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Ep 13: Dolls
20 Plays6 years ago
Today we are talking about Dolls in horror movies! Subscribe here and follow us on Instagram @sinistersisterspodcast
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Focus
00:00:11
Speaker
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Sinister Sisters podcast. I'm Felicia. And I'm Lauren. And we're best friends. And we talk about horror movies. And that's that. That's it. Okay, so today we're talking about Lauren's least favorite subject and my favorite subject, scary dolls. It really, it's my number one fear. I still think.
00:00:30
Speaker
I mean, less so now. I was telling you a little bit before, but I think when I used to be closer to doll-sized, they were a little scarier. Oh yeah, and we're gonna get it. Don't worry, I'm gonna make you tell everyone all about your doll fears.
Why Are Dolls Scary?
00:00:44
Speaker
But first, I think we should just talk about, we're gonna go through all the history of doll movies and all that, but let's say, why do you think dolls are so scary? Well, based on some of our research, I'm gonna start with, I think,
00:00:56
Speaker
There's something innocent about them and something a little nostalgic about them, you know, kind of reminding us of being kids, that when that gets turned on its head and they become a weapon of murder, it's pretty terrifying because you're used to them being, you know.
00:01:15
Speaker
almost like creepy kids. It's like a similar thing. Totally. Yeah. You expect them to be innocent and
The Uncanny Valley and Realism
00:01:21
Speaker
sweet. And so when they're not, it's super scary. It's like, this is wrong. This is very wrong. Something is amiss. Yeah. Um, I did some internet searching as well and I found some interesting stuff about
00:01:33
Speaker
How because humans are, we try really hard, we recognize faces fast. Like that's like the thing we recognize the quickest. And there's like people that have done all these studies with like babies and like they show a baby like a picture of a face and then like a picture of a scrambled face and they're always more responsive to like the face.
00:01:54
Speaker
And so because dolls have, you know, faces and because they look like us, I think there is definitely something that we assume that that creature should have mental capabilities and feelings and all those things associated with what we associate with a face.
00:02:14
Speaker
Totally. Yeah. If you want to get really nerdy about it, in 1970, Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term Uncanny Valley, which is basically the discomfort that arises in people when they see robots that are too human-looking. But you know it's not human. There's this feeling of it's making you uncomfortable. Totally. And it's like, same thing with dolls. It's like when it's too close to dolls. When it's too close to human, it's like, ew, why are you so close to me?
00:02:44
Speaker
Oh my god, I just thought of this. I don't know if you've... When did you last go to Disney?
00:02:50
Speaker
Oh, I think for my college graduation. So maybe it was since then. They did like a revamp of Pirates of the Caribbean where they put in Jack Sparrow. And the Jack Sparrow animatronic is so good. I saw the Jack Sparrow. Yeah, yeah. Yes, is so good that I just was thinking how, I don't know. It just made me think of like he's so human in that that it's like unsettling because he's next to the animatronics that are like bad
00:03:15
Speaker
normal and he looks so good. And he looks so good that you're like, why is Johnny Depp in this ride? It's even like, um, Madam Toussaint. Yeah. It's like, why are you so real? I think, I think too, it's like you can do everything except the eyes. Like so good. I think that's why it's a dead eyes. That's why the wax figures get me.
00:03:36
Speaker
That's so what it is. It's because it's like, that's Angelina Jolie, but she looks dead. But her dead eyes. Oh my God, that's totally it. Although some are better than others in there. Yeah. I was also in the same like robots being humans dolls research.
00:03:52
Speaker
There was this thing about they showed a bunch of adults a picture of a baby and it was like a spectrum of baby so like from doll like pure on like you can tell it's a doll to human and they could sort of look at each picture and it got closer and closer to what a human face really looks like and most adults by 65% Assumed it was real like they were like that's a real face. Yeah, and they're like no no not yet and it's like right cuz like
00:04:19
Speaker
our brains associate things so quickly that it's like, it's easily tricked, right? I wonder if that's like survival, like probably. But what would that help
Horror Doll Movies Through the Decades
00:04:30
Speaker
with? I don't know. Right? I mean, I know there's something about like, we think babies are cute. Right. To protect them. Yeah, exactly. So maybe it's like about recognizing that fast. Yeah. I guess, I guess, I guess so that we don't like
00:04:46
Speaker
I don't know, then you would just like care about everything. It's like separating human from, yeah. It's like you're, if you're going to say it, like, even though I love dogs, it's like, if you have to save a baby or a dog, you'll save the baby. Yeah. Because your instincts tell you to. Wow. That's crazy. That is crazy because I love dogs so much. Uh, I think it's the dead eyes that are so scary about dolls to me.
