Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and welcome back to another breakdown of a children’s horror show.
This time we’re revisiting Are You Afraid of the Dark and the Tale of the Dollmaker
from season three, because this is the episode I remember seeing the most. I think. It either
reran more than other episodes, or the concept of the episode impacted me so much as a child that
it just decided to live rent free in my brain for the rest of time. Before we begin, let’s discuss
the main trope at hand. You might think it’s going to be a horror doll trope based on the
episode’s title; perhaps a murderous childhood companion has been possessed by an evil spirit,
a classic. That’s not where this story goes however, this takes on a different trope, the
alternate dimension trope! Sort of. It’s more like a through the looking glass situation,
but it has a lot of similarities to an alternate dimension story. Not a favorite of mine if I am
honest with you - even when the Twilight Zone tackled the 4th dimension in “Little Girl Lost”,
which I believe loosely inspired this episode, was on the weaker side to me.
Though I attribute that to the acting and this strange crab walk that cracks me up
every time I see it. Hrm, maybe I can get into the 4th dimension if I walk like this.
Let’s take a closer look at The Tale of the Dollmaker first,
then I’ll discuss its various strengths and weaknesses.
As we begin we are greeted by the midnight society; it’s Betty Ann’s turn to spin a tale;
her stories tend to be on the morbid side, though co-member Tucker thinks that the concept of dolls
is in his own words, weak, and preemptively deems the story snooze-worthy. Betty Ann: “Sometimes
they’re so lifelike, that it’s almost like the dollmaker took a person and shrunk them down
to doll size.” Yeah, so life like, like cabbage patch kids. This is what people look like, right?
Our story begins in a quaint little countryside home - a little girl named Melissa spends weekends
there with her Aunt and Uncle and usually spends her days hanging out with the neighbor kid,
Susan Henderson. But the house is vacant, and her aunt tells her that the Hendersons moved. Melissa
is confused, and her aunt deflects. “You must be famished.” Melissa’s weekend is pretty much
ruined now, as her aunt and uncle are not the most exciting of people. Sally: “Come on, or we’ll miss
bingo.” Melissa bides her time by taking pensive rests on the tire
swing. Uncle: “Hey Melissa, I got some work to do on the septic tank,
wanna lend a hand?” Melissa: “Septic tank. Sounds like fun but, no thanks.” More fun for me then!
Melissa thinks she sees someone in the Henderson’s window, so she goes in to investigate, thinking
it could be Susan. And when I say investigate I mean she wanders around saying Hello a million
different ways. “Hello?” “Hello?” “Hellooo?” “Hello?” “Hello?” “Hello?” Lionel Richie: “Hello!”
Even though the Hendersons have only been gone for a couple months the house looks…
rough. Why are there brown stains on the wall? Was it from the septic tank?
Melissa finds an entrance to the attic, which houses this smaller
house; a perfectly modeled dollhouse that resembles the Henderson’s. How cute. Oh hey,
I have that exact Renoir painting in my house! Well, almost exact.
She is startled when she sees one of the doors in the dollhouse close on its own,
but dismisses it as being a mouse. She is then drawn to this whimsical door,
but before she can investigate further, she’s interrupted by Aunt Sally,
who demands they leave. She locks the door behind them. She tells Melissa to stay out
because the Henderson’s asked her to keep watch over the house, something
she takes very seriously. “They left a lot of precious things behind.” Like their daughter!
When Melissa presses her aunt for more information on Susan
she just..panics and runs away? Literally runs away. (clip)
Aunt: “Melissa, the Henderson’s didn’t just move away.” They’re on the lam!
She explains that Susan disappeared, and despite several searches, they had no luck finding her;
the Henderson’s decided they couldn’t live in the house as it was too upsetting.
They decided to keep it in case she does come back.
Later that night, Melissa overhears Uncle Pete
tell Aunt Sally she should have been honest about Susan’s disappearance. Aunt Sally: “I
didn’t want to ruin her weekend!” So I took her to Bingo, it’s fun for the whole family!
Pete: “It was the HOUSE that got her.” Baba Yaga strikes again!
Later that night, Melissa hears Susan calling out to her. She wakes up and sees the door in
the attic open. Remember how earlier Aunt Sally rushed Melissa out of the house then
locked the doors? Well it doesn’t matter because she puts the keys to the house
RIGHT above Melissa’s bed. They aren’t even in a separate room, they’re in PLAIN SIGHT.
