Binge Or Cringe: ‘The Horror Of Dolores Roach’ Delivers Unhinged Thrills Grounded In Genuine Characters
Amazon’s recent dark-comedy horror series, The Horror of Dolores Roach, does not limit itself to one niche. Beyond genre blending, the series tackles gentrification, mass incarceration, love, betrayal, and cannibalism all in eight 30-minute episodes. The story began as the one-woman, off-Broadway play Empanada Loca, which was adapted into a Gimlet podcast before being picked up by Blumhouse (M3GAN, The Good Lord Bird) for adaptation into a television series. The play and podcast both starred Daphne Rubin-Vega (In The Heights) and both were created by Aaron Mark (Squeamish, Another Medea), who adapted the series from his own script and acts as co-showrunner. Dara Resnik (Home Before Dark) co-showruns with Mark and Gimlet co-produces.
The Horror of Dolores Roach follows a woman as she tries to rebuild her life in a now-gentrified Washington Heights after an unjust 16-year prison sentence; she takes up residence as a masseuse underneath an old stoner friend’s empanada shop, eventually turning to murder and cannibalism as she fights harder and harder to survive. Justina Machado (One Day at a Time) stars in the titular role alongside Alejandro Hernandez (New Amsterdam) and Kita Updike (The Misandrists). The cast and writers bring nuance and authenticity to the characters that allow the off-the-wall horror and humor to run free.
Meet Dolores Roach
The Horror of Dolores Roach lets the audience know from the get-go that Dolores Roach is a cannibalistic serial-killer. The show begins (in a self-referential twist) with a play based on a podcast about Dolores Roach — an over-dramatic production portraying itself as a modern-day Sweeney Todd with an audience full of yuppies. Beginning at the end gives the audience a gory overview that makes for a strong hook and quickly sets the tone for class satire and dark comedy. The rest of the series plays out as Dolores shares her real story with the woman who plays her on stage, with a voiceover of Dolores’ thought processes running throughout. Set in a gentrified Washington Heights, the series presents a version of New York City filled with wacky characters dealing with heavy struggles like exploitative landlords and the War on Drugs. The world captivates the audience by examining familiar issues through twisted humor and almost fantastical levels of violence.
At the heart of both the comedy and horror elements is a pervasive dramatic irony — the humor of knowing something a character does not, and the fear that they will find out; this commonality between the two genres helps keep them well balanced. Also, the killings are simultaneously real and ridiculous. As the victims fight back, Dolores is forced to scramble, with her comically frantic and surprisingly down-to-earth monologue overlaid. There are, of course, the classic dark basements and jump scares, but the series also uses sound to effectively rammp up the fear factor. All meat-related sounds — the chewing, the slicing — are heightened to make the cannibalistic element of the show visceral for the audience. The close-ups of characters chopping meat also effectively build tension before the action really starts. Once the murders do begin, the series keeps the audience on their toes wondering who will die next, and who will figure out what Dolores is doing; in this show, nobody is safe and almost nothing is predictable.
Without giving any spoilers, The Horror of Dolores Roach is unhinged. It is Sweeney Todd in Washington Heights, where Mrs. Lovett is a goofball stoner and the customers are yuppy millennials, pretentious landlords and drug dealers, and annoyingly nosy neighbors. It makes people unwittingly eating people hilarious; it interrupts murder with mundane comments on what strain of weed a certain joint is; it depicts victims waking up to gasp out last words like a cartoon. This outlandishness works because the show is first and foremost grounded in its characters and their very human motivations.
The show starts with Dolores getting out of prison after taking the fall for her drug dealer boyfriend; now, she needs to build a life from scratch in a place that does not give previously incarcerated people any breaks. The first couple episodes are dedicated to exploring and humanizing Dolores and the other characters (although the dark comedy and tension of knowing what is coming keep it entertaining). The viewers understand and can relate to her goal of making a quiet, secure life for herself; they know she has few to no options, and they know she is dealing with the pain of losing her home to time and gentrification after the man she loved left her to rot.
For as wild as all the characters are — a cannibal stoner, a theater-loving P.I, a conspiracy theorist meat deliverer —- they are all portrayed as deeply human. Luis (Hernandez, who brings a wonderfully off-kilter energy) hides Dolores’ victims in his empanadas, but first and foremost he stands by Dolores. The show rounds out his character through his struggles with losing his father and getting close to losing his family business. Nellie (Updike) is a caricature of a millennial, but she shares genuine wisdom with Dolores which she gained having to take care of her in-and-out of prison mother and ailing grandmother. The series gets real with its characters’ trauma, even as it centers a ridiculous situation.
While the viewer might not immediately relate to Dolores and her killings, the show effectively puts the viewer in her headspace. The clever and efficient use of quick cuts to past visuals — Dolores with her boyfriend before he betrayed her, chopping meat, or being denied a job opportunity because she is an ex-convict — does not overtly explain why she kills. Rather, the editing shows the viewer the abstract, emotional tone of her mind, which is even more effective. The added element of Dolores’ running monologue is also raw, dark, and funny, jumping from here to there like the human mind often does; while it is pretty constant, it is not overbearing and adds a personal touch to all the action. Machado brings nuance to Dolores, showing the vulnerability, anger, fear, power, and mundanity of her serial killer character. She deftly hops from killing to indulging in a scented candle to missing her prison cell-mate all in one scene. It is this foundation of a fleshed-out character with a well-explored range of emotion that lets The Horror of Dolores Roach really take off.
Was it Binge or Cringe?
The series fulfills the classic narrative obligation of making everything go wrong. The plot is insane, but all the developments flow organically from the characters and their real-world motivations. Every character stretches to the ends of their twisted totalities by the finale, each acting as a source of suspense and horror, all in a way that feels authentic to the story. The show also keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat wondering where it can go next while maintaining a quick pace. Dolores Roach takes its time introducing its characters in the beginning, but the action picks up soon enough, really taking off a little over halfway through. Additionally, each episode’s ending pushes the viewer to keep watching, hanging them off a cliff by only a thread. However, even as the characters’ lives fall apart, the fact that the audience knows Dolores gets away and the ample amount of dark comedy help the show steer clear of tragedy.
That being said, the balance between comedy and the horrific traumas portrayed in the series gets a bit off-kilter at the very end. There’s a wonderful raw moment with Dolores after everything really falls apart where we see the emotional impact on our heroine, who just wanted to make a quiet life for herself. The show also does not fall into the easy path of glorifying murder and does not make excuses for Dolores. However, after sympathizing with her for so long, when she does some unforgivable things — even by the show’s standards — in the last episode, it lacks a satisfying amount of build up behind it. Dolores Roach ends in a compelling place, however, without a slow fall into madness for the anti-hero, it does not feel quite right.
Who will like it?
If you like dark comedy and are comfortable with gore, watch it. The series is fast and feels a bit rushed at the end, but perhaps only because spending even more time diving deep into the characters would have been delectable. The Horror of Dolores Roach is a deft blend of comedy, class commentary, and horror. The series is driven by unique characters that feel robust and authentic to themselves. This groundedness is what gives the show space for gasp-inducing, unhinged violence and dramatic irony. All in all, it is a bizarre, captivating time. All eight episodes of the first season are streamable on Amazon Prime as of July 7th.
