The Creepiest Toys In Movies To Prepare You For The Monkey

Sid from Toy Story was a little brat who took sick pleasure in torturing toys—tearing innocent playthings apart and reassembling them into Frankenstein-like monstrosities that should never be mixed and matched. He often stole toys from his baby sister’s collection or, even worse, killed them in explosions and sent them off on rockets.

Babyface resembles Pinhead from Hellraiser—a baby doll’s head with a missing eye placed on top of a crab-like body made from Erector set pieces. Legs is made of two fashion Barbie legs attached to a toy fishing rod (a not-so-subtle adult reference to a “hooker”). Ducky is a duck-head PEZ dispenser with a baby doll torso and a plunger bottom. There are many others from Sid’s freakish experiments.

These abominable creations are quite scary, especially for younger audiences, but they redeem themselves eventually when they help rescue Woody and Buzz. In the end, Sid’s mutant toys prove that there’s more to them than meets the eye—it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

What’s spooky about dummies is that they rely on someone—a ventriloquist—to bring them to life. The human must surrender themselves to becoming the dummy by relaxing their face and throwing their voice. Controlled by Mary Shaw, Billy unhinges his jaw and snaps it shut, moving his body in stiff, jerky motions. Horror movies make you question who controls whom—the dummy or the ventriloquist?

Billy from Dead Silence looks like a classic dummy with his tuxedo, bow tie, and slicked-back hair, but he also has Victorian Gothic vibes with the heavy shadows around his eyes and his ominous smile. Dead Silence may not be the greatest horror movie from James Wan and Leigh Whannell, with scenes more goofy than ghoulish, but the ending twist plays on the idea of ventriloquism in the most grisly and absurd way.

Only the waking nightmare of Skinamarink could transform the Fisher-Price Chatter Telephone into something utterly terrifying. Filmed through the eyes of young children wandering a dark home in the middle of the night, Skinamarink is a truly original sensory experience. The haunting whispers and groaning floors linger behind close-ups of ordinary household fixtures—walls, carpets, doors, and windows.

Later in the film, two white orbs emerge from the pitch-black darkness. Dread forms in the pit of your stomach because you cannot make out what these upside-down U’s are. Is it the face of a ghost or a demon? Who is watching us? Without warning, a light flickers on to reveal that these orbs are the eyes of the smiling telephone toy, looking up innocently. Your heart jumps into your throat as the ring screams from its boxy little body.

As the flashlight dances across the toy, a subtle but bone-chilling shift happens: The phone’s eyes suddenly lock onto the camera, and its small, cheerful smile flashes into a demonically wide grin. Evil lurks in every corner, destroying all the comforts of home and childhood play.

While more of an adult party game than an outright toy, the Talk to Me hand is something you’d never want to play with—especially not while drunk. The gray, embalmed hand isn’t just some parlor trick but a gateway to the afterlife. Simply grasping it and saying, “Talk to me,” allows the player to communicate with a dead person, while saying, “I let you in,” lets them completely take over the player’s body.

For a spirit to fully inhabit a player, they must completely surrender every part of their consciousness. You have only ninety seconds to break the connection by pulling your hand away and blowing out the candle before the spirit binds itself to you forever. The short window of time, combined with the harrowing and sometimes violent glimpses they may receive of the spirit’s past life, makes the adrenaline-fueled parties in Talk to Me incredibly dangerous.

As A.I. becomes more and more present in our lives, so does the possibility of personal robots. Robots are nothing new to horror or action movies, but you’ve never seen one slay a dance routine before slaying people. M3GAN is the perfect friend; she’d do anything for you—offer advice, sing Sia’s Titanium as a lullaby, or even take a bully’s life.

M3GAN is more than a high-tech toy; she is a calculating predator that you cannot keep up with or control. She has swift and smooth movements and a piercing, ice-blue stare that constantly sizes up everyone to make sure they are not a threat. She is quick and cunning in her vengeance, using ordinary household objects such as high-pressure pesticide or a paper cutter to kill, and even manipulating a boy into walking straight into traffic.

Although M3GAN does have a campy tone, it reminds us of all the frightening potential of A.I. becoming too intelligent or human-like.

