maybe it's the unblinking eyes staring
at you emotionless day and night or
perhaps it's their small size acting as
a cloak of Innocence or their human-like
appearance that makes them seem just
slightly too real however you want to
spin it there's something creepy about
dolls Why do we take these seemingly
innocuous things and give them such life
and why do we continue to imagine them
as capable of evil and
violence I'm Dr Emily zarka and this is
monstrum as imaginary others it's easy
to Describe meaning onto the artificial
body in addition to Ritual and religious
use dolls might have been the very first
toys archaeological evidence shows us
that the ancient Egyptians Chinese
Minoans and atrans all produce dolls for
Spiritual purposes the oldest we have
found so far dates to the third
millennium while early dolls were
sometimes used for sinister purposes
much more frequently they were used for
protection in the 3rd Century BC the use
of dolls in spiritual practice seems to
take a negative turn at least in
literature
in the second it collection of the Greek
poet theocritus part of the narrative
details a witch using a wax doll and a
nefarious love spell Roman poet Horus
gives a similar malevolent cast in a 30
BCE text in a story of necromancy and
erotic magic where two female witches
use a Woolen doll and a smaller wax doll
in a mock execution stereotypes and
demonizing rumors about religious and
spiritual dolls like vodu dolls kachinas
corn dollies and poppets have
undoubtedly contributed to to negative
associations particularly their false
connections to demonic Witchcraft and
spirit manipulation views of spiritual
practices that use figurines or dolls as
conduits or ceremonial figures
negatively may have bled into cultural
attitudes towards dolls designed for
entertainment and the consumer Market
human Miniatures first served ritual
religious and funerary purposes but
beginning in medieval Europe miniature
fashion dolls were collected by wealthy
adults doll maker became a profession by
the early 15th century and doll houses
emerged in Europe around the 16th
century when the Fashions they wore fell
out of favor the dolls might be passed
on to children as play things this
history contributes to an uncertainty
and unease about dolls we aren't sure of
their purpose at least not entirely
dolls have always been in between
objects and that makes us uncomfortable
there's something about a doll that can
give off a creepy Vibe especially in
recent times but why the first
ventriloquist dummy shows up around the
18th century I know technically it's not
a doll but a puppet according to
enthusiasts but they don't fall far from
The Uncanny Valley Family Doll tree
these dolls come alive with movement and
a voice a ventriloquist performance is
in part dependent on the audience's
willingness to suspend disbelief and see
the doll as a sentient person or at
least detached from the human operating
it often made to look like a child or
child-sized the ventriloquist dummy
calls to mind a youth possessed baby
dolls and porcelain dolls became popular
in the 19th century followed closely by
socketed joints movable eyes and talking
dolls what was also developing around
this time the modern concept of
childhood before the enlightenment
movement of the 17th and 18th century
many people just didn't subscribe to the
cultural concept of childhood it was
only when philosophers presented the
idea that Human Experience defined
knowledge and reason that people really
began to consider cultivating an ideal
childhood for personal development
children became seen as blank slates
which meant that what they played with
mattered this is what dolls become part
of children's developmental play and
it's one things really take a creepier
turn so another reason for our fear of
dolls is partially about the weariness
of the child and of childhood itself
children like dolls seem innocent and
naive but we can't really know what they
are thinking dolls when seen as Tiny
humans emphasize this same point this
attitude becomes apparent as literature
starts to emerge blurring the boundary
between child and doll questioning what
is a living thing and what is not just
look at Pinocchio first published as a
magazine serial in 1881 and 1882 and
collected into a single novel in 1883
The Adventures of Pinocchio follows the
story of a marionette doll crafted from
a talking piece of wood that wept and
laughed like a child a terrifying little
tidbit excluded from the Disney version
of the story oh and Jiminy Cricket yeah
in the original story Pinocchio kills
the talking cricket with a hammer and
that's only the tip of the creepy
iceberg in the unintentional Horror
Story before becoming a real boy the dog
