In a beloved episode of the Twilight Zone called “Living Doll,” a girl’s baby doll threatens her hateful stepdad, played by Telly Savalas, icily declaring “my name is Talky Tina and I am going to kill you” before sending him careening down a flight of stairs. That episode majorly freaked out kids for years and I have to admit the idea of dolls coming to life and creepy-crawling around the house is unsettling. Here are 13 other examples of a movie genre I call BadDollicore. See all of these with children you hate:
The Conjuring (2013) A surprisingly scary movie based on the real life “paranormal investigators” Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson & Vera Farmiga) who try to help a family who bought a majorly haunted house in Rhode Island. But most people remember the side story about the possessed Annabelle doll. Whoever designed this doll was brilliant. It looked damn frightening and was effective in setting the tone of the movie. (There have already been two Annabelle spin-off movies that are the exact opposite of scary.)
Trilogy Of Terror (1975) A great TV movie by Dan Curtis based on stories by Richard Matheson. The favorite from the anthology, however, was a film featuring Karen Black as a woman who buys a Zuni fetish doll for her boyfriend only to have it come to life and viciously chase her around her apartment. Scary and silly at the same time but the final image of the episode is genius. A new 4K restoration on Blu-ray of this film is now available from Kino Lorber.
Dolls (1987) An underappreciated movie by Stuart Gordon, the director of Re-Animator. On a dark and stormy night, a bunch of stranded strangers end up in the mysterious mansion of a weird old couple of toy makers. During the course of the evening the toys come to life and don’t play nice. The stop-motion scenes were the dolls re-animate are pretty wonderful and a beautiful new Blu-ray is now available from Shout! Factory.
Poltergeist (1982) “They’re Heeere…” Terrific haunted house thriller by Tobe Hooper where a family comes under attack in their home by unexplained phenomena. The young boy’s clown doll grabbing him from under the bed is every kid’s worst nightmare.
Black Devil Doll From Hell (1984) Director Chester Novell Turner‘s outrageous movie about a church lady (Shirley L. Jones) who buys a Rick James-looking dummy from a thrift store only to have it attack and ravish her in the middle of the night. This straight-to-video oddity will unhinge your jaw.
Child’s Play (1988) A mother buys her son a popular Chucky Doll — a red-headed blue-eyed boy doll in overalls that promises he’ll “be your friend to the end.” Unfortunately, the soul of a serial killer (Brad Dourif) is trapped inside the doll and he gets up to his old tricks. This was a more straightforward thriller than the later films, but Bride Of Chucky (1998) and Seed Of Chucky (2004) are also a scream.
Tales From The Hood (1995) A refreshingly fun spin on the omnibus horror film. Clarence Williams III plays a mortician who tells four macabre stories to some boys from the neighborhood. My favorite stars Corbin Bernsen as a loathsome politician and Klu Klux Klan bigwig living in a Southern mansion who gets his bloody comeuppance when dolls buried under the floorboards housing the souls of abused slaves come roaring to life.
Demonic Toys (1992) Tracy Scoggins plays Judith, an undercover cop who chases two perps into a warehouse filled with overstocked toys. The blood of one of the criminals awakes a demon (in the shape of a small boy) who reanimates the toys into little killing machines. A chicken delivery guy (Bentley Mtchum) and a homeless runaway (Ellen Dunning) help Judith fight her way out. Some of the disturbing dolls include a knife-wielding Baby Oopsy Daisy, a toy robot shooting real bullets, a stuffed bear with fangs, and a toothy killer clown Jack-in-the-box in this surprisingly gory, kind of fun, Full Moon Entertainment straight-to-video feature.
Devil Doll (1964) There have been some great movies about puppets coming to life like Dead Of Night (1945) but I get a kick of out this junky one starring Bryant Haliday as “The Great Vorelli,”-a renowned ventriloquist and hypnotist who sets his sights on an heiress’s fortune. But his dummy “Hugo” has other plans. This nutty ventriloquist and his evil dummy movie is much more enjoyable than the deadly dull Magic (1978) with Anthony Hopkins.
Dead Silence (2007) True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten plays a widower who returns to his home town of Raven’s Fair to bury his wife and find out who left on his doorstep a spooky ventriloquist dummy named Billy. He questions his wealthy, wheelchair-bound dad and his young, pretty step-mom; the town funeral director and his loony wife (who hides in crawlspaces with her stuffed bird). He even searches for clues at the old abandoned theater on Lost Lake. Everything seems linked to an old nursery rhyme: “Beware the stare of Mary Shaw- She had no children, only dolls- And if you see her in your dreams- Be sure you never, ever scream.” This under-rated supernatural chiller from James Wan (Saw/The Conjuring) is ripe for rediscovery. The art direction alone is sensational and the movie is genuinely creepy.
Puppet Master (1989) This was the beginning of a huge franchise for Charles Band‘s Full Moon Entertainment and starred the late, great, William Hickey as Andre Toulon, a puppeteer who can breathe life into his weird puppets. Chased by the Nazis, he shoots himself and years later a group of psychics meet at a hotel and unwittingly bring the creatures back to life. “Pinhead,” “Ms. Leech,” “Blade,” “Jester,” and “Tunneler” were well loved by morbid kids.
Pinocchio’s Revenge (1996) Before you start singing “I’ve got no strings,” this aint Disney. It’s about a female public defender (Rosalind Allen) who brings home a Pinocchio doll crafted by an executed serial killer client. Her troubled young girl Zoe (Brittany Alyse Smith) mistakenly thinks the puppet is a birthday present and sublimates all of her rage into it. Against her mean classmates, her mom’s new boyfriend, even her nice nanny. When they start to get bumped off is it the doll doing it or just a really rotten kid? The puppet is pretty cool looking, it’s just too bad the movie’s so wooden-headed.
Dolly Dearest (1991) Trying too hard to make a female “Chucky” movie, this is about a little girl who goes to Mexico with her daddy and brings home a pretty, possessed doll who runs around the house wielding a pair of scissors and shrieking, “It’s time to play!”
Dennis! You forgot “Magic” with Anthony Hopkins. I still remember the commercial which was way better than the movie : “Abracadabra I sit on his knee. Pesto chango & how’s he’s me. Hocus Pocus we take her to bed. Magic is fun and now we’re dead”
I used to use that movie to put kids to sleep..
For me, its all about the teeth. And the demon clown from Demonic Toys has some serious teeth.