Melissa notices light coming through the colorful door, and when she opens it,
it leads to another dimension where Susan is wandering around aimlessly. She tries to
go through the door but is TACKLED by Uncle Pete, who shows her the door just leads to a fatal fall.
Who in the world decided to put a door here? It’s like it’s straight out of the Winchester house.
At breakfast, Melissa desperately tries and fails to eat her bread with a fork.
Aunt Sally tells Melissa that Pete is going to go board up the door,
much to her disappointment. She tries to explain what she saw, but Aunt Sally is incredulous.
Melissa is worried and says if Uncle Pete boards up the door, Susan will never be able to leave.
Ayup, just gonna go bash in the septic tank.
Melissa decides to break into the house one last time, and I do mean that literally. (clip.) I know
this is a children’s show but I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a low energy glass breaking scene.
It’s followed by this low energy taking a board off the door scene - great job Uncle Pete,
did you stick these up there with sticky tack or something?
She uses a ball of twine to track her steps, even though there is only one hallway and a few rooms.
Ooo, I love this novelty sized salt shaker. Gives the house a seasoned look. As she looks around,
she suddenly hears loud thudding. She realizes that she is in the dollhouse after Aunt Sally
enters the room. She’s either looking for Melissa or quietly reconsidering her
marriage. She calls out to Aunt Sally, but is unsuccessful in getting her attention.
Suddenly Susan speaks up, as she was sitting in this ugly-ass
chair. Melissa: “Susan, what’s wrong with you? You look just like” Brett Michaels
Susan is turning into a doll and is losing her ability to communicate verbally,
but she’s able to say “the attic.” Melissa says yes,
she will get her back to her parent’s attic. Whoops-a-doodle, the portal closed!
So much for that twine. She notices her arms turning into porcelain and starts to panic.
She suddenly remembers that the dollhouse is a replica of the real house and tries to find the
attic. I had this exact raccoon figurine at my old house, it’s actually an outdoor decoration
and there’s a few to the set, but I guess it can go on a shelf if you’re feelin sassy. True story,
I got extremely distracted while writing this breakdown because I had to stop and
image search this damn raccoon, hoping I would find the ones I had in my backyard,
but I could not find them. I could not find them. Truly the darkest timeline.
Melissa finds the attic in the dollhouse and somehow gets Susan up there, despite
her current state. (clip) Oh no. Need a hand? Wouldn’t it be great if this dollhouse just led
to an even smaller dollhouse and it just kept going until you have a dollhouse for ants?.
Also this happens. (hand falls) Melissa really can’t seem to get a handle on the situation.
She is confused that the dollhouse door leads to the Henderson’s actual backyard,
but this swirly distortion overlay comforts her and she and Susan fall into it. Without
any visual to show where they ended up, the episode cuts back to a visibly distraught Pete
and Sally. They are overjoyed when they see Melissa running towards the house.
Melissa: Aunt Sally! Uncle Pete!” Pause for wave.
Susan is okay! Cool, let’s get you out of that ugly thing you’re wearing. (the end!)
Okay, let’s talk about this. My initial thought was “Wow I can’t believe I found this scary when
I was young, though that porcelain hand is pretty freaky.” My second thought was that the logic of
this story is nonexistent, and I know it’s a show for kids, I know it doesn’t need to be grounded in
reality, I just believe that kids are intelligent and deserve smart stories. As an adult, you’d be
disappointed if say an episode of the Twilight Zone was poorly written, so I believe in having a
similar standard of quality for kids. I think this was a really good concept to bring to the table,
but I feel like there’s a lot of holes that ultimately makes it suffer. Betty Ann says
that dolls are made by dollmakers, which I suppose is a little nebulous; a maker doesn’t need to be a
person, it can be a machine. But if you want my opinion, I think when most people hear the word
dollmaker, they do think of a person who makes dolls. But in this story, the dollhouse is the
maker of all dolls, which are made from real life children, which is a terrifying concept
all on its own. So that’s all well and good but then I get a little confused at the inclusion of
this alternate dimension; is this only accessible through specially made dollhouses, designed to
look like the owner's real house? How does the portal open? How does it even work? Melissa: “No
that’s not possible.” In Little Girl Lost, the 4th dimension is available via a portal in the wall,
but that portal opens and closes, and there’s only one way in and out. That makes sense to me.
