About Annabelle and Chucky – Dolls as Ambiguous Representatives of Artificial Humans in Recent Horror Movies

Abstract

Dolls have been used since the start of the medium film. In horror films in particular, dolls have always served to create uncanniness. This article compares the Chucky and Annabelle film series as prominent representatives of two popular and successful franchises. In both production series, the focus is on the design of the figure of the doll as to the horror emanating from it in the respective franchise universe with special consideration of prevailing social fears. While the Chucky-films are primarily concerned with the change in the franchise within the last 30 years between the debut and completion of the current reboot and with possible reasons for revival and topicality, the analysis of the first two parts of the Annabelle series deals with the emergence of a newer franchises that attempts to create horror using dolls. The comparison of these two films from 2013 and 2014 with the Chucky reboot from 2019 examines similarities and differences in the horror scenarios triggered by dolls in successful current film productions.