for the entire time.

The titular Gator Face is a winner in terms of being an iconic slasher. With his strange mask and coat made from real gator skin to the grunts he lets out when he barrels after the victims at full speed. This is no Michael Myers slowly and methodically pursuing his prey. If you don’t hail ass, you’re going to be Gator Face’s or his alligators’ next victim.

This is one bloody flick too. The red stuff spatters everywhere in a bright, sticky mess. And quite a bit of time was spent decorating the scenery and interiors, again reminiscent of the gory details Hooper and his crew produced with TCM. Add in some amazing lived in and dilapidated places like a car graveyard and what looks like houses destroyed by hurricanes, and you’ve got one amazing, gator-filled grindhouse gore-fest.

Once again, feel free to agree, disagree, or how about you play along at home and give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies. It’s October, so let’s talk horror. Come back tomorrow for the next level in the Best in Horror Countdown. Be sure to hit all of the pertinent bells and whistles down below and you’ll never miss a post! Happy Halloween, folks!