00:05:05
Speaker
So now I guess we could talk through all the doll movies. We could find the internet. We watched a bunch of them, some of them we didn't watch. We really together have watched quite a few doll movies. I know. I would say almost all of them. Yeah. That we could find. Besides like the really low budget ones that no one's ever heard of. Yes. No offense to them.
00:05:22
Speaker
So the first one we could find is The Great Gabo or Gabo. This is from 1929 and it is a drama but it's the first movie we could find where a doll, it's actually a ventriloquist dummy, is brought to life. And it's not a horror movie in any way. It's not scary. It's actually like I could
00:05:43
Speaker
pleasant doll, if you will. It's not meant to be horrifying, but it's like the first movie we could find where it's a personified doll, basically. And that first split personality ventriloquist kind of thing. Right, exactly. Which is going to come up quite a bit. Quite a bit. Because it feels like that was sort of...
00:06:05
Speaker
even though we're about to talk about Twilight Zone, there's like a lot of, because Ventriloquist dolls are supposed to have voices and talk, it's like an easy thing to make really scary. Should we just briefly say there's also the 1945 horror anthology Dead of Night? Oh yeah, sure. So neither of us watched this either, but it does feature an unbalanced Ventriloquist and apparently living doll.
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah. The only reason I wanted to say it is because Martin Scorsese lists the dummy in this movie as one of the scariest things he's ever seen on film to this day. Oh, wait, that's so funny. Also, apparently Devil Doll from 1964, that like that ventriloquist dummy looks exactly like the dead of night one. Oh, from what I saw.
00:06:55
Speaker
That's amazing. Well then that makes sense. So, shall I talk about the Twilight Zone episode? Do it. I loved it. You just watched it, right? You watched it first, I watched it last night. Yeah, so I can't even remember when I watched it. It was like, so my interest in horror really started with my dad telling me about horror movies.
00:07:14
Speaker
I know, it's very weird. Because I saw the ring and was so scared, it was like the only way that I had any interest in them was like my dad telling me about them because I was too scared to watch them. So this was like one of the first things, and actually my mom talked about it too, about it being like such a scary episode of the Twilight Zone.
00:07:35
Speaker
But it's about this doll named Taki Tina. And it's seemingly the first example of a possessed doll in cinema. Although I guess if we just said... I don't know. I guess if there's a doll in Dead of Night, it's... But is that like a human in a doll or is that... I don't know. Apparently a living doll.
00:08:00
Speaker
Unclear. Unclear. We only know so much, people. We only know so much. But anyway, so they, a mother buys her daughter this wind-up doll named Taki Tina. And the mother's recently remarried, so this is like a gift to her daughter to comfort her, to help in this transitional time. With the biggest asshole dad in America. Like truly an asshole from start to finish. Horrible. It's weird because like, to me, when I watched it, I just remember thinking he was so scary.
00:08:29
Speaker
Yeah, I thought the same as I think. And it's really not about Taki Tina. I mean, she's scary too. But her line that she would say is, my name is Taki Tina and I love you very much. So we find out, you probably couldn't...
00:08:46
Speaker
know better, but we find out that the stepfather's infertile at some point. Or do they not talk about it? Oh, they do. They say at the beginning. Yeah. Cause he's like, Oh, did you get this doll because I can't have any more children. And like, that's what you're trying to say here. And she's like, what?
00:09:01
Speaker
like the whole time he's like making wild accusations and also making it about himself yeah she's like i just bought the kid a doll like why are you being so weird about this that's incredible um so he kind of takes out that frustration about his inability to have children out on the little girl yeah
00:09:18
Speaker
Totally. He's very mean to her. And talky Tina. Yeah, yeah. But so she starts to say mean things only to the stepfather. Yeah, yeah. And things sort of progressed from there. I don't want to give too much away. But the kind of best part about this movie, I think, is that I feel like we see this in later movies too, but it's like,
00:09:39
Speaker
the doll is still very sweet to the child. It's still very protective to the child. Yeah. Where the adults are the ones that are like, uh, this is not right. I think this is going to come up again, but there is, and it's not every doll movie, but in a lot of them, it is like the doll protecting the child and punishing the parent. Yeah. Which is like pretty cool. It's very cool.
00:10:00
Speaker
Oh, I was going to say it also along those same lines of like the adults are the ones that are being punished. It's also sort of another example of people being like, oh, that person's crazy because they're seeing the scare or hearing the scary thing. Yeah. Just crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Like the mom definitely starts thinking the dad is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Which honestly, maybe he is.
00:10:26
Speaker
But anyway, I also was going to say about Takitina. Do you remember when I took you to that terrible and amazing Jekyll and Hyde and Times Square? They had Takitina. So terrible. So amazing. Did they? Yeah. Oh my God. I barely remember that. It's not exact. I feel like it says Takitina though. Maybe I'm wrong, but it was a little doll that would like that was just sitting there. There was a ventriloquist dummy too. Yeah. But there was a doll that was like in purple, I feel.
