Horror films about dolls. Non-toy terror

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Still, there is something frightening in the dolls. The bewitching gaze of beady eyes made more than one child frantically hide under the covers, and if the toy moved from its place or made any sound, the soul went to the heels in adults too. Horror films are loved for their ability to scare with talent and juiciness, scary horror films about dolls do it just exemplarily.

Reference Franchise

Few dolls are as popular as the boy doll in overalls, which the whole world learned about after showing the horror movie "Children's Play" by Tom Holland. The scarred appearance of the killer doll Chucky has become one of the most recognizable images in horror films. The sequel was not long in coming, in fact, like the third part. After that, Chucky was briefly forgotten, but in 1998, Hong Kong magician Ronnie Yu managed to brilliantly restart the Bride of Chucky franchise.

In 2004, another part appeared - "The Offspring of Chucky". The picture was received with restraint, so the sixth episode appeared 9 years later, under the title "Curse of Chucky". ATIn general, the next sequel turned out to be many times better than “Offspring”, therefore, in 2017, the seventh film in the series about the Chucky doll, “The Cult of Chucky”, is being shot. According to film experts, the cycle about the insane maniac killer stuck in the body of a doll has finally come to a standstill. However, the franchise certainly deserves to be included in the "killer doll horror" category.

Demon Wards

An extraordinary example of horror films about killer dolls is the work of the scriptwriter and director Padraig Reynolds "Restless Dolls". Events develop around a collection of amulets that policeman Matt seizes from a caught maniac and gives to his daughter. As it turns out later, the dolls are endowed with supernatural powers. The movie was classified by critics as a low-budget thrash with mediocre acting and a weak script. Although the Reynolds project has one, but an undeniable trump card - aggressive naturalism. For the audience that loves doll horror movies with a lot of gore, Restless Dolls offers a lot of episodes with brutal and graphic murder scenes, in which blood floods the screen like a hose.

First appearance

The horror "The Conjuring" can only partly be attributed to horror films about dolls, since the episode with the appearance of Annabelle was only the beginning of the James Wan project. The toy appeared in the prologue, which introduced the audience to the Warren family, researchers of otherworldly phenomena and entities. But the episode with the fearsome doll so impressed the audience and the creators themselves that the studio immediately after the premiere of the tape announced that Annabelle would soon acquire a personal picture. For the first time in a long time, the public saw such a terribly sinister doll. According to audience feedback, her story made more of an impression on viewers than Lorraine and Ed Warren's exploration of the spirit world. The storage of supernatural artifacts of the main characters frightened the public many times more than the author's delights of the rest of the horror story.

With a doll for life

Annabelle's Curse was created by John R. Leonetti, who previously collaborated with James Wan on Astral and the aforementioned Conjuring. Not surprisingly, in his tape, he uses many of the author's techniques of Wang, such as "signature" wandering around the rooms and forcing suspense. Unfortunately, not all critics could include the picture of 2014 in the list of the best horror films about dolls. According to some reviewers, the presence of a doll in the cinema was not mandatory and fundamental. After all, with light corrections, the plot could have been redrawn under "Paranormal Activity", due to the fact that the confrontation between the demon and the family, in some way connected with the toy, was at the center of the story.

As they say, Leonetti's first pancake came out lumpy - the horror more than justified itself at the box office, but received rather cool reviews from movie experts.

Sequel to Annabelle, part 2the spin-off to The Conjuring by D. Wang was directed by J. F. Sandberg. The plot revolves around the dollmaker's family, who warmed the nun and orphan girls, who became the target of the Annabelle doll, an obsessed toy created by the owner of the house. The creators in the continuation-prequel took into account all the flaws of the original and raised the bar of quality high. As a result, the horror turned out to be one of the most terrible and spectacular among all horror films about dolls.

By the way, The Conjurings, The Annabelle Curse, and The Nuns (another spin-off of the series) have a single timeline, which is quite interesting for the horror genre.

Another horror franchise

Saw is often referred to as horror films about dolls. Everyone knows that the main idea is the passage of several heroes mutilating tests to atone for any guilt and survive in a deadly game. The Constructor is the host of the movie. Instead of the villain, the victims only see a doll on a bicycle. Her appearance is on a par with the most famous horror antagonists - Jason, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger. Viewers had to meet the whitish doll face with a brightly painted blush nine more times, "Saw" did not leave the screens until 2017.