What is it about haunted dolls that gets under people's skin? It might have something to do
with the uncanny valley, as they look almost human but not quite. Whatever the reason
for our fascination with them, here are some legends about dolls that are absolutely creepy.
Maybe the strangest thing about supposedly haunted dolls is the fact that so many people
want to see them. Consider "Mandy," a vintage doll currently exhibited
at the Quesnel Museum in British Columbia. Mandy was donated to the museum in 1991,
and she was already well-aged by that point, with a cracked porcelain face and a ripped cloth body.
While the staff has given her some clean new clothes, her eerie visage alone is timeworn
and haunting. And this doll doesn't stop at atmospherics, as her donor reported odd
sounds of a baby crying in her basement. Once Mandy was situated in the museum,
staff claimed to hear phantom footsteps and also blamed the doll for missing office supplies.
Visitors have also had creepy experiences with Mandy, with some claiming that her
eyes follow them. Others swear that they've found Mandy's stuffed lamb on the floor,
though it should be right next to her behind plexiglass.
One report recounted in the Quesnel Observer involves a woman who tried to film Mandy.
Though her camera worked just fine in other exhibits, it went haywire whenever
she focused on the doll. And when she tried to play the VHS tape at home, it promptly jammed.
Annabelle's reputation is so fearsome that she inspired an entire horror movie franchise
bearing her name, though the real Annabelle is less immediately awful. She appears to
just be a standard-issue Raggedy Ann doll ready for cuddling. But don't be fooled,
say some paranormal investigators. She's apparently so dangerous that she's been locked
away in a case at Ed and Lorraine Warren's Occult Museum in Connecticut for years.
The story goes that the doll was given to a student nurse back in the 1970s.
The nurse and her roommate then noticed strange activity happening around the doll,
as if it was moving and even writing messages like "Help me" on scattered bits of paper. A psychic
claimed that this was due to the spirit of a little girl named "Annabelle." The two women tried
to accept the doll, but then things got violent. When paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine
Warren were contacted, they told them that they'd actually invited a demon into their home.
Luckily, the Warrens had just the right place for Annabelle. She would be going to their
Occult Museum, where she'd be in the company of other creepy dolls and demonic artifacts.
In 2019, the museum was closed due to zoning violations. Rumors spread
that Annabelle had escaped, but the owner claims that she's still contained … for now.
"There was someone rocking in the chair with Annabelle."
Letta the doll has an origin story worthy of a horror movie. In the early 70s,
Kerry Walton and his brother stumbled across Letta while exploring an abandoned home in
Wagga Wagga, Australia. Walton then decided to take the doll back home with him to Queensland.
Soon enough, his children began to claim that the doll could talk
and move. It was easy at first to just attribute this to bad dreams.
But then visitors also claimed that the doll moved. When dogs were around, Letta appeared
to drive them into an aggressive frenzy, and some even attempted to attack the doll.
According to Walton, he was unable to sell it. When he attempted to do so,
he was physically unable to remove Letta from his car.
All of that could easily be dismissed as a fantasy,
but there are some real facts here that could unsettle even the biggest skeptic.
Walton had the doll checked out by staff members at the Australian Museum,
who told him that Letta is made out of wood, has glass eyes — and is crowned with real human hair.
Perhaps he should consult with Annabelle's owner about the best doll-containment cases.
Just off the coast of Singapore sits a tiny island called Pulau Ubin. Amidst the abundant
natural beauty, visitors can make their way to an old structure known as the "German Girl Shrine."
Inside, surrounded by offerings of cosmetics, is a Barbie doll with a surprising history.
The German Girl Shrine is dedicated to the memory of a local girl who died before World War I.
Her European parents owned a plantation on the island, giving the girl a uniquely privileged life
that couldn't last. As the war began, British forces invaded the island and apprehended the
family. As she ran from the soldiers, the teenage girl fell off a cliff to her death.
Locals buried her and later exhumed her remains and stored them in an urn housed at the shrine.
Over the years, the memory of the girl shifted until she became a local Taoist deity.
The Barbie was placed there sometime in the 21st century after the urn containing the
girl's remains was stolen. A local man says he was then visited in a dream by a white
girl who told him to buy a Barbie doll from a local shop and install it in the shrine.
Visitors now say that the spirit of the German girl resides in the Barbie.
Those who bring a gift, like the cosmetics placed around the doll, are granted luck.
Long before Annabelle hit the big screen, Chucky was frightening people worldwide beginning in
1988's Child's Play. Like Annabelle, he was also inspired by a very real and ominous toy. In 1904,
Robert the doll was given to a boy named Robert Eugene Otto, who would later grow up to be a
successful but eccentric painter, living in what's now known as Key West's Artist House.
Otto was just four years old when the family maid gave him a large doll dressed in a sailor suit.
Even as he grew older, the boy would have conversations with Robert and
insist that the doll have his own seat at the dinner table.
Otto also reportedly had anger issues, though he blamed Robert for his tantrums.
