This is one of those movies you may only first discover in the video store, as I did. So, I read the reviews and a bit of the plot on the DVD, and decided, "Why not?" It turned out to be quite a movie, filled with intriguing moments of mystery and surrealism. This ain't a predictable run-of-the-mill Dead Teenager Movie. This is a film about atmosphere and small chills.
However, one thing that is predictable is that it uses a disturbed young girl as a main character. You know her name just by reading the title. But I didn't care about the cliché because the actress playing her gave a really believable performance. After Dorothy allegedly harms a baby she's babysitting, a psychiatrist named Jane goes to the island Dorothy lives on to examine her behaviour. Turns out Jane gets more than she bargained for. The community on the island is very secretive and strange, plus most of the folks don't take kindly to Jane's snooping.
So, who is Dorothy? Is she demonically possessed, like in "The Exorcist"? If you can take a minor spoiler, she has a personality disorder. That's all I'll reveal. The rest is for you to discover. Jane is a likable person, and so is Dorothy, actually. She's not crazy by choice, if you can call her crazy. The two actresses work well, together, as the mystery in the film grows.
The film gets its chills from what's shown on the screen, not from what's eventually (and I mean eventually) going to be shown, like a generic cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer from another movie. "Dorothy Mills" is smarter than that. There's a scene where a man sees a bunch of dead sheep. It's not revealed at first what he sees, but when we also see it after a few seconds, it's scary. We also ask, "What the hell is going on?"
After the movie was over, I luckily wasn't left scratching my head about the main details; only a couple of the small ones, like the chase at the beginning, which causes Jane to crash her car into the water. I know it's related to the end, but... I dunno. Well, it's nothing to dwell over. "Dorothy Mills" is refreshing, intense, and well acted. One last thing I just have to note is the scene with an old creepy-looking lady playing her son's guitar. That alone is just pure awesomeness. She may be old, but she's young @ heart.
However, one thing that is predictable is that it uses a disturbed young girl as a main character. You know her name just by reading the title. But I didn't care about the cliché because the actress playing her gave a really believable performance. After Dorothy allegedly harms a baby she's babysitting, a psychiatrist named Jane goes to the island Dorothy lives on to examine her behaviour. Turns out Jane gets more than she bargained for. The community on the island is very secretive and strange, plus most of the folks don't take kindly to Jane's snooping.
So, who is Dorothy? Is she demonically possessed, like in "The Exorcist"? If you can take a minor spoiler, she has a personality disorder. That's all I'll reveal. The rest is for you to discover. Jane is a likable person, and so is Dorothy, actually. She's not crazy by choice, if you can call her crazy. The two actresses work well, together, as the mystery in the film grows.
The film gets its chills from what's shown on the screen, not from what's eventually (and I mean eventually) going to be shown, like a generic cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer from another movie. "Dorothy Mills" is smarter than that. There's a scene where a man sees a bunch of dead sheep. It's not revealed at first what he sees, but when we also see it after a few seconds, it's scary. We also ask, "What the hell is going on?"
After the movie was over, I luckily wasn't left scratching my head about the main details; only a couple of the small ones, like the chase at the beginning, which causes Jane to crash her car into the water. I know it's related to the end, but... I dunno. Well, it's nothing to dwell over. "Dorothy Mills" is refreshing, intense, and well acted. One last thing I just have to note is the scene with an old creepy-looking lady playing her son's guitar. That alone is just pure awesomeness. She may be old, but she's young @ heart.