Killer Dolls

Dolls fascinate me, they look so innocent, so harmless. Yet people are terrified of them. So many stories exist of cursed dolls that have been possessed by demons and vengeful spirits. Some that simply like to move around, blink, mess with cameras and furniture. Others that bring misfortune, and sometimes death to those that possess them.   

Robert the doll, a little boy in a sailor suit who carries with him a stuffed puppy now sits forever behind glass on a wooden chair. Visitors come to see him in order to request photos or videos. Those that do not give him the consideration of such a request are said to be cursed until till they apologise to him for their rudeness. Now well over 100 years old, Robert the Doll was named after his owner Robert Eugene Otto who was gifted the doll when just a small boy. Stories do vary as to who gave Robert to Otto, some say it was his grandmother, others grandfather, some even say it was a disgruntled housekeeper who was fired for practicing black magic giving the cursed doll to Otto as a final act of revenge. Whatever his origins, Robert thrills those who come to peek at him saying that he gives off an eerie feeling. People claim that his expression changes and his black eyes bore through them. Those that work at the museum where he resides say that they can hear him moving around in his box at night and that he is sometimes found in different positions.

Another well-known doll is Annabelle. This darling red headed raggedy Anne doll doesn’t look even remotely scary. Her stitched smile and eyes give her a very childlike innocent appearance and it is very hard to believe she possesses such evil. Gifted to a young nursing graduate Donna, Annabelle started her hauntings innocuously. Moving around the apartment from bedroom to loungeroom, sometimes being seen standing upright on her feet, or sitting cross legged and staring off into space when she had originally been lying on the bed. But things began to get far more sinister, notes saying “help me” were found near her and her hands and back were stained with blood spots. A séance was performed by a medium who said that a young girl of 7 years old had possessed the doll hoping to find a new family to love her. It was not till another housemate started being attacked by Annabelle that it was clear this story was far from correct. It took an investigation by Ed and Lorraine Warren after Donna contacted Father Hegan desperate for help to find out that Anabelle was not a little girl, but a demon. Fearing that this demon intended to take over a human host the doll was taken away by the Warrens and is now amongst their wild collection of haunted objects at their personal museum. And there she stays. People who wish to see her are warned not to taunt her or touch her in case she tries to possess them, or worse, she tries to have them killed.

Dolls are certainly a favourite for the horror genre. Both Robert and Annabelle having inspired their own movies. But even without the “true story” aspect, some fictional dolls have inspired true fear in movie goers. One such character no one can go past is Chucky. This little guy ends up possessed by a serial killer on the run from police. From there he is bought by a mother for her sons’ birthday and from there he has become an iconic little demon doll who has slashed his way into our hearts. Smart mouthed, truly twisted, and somehow able to continuously come “back from the dead” Chucky has been the main antagonist in 7 different movies. Including one where he manages to father a child.

Dolls are not always depicted as evil. In the Japanese manga series, and subsequent Tv show, Rozen Maiden, Shinku, a bisque doll made by the artist Rozen, and her fellow dolly friends all battle each other to become the perfect doll. Known as the Alice game, each doll fights the others in order to collect their Rosa Mystica, once all 7 have been collected they will then earn a reunion with their creator and the title of Alice. This story of characters follows the dolls journey to becoming the perfect doll while building strong bonds with each other as well as their hosts Jun Sakurada, a boy who has shut himself off from the world due to bullies, and his sister Nori Sakurada who tries very hard to encourage him back into the world. The story is a beautiful example of how friendships can help heal and rebuild someone. That family comes in all forms and with these bonds comes new strength.

So it is, that while dolls have certainly cemented their place in the world of horror and slasher movies, they can certainly find their way into other genres where their intentions are far less sinister in nature. Either way, I have certainly got a soft spot for these odd beings and intend to build my own little group of creepy “friends”.

 

Final Reflection

Aims:

The concept behind this project was to find a way to explore autoethnographic research, focusing mainly, on Asia. For this, I picked a well-known Japanese horror commuter game called ‘Corpse Party’, as I had already watched the short TV series that was made based on the game. Some of the reasons for this choice in the game came down to my love of the horror genre, and a desire to see if I could play a horror game (because I am such a wimp when it comes to horror games). But also, to see if the game itself reflected Japanese culture. This would then lead to further research into the game, and eventually into reading Asian Urban legends which became the focus of the next part of my project.

Method:

In the beginning, it was all about wanting to try my hand at a ‘Let’s play’ video. I have watched so many, and know my children (especially my oldest) enjoy watching them. So, it just made sense to me that I gave it a go. The horror genre was just a given. I might hate (and still hate) playing horror games, but I did not wish to stray too far from familiar territory since I was doing something new ( let’s play1, let’s play 2, let’s play 3).