00:10:53
Speaker
That's so funny. Yeah, that place was like not great, but still fun. I'm going to see if I can find a picture of it. Yes, what do you like? Ever since the accident. Oh, my God. He put me away up here in the attic and now nobody plays with me. Oh, that's horrifying.
00:11:15
Speaker
Oh, the only other thing I was going to say about Takitina is that we both, I just found out, had a doll called Amazing Ally. Yes, we both had her. Which is very much reminiscent. But also this doll is based on Chatty Cathy.
00:11:32
Speaker
My mom has mentioned Chatty Cathy before. That's what I was going to say, which is like why my mom, I think, was so scared of this Twilight Zone episode is because I think she had either had a Chatty Cathy or, you know, it's like based on something that they were selling in real life.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That's crazy. So we have Chatty Cathy. We have Amazing Allie. Yeah. But then I also wanted to say that the talking doll idea is still very much present because in Toy Story 4, there's Gabby Gabby, who's looking for her voice box the whole time. She just called Gabby Gabby? Yeah. Oh my god. Actually, I don't know if they really call her that. But maybe she's just Gabby. That's funny. But it's so funny to me.
00:12:15
Speaker
Uh, cool. So the next one we have on here is from 1964. So the trial zone came out, that episode came out in 63. So this is the next year. Um, and this movie is called devil doll.
00:12:28
Speaker
And I don't know if it's actually based on that Dead of Night, but it's got apparently a lot of similarities to the Dead of Night. But it's about this hypnotist magician dude that's got a ventriloquist dummy on stage with him and he performs with him.
00:12:46
Speaker
Spoilers blah blah, but basically there's like a human soul trapped in the dummy and it's because this ventriloquist dude is actually like like the human person is evil and like deranged doctor and like there was some like magic stuff and That's trapped like a soul in the dummy and then throughout the movie He's like trying to get this woman that he's caught up on stage into another doll and so
00:13:13
Speaker
Yeah. And so that's like, if we have like talky Tina as just an evil doll that it's like, it's some sort of like demon creature that's not to be explained. Do you know what I mean? Like, then we have the other version of it, which is like humans being stuck inside dolls. So like dolls are like this like empty vessel that you can put a human soul into, which of course we will get to later when we talk about child's play.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's mostly what I have to say about that one. I would say like this doll is also, if Gabbo is supposed to be not scary, Devil Doll is definitely supposed
Chucky vs. Annabelle: Icons of Doll Horror
00:13:50
Speaker
to be scary. Like the opening credit sequence is like the, just the dummy like in a taxi cab or something. And it's just like showing the dummy and the dummy looks really creepy and scary for like a very long time. Like immediately at the guy, it's like, this is an evil doll. And we're like, oh, okay.
00:14:06
Speaker
Scary movie. Scary movie, yeah, exactly. Shall I talk about magic? Yeah. So magic was in 1978. It's with my favorite Sir Anthony Hopkins giving a fantastic performance as always. I just showed Felicia but there's this incredible trailer that was apparently on TV that's like maybe 30 seconds.
00:14:28
Speaker
So anyway, it's about a ventriloquist. Anthony Hopkins plays a ventriloquist. So this trailer is just the ventriloquist dummy talking.
00:14:38
Speaker
And the voice that Anthony Hopkins uses for it is so scary. Oh, it's his voice? Yes. It sounds nothing like Anthony Hopkins. I didn't realize that. It's very, it's very unsettling, but he is a sort of failing magician at the beginning and his like mentor is like, you got to get a gimmick. And so in traditional fashion, he gets a dummy named Fats.
00:15:01
Speaker
And he becomes a huge success. Oh, good for Anthony Hopkins. I know. But very quickly, he gets a TV offer to have a TV show, and he is like, no, I can't handle this, and runs away to the Catskills. I would love to run away to the Catskills right now. Don't you think it's easy? Sounds great. If someone offered you a TV job and you said, no. I have to run away to the Catskills.
00:15:24
Speaker
But anyway, he is worried that he won't pass like a mental examination test to get on the show. I guess for some reason, I don't know if they stress it in the movie. So he knows he's crazy. Oh, he knows he's crazy.
00:15:39
Speaker
I mean, I don't know if he knows he's crazy so much as like he knows he can't control fats. Whoa. But it's very clear throughout the movie that fats is not a demon doll like we see. It's truly Anthony Hopkins.