Most kids love animals and would do anything to be close to them, which is why zoos and aquariums are so popular. But humanity’s hubris often leads us to forget that nature is all-powerful and dangerous. With the roll of a die, the Jumanji board game has the power to bring giant spiders and stampeding rhinos right into your living room.

There are many bizarre rules, like the game must be played until the end, or else you’ll end up like Alan—trapped inside for 26 years, mentally broken from the isolation. Jumanji isn’t just about winning or losing; it has deadly consequences, with risks of being poisoned or experiencing the body horror of transforming into a monkey.

While the film Jumanji is meant to be a rollicking adventure, there’s a violent chaos to the game that makes it pretty menacing.

Toys are the most thrilling part of Christmas, nestled under your tree or stuffed inside your stocking. What happens when they’re trying to kill you? There are plenty of creepy creatures and demonic toys in Krampus, which tells the story of a horned beast who punishes naughty children.

The design of Der Klown, Eater of Children, is one of the most frightening killer toy creations ever. It’s a massive, oversized version of the Jack-in-the-Box toy with a body that resembles crumpled, dead snake skin. Der Klown’s antique craftsmanship features an all-white face, soulless black dots for eyes, and a smiling jaw that opens so wide we can see the feet of the children it slowly shoves down its throat.

The bottom of its jaw unhinges like a sliding door, parting in two to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. The jester’s hat and ruffled collar are meant to evoke a fun and silly trickster—an image that sharply contrasts with its bloodthirsty rampage, making the creature even more disturbing.

The original Annabelle in the real-life Warren cases was actually a soft, handmade-style Raggedy Ann doll with a sweet triangular nose, rosy cheeks, and bright red yarn hair. She didn’t look scary at all. Her design in The Conjuring universe, however, makes it clear that this doll is perfect for demonic possession.

She has a cracked porcelain face, bulging glassy eyes, and protruding cheeks. Her eyes are framed with black shadow, and the lines of her smile are deeply grooved, making her look like an eerie blend of a little girl and an old woman.

What’s truly frightening about Annabelle is that she can control everything around her: lights flicker, shadows appear, and doors creak open on their own. Sometimes, she pops up in unexpected places or gradually turns her head. Director James Wan masterfully crafts the slow-burn jump scares that make audiences wary of what she will do next.

Whenever you see her, you know something terrifying is just around the corner—whether it be a demon, someone’s death, or the unholy appearance of that ghastly nun.

Most people are terrified of clowns, and Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist gleefully taps into those primal fears in one of the most iconic horror sequences. The clown sitting in Robbie’s bedroom has a more vintage, over-exaggerated style. Its eyes have a white, arched outline with tiny, pale blue irises, rosy cheek circles, and a large, round, reddish-orange bulbous nose.

The mouth is etched into an unnerving grin. It’s nothing you’d ever want to play with, let alone have sitting in a chair directly facing you while you sleep! When Robbie lifts his head from his pillow to take another look at the clown, it’s gone. He slowly peers under the bed but sees nothing.

When he rises, Poltergeist delivers one of the biggest jump scares of all time as the possessed clown’s long, springy arms with candy-cane stripes coil around Robbie’s neck like a boa constrictor. The classic childhood fears of clowns, what’s hiding under the bed, and a dark, stormy night all collide in this freaky scene.

The most recognizable terrifying toy is easily Chucky from Child’s Play. Although his brand is called Good Guy, his design is off-putting even before he’s possessed by serial killer Charles Lee Ray. His overalls and rainbow-striped t-shirt are meant to seem innocent, but there’s something about his wild, unruly red hair and pale blue eyes that just feels off. That’s the moment you realize this Good Guy is anything but.

He may be small, yet he is mighty and ferocious, grabbing a knife and dashing towards his victims. It’s jarring to see the evil way his cherubic face snaps: his eyebrows crinkle, his mouth twists into a sneer, and his sweet, high-pitched mechanical voice suddenly turns into a gravelly, smoker’s rasp filled with rage and expletives.

While later entries in the Child’s Play series lean more toward the comical and Chucky becomes more computer generated, there’s nothing like those lifelike practical effects and the raw nastiness of the original.