The Horrors of Dolores Roach Review: A Modern Sweeney Todd Who Falls Into The Dangerous Rhetoric Of Romanticizing Killers
Cast: Justina Machado, Alejandro Hernandez, Kita Updike, K. Todd Freeman, Judy Reyes, Marc Maron, Jean Yoon, Jeffery Self
Director: Hiromi Kamata, Eduardo Sánchez, America Young, Roxann Dawson, Edward Ornelas
Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The Horrors of Dolores Roach was initially a play that found a wider audience when Gimlet Media, the studio recently absorbed by parent company Spotify, released it in the form of a podcast referencing the urban legend of Sweeney Todd, the mythical barber made famous by Stephen Sondheim and then by Tim Burton who made it a splendid musical immersed in the gothic atmosphere of the Victorian era. There are many changes that the new series produced by Blumhouse Television for Amazon Prime Video has made to the work from which it takes inspiration – the podcast rather than the play -, but they are all variations that work with the story. Dolores Roach has thus changed the gender, name, and nationality of the antihero making the miniseries a careful analysis of the mind of a serial killer, but also a harsh social criticism that joins the narrative of cannibalism.
In the review of The Horrors of Dolores Roach, the original Amazon Prime Video series that arrived last month, we told you about a title that partially satisfied us despite the imperfections, and moving on to this month’s new entries, another one has recently been made available serial of the platform, namely The Horrors of Dolores Roach, which seemed to be one of the most relevant novelties of the Amazon Prime Video series of July 2023. By immediately getting to the heart of this new proposal, we can tell you that we are certainly facing a show that lends itself to binge-watching, even if, unfortunately, the 8 episodes that make up this first season are not always in focus, and for this reason, we advise you to continue reading to understand what went wrong.
The Horrors of Dolores Roach Review: The Story Plot
Sixteen years in prison can change a life, and Dolores Roach (Justina Machado), once released from prison, is lost. The house where she lived with her partner Dominic (local boss) is now occupied by other people, and she not only has no idea where Dom is, but the city itself has completely changed, and Dolores struggles even just to orient herself. After the chaotic first steps in the town, our protagonist finally finds a piece of her old life, namely the empanada shop now owned by Luis (Alejandro Hernandez), a man she had known as a boy. As soon as you cross the threshold of the restaurant, Dolores is immediately welcomed and hosted in the basement, but what will happen next will go beyond any expectation of the two, and soon the empanadas will be renewed by a new secret ingredient that we could define as zero km. The idea behind The Horrors of Dolores Roach takes its inspiration from the podcast of the same name, itself inspired by the legend of Sweeney Todd.
In this case, as you will have understood, the well-known story comes carried to the present day, even if the basic recipe does not change at all (in every sense). While leaving armed with the best intentions, Dolores falls prey to a homicidal spiral, while the flesh of the victims will become part of the restaurant’s offer. Unfortunately, despite the succulent premises, The Horrors of Dolores Roach not only plays its aces up its sleeve from the beginning, but also does it in a rather clumsy way, leaving the surprise factor close to zero, and without managing to create an atmosphere that is at least tense or engaging. The story itself rests entirely on unbelievable writing, and to make matters worse we find a mostly superfluous narrator inherited from the podcast from which the story originates. After the first interlocutory episode, in the following ones, there begin to be the first jolts and developments, but you will hardly feel completely involved in what is shown.
The Horrors of Dolores Roach Review and Analysis
The transition from podcast to TV series is undoubtedly spot on and the result, for obvious reasons, is much more impactful because as evocative as it is to hear the narrator describe the human flesh filling of a pie, it is much more so. see the chef dicing the meat of an unfortunate man who has crossed paths with Dolores. The series ranges between genres without dwelling on a specific one, without taking the usual stylistic elements to be traced to perfection, but ranges between horror, body horror, splatter, black comedy, and psychological thriller although not all of these aspects give the hoped result. Not the fault of Justina Machado, the interpreter of Dolores, who deserves a huge chunk of the credit for playing an unscrupulous serial killer, but who also has her problems to pay attention to and lives a life she wishes she could run away.