00:15:56
Speaker
being crazy through the doll. Oh, interesting. That's a very different version. A very different version and more sort of about like his, you know, descent into craziness. Oh, that sounds fascinating. I actually really want to watch it now. It's really scary and not in a horror movie jump scare way in that sort of like long unsettling way. And Fax is really scary. It's like, it's also like he's the, you know, I feel like we see this in a lot of movies too, but it's
00:16:25
Speaker
Um, you know, Anthony Hopkins is like a soft spoken, shy human that then fats, you know, it's like, you're such a pretty lady and like gets to say like all of his like deepest feelings. Um, whatever that is, like the id. Yeah. Oh, that's so right. That's okay. That's cool. So he's very raunchy. We should post, we'll post the, uh, commercial or the trailer. We'll post the trailer on Instagram maybe tomorrow. Yes. Okay.
00:16:54
Speaker
I love it. Um, okay. So then, and it's funny cause we actually kind of skipped quite a few years there. Don't know what happened with dolls there. Um, but apparently and the Hopkins was so good. They're like, yeah, that was it.
00:17:11
Speaker
So then we're not gonna fully go into poltergeist, but there are some, the poltergeist in the house does go inside some of the dolls and it's very creepy and scary. That clown is like the scariest part of the poltergeist. The clown is really scary.
00:17:26
Speaker
Oh, sorry. Its face changes, right? I think so, or something. It's very gross. It grabs it under the bed the whole time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very gross. But the next big one we're going to talk about that's more like the full plot of the movie is Dolls, just called Dolls, from 1982. I loved this movie. I had never heard of it. I'd seen the poster before. The poster is like a
Grieving Dolls and Cultural Impact
00:17:50
Speaker
woman who has no eyeballs, who's holding her eyeballs in her hands. And it's very creepy.
00:17:56
Speaker
and awesome but this movie is another one about punishing parents and like protecting children so basically like it opens with this like little girl who's got this teddy bear she's very cute and the two worst parents on the planet like the worst most evil it's like her father who's an asshole and her stepmother who's like an evil evil stepmother like literally like takes the child's bear and throws it into the woods for like no reason oh my god
00:18:25
Speaker
It's actually like a little funny. Is the child misbehaving or no? The child's just like talking and she's like, give me that bear. It's like it's our house. I hope it was. Something like that. Something like that. So basically they get caught in the rain. They're on like a vacation. They get caught in the rain. They have to stop at this very scary giant castle, very all like Rocky Horror Picture Show. And the couple that lives there is this very old,
00:18:52
Speaker
extremely creepy couple. Classic. Old people are scary. And the patriarch of the house is a doll maker, so he says. And so there are rooms and rooms full of dolls and they're all very scary.
00:19:13
Speaker
And as soon as they get there, they're talking about like, there are some little girl like, oh, like, so weird to see a little girl without a doll. Like, where's your doll? And then like, she's trying to say like, oh, this lady threw my teddy bear in the woods and the woman like kicks her under the table. It's like so aggressive. Anyways, we're getting lost in here. But so basically, the little girl discovers that all the dolls in the house are alive. There's also a few... This actually sounds like my biggest nightmare. It's, you may not like this.
00:19:43
Speaker
I loved it. But also more people get stuck at the house. This is also interesting. So not only is it just this trio family, but also this dude and two hitchhikers. And the dude is like this very sweet man that is a child at heart. That's like his thing. Like he loves toys, a child at heart. And these two horrible like young twenties girls that are literally dressed as like Madonna meets like
00:20:12
Speaker
80s punk out of control looking girls that are trying to like steal everyone's money Really the movies a little all over the place. Yeah, there's a lot of things. It's a lot of things going on But by the end spoiler spoiler spoiler It turns out that when people come to the house if they're bad and mean then they get turned into dolls
00:20:34
Speaker
Classic. Yeah, so basically the little girl and the child at heart wake up the night after this big storm and her father, her stepmother and the two evil girls have been turned into dolls. Oh my god. Yeah, it's like like human sized? No, like they shrink into dolls.
00:20:52
Speaker
Wait, what? It's great. And there is a pretty funny bad... You don't see the transformation. That's what I was going to say. There's a great transformation that is not good, but it is fun to watch of the dad of transforming into a punch doll, which we should mention also. I forgot about this, but we were going to say like the earliest version of like doll entertainment that we can think of is the Punch and Judy, where Punch chases his wife around and hits her with a club.
00:21:18
Speaker
If anyone's seen that. Which you should see in other versions, but it's also in the hunchback of Notre Dame. Yes, and also this has been around for like since like the medieval times. Like this is like very commonplace entertainment with
Personal Experiences with Dolls
00:21:30
Speaker
the Judy and Punch dolls. Which is so crazy that we still know what that is today. Yes. It's like interesting. And also that like that kind of humor of like
00:21:39
Speaker
Doll hitting something over the head is like used in so many movies still absolutely like physical humor is still so freaking funny to kids But yeah, so that's basically dolls But it's a so it's another version of We have oh and there's also like when you break open the dolls in this movie. There is like a
00:22:01
Speaker
some sort of alien creature inside that I can't tell if, like, is the shriveled person or if it's like something else, it's sort of hard to tell. But basically, it's fascinating. It's a crazy movie. But it's another movie about punishing bad parents and protecting small children. Amazing. That's that. I ruined the entire movie for you. There you go. No, I feel great. I feel like I saw it myself.
