Episode 27 | Creepy Dolls

Episode Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to Strange Origins, your favorite spooky history podcast. This week I wanted to research a subject that I have had an affinity for for a while now, however creepy it is.  

My first encounter with creepy dolls was, like a lot of people, at my grandmother’s home. My grandma loved collecting porcelain dolls, the ones that you put on a stand and display in all of the finery. The problem with that is that as a kid I slept in the room where she housed all of those dolls, and I always felt strangely watched whenever staying at her house. Thankfully, she lived about five hours away, so we didn’t visit very often. Though I loved my grandma, I never really understood her fascination with the things. 

Later on, we brought home an antique doll that was particularly creepy. When sat upright her eyes would open, but when laid down she would close them like she was going to sleep. Over time one of the eyes got a little stuck and it would only close halfway unless you shook her a little bit, which I thought was equally disturbing and funny. 

To me, dolls just have that creep factor that I can’t attribute to a lot of other objects. Most toys are fun, bright, and inviting. Dolls, on the other hand, especially older ones made of fragile materials like porcelain, put me on edge. 

Creepy Dolls

I’m not the only one with this type of fear. 9% of American adults in the U.S. today have a fear of dolls, which is referred to as pediophobia. Umbrellaed under that fear automatonophobia, the fear of humanoid-looking objects, and pupaphobia, the fear of puppets. Unlike most fears, like that of heights or snakes which can actually harm us, pediophobia is an anxiety caused by something that has never harmed anyone (as far as we know.)

Aside from stories of possession, or spiritual manipulation, this is probably because we as humans are hard-wired to be able to create a relationship with things that resemble a living, breathing organism. Our minds, when we look at the face of a doll, immediately start to look for an emotion that we can react to or play off of. When our brains can’t understand the motionless gaze of a doll, it doesn’t really know how to react. 

This effect has gotten worse through the years due to advances in realistic doll making. The scientific term for this, which I’m sure many of you have heard of is called the uncanny valley. The uncanny valley is the quote “relationship between the degree of an object's resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to such an object.” So, essentially, the more a doll resembles a real human, the higher up on the graph your affection for it is recorded. In the same fashion, the less real a doll looks, the more the graph dips into a valley, and the more heightened your fear becomes.

I guess today, I realize that my fear wasn’t of the dolls themselves that were in my grandmother's house, but the fact that they looked more real than any of the stuffed animals that I had had at my own house. They were miniature, primped, and just a little too perfect in their skin and glossy eyes. It was even weird to me how realistic their eyelashes were. Today I can recognize the value of a doll as a teaching tool for young children and as a source of comfort, but at the same time, I don’t really like to look at certain dolls for too long, which made this episode pretty difficult to research. 

Noteworthy Dolls

When I grew older I started listening to podcasts, and that’s where I first heard of one of the more famously haunted dolls, Robert. Though I’m sure you’ve already heard of him, if anyone wants to learn more about Robert, I highly recommend the Lore episode titled Unboxed. 

I also began to notice the strange hobbies of some when it came to dolls. People today will watch hours of live footage of supposedly haunted dolls, hoping to catch a glimpse of movement like a turning head or maybe just a blinking eye. It’s also become a hobby for some to buy haunted dolls online, through sellers who have cultivated a relationship with the spirit of that doll. If you’re looking to just absolutely ruin your day, I recommend scrolling through the haunted dolls section of eBay. In my opinion, the ones with the teeth are the worst. 

Later on, I saw films like the Annabelle franchise, which featured a doll, made much more hideous looking for the films, that was based a real-life Raggedy Anne doll. Famous for being a case that the paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren pursued in the 1970s, Annabelle was known to appear in places no one had placed her, and to leave notes around it’s owners apartment that said “Help Me” written in crayon. After an event involving a guests dream where the doll attacked him, that’s when a psychic and then the Warren’s were called. She is now housed in their museum, with a strict no-touch policy in place. 

