Project Dorothy (2024)

Project Dorothy Review

Two men take shelter in a remote scientific facility after they fail at a robbery which eventually activates a monster.

Even as an adult, and especially as a child, the most terrifying things are those that cannot be seen. Is something lurking behind those big open spaces? Is there something right around the corner that you can’t see, or can’t hear? An ominous voice, unexplained movement. All of this is what filmmaker George Henry Horton has managed to do with his new movie Project Dorothy, and he does so successfully with a tense indie film now available on VOD.

James (Tim DeZarn) and Blake (Adam Budron) find themselves on the run after bungling a bank job that resulted in James taking a bullet to the leg. They look for shelter as well as temporary safe haven from law enforcement by entering into an enormous vacant factory/warehouse establishment. The pair begins to hole-up but also experience some weird happenings around them while having plenty to explore. An office yields a suspicious video of a woman claiming “Dorothy,” some kind of government experiment, was taking over and they were shutting down the facility. Now trapped inside, at the mercy of “Dorothy,” James and Blake again fight for their lives while trying to find another way out.

What’s great about this movie is that its basic premise is so clever — I’m shocked I’ve never seen it before; there seems like so many possibilities here with this vast abandoned factory space, which filmmaker George Henry Horton mostly takes advantage of. The best parts are when they’re exploring this place: What’s behind that door? What’s around that corner? It’s strange to say about what should be our lead characters — although Tim DeZarn and Adam Budron aren’t very good here; they are overmatched by their material — but it almost feels like the factory is its own character.

Ultimately though, the story moves along too quickly, relying on some hokey staging that undoes much of the goodwill and hard work that had been built up to that point. The hardest thing to stick in a horror movie is its landing. Building the suspense and asking the questions is easy, but actually answering them, finally revealing what’s up — that’s where most of these movies fall apart and Project Dorothy is no exception. The idea of an evil AI, and how they execute her is great, but her methods; mainly the evil forklifts, are where this movie lost me unfortunately.

This would be all right as a low budget project but I can’t help but wonder what could’ve been done differently if there were a bigger budget or better filmmaker or more time spent on script development with something like this because it’s good for what it is at least.

Many throughout the year’s course, low-budget indie movies will come across the wire, mostly available VOD. And most of them will ebb and flow devoid of any buzz or regard; however, among the heap of films that compile by year end, there are a few that breakthrough with interesting ideas, impressive execution, and memorable sequences. Project Dorothy comes close with all three of these categories before ultimately falling just short itself — creating a tantalizing scenario that might have the makings of a cult horror classic under steadier hands; it should be commended for its ambition and creativity in setup alone though we would be lucky if such were adapted into a Blumhouse style horror film –because my empty warehouse horror movie is one I’d love to see done right where some things Project Dorothy does extremely well can be built upon.

Watch Project Dorothy For Free On Gomovies.