Editorials
Five Killer Doll Horror Movies to Stream This Week
There’s something inherently unsettling about inanimate objects that move on their own accord. Especially if they happen to resemble people. Which is what makes dolls so perfect for the horror genre; the uncanny valley of it all heightens the fear response in audiences.
This week’s streaming picks belong to the killer doll subgenre. These pint-sized homicidal maniacs deliver plenty of scares, heart, humor, and occasionally a great fashion sense.
As always, here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Asylum – Fandor, freevee, Plex, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, SCREAMBOX, Shout TV, Tubi
This Amicus Production feature sets its wraparound in an asylum, where a doctor arrives for a job interview. His interviewer subjects him to an unorthodox interview process, which entails four tales of terror. The final segment before the epilogue, “Mannikins of Horror,” introduces a mad scientist type in Dr. Byron, who reveals his experimentations in transferring the human spirit into tiny automaton dolls. The reign of doll terror spills over into the wraparound, with the creepy human-like mannequin getting murderous and sparking a grim finale.
Curse of Chucky – Starz
With the Halloween season looming on the immediate horizon, surely that means a new season of “Chucky” is also around the corner. Or perhaps that’s wishful thinking. Whether it’s to get into the spooky season spirit or brush up on Child’s Play franchise lore, it’s a great time to watch this fantastic entry. In Curse of Chucky, the doll gets a makeover and mysteriously shows up at the house of paraplegic Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif). Only in the third act are ties to the previous installments revealed. The introduction to franchise mainstay Nica and a reinvigorating commitment to scares make this tonal reboot sequel stand out.
Dolls – Pluto TV, Tubi
“Toys are very loyal, and that’s a fact.” From the perspective of little Judy, a sweet little girl with a love of toys, the Gothic mansion belonging to Gabriel and Hilary Hartwicke is a dream come true. Not only are they far kinder than her father and stepmother, but the estate is filled with dolls, puppets, and toys. However, if you’re a jerk adult, the mansion is a death trap. While this Stuart Gordon-directed fairy tale draws clear lines between the innocent and the morally corrupt deserving of their fate, it’s still really creepy to see them meet their doom at the hands of the dolls. Even creepier is what happens to them after the dolls attack.
M3GAN – Prime Video
M3GAN reunited producer James Wan and screenwriter Akela Cooper, responsible for 2021’s highly entertaining Malignant, and put Housebound’s Gerard Johnstone at the helm. It resulted in a murderous killer doll with style and dance moves, ensuring the year kicked off with a meme-able horror comedy that had everyone talking. This pick is for those looking to catch up on 2023 horror offerings and those looking to prepare for the Halloween season; the fashionable doll will surely dominate the costumes this year.
Magic – AMC+, Crackle, freevee, Kanopy, Peacock, SCREAMBOX, Shudder, Tubi
The ventriloquist dummy at the center of this horror film, Fats, was so creepy that the TV spots had to be taken off the air during the promotion of Magic. The 30-second ad featuring Fats was enough to cause nightmares in children, scarring some for life. Who can blame them? Ventriloquist dummies are a particular brand of horror on their own, but one as menacing as Fats? That he resembles his human counterpart, Corky Withers (Anthony Hopkins, who also voices Fats), probably doesn’t help either. Ventriloquists and their dummies have nightmarish co-dependency issues in horror, which drives this fantastic psychological horror feature from director Richard Attenborough and writer William Goldman.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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