The Creepy Doll Contest Is Back—and It’s Time to Cast Your Vote for the Most Terrifying Toy
Step right up and see the spooky circus dolls—from creepy clowns to frightening fortune-tellers—in a Minnesota museum’s vintage toy collection
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With Halloween on the horizon, it’s time to get into the spooky spirit. And what better way to do that than by looking at photos of eerie vintage dolls?
The History Center of Olmsted County in Rochester, Minnesota, is once again hosting its annual Creepy Doll Contest. Back for its sixth year, the competition shines a spotlight on the museum’s collection of terrifying toy dolls.
This year’s theme is “Circus After Dark.” (Last year, the museum staged an interactive murder mystery.)
Curators selected eight dolls who got left behind while the circus was in town and ended up “picking up the tricks of the trade,” according to the museum’s website. One doll is a contortionist, while another is an animal tamer. There’s a pair of “Trapeze Twins” named Babette and Brisbane, as well as a clown named Roland.
A fortune-teller named Madame Bell can see into the future—but she’s not likely to reveal what she knows.
“I stayed with the circus to hone my skills, and now I’ve seen the future of many a famous star and infamous guest,” says “Madame Bell” in an Instagram post from the museum. “I’ve seen my share of dark horrors, but I’ll only share the good bits, I promise. What I can say is I see you visiting me in person very soon.”
The fearsome figures are the focus of an ongoing exhibition at the museum. They also played a starring role at the museum’s annual fundraising party on October 19, and they make regular appearances on the museum’s social media pages.
Members of the public are encouraged to vote for the doll they find the most terrifying, either online or in person, by October 31.
Museum staffers started the creepy doll contest in 2019. After sharing photos of some of the vintage dolls online, the uncanny images went viral and amassed a following of fans around the globe.
The History Center of Olmsted County has more than 100 historic dolls in its collection. They date to between 1825 and 1985, and they all have a direct link to the county’s history.
Other museums are also getting in on the spooky action with their own exhibitions and interactive experiences. Throughout the month of October, six dolls from the mid-19th to early-20th centuries are on display at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, Mississippi. In Oregon, Bend Ghost Tours is organizing a creepy doll scavenger hunt with five dolls who are looking for new homes to haunt. The Hancock Historical Museum in Findlay, Ohio, is running its own creepy doll contest, and there’s even a Creepy Doll Museum in Ontario, Canada.
Year-round, hair-raising dolls also sometimes turn up in unexpected places—like on Texas beaches and in Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
If you’re afraid of dolls, you may suffer from pediophobia, which falls under the broader umbrella fear of humanoid figures known as automatonophobia.
Dolls have long been portrayed as unnerving in popular culture. One of the earliest known movies about eerie dolls, The Doll’s Revenge, debuted in 1907, per Sandra Mills, a literary scholar at the University of Hull in England.
Why are dolls so terrifying? Their horror “lies in their uncanny resemblance to something that it is inherently not human,” writes Mills for the Conversation.
“Their faces, whether of porcelain or plastic, mimic our own and so are imbued with an eerily uncanny hue,” she adds.
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