When people think of something scary for Halloween, usually they think up some kind of big scary monster or psychopath with a weapon; but there’s also some horror to be found from the exact opposite of big monsters—creepy little dolls.
The horror genre has had some very memorable creepy dolls for decades, and we take a look at some that are worth checking out for anyone looking to get spooked for the Halloween season.
Chucky (Child’s Play)
Probably responsible for a lot of trauma for millennials when it comes to dolls, Chucky made his debut in 1988’s Child’s Play. His origin is that Chucky was originally serial killer Charles Lee Ray who was dying in a toy store, and in a last-ditch effort committed some voodoo to transfer his consciousness into a Good Guy doll that was nearby—resulting in an unassuming doll that wanted to murder people endlessly.
Child’s Play was able to spawn a total of seven films and was recently rebooted in 2019 with Mark Hamill as the voice of the doll. Needless to say, fans preferred Chucky’s origin to be voodoo, and not AI run amok.
Annabelle (The Conjuring)
Annabelle the haunted doll was first introduced in The Conjuring as a doll that was locked behind glass in the Warren’s artifact room; but she has managed to spawn three movies with Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, and Annabelle Comes Home.
The doll is actually based on a real-life cursed item, but that was originally a Raggedy Ann doll; they decided to turn Annabelle into a porcelain doll because of rights issues—and honestly, the movie design is way scarier than the original doll—which does make an appearance in Creation.
The Dolls from Longlegs
The dolls from Longlegs don’t really have names, but they are definitely one of the scariest dolls to come to cinema in a long time. Imbued with Satanic powers, these dolls that were created by Longlegs are given as gifts to unsuspecting people—and soon enough they get possessed and start killing each other in the most gruesome fashion.
Doll Nadja (What We Do in the Shadows)
To add a little levity, the list is also going to include Doll Nadja (or Dolly, or Nadja Doll) from What We Do in the Shadows. Introduced in the second season, Doll Nadja is actually the spirit of human Nadja who had turned into a ghost after Nadja was turned into a vampire.
Nadja was supposed to help her ghost finish her ‘unfinished business’, but the two realized they had so much fun together that they decided to put the ghost’s spirit in a doll, and she hangs around the home occasionally going on adventures with the gang.
Like all the other characters in the show, Doll Nadja is an homage to the classic horror movie dolls.
Billy (Saw)
Though the villain of the Saw franchise is no doubt John Kramer a.k.a. Jigsaw, he does torment his victims with this doll Billy that usually appears by video to relay the instructions of whatever sick and twisted game he wants people to play.
In the lore, the doll was something Kramer made for his pregnant wife, but when she lost the baby, Billy became something that Kramer held on to, and eventually used for his torture games.
Billy (Dead Silence)
Another ventriloquist doll named Billy, this dummy was the poster child of James Wan’s Dead Silence, a movie about a widower who tries to solve the grisly murder of his wife by uncovering the legend of Mary Shaw, an old-timey ventriloquist who was murdered by the town of Ravens Fair and buried with her dolls.
The film came out back in 2007 and was sure to be the film that spooked Gen-Z on ventriloquist dummies forever.
Slappy (Goosebumps)
One of the more kid-friendly horror franchises, Goosebumps introduced youngsters to a lot of different kinds of monsters, and the mascot of the franchise is no doubt Slappy the ventriloquist dummy.
While his intentions aren’t as bloody as Chucky or any other doll in the list, Slappy is still pretty scary in that he’s a living doll that wants to dominate people in some way. Uttering the magic words from his dress jacket brings him to life, and he will make it his purpose to turn the human who summoned him into his slave.
The Boy (from the 2016 movie The Boy)
When a woman (Lauren Cohan) is hired to babysit a boy for an elderly couple, she’s surprised to find out that she has been tasked to babysit a creepy porcelain doll. Like gremlins, there are certain rules when it comes to caring for the doll, and once the rules are broken—horrible things start to happen.
The first movie came out in 2016 and was even able to spawn a sequel in 2020 called Brahms: The Boy II starring Katie Holmes.
Freddy Fazbear (Five Nights at Freddy’s)
While admittedly not a traditional doll, Freddy Fazbear from FNAF and his band of murderous animatronics were all supposed to look cute and cuddly until they were possessed by the souls of kidnapped children.
It’s unclear where a Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel could go, but the movie was considered to be a huge success and should give the franchise some life for the next couple of years.
M3GAN (M3GAN)
Introduced in 2022, M3GAN is considered to be the true spiritual successor to the moniker of the murderous doll that originally belonged to Chucky.
Made to be an advanced high-tech doll that was made to cater to the needs of any young girl, M3GAN—like every piece of technology in a horror movie—malfunctioned and decided that the best way to protect her host Cady was to start murdering everyone around her.
Oddly enough, M3GAN ended up becoming a gay icon ever since she debuted, because not only does she murder, but she also loves to dance and can get quite sassy—common traits that attract gay men like a moth to a flame.