What Makes Dolls So Scary?

My four-year-old crept down the stairs the other night to announce to us that she was too afraid to sleep. As most parents know, this is a common thing that affects every kid (and even some of us adults) at some point. My wife took her up to her room and sat with her for a bit.

So what was she afraid of?

Why, dolls, of course.

She doesn’t have a huge collection of dolls; our tiny house stacked full of kids and cats wouldn’t allow that, but she does have a few. Her “babies” as she calls them. She picks one out and pushes it around in a stroller all day, but then at night it needs to be put away where it can’t watch her.

Yeah, watch her. Because we all know that the dolls are watching us.

Dolls have been a staple of horror for decades, maybe even longer.

But what is it that makes them so frightening, that they’ve been featured in everything from The Twilight Zone to Stephen King to Stephen King scripting an episode of X-Files to modern horror flicks?

It could be that they are so lifelike. You know, what other toys open their eyes when you sit them up? Or demand that you dress them like real babies? Or even make noises like real babies? Or, in some cases, even wet their diapers like real babies?

It seems like everyone has a scary doll memory. Either from one of their own, one of their friends, a dream, or a movie. To this day, my wife brings up a movie she accidentally saw as a kid (aptly titled “Dolls“) where the dolls would wake up in the night and it scared the bejesus out of her.

For me, it was nothing too major. But I still remember it. My Grandma got us kids each a jester/clown doll, complete with springs and a lifelike baby face.

And, for obvious reasons, we were terrified of them and wouldn’t take them home. Eventually, however I started feeling sorry for the toys and we did bring them into our house. And once I had appeased the dolls, I was no longer afraid of them.

Maybe that’s part of the reason we fear them as well. They are often so lifelike that treat them “differently” than other toys. Kind like a baby. In fact, I often feel…guilty…if I find other toys piled on top of my daughters’ dolls. It’s just crazy.

I often write about horror–what makes it work, and what makes it fail–and I think when used correctly, dolls have can have a few of the elements that work so well with horror. Besides the lifelike qualities mentioned above, they are also a commonplace item in most kids’ bedrooms. It’s difficult to find a house (either in the present or past) that didn’t have a doll in it.

And for everyone who has a creepy doll memory from their childhood, this brings up another trait of great horror: Childhood fears carry over into adulthood. And whether you’re writing about dolls or something else, if you can touch on a childhood fear in your horror, you’ve struck gold.

So thanks for reading, and if you’ve got any creepy doll tales to share, we’d love to hear it in the comments section!