Buono's schizophrenic hospital lab technician is fixated on dolls, which he eerily equates with his victims. But when he breaks his pattern and slays a ninth victim out of rage, that very fetish could prove his undoing. Ramping up the creepiness factor, Ellen Corby, later immortalized as warm, wise Grandma Walton, plays Buono's harridan invalid mother, who's constant carping could make anybody homicidal.