In The Tale of the Dollmaker, you have a door in the attic that leads to the dollhouse dimension,
the main portal closes, and to get out you go through the dollhouse attic and that pops you
out...some...where? Presumably somewhere in the house since that’s where Susan walks out.
It almost makes sense but my brain is starting to hurt trying to comprehend
the logistics. I still wish the dollhouse attic would have led to a SMALLER dollhouse.
I also wish Susan would have found an extra hand in her pocket, THAT would have been a
great ending. I think my brain is just getting stuck trying to distinguish the main narrative;
for some reason I don’t like the combination of both, my brain wants to focus on either “Dolls
are just small children,” or I want to analyze this other dimension aspect that turns you into
a doll then traps you there for all eternity. I think instead of accidentally wandering through a
portal, the story would benefit from an eccentric artist who lures kids into his workshop so he can
occupy his dollhouse with quality figurines - something out of The 7th Guest if you’re
familiar with that story. This episode could be a lot more frightening with just a few tweaks and a
more direct focus. I’m not saying there isn’t room for a mysterious element that challenges
the viewer to fill in the gaps with their imagination, I just don’t think it works here,
there are too many gaps. Maybe I am just not that impressed by parallel universe stories and that’s
why I’m feeling a little more critical. It’s my personal opinion that in the world of literature,
short stories, and fiction, if you have to keep digging for explanations, then the story hasn’t
successfully gotten its point across. Betty Ann explains that Uncle Pete burns down the dollhouse,
and the kids question where the attic door might lead to now, and yeah. Same! I want to know that
too! When writing stories like this, you have to find the sweet spot between spelling everything
out for your reader or viewer, and suggesting things a little more vaguely, and that can be
a hard balance to find. I suppose you could argue that this isn’t really a parallel universe story,
but instead perhaps the dollhouse is just an evil entity that traps children in its bowels,
but I didn’t get any indication that it was anything like that, I didn’t even get any hints
that it was haunted, it’s just a location you’re spit out in after going through this portal, and
your body changes to adapt to this universe. It’s unclear whether the dollhouse is affecting Susan,
or the portal changed her as soon as she entered it, but either way I don’t think it’s totally
wrong to call this an alternate dimension trope. (record scratch) Roses from the editing room here,
okay - so there is in fact a more obvious hint that it could be the dollhouse and that’s when
Uncle Pete says: “It’s the house that got her.” - but I do feel like this entire scene is kind
of vague - does he mean the dollhouse or the real house, specifically the attic with the magic door?
I think that is where a lot of the confusion stems for me; we’re mostly led to believe that the door
is magical, or that it leads to somewhere, but then the blame is shifted to the dollhouse when
Uncle Pete burns it. When Betty Ann questions where the door might lead next, it implies that
Uncle Pete made the wrong decision and that the portal is still there, waiting to spit someone
else out in another location, perhaps yet another dimension or location that co-exists with ours.
This episode almost gets there but falls short for me, even if that hand scene IS a bit
disturbing. If you want a 4th dimension story, I recommend Little Girl Lost from the Twilight Zone,
despite the questionable acting, and if you want something in the young adult fiction genre,
one that more resembles this episode, I recommend reading The Dollhouse Murders by
Betty Ren Wright. Let me know your thoughts - is this episode too dodgy or am I just being salty,
like this comically small yet oversized for its setting salt shaker? Until next time, stay spooky.
Hey everyone, thanks again for watching this breakdown of The Tale of the Dollmaker - time
to ramp up the spooky content as we approach Halloween. If you want more videos from me
I have plenty, but first I want to give a quick shout out and thank you to my humble patrons, who
are patient with me when my Patreon postcards are a week late. If you want to support this channel,
please consider donating to my campaign, and if you could hit that like button and leave
a witty comment, that would also help me battle the obscure demon that IS the YouTube Algorithm.
Want to see more videos before making a decision? That’s fair and recommended. Here’s a couple
suggestions! On the right I have the first episode breakdown I did on Are You Afraid of the Dark,
and on the left I have an off-the-rails episode breakdown of everyone’s favorite kid friendly
horror franchise, Goosebumps. Thanks again, and as always, I will see you in the next one.