10 Best Killer Doll Movies

6) Asylum (1972)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWUMlQBHHpg Asylum is a kick-ass horror portmanteau film from Amicus who specialised in this type of film. I remember watching this for the first time when my parents were on holiday and I was looking after my little sister, and we were so darn terrified. The overall plot is set in an asylum for the incurably insane. Dr Martin is being interviewed for a job by Dr Lionel Rutherford, head of the asylum and an irascible old man. One of the inmates is Dr B Starr, a doctor in the asylum who went crazy. If Martin can identify him, Rutherford will give him the job. The attendant Max Reynolds ushers Martin through the door of the asylum. We are then treated to a number of the inmate's stories. The story that interests us in the scary doll stakes is the final one - 'Mannikins of Horror'. Dr Byron tells Martin he hates Rutherford and that he is working upon soul transference with a little homunculus whose head is exactly like his. The homunculus contains viscera and is biologically correct. Byron is going to will it to life. Byron successfully animates his doll and it goes downstairs and slits Rutherford's throat. Martin kills the homunculus and thereby kills Dr Byron. He seeks help from Max Reynolds who....drum roll...turns out to be Dr B Starr and quickly kills Martin. The film has a very strong cast and a very strong director in Roy Ward Baker. This is compounded by an excellent screenplay by Robert Bloch. Amicus were really the masters of the portmanteau/anthology films and this is their classiest effort. Mannikins of Horror is easily the most original of all of the stories and is effective in bringing the story to an end. The blood thirsty dolls are effectively creepy and very well animated for a 1970s film (although you do have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit). Herbert Lom (as Dr Byron) is very persuasive in his brief but crucial role in the film. The scary dolls are really just a bonus in this classy masterpiece of 1970s British horror.