Creepy Doll - Television Tropes & Idioms

There's one in Asuka's Mind Rape sequence.
- The truly horrifying part is when the doll is hanging from the ceiling spinning on the end of a rope along with Asuka's mother, who has just commited suicide.
- After piloting EVA 02, having half of her soul sucked out by it and going insane because of that, Asuka's mother Kyouko is seen holding the same doll in her arms and talking to it, believing it to be her daughter and refusing to aknowledge the real Asuka as her kid. Now you know where Asuka's hate of the "doll" word and concept comes.
Boogie-Kun of Karin is a doll possessed by a serial killer.
Episodes 11 and 12 of the Kuroshitsuji anime. Full stop.
Ghost Hunt has Minnie, a possessed doll.
Near from Death Note constantly plays with Creepy Doll's and uses them to test his various theories. Misa wears an Elegant Gothic Lolita style dress in one instance, For when she was committing suicide after she thought Light died. Overall, the dress combined with her depressed facial expression makes her look like a life-sized porcelain doll, to an eerie effect.
In one episode of Mokke, a bunch of abandoned Hina dolls are possessing a bridge to try to get attention.
A creepy doll in traditional Japanese dress appears throughout Paprika. It starts out as a sort of dreamscape "avatar" of one character, but later takes on a life of its own.
The episode "Shingo's Innocent Love! A Sorrowful French Doll" in Sailor Moon is all about the Creepy Dolls.
Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure had a Stand called Ebony Devil, which was this.
Suigintou, Barashuishou, and Kirakishou, the antagonist dolls from Rozen Maiden. Interestingly, Suigintou is considered the most attractive Rozen Maiden, at least physically, and Barasuishou is reasonably popular as well. Both have Woobie qualities that endear them to fans, but Kira kishou is another thing entirely.
In Descendants Of Darkness part of Kazutaka Muraki's general state of madness stemmed from memories of his mother's enormous collection of porcelain dolls. It didn't help that the panels of the manga depicting the dolls copy-pasted four or five of them to horrible heights of creepiness.
Dolls are a recurring motif in the Count Cain series. One chapter featured a girl in a leg-cast who kidnapped other girls to turn their corpses into dolls.
Kampfer has a line of stuffed animals that look like they committed Seppuku with their intestines sticking out, and two of their names translate to Suicide Tiger and Suicide Black Rabbit. These are FOR KIDS.
- And the girl who looks the most girly of the characters has an entire room of them. And the main character is expected to sleep in there.
The first season of Shakugan No Shana had Friagne the Hunter, who, while he wasn't a doll himself, was way, way too attached to his Creepy Doll minion Marianne. The reason he's in town is so he can dissolve the city to give her real life.
Sorta the point for Hyde and Closer as dolls are used as curses to attack people. Even Hyde, the protagonist's doll, isn't exempt from this, heck it has a chainsaw sword in his zipper!
YuGiOh GX had a episode where Jaden and his crew face a creepy doll come to life.
In Slayers NEXT, one of the possible locations of the Clair Bible was a tower full of these.
Road Kamelot from D Gray Man. As well as possessing a number of creepy dolls, she herself can transform into a extremely creepy doll.
The episode Raindrops from Witch Hunter Robin. A bunch of creepy dolls chanting "UNFORGIVABLE!" qualifies as some serious nightmare fuel to this troper.