For those who are not familiar with the let’s play genre. It is, essentially, about people (solo or in groups) who film themselves while they play games. These can be board games, console games, Apps, even role-playing games. Someone I follow regularly is The Rad Brad, can make quite a decent living out of these videos. The concept is for people to enjoy the “experience” of these games, even if they may not own them, or have the capacity to play them, themselves. They can also come in handy if you DO own the game, and might be a little stuck on what to do. Sort of like a walkthrough. My son watches them to learn new things about Minecraft, also, and rather annoyingly, discovers new games that he will then beg me to buy.

This particular project would follow along with the path of multiple autoethnographic research methods. The ‘let’s play’ videos and blogs would be more of a ‘layered’ account of my experience playing the game combined with the research. Layered accounts illustrate how “data collection and analysis proceed simultaneously” (sited Ellis, Adams & Bochner, 2011, CHARMAZ, 1983, p.110) encouraging those who are watching my videos, and reading my blogs to be part of my own experiences.

Not wanting to spend too much time talking about anything unrelated to the game as I played, I also wrote up small informative blogs that accompanied the videos. The blogs (blog 1, blog 2, blog 3, blog 4) contained the history of the game, information about the Japanese horror genre, tropes and anything else I came across in my research. It was through this research that my project began to evolve, and I ended up changing my mind about the initial concept.

Wanting to know more about the religious, the cultural and the economic aspects that are often used in these horror games, my research had begun to broaden. I found that some of the tropes that popped up over, and over again in many of the movies (and the game) were in some way linked to mythology, folk tales and urban legends told across Asia. This was when my research evolved into more of Narrative ethnographies and Reflexive ethnographies research method. As my blogs began to follow along as I went from playing the game, to extend my research into movies and then the legends. My backstage research endeavors become the focus of investigation (ELLIS, 2004) and I explored the narratives of these legends through a ‘reaction’ video where I read out multiple legends.

The reason for my reaction video was due to how extensive my research was getting, so I opted to focus on, and investigate further into urban legends. According to Wikipedia, Urban legends are a form of modern folklore usually consisting of fictional stories, often with macabre elements, deeply rooted in local popular culture (2017). Apparently, these are meant to be retellings of “true” events. However, thanks to the internet, it is much easier to debunk those stories that are fake. Either way, it is very scary knowing that some of what you’re reading could, very well, have some element of truth, however minor it might be. It is this little tidbit of information, that made this become a little bit too scary for even me to continue after I made my own ‘reaction’ video as I read out some urban legends that I found.

Discoveries:

Sophia Siddique and Raphael Raphael expressed in their book ‘Transnational Horror Cinema: Bodies of Excess and the Global Grotesque’ how ‘the first works of horror stitch together the flesh of various national and generic texts. They believed that all horror movie all seem to explore the notion of the transgressions of corporeal boarders or the exploration of the borders between humans and animal (2016).

Indeed, through the playing of the game, watching movies, and reading many different Asian Urban legends I began to get the sense of familiarity with the western style movies, games, and tales I also knew well. The Asian urban legends dealt with vanity, rape culture, murder, and domestic violence (to name a few themes) something which I could still relate to easily, even as a westerner. The urban legend called ‘The red room’ seemed to also touch, ever so slightly, on how we are being advertised to everywhere we go. What I mean is, this is an urban legend based on an internet pop up add. It was bizarre, funny, and absolutely terrifying all at once. I also recognized some of the legends, such as the one about Kuchisake-onna, from movies I had watched.

It was interesting to discover, though not surprising, that Japanese horror movies are some of the more successful types of films, and in fact some of the more influential types of films, as far as impacts made on horror films in the western world after the second world war. In the book, A Companion to the Horror Film, Harry M. Benshoff believes this could be due to the preoccupation with the uncanny, and the ‘monstrous’ hybridity provided social barometer for a myriad of cultural anxieties (2017) which is definitely something that can be easily shared with any other culture around the world. And most likely why I find this genre of the movies, and TV shows so intriguing and entertaining no matter the country it originates from.

Results:

I was unaware how far I would end up from where I began, and it has been extremely eye-opening. Not just on an intellectual level, but an emotional one as well.

As far as dabbling in autoethnographic research, I will not dispute the fact it can be used as part of a larger research project. Personal experiences have merit, and if you have documented this experience along the way to prove this experience then, most certainly the information you have gathered is legitimate. However, I would argue that, maybe due to my own experiences, the issue of this information being significantly biased could result in skewed results. For me, it meant that, while processing my own experiences, I also sourced other information to support it. I felt like I was writing more of an opinion piece for the Asian horror genre, and not a research project. However, it was an enjoyable way of handling a project, and I can honestly say that I think this is a great way to get a deeper understanding of the subject matter. And I guess, if the whole idea is just to get a better personal perspective, then a bit of bias isn’t a bad thing.

