The Horror of Dolores Roach Review: Amazon Prime Video series stars Justina Machado as Dolores Roach, Alejandro Hernandez as Luis Batista, Kita Updike as Nellie, K Todd Freeman as Jeremiah, Jean Yoon as Joy, and others. The directors include Hiromi Kamata, Eduardo Sanchez, America Young, Roxann Dawson and Edward Ornelas. The show is based on a podcast of the same name.
The episodes are written by Aaron Mark, Mariah Wilson, Dara Resnik, Michelle Badillo, Joe Horta, Brian Otano and Daphne Rubin-Vega. The first two episodes will drop on July 7, 2023. The series will have 8 episodes overall.
The Horror of Dolores Roach Review Contains No Spoilers
Plot Summary
In The Horror of Dolores Roach, an actor who plays Dolores in a play is sitting in her make-up room. When her friends go away, the real Dolores comes to meet her. Dolores is not quite happy with the woman’s portrayal of her character. The actor seems terrified to see Roach, and as Dolores narrates her story, we understand why. She is accused of severe crimes like murder and cannibalism.
It all started when Dolores Roach got arrested 16 years ago for something she was not at fault for. When she is released from prison, her stoner friend Luis provides her a room in his empanadas shop basement, where she starts her massage parlour. Everyone calls her ‘magic hands’ for her awesome massages. However, fate has something else planned for Dolores and her hands. She wasn’t a bad guy before. But now, circumstances make her one. She is put in such a situation that the only way out for her is to kill the other person.
So what exactly happened to Dolores Roach? Why and how did she commit those murders? The show answers your queries.
There are many crime shows coming out nowadays, so when I started watching Prime Video’s The Horror of Dolores Roach, I wondered what it would offer me that would count as unique. But the narrative is presented as a dark comedy that sometimes astounds you and often makes you uncomfortable. The astounding part is how an innocent woman brings out her nasty side because of the threatening situations people put her in. She lost her 16 years in prison for doing absolutely nothing. Won’t it be unfair not to fight for herself, at least now? But her struggle for survival goes to an extreme level.
The Prime Video show takes the shocking factor a notch higher with its cannibalistic approach. After all, something has to be done with the bodies of the people she murdered. As a viewer, the cannibalism aspect will disgust you, but you also can’t stop yourself from laughing at what’s happening. While Dolores embraces the horrors within herself and comes to terms with her extremities, except for Liu, other humans in the series become laughing material. The cafe scene after Dolores’ first murder is unsettling yet one of the dark and most hilarious sequences I’ve seen this year.
The series has a good pace, and things happen quickly. The fast pace is necessary to overwhelm the protagonist and the viewer; otherwise, the unpredictable actions will not look impulsive. The graphic scenes will disturb some, and seeing two characters have wild sex when things have gotten so “bloody” wrong is just bizarre. I wish the series just focused on the characters’ madness and need for survival and stayed away from any romantic aspect.
Coming to performances, Justina Machado gives a power-packed performance as she bears the horrors of Dolores Roach. The transition from innocent to a fighter to a master in killing is incredible. Actors Alejandro Hernandez, K Todd Freeman and Kita Updike also play their parts well.
The Horror of Dolores Roach Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, if you are a fan of gory, creepy, graphic murder series, this one is for you. What’s good is that even if it’s a genre overused for the last few years, the purpose of these actions is what makes the show binge-worthy.
The show will be streaming on Prime Video from July 7, 2023.
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