00:22:27
Speaker
So now, shall we move on to Child's Play? I think we have to. Oh, I guess we should say, though, we're not talking about Puppet Master. Oh, we're not talking about Puppet Master because, first of all, it's like 100 movies. Second of all, neither of us has seen any of the 100 movies. Yeah. And it's puppets. Yeah, we just are not talking about it.
00:22:44
Speaker
And that's that. And that's that. And you can't stop us. You can't make us. So that was, Dolls was 1987. This was, I think, like a UK film, by the way. Oh. And then Child's Play came out in 88, just the next year. Which is amazing. Yeah.
00:23:01
Speaker
And so in this one we have, once again, human soul trapped in a doll body. We have serial killer that uses a little bit of voodoo magic, it seems, to put his about to be killed self into a doll to hide. And then gets fully stuck there. It fully stuck there for years and years and years. For years, until 2019.
00:23:24
Speaker
It's crazy. Well really till 2017. But the the crazy thing to me about Chucky that I just have to say it's like it is so goofy. Mm-hmm. And we have so many movies. People are obsessed with Chucky. It's like it's so funny because White Hero was the first Night round on the street. Is it 80? Is that not right?
00:23:49
Speaker
I actually think 84. 84. Okay. So in a similar way to Freddy Krueger, I feel like people also love Chuckie because he like taunts his victims and is like silly and such a jerk. He's like such a jerk and like making fun of his victims as he's killing them. And also not like Freddy Krueger is not realistic.
00:24:15
Speaker
right exactly it's not like someone you could find in your hometown it's like a doll yeah yeah and yeah this freaking movie uh made a million bajillion sequels so it's like child's play we had child's play 2 in 90 we got another sequel the next year 91 um and then it chilled out for a second i i actually don't like the third child's play i don't know if you've seen it but
00:24:39
Speaker
I have seen it, but I have no memory. It's not good. It's like the military one. Oh, right. No, I don't like it. But then we got Bride of Chucky, which got like a really great resurgence of Chucky because we got Jennifer Tilly, who I'm personally just in love with. She's incredible. She's so great. I've been watching a lot of Family Guy. I don't know if I've told you this. Oh, no, but bring it on. But she's incredible. She's Joe's wife, so she plays Bonnie. Do you remember that? Wait, why did I not know that?
00:25:04
Speaker
I just was thinking about it because I was like, thank God someone else gave her another voiceover job because her voice is so good. It's so specific. Yeah. There's also a Tiffany movie star Instagram account for anyone that needs to see it, where it's just pictures of Tiffany being a movie star in Hollywood. It's excellent. I have no idea if Jennifer Tilly runs it, but I kind of hope she does. But yeah, so Lauren, tell us how you feel about Jackie. Okay, so this is the movie that started it all, folks.
00:25:31
Speaker
I can't even remember when I first saw it but it was definitely something where like my brother was watching it and I snuck downstairs or something and I saw some glimpse of Chucky that began a like I don't even know 15 year
00:25:48
Speaker
scaredness, like top fear of my life. I think still right now with the fear that I see in your eyes. Still right now. But to the point that like my dad got a life-size Chucky. So my dad is like, my dad likes horror movies too. I was going to say, was there any context for why he has a life-size Chucky?
00:26:05
Speaker
So my dad has basically at this point like a room of horrors. That's a bunch of models and very nice things very scary big fan he is But at some point he was like I'm gonna get a life-size Chucky doll and so like Lauren here is your biggest fear now in the house
00:26:23
Speaker
In the basement. In the basement. So I, you know, we had a babysitter once that like played tricks on us and was like, Chucky is moving. I used to get so scared of like the Chucky dolls and Hot Topic. I was terrified of my own amazing alley that I had. Thought it was possessed. I mean, she's creepy. She's creepy.
00:26:43
Speaker
I was telling Felicia, the amazing Ally sign off is, see you later. And that's just not okay. It shouldn't be in any doll. Say that, say about in the middle of the night. Oh my God. Literally in the middle of the night when she was running out of batteries and like couldn't actually work, just in the middle of the night, I would hear from my bed, see you later. And then when she really started to lose batteries and it started to like slow down her vocal blocks, it would literally be like, see you later. No.
00:27:14
Speaker
And I was so scared of this doll that I didn't even get rid of her because I thought something would happen if I got rid of her. Hey, just like in the living doll Twilight Zone. Yes! Or any, I feel like Child's Play they do that too where they're like let's just get rid of the doll and then he always comes back. Oh it comes back just like Annabelle too. I'm not sure we're about to happen too.