The movie 9 has The Seamstress. She's basically a giant snake with a porcelain doll's head that grafts the dead body of 2 onto her tail and uses it to hypnotize 8 into submission, before sewing him inside her body and dragging 7 away and boasts numerous appendages just designed for chopping up innocent stitchpunk skin.
Tourist Trap: The mannequins.
The Zuni Fetish Doll from Trilogy of Terror.
The razor-toothed killer dolls from the movie Barbarella.
The Clown Doll from Poltergeist.
Profondo Rosso: the walking deformed doll.
The various dolls that the Other Mother makes in Coraline. All of the Other people invoke this themselves, with their creepy button eyes.
Chucky, from Childs Play.
- There's also Tiff and Glenn from the same series. Though Glenn is somewhat of a subversion and Tiff is... Tiff.
All of the puppets from the Puppet Master franchise.
The Doll Master.
Reincarnation (aka Rinne) features one of the creepiest damn ones you may ever see.
Toy Story has one in the first film, although it's the face of a doll on top of metal spider legs. It's not exactly evil but it's still Nightmare Fuel. The other toys can also be this way if they choose, as shown when they rebel against Sid.
The 1987 movie Dolls.
The 2007 film Dead Silence.
The opening of the movie Titanic features a group of divers exploring the Titanic wreck. A few shots pan across some of the destroyed trinkets and other such former valuables scattered across the ocean floor. One shot reveals an eerie white face that resembles a child and for a moment you think its a child's detached head, but it turns out to just be a lone face separated from a doll.
- Speaking of dolls and dead children, the abandoned baby doll in Johanna's bassinet from Sweeney Todd. It's decayed with age and probably smoke damage/mildew, and is damn scary. To the point that this troper's reaction was also "oh my gosh, what is that?" and her sister's was "Is that the baby?!" (This scene also serves as an Empathy Doll Shot for Johanna's current plight.)
Subverted in Pinnochio, a B-slasher film. The kid had a split personality which she projected onto her doll.
Black Devil Doll is a Blaxploitation slasher flick with a radical black activist being reincarnated as the eponymous doll.
How about Casey? Newt's doll in Aliens was the hollow plastic head that probably used to belong to a baby doll. The girl comforted it when she was nervous.
The... odd-looking... figurine from the horror movie parody Doom House. It haunts the protagonist by appearing wherever he goes.
The film version of Red Dragon has this, with the dolls of the murdered children. The Uncanny Valley effect of their eyes actually helps The Profiler figure out part of the Serial Killer's fantasy.
That harlequin doll that Jigsaw uses as his mouthpiece in the Saw movies.

Slappy the dummy in Goosebumps. Granted, he's actually a ventriloquist's dummy but he fits the Creepy Doll factor to a T.
As mentioned before, the various dolls that the Other Mother makes in Coraline.
In Richard Matheson's short story Prey, a young woman is terrorized by an African Zuni warrior doll that she brings home as a gift for her boyfriend, and which subsequently comes to life. (The story was memorably adopted as part of the ABC TV movie Trilogy of Terror in the '70s.)
A Series Of Unfortunate Events: This Troper actually shivered when she read the description of Pretty Penny, a doll that Aunt Josephine gave Violet in The Wide Window.
- Also the movie adaption of the first three books in the series has a creepy bobble head doll called "the littlest elf'' in the rearview window of Count Olaf's car.
In the Stephen King story The Sun Dog, a character thinks that a toy (not exactly a doll, but a stuffed panda, that talks) that her niece has is very creepy, and imagines that one day, it will say stuff like: "I think tonight after you're asleep, I'll strangle you to death" or "I have a knife".

