Writer-Director Rod Blackhurst Talks His New Film Dolly

Dolly aims to bring a certain slasher classic stylization back to the big screen. Writer-director Rod Blackhurst has conceived a love letter throwback for genre fans. Fortunately, at a Chicago screening of the upcoming film, he was generous enough to give us some time to chat about his new feature.

Blackhurst is no stranger to the world of horror. He’s penned pictures such as Night Swim. Plus, he’s brought to life gritty thrillers like Blood for Dust. Moreover, he’s well versed in the history of the horror genre.

Dolly tells the tale of a couple who encounter a dangerously deranged individual in the woods. Dragged back to a sinister house in the forest, terror ensues as well as crippling humiliations. Dolly promises to make audiences squirm in more than one way.

Below is an abridged transcript of our conversation. The full interview can be found by following a link at the bottom to YouTube. It’s well worth exploring as Blackhurst elaborates about the film’s production, his aims and intentions as a filmmaker, and the potential magic of cinema, especially when audiences connect to material.

Film Obsessive: Tell us a little bit about your feature.

Rod Blackhurst: Dolly is a movie about family. It’s a movie about people trying to figure out how to navigate the things that their family has brought to them, has shaped them, like why they are who they are. It’s a gonzo horror film for people that like Tobe Hooper movies, like John Carpenter films, like the New French Extremity, High Tension, Calivaire, for people who like things that are gritty and tactile. It’s a movie as a horror fan and as a genre fan for my fellow nerds.

There is a very classical look to this movie, especially the cinematography. Was that intentional?

The reason why Dolly probably looks the way it does is I started writing it with my screenwriting partner, Brendan Weevil, when I was 41 or 40, approaching 41, and personally and professionally very frustrated by being unable to make another movie. So we kind of went back to the drawing board and we’re like, well, maybe we should have made something that was a little more dangerous or was a little more, had a little more respect for the references and the films that have inspired us and shaped us as storytellers. And I love, of course, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

This movie does sort of go back to a stripped-down slasher classic formula, but it still manages to have a certain amount of depth. Was that tricky navigating that sort of narrow path where it remains a straightforward film, but there’s still mechanics to it and things that are going on, especially with our primary slasher character, the titular Dolly? Was it hard navigating that?

I trust audiences because I like films that treat me as a first-class citizen that aren’t playing down to me. That ask me to jump in, pay attention, and give me something so much more than maybe what you think you’re going to start with. I want that experience as a lover of film myself, right? It’s asking you to come on in and take the leap and settle in and pay attention and be present for it. I think that the slasher title is a great thing because it will bring people to view Dolly that maybe are expecting something, but then they get, I hope, so much more.

When you were in production, all the creepy dolls that you purchased to fill up the house and the woods, which are fantastic — did anybody show up and be like, why are you buying cases of creepy dolls?

So the funny part about this is if you need some creepy dolls in your life, just get on Facebook marketplace, no matter where you are in the United States, and I think you will be able to get your fix. Which makes me wonder more than me buying them, why is everyone stockpiling creepy dolls? But yes, there were so many dolls on this set and poor Kyra, our production designer, had to wrangle all these dolls. It’s both awesome and overwhelming when I think about it.

Max the Impaler does a fantastic job as the main villain, for lack of a better term, because I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is a moment where there’s a sort of a sympathetic turn for Dolly. How did they come on board?

I got lucky. I didn’t know Max. My producing partner, Ross O’Connor, had seen a flyer in Nashville where we live for a wrestling promotion, and there was an image of Max on it. It was very arresting, like Max the Impaler, the character they’ve created as a professional wrestler, is striking. And we knew that we needed a gifted physical performer. Somebody who could do so much without words. I went and started watching some of their performances, some of their matches. And they, it was just exciting and exhilarating to me where I started badgering them across their social media. Eventually, they wrote me back.

We met on a Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky. And when I sat down, Max told me almost immediately that their lifelong dream had been to be a monster in a horror movie, and that horror movies had been deeply important to them in their development as a storyteller and as just a person in the world generally. And I called everyone after I left that lunch and I was like, we found our Dolly.

Currently, you’re in Chicago at the Music Box Theater. Are you taking this movie like to different theaters on sort of like a William Castle type of bring it to the fan situation?

ROD BLACKHURST: Yes, I am literally sitting in the Music Box right now. It’s a late-night screening at the music box because what we wanted for Dolly was for it to be available for people. Like horror has always been punk rock in my mind. It’s by the people for the people. All the outsiders that have come before us, like John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper and Sam Raimi that is the spirit of great horror movies, and great horror characters. So we wanted to have a premiere that was just available for people from the public. No red carpet, no celebrities. It’s just come watch a movie with us.

At the same time, the movie comes out on Friday, March 6th, in wide release in theaters only for a long time around the country. And I’m so anxious about that because I want everybody to go see it and to tell a friend and for it to grow. And so we are going to a couple screenings next week in various parts of the country. No roadshow yet, but I think in time, if people love Dolly, a dream of mine is to actually get the band in the van and to go travel around and to talk about the film.

Can you give us any hint to what you have planned or hope to do in the future?

 Right now, I’m trying to revive a film my friend Bryce and I wrote that we sold to Amblin in 2019. It’s called The White Room. It’s a horror thriller. It’s set in my hometown. The lead character is based on my mother. It kind of stalled out back in the pandemic. So I’m working really hard to revitalize that film. And I’ve got, outside of all the Dolly things, which there are many Dolly things in progress right now, we’re also trying to revitalize a film called Die by Night that’s also a horror action thriller.

And outside of taking care of my family, being a dad, my wife is busy right now with work because I’m trying to navigate all that. I’m just trying to keep spinning the plates and keep trying to make the things that are original IP that I have agency over and authorship over and trying to do so in a responsible way.