00:27:33
Speaker
Okay, let's hop into Annabelle. I'm too freaked out. Yeah, moving on from junkie to Lauren. Oh wait, the moral of the story is though that finally when I saw a child's play and realized how silly it was, I was like, I should have watched this many years ago. Yeah. That's how I felt about it. It's like I saw part of it. I had to turn off. So I was so terrified and didn't watch it until like, I was like literally out of college. I'm not kidding. And then I finally watched it and I was like, what is wrong with me? He is Tim Curry.
00:27:56
Speaker
But you know the voice? Did you ever see One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Yeah. You know the voice of Chucky is in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? No. He's like the beautiful young one. But I feel very bad that he wasn't asked back for this movie. They really didn't ask any of the original team back for the 2019. They wanted to speak separate. Okay, great. Moving on from Child's Fight. Yeah.
00:28:19
Speaker
Annabelle, yes. So here we have Child's Play has, I mean everyone loves Chucky, everyone talks horror, non-horror alike, people know who Chucky is. And then James Bond comes up with The Conjuring, which is your sort of, I think what sort of started the quote unquote elevated horror movement brought horror into like a trendier space. Oh wait, wasn't Dead Silence first?
00:28:44
Speaker
uh yes dead silence was actually in 2007 also james one also james one i wanted to say it because i just realized that like the i mean as far as our research tells us which could be wrong that that child's play was really
00:29:00
Speaker
the doll focus before Dead Silence. So we were coming from silly kind of dolls to Dead Silence, which is very not silly. I was telling Felicia a little bit about it. You saw it a long time ago. Yeah, I sort of don't remember it all. But it starts off, I was really shocked because I don't remember this opening scene at all. It starts off with a married couple.
00:29:23
Speaker
where delivered onto their doorstep is this ventriloquist dummy. So like, oh, yes. So the wife opens it up and it's like playing with it. And the husband is basically like, don't do that. That's scary. Stop playing with it. And so he goes to get Chinese food and she's like, I'm going to freaking scare him. And so she like puts the dummy under a sheet.
00:29:47
Speaker
to like scare him in his bed which also is like too far and then we see like a little scene of her like pretending like she's pregnant in front of the mirror like seemingly wanting a child and then the doll like all of a sudden starts talking I think
00:30:08
Speaker
She hears like a sound and then the doll literally murders her. I know. And so the husband comes back and it's just his murdered wife in the room. Great prank. Terrible prank. So he discovers her dead with her mouth.
00:30:25
Speaker
ripped off sort of. The way they die is really scary. Very scary. And then he's sort of like to blame for the murder because no one else was there. So then he kind of goes on this journey through the whole movie to like find out who his wife's killer is because he knows he didn't do it clearly.
00:30:47
Speaker
And we find out the sort of interesting thing is that it's a female spirit in this ventriloquist dummy or that's like
00:30:57
Speaker
using the ventriloquist dummy for most of the movie or parts of the movie so there's this rhyme about this woman that's this ghostly spirit but the poem is beware the stare of mary shaw she had no children only dolls and if you see her in your dreams be sure you never ever scream
00:31:16
Speaker
So it's like something about them screaming is how she kills them or steals their voice. Because then the scariest thing is that after death, she can use that dead person's voice. I feel very excited about it. Yeah. It's like when the husband comes back in, he hears his wife's voice.
00:31:35
Speaker
which is also like his point for like he like goes you know he's like being interrogated by the police and he's like I'm telling you like she was alive when I got home and they're like that's even worse like then you definitely killed her but anyway so he sort of like goes on a journey to find his wife's killer and
00:31:53
Speaker
runs in with this ghost woman. It's freaky. And there's one scene that's like, I don't know if you remember it, but the scariest scene to me is like there's this big old theater that they go to where she used to perform and there are all these ventriloquist dolls in the boxes.
00:32:10
Speaker
Which is really scary. And then I won't spoil it totally, but there's like a human being used as a doll at some point that's really scary. Okay. If I remember correctly, what happened is I fell asleep while watching this movie. And so I have seen the beginning, but I've never seen the rest of it. And now I need to go back because I am fascinated. Now you gotta go back.
00:32:29
Speaker
It's great. But, so Jay Swaz did that, bringing the doll back, and then bringing the doll back a second time when we get to the conjuring from 2013. He must have a thing. I mean, he does, but also he sort of lucked out because the conjuring is based off the actual Warrens in Connecticut and one of their most famous cases, and they're paranormal investigators if you guys don't know.