After learning about Annabelle, I began to notice that haunted dolls were a popular subject, long before I had had any experiences with them. Characters like Chucky, the Clown doll from Poltergeist, or Slappy the Dummy from Goosebumps brought that fear to fever pitch in modern Hollywood. 

A haunted doll with plenty of literary credentials that I had never heard of before researching this episode was that of Chinga. Written by the horror master himself, Stephen King. in an episode of X-Files. Chinga is a doll that is investigated by Scully while on vacation in Maine. In the episode, a young mother begins seeing visions of people killing themselves before it happens. She begins to notice that the deaths only seem to occur after those people do something to anger her daughter. It turns out not to be her daughter responsible, but rather her haunted porcelain doll, named Chinga. In good ol X-files fashion, all is saved when Scully ends up cooking the doll inside of a microwave. 

Even though Pediophobia is a fear of something that can’t actually hurt you, where exactly did the concept of creepy dolls come from? And why are people still so fascinated with the little devils? 

Today it’s known through archeological excavation that dolls are most likely the oldest form of a toy known to man, which makes sense from a historical perspective. About fifteen years ago, a 4,000-year-old stone doll was unearthed in an archeological dig on an Mediterranean island. (7) Wooden paddle dolls were found in Egyptian tombs that date to the 21st century BC. And dolls with moveable limbs and removable clothing were found dating as far back as 200 BC. Sufficeth to say, dolls have been around for a very, very long time. 

They existed in rudimentary form only, though, made out of whatever materials people had around and crudely carved or constructed. Recently, though, doll making has turned into such a precise art form, so much so that sometimes it’s hard to tell from your peripheral vision whether that figure in the corner is a doll or a human. 

Political Dolls

Something interesting through history that hadn’t really thought about, is the fact that a lot of cultures blur the line between ritualistic dolls and dolls meant for children’s playtime. In Greek and Roman tradition, it was normal for young boys to dedicate their dolls to the Gods when they reached puberty, while for girls marriage meant it was time to dedicate their dolls to the goddesses. Similarly, in Japanese culture in the Hoko. Translated to mean “Crawling Child” Hokos are dolls given to women who are pregnant, as a way to protect both her and her new baby. For the dolls made for baby boys, they would be consecrated at a shrine when he turned fifteen years old, while for girls their dolls would be given up when she was ready for marriage. In the fourteen hundreds in Japan, these types of dolls would also serve a dual function as guardians for their children by warding off evil when placed in their rooms. Dolls weren’t just trinkets. They served a purpose in helping a child ritualistically transition from childhood to adulthood.

In Native American, European, and African cultures effigies are still performed that use the symbolism of human form to make a statement. Usually, those points are political in nature. An example of this is when a group of people will create a figure in the likeness of a not-so-popular politician, and publicly attack it in the hopes of showing their distaste for that person. The first known instance of this occurred in 1328 when Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV (the fourth) created and burned a puppet made to resemble Pope John XXII (the twenty-second), which he was then attempting to unseat. 

Since then politically charged effigies have been a pretty popular way for the public to show their disregard for a leader. Beyond politics, though, effigies have also been used to show hatred of people like witches or Judas. In Latin America, it’s a custom that a puppet, referred to as “Old Year” be burned on December 31st, therefore purifying yourself and your luck for the next year. It’s a transition period that allows for new beginnings. (5)

A Poppet is a more magic version of an effigy. Much like a Voudou doll, a Poppet is a doll made to look like a certain person. Sometimes they are used to harm, but mostly they are created to help heal. They are usually made out of materials that come from nature, like carved roots, potatoes, fruit, clay, or branches, and they are usually found stuffed in chimneys. A different version of a poppet is that of the Voodoo doll, which has grown in recognition through inaccurate representations in modern culture. Contrary to popular belief that they are dolls intended to harm those that they are made in the likeness of, Voodoo dolls are actually just simple effigies created to help a person heal. On occasion, they are used to help open up lines of communication between the living and the recently deceased, by way of hanging them up in trees. Vodou dolls found tacked upside down on a tree are there to help whoever put them there stop caring for someone who is considered unhealthy for them. (4)

Dolls aren’t always used in such a fashion, though. Often they are a way for people to memorialize someone they loved. A great example of this is the story of Okiku.

