Behind Glass Eyes

So, you found yourself enamored by Annabelle in The Conjuring, and you've seen all three follow up Annabelle films (Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, and Annabelle Comes Home). Now how do you feed your newly-discovered hunger for doll-related horror films? Never fear (well, maybe fear a little after you watch some of these), there's still a whole world of creepy dolls out there to be discovered.

Of note, these are all films that veer more toward the creepy and eerie, not slasher territory (sorry, Chucky, that's a different audience), so don't expect gouts of blood. These films are more about the slow burn with the occasional well-timed jump scare. Enter, if you will, the realm of the dolls.

Well, The Doll, to be precise, as in the 2016 Indonesian horror film. Director Rocky Soraya clearly took some heavy inspiration from The Conjuring universe, but this foray into the macabre still manages to establish its own identity through its emphasis on Indonesian culture and spirituality. The plotline involves a husband bringing home a doll from his work site, a doll that just so happens to have belonged to a murdered girl. Warning, you will have to do some pretty significant suspension of disbelief for the finale, but if you can accomplish that, this film is an alternatingly fun and eerie roller coaster ride.

And, clearly, Rocky found an audience. The Doll has thus far spawned two sequels, The Doll 2 (2017) and Sabrina (2018). The Doll 2 involves an entirely new cast of characters in a story of a couple who tragically lose their daughter. Sabrina brings back the lead character from The Doll 2, whose penchant for stumbling into supernatural trouble has apparently continued. Unfortunately, all three Doll movies amply demonstrate that Rocky found a storyline he liked and ran with it, making the inevitable "twist" at the end of each film less a "twist" and more an inevitability. That being said, both sequels still manage to have their shiver-inducing moments and are worth a watch when you want the horror equivalent of a popcorn movie.

On the other hand, if you want a doll-based movie with a well-executed twist, look no further than The Boy (2016). The storyline concerns a girl hired to be a nanny for a life-size doll that a bereaved elderly couple treat as their son. Although the ending veers a bit toward the cliché, the build up through the film is masterful, and the characters are both believable and likable. Overall, this film is certainly time well spent. The film also has a sequel, Brahms: The Boy II (2020), although the follow up wasn't as well received by horror fans compared to the original.

Continuing the trend of disturbing twists, we come to Dead Silence (2007). This film is technically about ventriloquist dummies, not dolls, but the creep factor remains. Concerning a man who returns to his home town after his wife's murder, the film's cast of characters is largely milk toast or downright unlikable, but the set dressing is certainly eerie, and there are some excellent jump scares leading up to the aforementioned twist.

Veering into honorable mention territory, we have Hospital (2020). This Taiwanese horror film doesn't center around a doll, but is instead about a group doing an "underworld tour" in an abandoned hospital in an attempt to connect with their relatives who died there. There are several scenes involving an appropriately creepy doll, though, which earns the film a mention on this list.

And so our tour of this creepy dollhouse concludes. I hope these films provide some meaty nightmare fuel for those dark nights at home. A warning, though: you may never look at that old porcelain doll from Nana the same way again.