Capsule Review: Dooley Does Murder

Strength thy name is Dooley! 

Dooley Does Murder is the latest short film from writer/director, Dawn Storey. The film follows the titular character, Dooley (played to perfection by Dawn): A queer, black, perfume salesman whose taste for blood, and knack for neck (it’ll make sense when you watch the film),  leads him down a hellish path of self-discovery. 

The film is a fun, offbeat throwback to the days of campy horror flicks and their thinly veiled proximity to queerness (*cough* *cough* Vincent Price). Its hyperviolence is juxtaposed with a sickly, pastel visual motif that would make John Waters gag. It’s perverse, fucked up yet nothing short of heartwarming. Dooley is introduced as a mild-mannered, subservient cog in the machine. However, by the end of the film, we see him imbued with a newfound sense of confidence that only extreme violence could bring about, a privilege that very few people have (*cough* *cough* white men).

Clocking in at a little over 10 minutes, the film packs a lot in its short run-time. Peel back its genre-heavy layers and you get a smart, nuanced film. While Dooley Does Murder may not be an OVERTLY political film it’s hard not to politize it by the very nature of who Dooley is in relation to the acts of violence he commits. He is a queer POC who acts on his darkest desires usually reserved for white men. He hacks and slashes his way through a world that would put a bullet through his chest just for breathing and he does it all without giving a single solitary fuck.  

Dooley is black empowerment personified. 

To say I thoroughly enjoyed this film would be an understatement. It resonated with me in a way I didn’t expect. Dawn Storey is an insanely talented artist whose unique, and wholly original approach to the black experience strikes the perfect balance of arthouse schlock and mainstream appeal. They are clearly having so much fun playing Dooley and that feeling is infectious. As the entertainment industry continues its highly coordinated jihad on the status quo, I truly cannot wait to see what Dawn does next.