Amazon has already brought us some special and unusual genre stories this year, like the hellish office thriller The Consultant and the disturbing fan horror Swarm of Bees. This is now joined by the series The Horror Of Dolores Roach, which has been streaming on Prime Video since July 7th *.
You are fascinated by serial killers, cannibalism and podcast adaptations? Then you should put The Horror of Dolores Roach on your watch list immediately. If you’re still not convinced, then read here why the new Amazon series is worthwhile.
Sweeney Todd with a difference: This is what awaits you in The Horror of Dolores Roach
The plot of The Horror of Dolores Roach can be best described as modern variation of Sweeney Todd summarize. The series itself makes no secret of the comparisons to the barber from Fleet Street. She’s even starting a Broadway production selling the story of killer masseuse Dolores (Justina Machado) as “The Real Life Sweeney Todd.” What follows is a lengthy flashback as Dolores Roach recounts her misunderstood murder spree.
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The Magic Hands of Washington Heights
After 16 years in prison, Dolores, convicted of drug possession, among other things, returns to the Washington Heights district of New York. There is no trace of her ex, for whom she went to jail. She has neither money nor accommodation.
Luckily, she meets the restaurateur Luis (Alejandro Hernandez), who has been in love with Dolores since he was a young stoner and now offers her a place to stay in the basement of his empanada shop. Here Dolores tries to take her life back into her own hands and starts earning money as a masseuse in the basement. And then she becomes a murderer.
In the affect, Dolores kills a sleazy landlord who wants to drive Luis into bankruptcy with horrendous rents and also becomes violent during a massage. Dolores just has to lose her temper. Luckily, her suitor is Luis a cannibal with a sense for business.
Instead of burying the bodies somewhere, he turns the victim into empanadas with a special filling. The snack with a secret recipe makes the shop flourish again. The Empanda Loca doesn’t have to worry about restocking because Dolores reluctantly turns into a serial killer.
That’s why the Amazon series The Horror of Dolores Roach is worthwhile
The concept is reason enough to tune in: a serial killer masseuse and a cannibal find creative ways to dispose of dead bodies. While Dolores is massaging the human flesh in the basement, human flesh is being marinated one floor up.
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The masseuse and the cannibal
The secret ingredient of The Horror of Dolores Roach is leading actress Justina Machado (known from Six Feet Under and One Day at a Time). She immediately draws our sympathies with her charisma and macabre voice-over narration, while her character becomes more unpredictable and menacing with each episode. A little like Dexter Morgan. Only she finds a more sustainable use for corpse remains.
You shouldn’t expect a scary horror series despite the title. When people happily bite into dumplings without knowing that they are eating a loved one, it is often more funny than disturbing. The Horror of Dolores Roach doesn’t mean to be scary either. The series works more as bitter comedy. Unfortunately, socially critical aspects of gentrification and the dissolution of Latino communities in New York districts remain superficial and could have used a little more “bite”.
Still, the series is incredibly fun. “I don’t want to be a serial killer!‘ yells Dolores as she kills Cyndi Lauper, unsuccessfully trying to cure her burgeoning addiction to breaking her neck. The killings are creative (death by coconut oil!) and hilarious.
Amazon’s horror comedy will spoil your appetite – but it’s worth it
An underachieving highlight of The Horror of Dolores Roach is the weird meta-comment on adaptations. The series is an adaptation of a podcast based on a one-person Off-Broadway play. In the series itself, the killer masseuse inspires a true-crime podcast, which becomes a musical on Broadway and is even to be filmed as a TV series by Blumhouse mastermind Jason Blum – which he has also done for Amazon.
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Dolores Roach: Unwilling serial killer
Even if The Horror of Dolores Roach an entertaining binge with just eight 25-minute episodes is, you should bring some patience with you. The actual cannibalism twist of the story only picks up speed after episode 3.
But then the corpses begin to pile up and by episode 6 at the latest there are also one or the other grotesque image that will spoil your appetite. With every passing minute, Dolores and Luis get deeper and deeper into a whirlwind of murder, desperation and human flesh empanadas – until the finale, in which all emotions boil over.
In the end, you have to find out for yourself whether Dolores Roach is an insane serial killer or just a victim of unfortunate circumstances whose trauma has been capitalized on. But it is definitely one thing: damn entertaining.
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