When Otto married, Robert was banished upstairs, where passersby said that he could be seen moving
between different rooms. Otto eventually passed away, and the Artist House came
under new ownership. The new residents claimed that they heard giggles coming from Robert,
who still sat in the upper floor of the home. In 1994, Robert was donated to the local Fort East
Martello Museum, where he reportedly routinely disrupts electronic devices like cameras.
The museum also received letters from people who have insulted Robert,
now begging for his forgiveness after they've experienced unearthly misfortune.
"We're friends to the end. Remember?"
"This is the end, friend."
If one doll is creepy, then what do you do with an island packed full of them?
Located just outside the bustle of Mexico City, The Island of the Dolls was originally owned by
Don Julian Santana, who abandoned his family and set himself up on an uninhabited island.
He lived there for another five decades until his death in 2001. Until then,
he could be seen traveling the old canals, fishing out dolls to bring back to his growing collection.
As the legend goes, soon after his move, Santana found the remains of a drowned
girl floating near his island. The dolls were an attempt to either appease or protect her spirit.
If one doll was good, then perhaps he thought that a small island packed
full of them was even better, even as they rotted in the heat and humidity.
"He found the dolls in the canals and in the trash. He started hanging them up to protect him
and to try to scare away the spirit of the girl."
Then again, the discovery of the girl's body may have been
all in Santana's head, the product of untreated mental illness. Either way,
The Island of the Dolls is a very real and creepy landmark that still exists today.
Any type of doll is a possible haunting magnet, even a mass-produced movie tie-in. According
to the Madonia family of Houston, an Elsa doll from Frozen may very well be filled with evil.
The Madonias had been trying to get rid of this thing for years. The father, Mat,
attempted to throw it out, only for the family to then discover it inside a wooden bench.
That reappearance could've been chalked up to forgetfulness or even a sneaky child who wasn't
ready to let her doll go into the great beyond. But then the story gets weirder.
Mat's wife Emily wrote on her Facebook page that Elsa was put into a garbage bag inside another
bag, placed inside the garbage can beneath other refuse, and wheeled out to the curb.
But a short while later, that very same Elsa appeared in the backyard. The doll
was programmed to sing and speak when a button on its chest is pressed. It then began to do so,
even when it was turned off. Emily eventually mailed the spooky doll to a friend who offered
to give it a home. So Elsa now lives a quiet life affixed to the brush guard of that friend's Jeep.
You might think that dolls, even the haunted ones, would go easy on their intended audience
of children. But for Charley, menacing children seems to be his favorite move.
It all began in 1968 in New York, when he was supposed to be just another addition
to a family's doll collection. But soon enough, weird things started happening. Charley seemed
to always be in a different spot than where he was last left, although, as with Elsa,
that could've easily been chalked up to a mischievous child or mere forgetfulness.
But then the family's four-year-old daughter started to tell everyone that Charley spoke to
her. All five children soon grew hysterical, claiming that the doll spoke to them and
even scratched their skin. The parents then locked Charley in an attic trunk.
Charley emerged years later at a garage sale. A woman bought him, even though she was told
the eerie story, which has since followed Charley through many different owners.
His last known location was Local Artisan, a small store in Beverly, Massachusetts.
It seems to have mysteriously closed, though. Coincidence?
Sometimes, you get a gift that just doesn't work for you, but usually it's not as bad
as a creepy toy. But for a girl named Jill, that was precisely the unfortunate gift she
received. As recounted in the book Haunted Objects: Stories of Ghosts on Your Shelf,
Jill was an innocent eight-year-old when she received an old-fashioned porcelain doll from
a family friend who then shortly passed away. Jill kept the doll, which she named Claire,
as a memento. But then music boxes began to play on their own around Claire. Objects would also
fall from shelves whenever she was nearby, and missing items would be found in Claire's pockets.
In one of the most horrifying incidents, which Jill recounted on Reddit,
Claire was placed in a rocking chair in the corner of her room.
In the middle of the night, it began to rock on its own, waking Jill up.
Claire's head then turned to stare at her, while every music box in the room began to play.
Claire was swiftly packed into a box and hidden in the back of a closet.
According to Jill, the doll has been given to a voodoo priest who keeps the evil spirits at bay.
Pupa is said to be made out of felt, a gentle material that doesn't exactly inspire fear.
And the beginning of her story doesn't even sound particularly haunting. As the tale goes, she first
appeared in Italy during the 1920s, when she was given to a little girl. Soon enough, the girl
became devoted to Pupa, so much so that she kept the toy close by even as she grew into adulthood.
That all sounds perfectly charming, except when you consider that the original owner
believed that Pupa was alive. She claimed that the doll could talk and move on her own,
even going so far as to save her owner's life. Eventually, the woman passed away.
Pupa changed hands and is now living with another family in the United States.
Pupa has reportedly gone a bit sour in her new digs. The current owners
keep her in a case in which visitors claim to have seen a fog forming on the inside.
People may even see messages written in the condensation, such as,
"Pupa does not like." One family member claims that she even began to walk.
He tried to upload a video of the incident, but it was obscured by a veil with the message "Pupa No!"
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