Still, there is something intimidating in the dolls. The bewitching eyes of the beads of more than one child forced them to hide frantically under the covers, and if the toy moved or made a sound, the soul left the heels of adults as well. Horror loves for the ability to frighten talented and savory, scary horror films about dolls do it just exemplary.
Reference Franchise
Few dolls are as popular as a boy doll in overalls, which the whole world learned about after the horror show Tom Holland's "Children's Games." The disfigured scarred face of the Chucky killer doll has become one of the most recognizable images in horror films. The sequel did not take long to wait, in fact, like the third part. After they forgot about Chucky for a while, but in 1998, Hong Kong sorcerer Ronnie Yu managed to brilliantly restart the franchise “Bride of Chucky”.
In 2004, another part appeared - "The Progeny of Chucky." The picture was taken with restraint, so the sixth episode appeared 9 years later, under the name "Curse of Chucky." In general, the next sequel turned out to be much better than the “Offspring”, so in 2017 the seventh film of the series about the Chucky doll - “The Cult of Chucky” is shot. According to cinema experts, the cycle about the crazy killer maniac stuck in the doll’s body has finally come to a standstill. However, the franchise is undoubtedly worthy of being included in the category of "horror films about killer dolls."
Demonic Amulets
An extraordinary example among horror films about killer dolls is the work of the scriptwriter and director Padraig Reynolds's “Restless Dolls”. Events unfold around a collection of amulets that policeman Matt seizes from a captured maniac and gives his daughter. As it turns out later, dolls are endowed with supernatural powers. Cinema was classified by critics as a low-budget thrash with a mediocre acting and a weak script. Although the Reynolds project has one, but an indisputable trump card is aggressive naturalism. For the audience who loves horror films about dolls, accompanied by an abundance of bloody scenes, “Restless Dolls” offers a lot of episodes with brutal and graphic murder scenes in which blood fills the screen like a hose.
First appearance
The horror “The Spell” can only partially be attributed to horror films about dolls, since the episode with the appearance of Annabelle was only the beginning of the James Wang project . The toy appeared in the prologue, introducing the audience of the Warren family, researchers of otherworldly phenomena and entities. But the episode with a fearsome doll so impressed the audience and the creators themselves that the studio immediately after the premiere of the tape announced that Annabelle would soon find a personal picture. For the first time in a long time, the public saw such a terribly sinister doll. According to the opinions of the audience, her story made a greater impression on the watchers than a story about the study of the world of spirits by Lorraine and Ed Warren. The repository of supernatural artifacts of the main characters frightened the public many times more than the author's delights of the rest of the horror narrative.
With a doll for life
John R. Leonetti, who previously collaborated with James Van in Astral and the above-mentioned Spells, worked on the creation of The Annabelle Curse. It is not surprising that in his tape he uses many of Van’s original tricks, such as “branded” wandering around rooms and escalating suspense. Unfortunately, not all critics could include a picture of 2014 in the list of the best horror films about dolls. According to individual readers, the presence of a doll in the movie was not mandatory and fundamental. After all, with light corrections, the plot could be redrawn under the “Paranormal phenomenon”, due to the fact that the center of the story was the confrontation of the demon and the family, in some way connected with the toy.
As they say, the first pancake Leonetti came out lumpy - the horror more than justified itself at the box office, but received rather cool reviews from movie experts.
The sequel to “The Curse of Annabelle”, the second part of the spin-off to the “Curse” of D. Wang was shot by D. F. Sandberg. The plot is twisted around the puppeteer’s family, who warmed the nun and orphan girls, who became the target for the Annabelle doll - an obsessed toy created by the owner of the house. The creators in the sequel prequel took into account all the flaws of the original and raised the bar for quality high. As a result, the horror turned out to be one of the most terrible and spectacular among all horror films about dolls.
By the way, for "Spells", "Curses of Annabelle" and "Nuns" (another spin-off of the series) there is a single time line, which is very interesting for the horror genre.
Another horror franchise
Often horror films about dolls include the epic "Saw", which started with the work of James Wang in 2004. Everyone knows that the main idea is to undergo mutilating trials by several heroes in order to atone for any guilt and survive in a deadly game. The leader in the movie is Constructor. Instead of the villain, the victims see only a doll on a bicycle. Her appearance stood on a par with the most famous horror antagonists - Jason, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger. Viewers had to meet with a whitish puppet face with a brightly colored blush nine more times, “Saw” did not go off the screens until 2017.