Okiku

Bought home by a young girl’s older brother during a trip in 1918, Okiku was a doll that was named after her owner, a young girl who spent every day with it until her death a year later. After building a shrine to remember their daughter and placing her doll in it, they began to notice that the doll’s hair began to grow without explanation. While its hair was, according to the legend, chin-length when it was bought, which was custom for dolls at the time, the doll's hair has now grown to its knees. When the family moved in 1938, they left the doll in the hands of monks at Mannenji temple where she now resides.

Pulau Ubin Barbie

Similar to Okiku is the story of the Pulau Ubin (Pool-ow Oo-bin) Barbie. Located on an island in Singapore is a Barbie that is visited by hundreds of tourists every year. Placed in a shrine created a century ago, the Barbie is a newer fixture in a structure that was dedicated to an eighteen-year-old German girl. She is known for having slipped and fallen into a granite quarry attempting to escape British authorities who were at the time kicking certain people off of the island. The coffee plantation workers who found her felt sympathetic so they created a shrine for her, entombing her and giving her a burial that she deserved, including an expensive Chinese vase, which was stolen not long after it was given.

 In 2007, a girl matching the description of the German girl appeared in the dreams of a young man who had grown up on the island but had since moved to Australia. She requested that he buy a specific Barbie Doll from a specific store and take it with him to the shrine. After experiencing this dream three times in a row, he finally agreed. Finding the exact doll from his dreams, he took it with him on a trip home and placed it in the shrine under a protective case. After this, people began to donate things to the German Girl in the hopes that she would bring them good luck. 

Isla De Las Muñecas

  Much like the shrine for the German girl, is the Isla De Las Munecas (Mew-neck-ah), which is Spanish for Island of the Dolls. Located just south of Mexico City is the small island, which is today absolutely covered with dolls. The story goes that the original caretaker of the island found the body of the drowned girl, and then soon after, a doll, that was both floating near the island. As a sign of respect for the girl, the caretaker hung the doll up in a tree. After a few interactions with the girl's spirit, the caretaker began collecting more and more dolls, which some say he believed to have all been possessed by different spirits. Legend states that he was found drowned in 2001 near where he stated to have found the girl. Sadly, there isn’t any way of proving any of the facts of the story, but nonetheless, the story led to the creation of one of the creepiest islands to ever exist. Dolls limbs, dolls that are falling apart, and even dolls covered in moss are hung from trees everywhere and displayed in a wood structure. As of 2013, it was decorated with over 1500 dolls, though I’m sure that number is higher now. 

Letta the Doll

A doll with a less sad, and more creepy origin story is that of Letta. Supposedly a marionette created in Eastern Europe, Letta the Doll was found under an abandoned house in New South Wales, Australia in the 1970s. When its owner found it, he and his brother put it in a sack and transported it home. During the car ride was when they jokingly named it Letta, short for Letta Me Out, seeing as it looked a bit like the doll was trying to escape the sack. After that, strange events, akin to those that occur during a poltergeist infestation, began happening. Objects began moving on their own in his house and they would also find the doll moved, even though no one would admit to moving it. There would also be scuff marks on the floor in the morning that seemed to be from the shoes of the doll. After taking Letta to a few psychics, it was thought that the doll was inhabited by a ghost of a little boy who had drowned. (3)

From the perspective of someone who had never seen the doll before, it looks a lot like a rendition of an evil witch from a Fairy Tale like Hansel and Gretal or Baba Yaga. With exaggerated features and long, brown locks made of real human hair, it’s really surprising to me why anyone would keep a doll like this. Still, its original owner has reported feeling a strange connection to Letta that kept him from selling it to prospective buyers. 

