Blood Dolls Blu Ray Review (Full Moon Features)

Blood Dolls is a 1999 horror film produced, written, and directed by Charles Band (Crash and Burn, Trancers franchise, Puppet Master franchise, Doctor Mordrid, Head of the Family, Hideous!, Evil Bong franchise, Dollman vs. Demonic Toys, Meridian, Parasite, Death Streamer, Doll Graveyard, Quadrant, and The Dungeonmaster). It was executive produced by Peter Locke (The Hills Have Eyes franchise, Freeway franchise, Serpent’s Lair, The Grave, Talisman, Ringmaster, Witchouse, Getting Gotti, But I’m a Cheerleader, and Picking Up the Pieces,). It has connections to Head of the Family plus Mr. Mascaro was influenced by Demonic Toys and he returns in Ravenwolf Towers. It had an estimated budget of $1,000,000. Follow the bizarre adventures of wealthy, warped lunatic Virgil Travis (played by: Kristopher Logan from Crash and Burn, Puppet Master III, The Rocketeer, Demolition Man, The Dead Pool, Star Trek: Generations, Dead Man’s Hand, Howard the Duck, and Shameless). He’s an eccentric billionaire whose bizarre mask conceals an extremely deadly secret. To satisfy his insatiable kinks, Virgil kidnaps an all-girl rock band and he ends up creating a trio of killer dolls to enact his own violent revenge on all his enemies. As the volume turns up, the bodies begin to pile up and the girl’s strip down. Virgil’s dastardly blood lust leads to a disturbing finish!!!! Blood Dolls is one of director Charles Band’s most underrated features for his impressive career. It was made during the 90’s when Full Moon was at their best. They had a partnership with Paramount Pictures most of the time during this era and it really helped their low budget productions. Charles Band returns to a sub-genre that made him known which was killer dolls. The Puppet Master franchise really put his independent company on the map. It had a wild mix of killer dolls including a pimp, rock music, dark comedy, and pure vengeance. Character actor Kristopher Logan gets one of his only leading roles as the mysterious Virgil Travis. He’s really good here, I’m surprised he only mainly did smaller or background characters for most of his career. The late Debra Mayer (Speck, Prison of the Dead, Dr. Moreau’s House of Pain, and Hell Asylum) is shady as hell as Moira Yulin. She can’t be trusted by anyone, she’s one of true villains of Blood Dolls. Both Nicholas Worth (Swamp Thing, Scream Blacula Scream, Darkman, Barb Wire, and Don’t Answer the Phone!) as George Warbeck and as Phil Fondacaro (The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Troll, Willow, Bordello of Blood, and Ghoulies II) as Hylas are the two biggest names in Blood Dolls. They both played unlikable characters with ease. It helped make Virgil more likable compared to the messed up people around him. Both veterans brought something different to the table for this unique horror feature. William Paul Burns (Mirrors, Lipstick, Ravenwolf Towers, and Play Murder for Me) is great as the loyal Mr. Mascaro. He might be the most dangerous person in this wacky universe but he’s Virgil’s right hand man for everything. He cleans up all the unneeded trash and problems for his boss. It’s very interesting that his disguise is him without the clown makeup. That’s his real personality. The rest of supporting cast includes Warren Draper (Vice Girls), Jodie Fisher (Intimate Obsession), Jack Forbes (Southland), Jason Pace (The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption), Venesa Talor (Femalien franchise), Yvette Lera (The Exotic House of Wax), Persia White (The Vampire Diaries), and Matt Corboy (The Shield). Blood Dolls has an interesting twist and reveal for it’s last act. It makes sense after getting through everything that happens before it. Most of the main characters are very unlikable so it gets the crowd rooting for those killer dolls to slaughter them. It has some solid special fx and creative production design. Some of the visual fx are a little silly but they are masterpieces compared to all of the projects that followed. It’s one of the highest quality features from Full Moon at the time. Soon after, most of their movies would have a much smaller budget to work with. Charles Band is at his absolute best with proper backing and help like this. He made a good amount of additional killer dolls films but this one is the best effort besides all the Puppet Master series. It has plenty of eye candy and the atmosphere is one of a kind which I still appreciate. It had potential for another possible entry but unfortunately it never happened. I can’t believe how much Blood Dolls gets overlooked when it comes to the Full Moon catalog. It’s still one of true shining moments when the company was at it’s peak. I’m hoping that this brand new home video release upgrade will bring in a whole different audience. It’s currently streaming on Tubi and Fawesome if you are curious about it, RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Full Moon Features! This 1080p (1.85:1) transfer looks better than a good amount of the other Full Moon productions and it’s from a brand new restoration. I’ve owned it on VHS and DVD over the years and this is a big upgrade compared to anything from the past. Don’t expect reference quality but it’s definitely the best it’s ever going to look on home video. It has a few different audio options which includes English: Dolby Digital 5.1 and English: Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks on the disc. The Rock soundtrack and vibe is the main highlight when it comes to the audio here. All of the dialogue is very clean, the vengeance is elevated, and the music has a killer boost to it. It has English subtitles. It has the original little over 26 minute “VideoZone” directed by Dave Parker (Bimbo Movie Bash, The Dead Hate the Living!, The Hills Run Red, Puppet Master: Doktor Death, and Tales of Halloween). It has interviews with Kristopher Logan, Debra Mayer, Charles Band, Nicholas Worth, Warren Draper, William Paul Burns, and Penelope Spheeris. Charles Band and Full Moon were ahead of their time when it came to additional extras with their releases. Charles Band promotes some of his upcoming projects here and he mentions the merchandise for Blood Dolls. It has a good amount of behind the scenes footage from the set plus some clips from the actual film. Charles Band chats about how he came up with the script and story for this. It has spoilers so make sure you watch the movie before checking this out. They all break down their roles in great detail. It shows off how they pulled off some of the crazy special fx in this. The actors know exactly what type of characters they are portraying in Blood Dolls and they are not shy about it. They share their experiences working on Blood Dolls and Band as a director. It shows them promoting it at an earlier Fangoria convention. It promotes some of the next Full Moon features at the end. It has the “Trailer” for Blood Dolls. It has a variety of “Bloopers” that are a little over 2 minutes. It has the 4 minute music video “Pain” directed by Charles Band. It has the almost 6 minute “Hollyweird Promo”. It has all kinds cast and crew members interviewed. It has all kinds of behind the scenes footage. They chat about their characters in Blood Dolls. They go over the concept. They discuss the music for it. They even mention what they are getting paid for this one. They joke about it being the budget of craft services for Titanic. The woman have no problem talking about their bodies in this. It has various Full Moon related “Trailers”. It’s available everywhere right now including FullMoonHorror.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!