00:32:51
Speaker
But one of their most famous cases was this Annabelle doll, which was actually like a Raggedy Ann doll that was possessed that they have in their museum. They actually both unfortunately have passed away now, but this famous Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle is, you know, famously possessed. And so in the Conjuring, a lot, all of the Conjurings are sort of based on the Warren's cases. And so we have a clip of the Annabelle stuff in that first Conjuring, and then she gets her own spinoff.
00:33:21
Speaker
Many spinoffs now. Many spinoffs. Three? Yeah, Annabelle. Annabelle creation and Annabelle comes home. That's right, that's right. I actually liked Annabelle creation a lot. Me too, I thought it was awesome. Yeah, that little girl was good.
00:33:37
Speaker
But yeah, and I think there's something to be said about, like, that people sort of crave the fear of dolls a little bit. The fact that Annabelle so quickly got a spin-off. The Conjure came out in 2013, Annabelle came out in 2014, which is, like, really, really close together. And I remember it being, like, one of the scarier things in the Conjuring. Right. And then, I don't know if you remember this, too, but with Annabelle, they had all these, like, masks on, like, sticks that you could put over your face. Yes. Annabelle masks.
00:34:06
Speaker
that they just had at theaters and stuff. I mean, the crazy thing is that she really doesn't look very pretty or human-like. Right, no, she looks like she's like, I am a caricature of a scary doll. Yeah, like a very, very scary doll. And it totally works. Yeah, it's very scary. So the interesting thing about Annabelle, in contrast to Chucky, is Annabelle, you never see move, really. You might see her head turn, but you don't see facial expressions change.
00:34:34
Speaker
um you don't or mouth moving or mouth moving you don't typically you don't really even i don't think you hear her um she only like writes these little notes that you don't see her writes um she'll show up places like she'll be in a rocking chair but she's not like personified in a human way
00:34:50
Speaker
where like child's play and even I would say some of these ventriloquist dummy movies are more personified in a human way versus a standalone doll that is like showing up weird places and doing weird things. Which is sort of the scary thing about Annabelle. Right. It's like she looks like whenever you catch her. She doesn't have a personality either. Right. Yeah. Whenever you catch her, it's like, oh, it's just like a doll that somebody put there. Yeah. You're never seeing a doll talk to you.
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah, which also is sort of, I mean, we're gonna, our next movie that we're gonna talk about.
00:35:23
Speaker
Oh, the boy. Yeah, so the boy, which was what year? 2016. The boy is crazy and awesome. That is basically about a American nanny that goes to a British family. She's going to be a nanny, right? And she's like, oh, I took this job. Everything's going to be fine. She shows up. It's an older couple. And when they introduce her to their son, it is a life-size doll.
00:35:52
Speaker
And she's like, wait, is this supposed to be funny? And they're like, what are you talking about? This is our son.
00:35:57
Speaker
which is very scary. Um, but that brings us also like almost more scary because it's two people, right? It's not one crazy person. They're both like, this is how exactly the world is. Um, and I will say there is a huge twist in the boy in the last like half, I mean the last like third of it that I don't really want to give away in case you haven't seen it. Um, but yeah, it's like so unexpected because it's like not so like not really feasible.
00:36:23
Speaker
I think. No, it's not feasible and it almost makes no sense, but I just, I like that it's like what you understand as a creepy doll movie is not this movie. Yes. And that's cool. But there is something that we sort of were spending some Google time on right before we started recording, which is these grieving dolls that people get, which is basically what the boy is in this film.
00:36:46
Speaker
is this family has seemingly lost their child and they got this replacement or they got this doll to sort of deal with the grief of it. And that's like a very like, you can literally buy them on the internet. Like this is a very real thing. Yeah. And there's also, I think there's ones for like, if you like can't have children or you want to have children, like these dolls sort of have like multiple uses to like help
00:37:15
Speaker
you know, grieving parents in whatever way that is. And it's very, I'm sure it's helpful to people, but dang it, that is scary. It's really scary. It's so creepy. Cause they look so realistic. I mean, the boy does not in that movie. Um, but the ones that if you can look up online, very realistic. Yeah. Freaking scary. Also, I just have to say really quick that the reason I saw the boy is because Lauren co-hands in it and she's on the walking dead and that's it.
00:37:42
Speaker
But the other thing I was going to say that we didn't talk about before we started recording is voodoo dolls. We haven't even talked about voodoo dolls. Right. But anyway, there's so many other dolls in the universe that are scary and used for witchcraft and that's true. And that's a separate thing versus like, I feel like this episode was more about dolls representing humans versus like a voodoo doll is like a tool for a human to attack another human. Yeah. It's like slightly different.
00:38:09
Speaker
But maybe that's a different episode. Maybe it's a different episode. We definitely, I was going to say, we probably will do an episode about real haunted dolls maybe at some point. I'm thinking October. Yeah. I think we got it. There's so many. There's so many. You can also buy them on the internet.
