10 Great Horror Movies With Terrible Concepts

A killer doll movie really shouldn’t work.

Sure, some toys are unsettling, but they need to be human-sized in order to actually act as a threat themselves and not merely scary set dressing. Maybe at a push directors can get away with a scene like Poltergeist’s killer clown doll, but only if it’s a lone sequence and the potential victim is child-sized.

However, if filmmakers insist upon making children’s creepy toys the villain of their films the least they can do is take the Annabelle route, wherein the doll itself doesn’t have to do the killing but just acts as some kind of demonic conduit.

Despite how laughable it sounds, though, character actor Brad Dourif’s iconic performance as Chucky the killer Good Guy doll and a jet black streak of humour elevates the potentially terrible premise of 1988’s Child’s Play to success.

By leaning into the ludicrousness of the idea, the film reminds viewers that no one in their right mind would believe a kid claiming their doll was a murderer—leaving it easy for this diminutive villain to pick off his victims.