The Twilight Zone had Talky Tina, a surprisingly creepy and murderous doll.
- "Talky Tina" was inspired by a real toy, "Chatty Cathy," a doll produced by Mattel beginning in 1959. June Foray, who provided the recorded voice Mattel used for Chatty Cathy, also provided CBS with the voice for Talky Tina.
- This was parodied in The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" with a killer talking Krusty doll. However, unlike Tina, someone had accidentally set it to "evil" instead of "good."
- Also parodied in the Johnny Bravo episode "Little Talky Tabitha".
A doll in an episode of Ghost Whisperer. To make things worse, the doll was disfigured and its clothes were torn and stained. Ugh!
Rod Serling must have been a fan of this trope, because Night Gallery had the episode, "The Doll" which had, you guessed it, a creepy doll that was actually part of a revenge curse.
Episode 12 of The Amanda Show had a skit called "Rock-a-bye-Ralph", in which a girl can't sleep so her parents give her a doll named Ralph. It's eerily similar to the Chucky doll, it talks very cheerily, and it won't shut up even after the girl feeds it to her dog ''it still continues talking in it's overly cheery voice from within the dogs stomach''.
There were a few of these in Are You Afraid Of The Dark.
- Even better! The episode "The tale of the dark music" had a life-sized walking and talking doll, with a creepy perpetual grin, dressed in a cute blue party dress acting innocent and nice, when it really had evil intentions and wished to lure the male lead in that episode into the dark cellar behind it.
Sabrina The Teenage Witch had a creepy doll called Molly Dolly chase her around her home on a Halloween episode.
The X Files episode "Chinga" (written by Stephen King) had a Creepy Doll that drove people to inflict harm on themselves ("Let's have fun!").
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Susie's daughter Sammy has loads of these decorating her room.
The incredibly creepy (at least, to a 12-year-old) 1985 BBC series Maelstrom featured lots of scary dolls in the darkened attic of an old log cabin.
Hidden Camera Show Scare Tactics has a collector of Creepy Dolls-one of which being his "mother"-as one of their favorite setups.
Power Rangers SPD. "I"m Cindy Sunshine, and I want to be your friend." Uh... no thanks. (Mind you, it's not the voice speaking through it - provided by a known character - but more the The Exorcist-like head-turning at one point.)
The doll that started off the merry cursed antique hunt of Friday The13th The Series even had a name: Vita. She talks, she kills, she has telekinetic powers!
Criminal Minds: A female unsub made creepy dolls out of her victims, which she kidnapped, kept chemically immobilized but conscious, dressed up and played tea party with until they died from lack of stimulation. In her defense she didn't intend to kill them and had one hell of a Freudian Excuse: Her real, er, actual dolls (American Girls expies) were a gift from her abusive dad after her molested her then electroshocked to make her forget (he was a psychiatrist), but when she saw him giving them to his latest victim she snapped.
- The dolls themselves caused some creepiness: a costume and essay contest by the doll company accidentally revealed some disturbed little girls; it turns out they had accidentally stumbled onto form of trauma therapy.

As you can see at the top of the page, Jonathon Coulton has a song about this very trope. In fact it's the Trope Namer.
Laura Branigan's song "Self Control" begins and ends with a shot of a rather creepy doll.
The video to the song "Technologic" by Daft Punk.
- It should be. It's the anamatronic Chucky doll used in Childs Play (mentioned above) with its silicone skin removed.
The video to the song "Blue" by The Birthday Massacre.
There's a few of these in the Pink video "Please Don't Leave Me" starting at 2:21. Notice all the dolls in the audience and then the close up on them. Brr...
The video to the song "Clown" by Korn has both Creepy Doll's and Monster Clown's. Not to mention a lot of insanity.
- The MTV special editions for Issues had one of these.
The video to the song "He's My Thing" by Babes in Toyland, as well as some of the cover art for their albums.

The Ravenloft setting is home to doll golems, animated toys which cause uncontrollable laughter with their bite, and 'carrionettes', sentient puppets that can swap minds with their victims.
Then there's this little gem, from Exalted:
The Scripture of the Maiden on the Shelf:
Once, there was a maiden...
...who sat on a child's shelf and watched the entire world.
Her eyes were made of glass,
And their pupils were red.
Her mouth was sewn on.
For years and years, she did not move.
Then, when necessary, she was gone, and the head of that child with her.
"Survival is control," she said.
Magic The Gathering has the Stuffy Doll, which is apparently a living voodoo doll. Which is completely indestructible.

