American Dollhouse

American Dollhouse
American Dollhouse
Directed by	John Valley
Written by	John Valley
Produced by	David Axe; Samuel Butler; Shane Greb; Christian Sosa; Jon Wroblewski;
Starring	Richard C. Jones; Hailley Lauren; Danielle Evon Ploeger; Kelsey Pribilski; Tinus Seaux;
Cinematography	Taylor Camarot
Edited by	Samuel Butler
Music by	Richard Hamilton
Production; company	Roosevelt Film Lab
Release date	March 14, 2026 (SXSW);
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

American Dollhouse is a 2026 American christmas horror film written and directed by John Valley.^[1] It stars Richard C. Jones, Hailley Lauren, Danielle Evon Ploeger, Kelsey Pribilski and Tinus Seaux. The film is about a woman buried under debt and addiction, inherits her childhood home, only to find her Christmas transformed into a nightmare by a psychotic neighbor.^[2]^[3]

Cast

Richard C. Jones
Hailley Lauren
Danielle Evon Ploeger
Kelsey Pribilski
Tinus Seaux

Production

The film was produced by David Axe, Samuel Butler, Shane Greb, Jon Wroblewski, and Christian Sosa of Roosevelt Film Lab.^[4] Amado DeHoyos, Richard C. Jones, Shane Greb, Stephan Jensen, Elizabeth Spear, Hector Acosta, Dan Lenker, Zebulon “Ziggy” Griggs and Melissa Sellers Drake are the Executive producers.^[5]^[6]

Taylor Camarot handle the cinematography, Richard Hamilton for the composition of the music, Mairin Hamilton for vocals and Liam Turnage for drums.

Release

The film had its world premiere on March 14, 2026, in the Midnighters section of the SXSW 2026 Film Festival.^[7]^[8]

Reception

Brynn Dominguez of The Daily Texan gave the film a positive review, a rating of 4.5/5 and wrote: American Dollhouse, does not represent your typical haunted house, possessed horror movie, but a film that surprises with plot twists, jump scares and a carefully crafted score.^[9]

J Hurtado of ScreenAnarchy have a mixed reaction towards the film and wrote: American Dollhouse is a fun but ultimately somewhat forgettable ride, combining elements we’ve all seen before into what is probably the grimiest package of this year’s SXSW.^[10]

Matthew Orozco of Macabre Daily gave the film a mixed to positive feedback and wrote: American Dollhouse is a blood-filled descent into the home of a madwoman, and it exposes the darkness of neighborly domesticity while never leaning too hard on metaphor and mental health to excuse or even explain the actions of its characters. While it may be too much for some squeamish viewers, those who enjoy the absurd and the audacious will likely find lots to love in one of 2026’s best indie horror films yet!.^[11]