Killer toy

Killer toys are fictional characters based on toys, dolls or puppets that commit violent acts. Reasons for these actions have included possession by demons, devils, monsters, ghosts, supernatural creatures, dark magic, and malevolent or malfunctioning technology.

Concept

Toys coming to life is a common and historical concept in children's literature,^[1] and the idea has been adapted into numerous horror films and other horror fiction. The 1978 film Magic represents a key inspiration for subsequent films, while the subgenre's best-known films are the Child's Play franchise.^[2][3]

Several works have used ventriloquist's dummies as antagonists, with the dummies either being outlets for their operator's psychosis or acting malevolently on their own.^[4]

List of films

The films that feature killer toys are listed as follows:

In television

• Evil dolls are antagonists in episodes of The Twilight Zone, both the 1959–1964 series and the 2002 version:
  • 1962: "The Dummy" (3.33) with a ventriloquist dummy that attempts to exact revenge when he is replaced
  • 1963: "Living Doll" (5.6) features Talky Tina (voiced by June Foray), a doll belonging to the stepdaughter of Erich Streator (played by Telly Savalas)
  • 1964: "Caesar and Me" (5.28) features a ventriloquist dummy that goads his owner into committing robberies and deserts him when the police come for him
  • 2002: "The Collection" features a young girl's strange collection of dolls which were made from her past babysitters
• The theme of evil toys has also been used in Doctor Who episodes:
  • 1966: "The Celestial Toymaker"^{[102][103][104]}
  • 2011: "Night Terrors"
• 1986: Smurfs episode "Gargamel's Dummy," the series' antagonist Gargamel casts an evil spell on a ventriloquist's dummy Jokey Smurf had created for a talent show, hoping to use it to help him destroy the Smurf village and ultimately, the Smurfs. The dummy was a parody of Gargamel, and the real Gargamel, angered upon learning of it, casts the spell to begin exacting his revenge.
• 1992: The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror III", the segment "Clown Without Pity" features a Krusty doll that tries to kill Homer. The segment borrows elements from the Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll", the Child's Play films, Gremlins, the 1975 TV film Trilogy of Terror segment "Amelia" about a killer Zuni fetish doll as well as its 1996 cinematic sequel Trilogy of Terror II segment "He Who Kills", which are both in turn adaptations of Richard Matheson's 1969 short story, "Prey". The segment also borrows elements from Cape Fear. In a different episode, "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", a possessed killer doll named "Baby Button Eyes" appears in a horror film, The Re-Deadening (a parody of Dolly Dearest). The doll is most likely based on the real-life appearance of "Annabelle", a possessed Raggedy Ann doll.
• 1994: The Mega Man episode "Crime of the Century," Dr. Wily reprograms a bunch of dolls and other toys to perform robberies all over the city. However, it's all just a diversion so Wily can get his hands on something much more valuable: a giant black pearl.
• Ventriloquist dummies and dolls are also portrayed as evil in the works of R.L. Stine:
  • 1994: The Goosebumps books and TV series had the "Night of the Living Dummy" stories which featured a sentient ventriloquist dummy named Slappy
  • 2010: R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour featured Lilly D. in the episodes "Really You" Pt. 1 and 2 and "The Return of Lilly D"
• 2003: In the What's New, Scooby Doo? episode "Toy Scary Boo," the gang investigates a store with living toys that are taking it over.
• 2013: In the Grojband episode "No Strings Attached," Trina Riffin suffers from pupaphobia after she had wicked visions of puppets when she was a child.

See also

• Haunted doll
• Uncanny valley

References