The project did take on a bit of a personal aspect for me. I have always been a spiritual person, I believe in the afterlife, I believe in ghosts/spirits. I have personally had experiences, as a young child and as an adult, that even my logical brain cannot explain.  So, let’s just say, when I started watching a YouTube video that narrated some rather more, gruesome, urban legends/ghost stories, I was quick to stop the video and just walk away. After that, the lights were left on and I decided I had, had enough of researching these stories. I found my limit, watching a movie/tv show is a very different experience to reading/listening to these stories as you have to personally visualize the images. This personal element just made me very uncomfortable.

I also took a very relaxed view when it came to creating my videos. I am not great at editing, so I simply filmed and uploaded what I did in one shot. Indeed, when filming my reaction video I did it from the comfort of my own bed. I found the idea entertaining as that is where I generally hide to watch all my scary movies since I have kids. I was also being lazy that morning and just didn’t want to move.

From start to finish this has been an amazing experience. I have learned so much about Asian cultures that I now appreciate the movies I have watched so much more.

 

 

 

 

 

Autoethnographic research, as I understand it

I honestly didn’t know what to think about Autoethnographic research when I began the task of playing ‘Corpse party’ for my little project. The idea that experiencing something as a legitimate way to collect data baffled me and I wasn’t sure how well I would do, and I wasn’t all that keen to start. Even though I fully threw myself into the task, like I do with anything these days that is new, I wasn’t sure if the outcome would be very fruitful. How wrong I was.

Franco, J 2013, HAPPY NEW MONTH! Wrapping up October 2013, Nov 2,http://limereviews.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/happy-new-month.html

Through experiencing the game, and the research I did to back up my little let’s play experiment, my eyes were opened to a new way of looking at the horror genre.  When watching these movies and TV shows, I never really stopped to think of the little tropes that have begun to crop up in pretty much every movie I have watched. Although, some have managed to move away from these and the movies that have resulted are honestly some of the best I have seen.

Further research into the background stories of some of the more famous Japanese horror movies like the 1998 film Ringu (the ring), and the 2002 film Ju-on (the grudge) revealed that they were both loosely based on Banchō Sarayashiki, a well-known Japanese ghost story about a woman who throws herself (or in some re-telling is thrown) down a well, rising from the well each day to haunt people forever unless someone can find a way to put her soul to rest. As discussed in one of my blogs, the idea is that a person comes back from the dead to seek revenge for their wrongful death, or maybe due to the fact they did not receive a proper burial. Either way, they will attack anyone who crosses their path.

So, what is autoethnographic research? Well, Carolyn Ellis, Tony E. Adams and Arthur P. Bochner describe is as autoethnography as an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyse personal experience to understand the cultural experience. (2011). It is a way of using your own social, cultural, religious, recreational or some other form of experience as a different way of analysing information. Sarah Wall believes that autoethnography begins with a personal story (Wall 2008) an intriguing and promising qualitative method that offers a way of giving voice to personal experience for the purpose of extending sociological understanding (2008). For me, it was born from watching multiple Japanese horror films in my teens, sneaking into M+ movies after lying to the ticket collectors that I was over the age of 15. Now as an adult, I have seen so many films and shows I can watch them without lights and completely alone. I will not lie, no matter how hard I try those damn jump scares ALWAYS get me and after playing ‘corpse party’ I learned that I will never be able to play a horror game. Just not going to happen.

GIPHY, https://giphy.com/gifs/80s-sridevi-amrish-puri-QuUfbzXrYXWdG/

By diving into this project, sifting through the movies I had watched and finding the various tropes, I have now found myself looking up a variety of folklores, urban legends and ghost stories from all over Asia. I have also wanted to discover much more about the various religions and cultural backgrounds that are often depicted in the movies I have enjoyed so much. This stopped being about the experience I had playing the game, and more about experiencing the entire culture behind the game. Discovering the differences and the similarities that I have discovered when reading these tales to many of the western legends I grew up with.

Even while conducting this research I learned a lot. One thing was finding out that movies or cartoons based on Hindi urban legends is incredibly difficult, and even harder still is finding ones that are in English. I feel I have been let down by YouTube, and that is rare! I am sure, in time, I will find some website off in the corner of the world wide web that can offer me these movies with, at the very least, English subtitles. Because, as much as I would love to learn a new language, I struggle enough with English.

Walls discusses how writing as a form of therapy, a way of making sense of ourselves and our experiences (as cited Wall 2008), purge our burdens (as cited Wall 2008) of the things we have experienced. I can honestly say that my experiences with my research has been amazing, it has been eye opening, and yes, definitely therapeutic as I have used it as a form of escapism, but also a bit of a spiritual journey into the very reasons why I love these sorts of films.

And for your entertainment, a short informative youtube video on 10 “true” urban legends:

References:

Ellis C, Adams T E &. Bochner A P 2011, Autoethnography: An Overview, Vol 12, No. 1, Art 10, viewed 4 Sept 2017,   http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095

Wall, S 2008Easier Said than Done: Writing an Autoethnography, 1 March, viewed 4 Sept 2017, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/160940690800700103