From an exclusive horror point of view, the story of Dolores Roach mixes bloody horror with the wildest splatter without ever falling into exaggeration or trash. The setting is disturbingly realistic, and the director plays with the fears (and curiosity) of the viewer by lingering during the scenes of cannibalism and murders. The miniseries openly recalls the story of Sweeney Todd not so much in the settings as in the story. The first is a vengeful barber who meets a hapless woman who would do anything for her sake, even season the meat pies of Mister Todd’s customers; the other is a woman full of resentment and hatred for being framed and then left alone, the first lives in a seedy suburb of Victorian London where poverty has struck the already poor inhabitants and where the barber’s customers are cheaper than meat beef; the second she is forced to live in a basement and is just as poor. The similarities end here, The Horrors of Dolores Roach takes another route which is also the real flaw of the series.
The Horrors of Dolores Roach have taken the same path as the many true crime products of some years now, making the same mistake as Dahmer or The Crowded Room, and portraying the serial killer of the moment as a person who must be understood, even blamed. She’s not the bad guy, it’s a society that wants her to be. There is no doubt that the society and culture in which a (in this case a) killer was born and raised has a huge impact on his life and his motives, on why he came to kill, and it would also be incorrect and naive not to consider the whole historical and social context. But serial products that want to deal with these themes often develop a strange narrative around the figure of the murderer to romanticize it. It’s not his fault poor thing, his father used to beat him.
Dolores is not a villain, but an anti-heroine, and the series does everything to constantly remind the viewer of this. The effect is not only naive, but it is alienating in that she tries so hard to convince us that Dolores is a good person even in the least suitable moments to do so, even immediately after she strangled the landlord with her bare hands. Louis. The Horrors of Dolores Roach thus fall into the error of failing to understand that an unhealthy context of extreme poverty is an equally explanatory theme, even without portraying Dolores as a woman forced by events to kill. Indeed, the series would have gained a lot if the protagonist had only been a vengeful woman full of resentment.
Everyone more or less knows the story behind The Horrors of Dolores Roach, for an idea that certainly had a lot of potential. The result, as you may have understood, however, is not the best, and one of the most significant defects of the title is undoubtedly the lack of depth of her protagonist. Dolores’ raptus of madness, and most of the actions that the latter performs, do not follow a very credible logical thread, and even if the series wants to alternate horror and comedy, the various events should still be supported by convincing writing, which unfortunately is rarely present here. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that the figure of Dolores does not give the impression of being threatening or at least fearsome, and when various assassinations take place, these are quite clumsy and poorly managed.
From what is shown, this is a title that does not always manage to impress as it would like, and even the ending itself resolves in a random and botched way, after a series of episodes unable to build a narrative path in the right way capable of carrying forward the story. The scarce 30 minutes that characterize the duration of the episodes facilitate the viewing of this first season and prove to be a good choice, and we are therefore not faced with a slow pace or excessive pauses, but the scarce consistency of what is narrated makes everything less captivating than it could be, for a series that had to dare much more, and instead is predictable and not very engaging. Among the merits, we point out instead a black humor that occasionally works and elicits a few smiles, but this is not enough to take The Horrors of Dolores Roach to the next level, especially considering the premises and what could be done. If you are looking for a series that can entertain you for a few evenings without too many pretensions, this is a title that could also satisfy you, but don’t expect brilliant writing or curated art direction, because in this case, you will be disappointed.
The Horrors of Dolores Roach Review: The Last Words
The Horrors of Dolores Roach struggle to keep up with what it wants to tell, and often one has the feeling of being faced with a title that fails to dare enough to surprise and capture attention. The short duration of the episodes of this first season makes the vision generally pleasant and not very heavy, but the lack of consistency of the story makes it all unconvincing, and considering the interesting idea behind it, the result could certainly have been different. Dolores’ secret ingredient is therefore part of a recipe that doesn’t work in the best way, and for this reason, we recommend the series only to those looking for a story that can be watched without too much pretension. The use of stylistic features of the reference genres, especially horror and splatter.