 Automatons

Reading about dolls led me to also learning a bit about Automatons. Automatons are essentially dolls made to move on their own through the use of a programmed machine. An example of this is the famous fortune-teller Zoltar Speaks from the movie Big. 

A name I came across during research for automatons was that of E.T.A. Hoffman. While I had never previously heard of him, which seems to me a crime, he is quoted as being quote “a pioneer of the fantasy genre, with a taste for the nacabre combined with realism.” 

One of his novellas, which I’ll save myself from the embarrassment of attempting to pronounce the name of, is thought today to be one the first detective stories ever written. He also was influential in the writings of Dickens, Poe, Dostoevsky, and Baudelaire. He is well known today for work that was original in the same way that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was original and is still so well regarded today. He wrote of how, during the eighteenth century, new forms of science were causing us to question our values and ethics. 

Just as Frankenstein caused us to consider how we should ethically deal with scientific advancements, Hoffman explored the relationship between more modern, logical science, and the older forms of philosophy that people held to with a tight grip. In his writing, Hoffman examines human relationships with the robots of the time, which were automatons built for factory work. Today we use robots to make our lives better in a myriad of ways. But during Hoffman’s time, they were a new, scary, and unpredictable. Everyone wondered what the future of robotics meant. Not just in terms of whether a robot would take their job, but whether it was ethical what they were building.

While today we are thankful for the fact that automatons have made a lot of unsafe jobs unnecessary, the question of ethics still exists. And it’s only gotten worse. This is especially true the more realistic robots, and dolls, are becoming. 

Personally, I’m thankful when dolls in horror movies don’t look realistic. It’s comforting that I can look at a doll and know that it’s a doll. In one of my favorite television shows, Westworld, the animatronics look completely lifelike, which honestly, causes too many problems. While I would love to get into a one-sided discussion about the moral dilemmas behind advanced robotic technology, I’ll leave that for another day. All that really matters is the fact that if an object has an inkling of a personality, humans have a tendency to bond with it. From automatic vacuum cleaners to AI robots, we are known for giving them names, ascribing personality traits, and talking to them as if they can fully understand in the complex way that a human would. 

Something interesting that I had never considered before doing this research was the idea that maybe it’s not always just evil spirits that give dolls power over humans, but humans themselves. 

Fats the Doll

In the 1978 movie Magic, starring Anthony Hopkins the relationship between human and doll melts perfectly into one psyche. In it, Hopkins plays a failed magician who begins a new act with a ventriloquism doll he refers to as Fats. With the doll, he creates a comedy act that allows him to ridicule himself before the audience can. After finding a little success, he becomes worried that he won’t pass a mental exam in order to host his own television show. So he runs off to his hometown and finds a relationship with an old flame who happens to be married to his friend. Through the rest of the film, however, the doll begins to speak on behalf of Hopkins’s character, becoming more and more controlling and malevolent. After a few murders, which seem to be required in a movie where there is an evil doll, it becomes confusing whether or not it’s the film is about a possessed ventriloquism doll or a mentally disturbed ventriloquist who uses the doll as an excuse for his increasingly violent and off-putting behavior. 

It’s fascinating to think that dolls aren’t just a way for us to teach, or create with, or even to use as a form of symbolism. Fats the doll was a crutch. An excuse for a man’s mental illness to hype itself up, and to feed the fire of his craze. It makes me wonder how many of the dolls we’ve blamed bad behavior on were actually possessed by an entity, and how many were possessed by the emotions of a living, breathing, human. Inner turmoil needs a release, and objects that resemble us, it seems, are the perfect scapegoat. 

Thank you for joining me for this episode. Be sure to stay safe out there, as there’s a lot of creepy dolls in this world. Oh, and Don’t forget to Keep it Strange.