There’s something about dolls that can simultaneously horrify and pique your interest. Whether it’s their ghostly appearance or haunting faces, the genre for them continues to grow in popularity. It’s already evident they dominate the big screen, with characters such as Annabelle, Chucky, Brahms, and M3GAN, but what about in the sphere of games?
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Plenty of horror games have utilized the concept of killer dolls in some fashion to generate the desired scares. It could come in the form of a specific boss or even an entire area full of them. The following are just some of the most notable examples.
10Angelic Amber - Kingdom Hearts 3
To start with a far less scary doll, we have the Angelic Amber doll from the Toy Box section ofKingdom Hearts 3. Angelic Amber is a doll that comes under the possession of the Marionette Heartless, and you engage in a boss battle with her inside the Galaxy Toys shop once you’ve freed Hamm.
During the battle, her possession makes her body move in motions as though there are invisible strings attached to her and are being manipulated by an invisible force. Her attacks include diving and spinning erratically into you from the air and slamming the ground. Dark red and black vapors emanate off her, and she has quite a gothic appearance.
9Azami Doll - Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly
The second installment of theFatal Frameseries takes doll possession to an incredibly horrifying level. Twin sisters Akane and Azami were chosen by their village to participate in a gruesome ritual known as the ‘Crimson Sacrifice,’ in which one kills the other. Azami was the one who ended up dying, and a doll was made in her exact image.
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Akane and the doll form of Azami are both ghosts in the game that warrant your Camera Obscura to defend against them. They’re donned in gray kimonos and resemble the unsettling Samara from The Ring. In the meantime, Azami’s real spirit works with you to help destroy the evil version of herself.
8Mr. Tatters - Emily Wants To Play
Emily Wants To Play is a game series fully committed to the phobias some may have around dolls. It plays somewhat similar toFive Nights at Freddy’s, with the main character even being a pizza delivery person. But the uneventful night of terror here ensues inside a house rather than the confines of a security control room.
Of the three murderous dolls introduced in the first game, the creepiest among them is the clown named Mr. Tatters, who looks as sinister as Pennywise. Mr. Tatters comes out to play around 1am, and indulges himself in a depraved game of Red Light, Green Light. If you move in his presence, it’s game over.
7Dollgirl - Alice: Madness Returns
Alice: Madness Returns' darker descent into Wonderland takes you through a chapter titled The Dollhouse. One of the initial bosses you encounter is an enormous childlike porcelain doll with hair, empty eye sockets, and an unkempt dress. She can be armed with either a hook or a pair of scissors in her hands.
She giggles and screams throughout the battle in a chilling robotic tone. Some of her moves range from swinging the hooks or scissors at you to stomping and spewing fire on you. With the more damage she takes, her physical parts start to shatter and a greater variety of move sets begin to occur.
6Exploding Dolls - Condemned 2: Bloodshot
The sequel to Condemned: Criminal Origins features a level set around a doll factory, where you face a boss named The Doll Woman. Even creepier than the boss in this level are the little monsters known as Blow-Up Dolls, who seem like something Sid from Toy Story would make if he ever got his hands on explosives.
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These little guys are disturbing baby dolls that appear badly damaged and have a string that will cause them to explode the instant they pull it. You’ll immediately spot their creepy red eyes that light up the dark room, and they start at you with a crawl before quickening their pace. A cool part about them is you can use some of the ones you see lying around as grenades.
5Ayame - Genma Onimusha
If Annabelle and Edward Scissorhands had a child, you could certainly imagine it being of a similar design to Ayame from the 2002 game Genma Onimusha. Ayame is a highly lethal doll whose hands consist of three large blades resembling claws longer than Wolverine’s that act as a propeller, which allows her to fly around the room and tear at you.
When you first stumble upon Ayame, she seems like a perfectly normal porcelain doll dressed in a red Japanese kimono. As you attempt to leave the basement room where you find her, she shows her true possessed self, distinguished by cracks forming in her porcelain face, her eyes glowing red, and the biting at your neck and slashing in spinning motions.
4Poltergeist Doll Boss - Splatterhouse Remake
An even bigger killer doll than Dollgirl is the boss from the Doll That Bled section in the 2010 remake of Splatterhouse. What again may present itself as a regular porcelain doll soon bursts tentacles from its body, and environmental objects and debris are attracted to it like a magnet.
That’s because the doll is a host to a malevolent poltergeist spirit. And what it forms itself into is a giant Golem-type figure that’s made of metal and sharp objects. One of the arms is the head of a clock tower, and it throws loose furniture and stomps and swings.There are lots of QTEsin this battle, where the goal is to strip pieces of metal armor, giving it the feel of the oldGod of Warstyle.
3Angie - Resident Evil Village
Resident Evil Villagestill somehow manages to containsome of the most nightmarish settingsin the series, having you endure what seems like one house of horror after another. As if surviving Lady Demitrescu’s Castle wasn’t a harrowing enough experience, you face a whole other set of terrors involving dolls in House Beneviento.
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Angie is a childhood doll belonging to Donna Beneviento who, like her owner, has been infected with the cadou and become pretty much like a full-on Evil Dead Deaddite. Angie can fly around and requires you to play a twisted game of hide-and-seek in a house where many other dolls also come to life. If you don’t get to her in time, her dollhouse friends will slice you up in a jump scare.
2Scarlet’s Evolved Doll - Silent Hill: Homecoming
Silent Hillis among the earliest horror series where doll enemies play a significant part in its atmospheric storytelling. There are the torso-conjoined mannequin legs from Silent Hill 2 and the Dolls introduced in Silent Hill: Downpour. The one that tops them all, however, is the Scarlet boss from Silent Hill: Homecoming.
Scarlet is originally a tattered old doll belonging to the daughter of the sadistic Dr. Martin Fitch,whose faithfulness to The Orderdrove him to kill her. It fuses with Martin’s blood to manifest the giant spider-like boss doll known as Scarlet. Her first phase has you crack the porcelain to reveal the fleshy meat underneath, and the second phase initiates her disturbing spider movements.
1Mannequins - Shadows Of Rose
Resident Evil Village seems to be the gift that keeps on giving with its fantastic design of frightening killer dolls. 2022’s Shadows of Rose DLC saw Ethan’s daughter Rose, now all grown up, return to House Beneviento. However, what awaits you this time are eerie slow-moving mannequins with a mechanic upping the suspense.
The mannequins remain frozen in place while you’re facing in their direction. The moment you move away with your back toward them, they start getting closer and closer, like the Weeping Angels inDoctor Who. The squeaky sound of their hinges as they carefully move behind you, their glowing eyes, and their instant death animation put them a step above the classic ones in Silent Hill 2.