A few of these appeared in certain Rugrats episodes. Leading the list is Mr. ~~Friend~~ Fiend.
The animated short Alma has a little girl find a whole toyshop of creepy dolls including one that looks just like her. Then she becomes that doll by touching it and the shop sets up for it's next victim

Alma carries a doll around with her in First Encounter Assault Recon. The effect is not really all that childish.
- Especially since she's covered in blood up to her ankles and typically surrounded by hellfire.
In The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask, there's a little girl in Ikana Valley whose father lives in the wardrobe in the basement because he's slowly turning into a Gibdo. Later on, if you look inside his wardrobe it's revealed that he had a mummified little doll resting in the corner.
- Your Mileage May Vary, this troper finds that doll adorable
Fatale Frame: The first game had a room filled with long haired, creepy dolls. And something nasty tried to kill you in it. But FF 2 took that to the next level with the Dollmaker and the lifesized doll of his dead daughter, who was promptly possessed by an evil spirit and convinced her sister to murder her father. Now the pair of them wander around as shuffling ghosts, while the father controls his dolls and convinces them to kill you.
Calcobrina from Final Fantasy IV.
Silent Hill seems to LOVE these:
- Silent Hill 2 features the Mannequin, a monster made out of two shiny plasticine womens' lower torsos stacked on top of one another. Possibly symbolizes the main character's objectification of women.
- Silent Hill Origins features Ariel, appearing as a doll that can either break your neck in the air... or run around on its hands to kill you. CREEPY.
- Silent Hill Homecoming, however, cranks it up to Eleven with Scarlet. A giant, elongated mannequinn with porcelain armor that, when blown off, reveals that there's inexplicably flesh and muscle beneath it. Add this to the fact that it came out of a pool of Doc Finch's blood and the One Woman Wail creating Soundtrack Dissonance... it is EASILY the most frightening monster in the entire game at least in This Troper's opinion. Finding out WHAT and WHY Scarlett is doesn't help. Not that you probably hadn't figured it out by now anyway...
- Silent Hill 3 also contains a slightly more traditional Creepy Doll in the form of the dolls Stanley leaves behind for Heather in the hospital. It's interesting to note that the protagonist originally thinks of the doll as another child's, and is disgusted when she finds out it's supposed to be for her. On his last journal entry, the doll is torn to pieces. Creepy...
  - And there's the dolls in the Otherworld Hillside Center. One's in a wheelchair, while another- only a few feet away- is held by a humanoid...thing, suspended over a hole. Symbolism?
- And of course, Silent Hill 4 has Walter Sullivan's doll, which if picked up, haunts Henry's room permanently, making it impossible to get the best ending.
- The Robbie the Rabbit Doll pointing at YOU when you look in a certain hole.
Vagrant Story's Quicksilver and Shrieker enemies.
Clock Tower: The First Fear has a room full of beat up dolls. One gives you a key. After that, another will attack you.
Each game in the Shadow Hearts series has a dungeon called the Doll House, which is the home to a demonically possessed doll. In the first game, the spirit possessing the doll is not quite as scary as the doll itself, which sits in the middle of an extremely disturbing room, on a rocking horse, creaking slowly back and forth. In the second game, there's a similar dungeon, meant for a character who has a doll of his own. Not quite as scary as the first, but still quite a bit disturbing, given that there are dolls all over the house watching you... In the third game, there are dolls all over the place, and the Nightmare Fuel comes from what you have to do to them - plucking out their eyes.
The PC kid's game I Spy: Spooky Mansion has a wardrobe filled with nothing but dusty, antique dolls as a level where you were told a poem (like in the books) to find things. In the game, when you found an object you were told to find, the object would become animated and then the object was checked off the list. In the wardrobe level, nearly every object you were told to find was a doll, and when found would move and talk with high-pitched voices and squeaky joints. Very creepy to a kid playing the game.
Gaia Online has a "joint puppet" feature for avatars to use. If that doesn't fit this trope, then the livid-patchy "dead doll" option will.
Subverted in Touhou with the character Medicine, a doll youkai, master of poison. Subverted because the character is not really creepy... being a loli, like all the others.
There is a mod in Unreal Tournament called Unreal 4 Ever, which has a doll for a weapon. When used, the doll skips around a map making doll-like noises, until an unlucky victim comes too close and detonates the doll, causing a nuclear explosion. Just imagine being chased by a seemingly harmless doll that's really out to kill you.
Tails Doll, from Sonic R.
Castlevania series has animate man-size marionette with long-blond hair. It's lying around idlely until the hero come nearby, then gigle, twist its neck in circle before float through the air with unnatural movement as if manipulated by invisible strings. There is also variant call Killer Doll which is featureless marionette possessed by ghosts of prisoners who met their end via the electric chair, capable of emit lightning. Chronicle has small dolls, the walking clowns and hover dolls, though you might found the voice made hover dolls adorable.
You can get a creepy clockwork monkey as a combat item in Kingdom Of Loathing. The item description is the third page quote.

