I've recently been working my way through a mountain of horror movies and came across Dead of Night (1945), a British anthology horror film containing a chapter about a possessed ventriloquist dummy. I enjoyed this short piece so much that it got me thinking of other horror movies that contained killer toys, and a couple of hours later I was writing this article about movies with homicidal dolls. I'm not really sure how I feel about the horror content of maniacal puppets and their ilk. On the one hand, it would seem pretty easy to defend yourself against Oscar the Grouch even if he is armed with the requisite miniature knife, but on the other hand you might be in such a state of shock that G.I. Joe and his Kung-Fu Grip would easily slit your throat. I've even spotted a few ugly dolls in antique stores that would downright freak me out if I watched them jump off their shelf, grab a carving knife, and start making their way toward me while screaming "DIE YOU BASTARD!!!!". Maybe dolls could kill us after all. Anyway, with this second article in my own personal tribute to Halloween, here are 15 movies containing weird or wonderful killer dolls.
Honorable mentions:
Poltergeist (1982) - The creepy clown that drags the kid under the bed is, well, creepy. There is no way, even in my adult years, I would EVER sleep in the same room as a clown doll that looked like this one. The kid deserved to be attacked. Coin (2012) - This film is made in the tried-and-true tradition of a set of mini-movies. For some reason, that format always seems to end up with a killer doll or a devil. Twilight Zone - "The After Hours" (1960), "Living Doll" (1963), "Caesar and Me" (1964), "The Dummy" (1962), and "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" (1962) Dead Silence (2007) - I don't like this film, but a lot of folks do. I think it's too shallow of a movie to make my list. The Telling (2009) - Yet another anthology with a killer doll. Amityville Dollhouse (1996) - Honestly, I don't even know if killer dolls are in this movie, but I'm not watching yet another Amityville Horror movie to find out. The title alone qualifies for an honorable mention. Gingerdead Man 2 (2008) - The Gingerdead man himself doesn't make my list because he's a cookie, but a batch of dolls do come to life in this film so technically I can include the Gingerdead films on my list. The Living Doll and Coppelia by the father of science fiction and horror films Georges Melies. I've never see these two, but judging from the other Melies films I've seen, they're awesome.