experiences some pretty traumatic stuff
contributing to the story's questioning
of both morality and Humanity while
Pinocchio the talking sentient
marionette was firmly grounded in the
pages of fiction real world dolls were
becoming more human-like by the addition
of voices the end of the 19th century
gave us the first talking dolls from an
unlikely Source after inventing the
photograph in 1877 Thomas Edison
invented a talking doll who got her
voice from a tiny version of his earlier
invention while Edison thought the doll
would be a hit in the late 1880s he was
grossly mistaken dolls Bridge the
boundary between child and adult
sometimes they have adult-like features
on a child-sized body there's also the
way kids play with them caring for them
like children of their own or crafting
fictional adult lives to act out it
blurs the child and the adult too much
for us to be comfortable with and we're
right back to that uncanny valley take
the infamous Robert the Doll gifted to
Robert Eugene Otto by his grandfather
around 1904 the doll became the boy's
con companion he talked to the doll and
treated it like a real person he even
gave the doll his name Robert and began
calling himself Jean human Jean blamed
mischief and accidents on Robert the
Doll part of a wealthy and Ecentric
family in Key West rumors about Jean and
the doll flourished Robert stayed a part
of Jean's life into his adulthood
children would report seeing the doll
standing by himself in the window of
Jean's house seeming to move on its own
after Jean's death the new owner of the
house and the doll reported hearing
footsteps and giggling she also saw the
facial expression change if anyone spoke
poorly of Jean many creators have used
the story as inspiration for all kinds
of terrifying stories but none as famous
as Chucky the killer doll that launched
a franchise and gave pretty much
everyone
nightmares hi I'm Chuckie W to
play so living dolls are getting the
Public's interest in literature and
eccentric real world tales in the early
20th century and film wouldn't be far
behind dolls firmly entered the horror
genre in
1945 the important British horror
Anthology dead of night ends with the
creepy tale of the relationship between
a ventriloquist and his dummy a
relationship that questioned who was the
master and who was the puppet and who
was the murderer a few decades later the
Twilight Zone A series that does
excellent work turning the mundane
terrifying aired a standout episode that
took a doll from merely creepy to evil
in living doll Annabelle buys her
daughter Christy a talki Tina in an
attempt to distract christe from the
harsh parenting of her new stepfather
the thing is talki Tina isn't happy
about christe's mistreatment and the
doll begins to move on her own
tormenting and threatening The
Stepfather before eventually killing him
the episode's final words come from the
doll herself in 1969 playbo got into the
doll game but not probably in the way
you're thinking famous science fiction
and horror writer Richard mat published
a short story prey in the April Edition
in the story a woman named Amelia buys a
zi fetish doll named he who kills as a
birthday gift for her boyfriend
described as 7 in long and carved from
wood with a skeletal body oversized head
pointed teeth bulging eyes and a tiny
gold chain wrapped around its body
keeping the spirit inside from escaping
when the doll falls from the edge of a
table the chain slips off the doll
stalks and hunts Amelia with
Supernatural speed and ferocity injuring
and eventually possessing her and this
this horrific variation the doll's
malevolence is formed from a
misunderstanding of zi practices the
story took on New Life when it was
adapted for television as Amelia in the
1975 Trilogy of Terror the doll's
physical appearance is significant in
this time it is muscular shirtless and
black a racist take on the tail as the
doll stalks the white Amelia in the
sequel he who kills from the Trilogy of
Terror 2 the same doll hunts a white Dr
Simpson and now has a cannibalistic need
for flesh another damaging and false
stereotype the 1970s marked a return to
the creepy ventriloquist dummy in
William Goldman's novel magic a
struggling magician buys a foul-mouth
dummy that may or may not be alive a
story of suspense the reader is left
wondering if the magician Corky is
really a violent mentally ill man or if
the dummy fats is behind the murders he
commits Anthony Hopkins would star in
the 1978 film adaptation that gives us
yet another truly creepy doll for our
nightmares it also marks a change from
the demonic possession Trope and into
conversations about psychopathy and
Trauma topics under scrutiny as a
handful of serial killers are discovered