How about this commercial for PS 3?
The Doll Face video features a doll face on a jack in the box type contraption that mimics images on the tv screen trying to find the perfect visage for itself. The worst part is the fact that the thing is apparently sentient, and it falls very very deep into the Uncanny Valley once it paints its face with makeup to give it such a healthy glow that it resembles a human face.
- If it makes you feel any better, it is a human actress' face on the doll.
When author H. Rider Haggard was a boy, his nanny used to own a creepy doll called "She-who-must-be-obeyed" which she used to get him to behave. This was at least partly the inspiration for his novel She.
Google Robert the Doll, and try sleeping ever again. They say, you know, that he knows when someone's talking about him, thinking about him, or typing a TV Tropes entry about him aaarghaaarghaaargh
- Even worse is the fact that the doll's owner's wife (who hated the thing...like everyone else) apparently starting haunting their old house. Robert's old room, to be exact. This Travel Channel clip insinuates that she has no choice in the matter. Oh, also, Robert ages, apparently. His hair's gone white and he's got liver spots now...
Surrealist artist Hans Bellmer combined this trope with Lolicon for maximum creepiness. His dolls inspired the Silent Hill 2 Mannequins. See a Not-Safe-For-Work-Or-Sanity photograph◊.
- Allegedly, he developed his "thing" for ball-jointed dolls after meeting his 15-year-old niece. Thankfully he felt his feelings for her weren't appropriate and switched to the "poupee" (puppet) instead. It Got Worse after his wife died.
This Troper's mother collects dolls. Thousands of dolls. The "Doll Room" is pure Nightmare Fuel what with all those staring, unblinking eyes ... My brother once remarked that if any burglar was ever caught in there at night he would probably be found the next morning curled up on the floor wetting himself and muttering "the eyes ... the eyes..."
- Your mom is Candy Spelling?
It's Baby Laughs A lot!
This Youtube user lampshades this trope to its fullest.
Some ball-jointed doll owners embrace this to the fullest. Onegreyelephant's doll mods (which can be found on at least one of the Nightmare Fuel pages, probably Toys) are something between art objects and Eldritch Abominations... and still more than a little cute.
Any doll that has a function (most commonly crying) and being given to someone without being warned about it will cause distress and alarm in the unsuspecting recipient.
Then there's that ghost story...Dolly one step, dolly two step, Dolly's gonna get you...Don't tell me you weren't scared of that as a kid!
A lot of people find the Doll Room in House on the Rock to be hard to get through.
Aaron Spelling's mansion had a room especially built to house a huge doll collection; unfortunately the kids it was intended for found it to be a little creepy.
The marionettes used in the OP of the Chilean Soap Opera "Los Títeres". Brrrrr!
Clown dolls.
Mixing this with Monster Clown is this US Postal Service Commercial.

Open Blue's Vice-Amiral Swasou owns a lot of creepy dolls. Even creepier is the fact that they appear to literally go places when nobody's looking.
In The Secret Life Of Dolls, it's particularly bad with Tonner Edward Dollen, but at first when Anna Dollerious says what she thinks about getting The Littlest Edward◊:
"[I'm] not so lonely that I wanna go to sleep and have THAT lurking over me when I wake up. And you know he'll, like, imprint on one of us or some shit—knowing your luck, E, he'll imprint on Cleo, and he'll just sit on her pillow all night, rocking back and forth."
And we all shudder together. It's a nice feeling, sisterly solidarity.
Fred Finds A Creepy Doll: an officially licensed Fred doll, which he thinks is a voodoo doll of him. And then it starts talking...

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