00:38:24
Speaker
Is that like five haunted dolls? That is crazy, people are crazy. You can buy anything on the internet, it's amazing. I just don't really believe in it, but also me being. But also you're scared of it. I'm scared of it and I will never buy one. Oh speaking of, so Lauren's terrified of dolls, I actually grew up with many porcelain dolls in my room staring at me all day and night. And you loved it. And I loved them, I was like always, it was something about me, like the old timiness of them for me, like they were all like supposed to be from like the,
00:38:52
Speaker
early 1900s, they're in these outfits. And I just loved that it made me feel like I was playing a different time period when I was playing with these porcelain dolls. And I just really loved them. I never thought of them as children or babies or anything like that. I just thought of them as this.
00:39:09
Speaker
companion, if you will. I also had an imaginary friend growing up that looks suspiciously like one of my dolls. That's really scary. That's a different story for a different day. And you never broke one? I broke one by accident. This is actually, yeah, I was like... I wish I could describe the face that Felicia just made. Were you punished? I felt really bad. It was one that was like sort of
00:39:33
Speaker
She was sort of dressed like Little Red Riding Hood or something. And she was one of my favorites because she looked the most like me and I really liked her. And I was like playing with her. I think I was like throwing her and catching her or something like that. And I dropped her and her leg shattered because she has like a soft, cotton, whatever body, but then her limbs and her face were glass or porcelain. Yeah. And so her leg shattered and my mom like taped it up. So she had this like one like bum leg.
00:40:00
Speaker
I actually am very curious. Like I'm not sure where those dolls are. Do they exist? I don't know. My mom might have gotten rid of them by now, but I should ask. You have to ask. I was just gonna say there's also something really scary about like, I don't, it sounds like your mom didn't do this, but for some reason it really unsettles me when I see moms talk to their two-year-old daughter and say like, do you have your baby with you? Oh, you take care of your baby? Are you its mama?
00:40:25
Speaker
Oh, my mom did not do that. That is so freaky to me. I literally am like, we are training this little girl at age two. That your only job is to be a mom? Anyway, I'll step down to my pedestal. But for some reason, that to me is the most unsettling thing. It is very unsettling, 100%. It's like, she's two. She's not a mom. That's not her baby. She is the baby. Yes, let her be a baby.
00:40:46
Speaker
Well, it's a good point. We also are both big fans of American Girl Dolls. Yes, we are. Even though mine scare me. Yeah, mine didn't scare me, but I was like, oh my god. I also didn't really play with mine because I was obsessed with keeping them perfect. Oh really? Mine like had full lives. They were very fulfilled lives. But you weren't like a hair kinder. No, I just added a little bit on my Barbies. I did cut some hair on the Barbies. It's a little trim.
00:41:09
Speaker
Just a little drum. And it always like every time you cut their hair, it would just get like, it would just start standing straight up because it wasn't meant to like be short. Oh God, that's scary. That is scary. Anyway, dolls, man. Yeah. Why is there not a scary movie about Barbies? Hmm. Well, have you seen small soldiers? Oh no, I haven't seen them. They are in small soldiers. Yeah. We were talking about this maybe a little, I guess this week. Um, but I've never seen that one. Look how scary they are. Is that a eighties as well?
00:41:41
Speaker
Ew. OK. She's going to watch Small Soldiers right now. Google that, everybody. Yeah. Google what the Barbies look like. I can't really remember why they're in this state. Someone's like messing with someone's Barbies.
00:41:55
Speaker
Anyway, I also was gonna say really quick, I just have to talk about the other scary scene about dolls that is not a doll movie at all. But have you ever seen Red Dragon, the prequel to Silence of the Lambs? Oh, no, I have not. I mean, it came out after, but it's...
00:42:12
Speaker
It has Hannibal Lecter in it, but not Clarice. But the killer in it puts mirrors in the doll's eyes. You haven't seen. Oh, my God. We have to watch this. So he puts mirrors in all of his victim's eyes after he kills them. But then he also puts mirrors in all the doll's eyes. Ew. In order to have them looking at him or reflecting back on him or something. There's some kind of psychology that they talk about, but it's really freaky.
00:42:41
Speaker
Anyway. Well, we'll watch it. I think that's part of the doll fear, too. Oh, I bet. Anyway. All right. Is that about it for the scary dolls? That's it. All right, y'all. Thank you all so much for listening. Please do subscribe. Write a review. Follow us on Instagram. Send us your podcast. Tell us your friends. Tell us, yeah. Screenshot it. Put it on your Instagram story. All that stuff. Because we want to make more friends on the internet. And that's that.
00:43:09
Speaker
That's why we started this podcast, to make more friends on the internet. It's true. I would say to make more horror friends anyway. But that's it, y'all. And we hope you have some sweet, sweet nightmares. Bye.