across the globe including John Wayne
gasey and Ted Bundy and in 1982
Poltergeist just really puts the cherry
on top of the child monster doll deal
Robbie's murderous clown doll manages to
combine two terrifying Monsters the
creepy doll and the Killer Clown into
one epic jump scare it gets me every
time I watch it literally every time
and I think one of the reasons it's so
incredibly effective as a monster is
because it strikes when Robbie should be
sleeping snuggling safe in his room his
mother just down the hall relaxing in
the bath dolls often reside in playrooms
and bedrooms spaces in the home meant to
be safe havens for children but
sometimes real human monsters violate
that safety and the evil doll can be a
metaphor for that offense the 1980s also
brought one of the most iconic killer
dolls in history Chucky Child's Play
takes a serial killer and places his
ghost in the body of a talking doll
literally bringing the killer into the
home disguised as an object of comfort
in an additional element of horror while
the audience knows that the doll is the
real killer within the world of the
movie the police are convinced that
Chucky's owner a child is the murderer
presumably driven to commit violence
because of the trauma of losing his
father if you're a parent it can often
seem like children have a death wish and
it's not that far of a mental leap to
imagine the inverse of that murderous
intention I'm looking at you sleep
deprivation Chucky launched a successful
franchise that served up scares
alongside social commentary Chucky
sequels are a satire on
heteronormativity that challenged the
very concept of Life by disrupting and
questioning conception itself in Bride
of Chucky female doll Tiffany gives
birth to a doll child Seed of Chucky
continues the story of Tiffany's child
who has Ambiguously gendered and sexed
and on a journey to find their doll
parents when this goal is achieved the
child alternatively called Glenn and
Glenda brings their parents back to life
with a ritual essentially rebirthing
their own parents then the dolls capture
actress Jennifer Tilly playing herself
who is forcibly impregnated with Chuck E
seed and gives birth to human twins who
are then possessed by the spirit of the
doll child who I guess was born with two
Souls one male and one female but yeah
the movie was marketed at gay pride
parades alongside special Chucky condoms
the Child's Play remake brought
attention back to the franchise in 2019
but it was really the Chucky tell ision
series that continued the franchise's
queer history so this doll is made into
a monstrous other that challenges human
relationships and Norms another part of
the fear of dolls I believe comes from
conceptualizing them as empty human
vessels we can ascribe meaning to a
child plays with the doll and makes up a
whole history for their play thing but
there's a fear that the doll will come
alive with a Vengeance unhappy with the
life it's been given the interesting
array of creepy dolls from the 1990s
highlights this anxiety a killer
ventriloquist dummy and Tales from the
Crypt is revealed to be the
ventriloquist murderous Siamese twin
Slappy from 1993's Goosebumps KN of the
Living Dummy inspired in part by ARL
Stein's fear of the original Pinocchio
story is a sadistic dummy who fights
another animated dummy Mr wood the two
girls who own the puppet spend much of
the book trying to convince the adults
around them that the dolls are alive and
that Mr wood is trying to make them his
slaves the idea that Dolls Could Be
Alive took a much more py turn in 1995
with Toy Story well kind of the vengeful
mutilated and tortured dolls of Sid
swarm the boy in a scene that seems
straight out of a horror movie complete
with Exorcist spinning head reference
and zombie-like Toy
Soldiers I know this movie is why I
became hyper aware of how I was treating
all my toys for fear that they would
come alive at night and attack me the
21st century is certainly not lacking in
scary doll stories The Uncanny faces of
dolls appear in massive horror
franchises from Saw to The Conjuring
universe and most recently Megan all of
these stories explore Family Faith and
the lingering effects of Acts deemed
sinful either spiritually socially or
intellectually the dolls and all of them
act as surprising containers for violent
and deviant Behavior the doll becomes a
monster only because of a human's Fear
The Terror of childhood the possibility
of malevolent intent in a small body the
misguided intentions of burgeoning
identity it is our discomfort with the
uncanniness of their humanness that
unnerves us especially when their
artificial motiv to closely resemble our
own dark
urges hey
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doll becomes a oh
a