Baby Doll (2004)

Directed by Lance J. Reha
Written by Thomas Bragg
Produced by Rosemary Gore
Featuring Rosemary Gore, Victor Moreyra, Tobi-Lyn Byers and Frank Dudley
2004/Color/27 minutes
www.lakefilms.com
www.rosemarygore.net
Review by Andrew Shearer

Recently I heard that the best performances generally result from casting actors in roles completely opposite from what they're like in real life. Smart people play the best "dumb" characters, nice people play the best "mean" ones. If this is the case, actor Rosemary Gore must be the most mentally stable woman on the planet.

In BABY DOLL, Gore plays "Casey", a woman being questioned by the cops in relation to a murder. Right away, it's obvious there's something wrong with Casey, but only through watching a flashback of the crime do we get to know exactly how wrong. That, dear reader, is where this film gets its title. To the outside world, Casey is a seemingly well-adjusted woman with friends, a good career, and fantastic shopping skills. However, to the poor bastard she's got tied to her bed, she's much, much more. But wait, she didn't do this. He's actually been tied up (with jump-rope) by Casey's other personality, a freaky pig-tailed brat who dresses and behaves like a four-year old.

Despite having seen her play "crazy" previously in Glen Baisley's FEAR OF THE DARK, I sat in amazement watching Rosemary Gore's portrayal of Casey in BABY DOLL. She totally goes for it, is 100% believable, and quite honestly, left me more than a bit unsettled. It wasn't so much that Casey repeatedly stabs a guy with scissors, or that she also cracks his skull with a toy car. I think what fascinated and disturbed me the most was trying to imagine the headspace Gore must have had to be in to reach the level of commitment she gives to the character (her performance being one of the finest I've seen on the indie level). She's mesmerizing, scary, darkly funny, and overflowing with intensity.

Director Lance Reha skillfully captures Gore's manic ranting and raving, using appropriately skewed camera angles, eerie lighting and creeped-out music to throw us right into Casey's sick little world. A performance such as this absolutely hinges on being in the hands of a competent filmmaker, and Reha makes sure it gets presented in just the right way. BABY DOLL is a very effective, twisted little film that exemplifies how the right combination of talent can do amazing things even with the smallest cast and budget. While you don't often see many unique roles for women in today's indie horror films, perfomances like Rosemary Gore's are even more scarce, and the film's shock ending catches you totally off guard.

Highly entertaining, BABY DOLL manages to both marinate in B-movie traditions and transcend them.