Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
If you’re a Tim Burton fan, you can’t help but be reminded of his 2007 film “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” while watching the trailer for the 2023 series “The Horror of Dolores Roach.” Sweeney Todd’s fictional history dates back to the 1840s when he first appeared in a Penny Dreadful story. He is a barber who kills his customers with a razor, and his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett, uses the corpses to make meat pies for her bakery.
Served by the Blumhouse producers of M3GAN, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” is like a modern reboot of Sweeney Todd and homage to the literary character with its opening music and a newspaper headline dubbing Dolores Roach as the “real-life Sweeney Todd.” The direct attribution to the inspiration of the tale multiple times is commendable.
The series stars Justina Machado as protagonist Dolores Roach, who spends 16 years in prison for possession of weed, assaulting an officer and covering up for her boyfriend. Upon her release, she returns to Washington Street, her former neighborhood, only to find it gentrified and her boyfriend gone, leaving her with no one to turn to. She crosses paths with Luis, the owner of her favorite Empanada shop, who offers her a room to stay. For the uninitiated – Empanadas are a type of baked or fried dish like the Indian Samosa, usually filled with meat. To make ends meet, Dolores starts giving massages and gains the reputation of “magic hands Dolores”, an ironical moniker, considering the chain of events that follow. As the story progresses, Dolores finds herself in a Sweeney Todd-like situation as she murders people and Luis turns their bodies into empanadas to sell in his shop. These unique empanadas soon become the talk of Washington Street, attracting a lot of customers, so it’s only a matter of time before the duo gets caught… or is it?
Spanning eight episodes, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” unfolds like a dramatic dark comedy play, giving the events a stage-like quality that adds an unreal touch to the series. This touch makes the show both funnier and easier to disassociate from the gruesome murders and the victims’ fate. The series showcases plenty of blood and mangled bodies but adopts a matter-of-fact approach, much like a butcher preparing meat for sale. The most entertaining aspect is that Dolores, the titular protagonist, narrates her tale to the viewers, providing humorous insights between dialogues without breaking the fourth wall or addressing the camera directly. The musical score is upbeat, some of the piano pieces are reminiscent of shows like “The Addams Family”.
Alejandro Hernandez as Luis, the butcher, is a total crackpot, who smokes-up all the time, cooks up his own English words and is barely ever in his full sense. In a surprising second half, Luis’ tragic past is revealed to explain why he is such a twisted child stuck in a man’s body. The crazy co-dependent relationship between Dolores and Luis is weird as hell, but crucial to the plot’s progression. It’s an interesting representation of how chaotic circumstances can often push two different people together in ways one wouldn’t imagine.
The supporting cast also delivers entertaining performances, including Kita Updike as Nellie, a typical Gen Z kid working at the Empanada shop, and Illan Eskenazi in a brief but cute cameo as Jonah Pearlman, who develops a crush on Nellie. One of the biggest surprises in the series however was Cyndi Lauper as Ruthie, an interesting character known for her ability to find out anybody, even those who don’t want to be found out. Some of us are just so used to remembering her as the young rebel in her hit single “girls just want to have fun”, it’s hard to imagine her as anything else. I didn’t even know Ruthie was Cyndi Lauper until I finished watching the entire series. It would be great to see her in more offbeat roles. K. Todd Freeman is also amusing as Luis’ meat supplier Jeremiah, who looks quite cuckoo and acts a bit like one too.
While the series hints at deeper socio-economic themes, such as the vicious cycle of crime and the struggles faced by individuals from poor economic backgrounds, the focus remains on Dolores’ personal journey. Despite having a chance at a stable life through her side-hustle as a masseuse, Dolores lets her rage guide her actions. Murder becomes a compulsion for the protagonist, and she is constantly rationalizing her heinous actions in her head, finding excuses to blame the victims for it.
“The Horror of Dolores Roach” has some great writing, witty humour and a fantastic cast that pulls of the morbid tale of human-stuffed empanadas selling like hot cakes around town. However, the pace does get choppy now and then, and the writers could have wrapped up the series in seven episodes, instead of an extended eighth. Like mentioned earlier, the show gives off a very “staged” vibe and the climactic scene is far too exaggerated. From a serial killer, Dolores is elevated to an urban legend, but the ending reduces her to a comical character, even though it’s supposed to seal her reputation as the demon masseuse of Washington Heights.
If a cannibalistic comedy sound like your plate of empanadas, stream the series on “Prime Video”.