The title character in The Rule of Jenny Pen is terrifying, but not human. Instead, Jenny Pen is a doll/hand puppet wielded with evil relish by John Lithgow’s Dave Crealy. Its bland doll face seems harmless enough, but the film is shot so that light appears to glow through its blank eye sockets, and sometimes the facial expression changes (which doesn’t actually happen, but is a result of the fear the puppet inflicts on its victims).
There are no supernatural elements to the story, and the truly evil character is Crealy himself, but Jenny Pen herself is still very, very creepy. Obviously, dolls and mannequins are fairly common props in horror movies, but which other films feature terrifying puppets?
Note that I have not included Puppet Master or any of its sequels. That’s because I have never watched the films. Does that make me a bad horror fan?
Abruptio
The entire cast of this trippy, gory film is comprised of life-sized puppets, and the voices are supplied by a top notch cast, including James Marsters, Jordan Peele, Hana Mae Lee, Sid Haig and Robert Englund.
Abruptio is the tale of average guy Les, who discovers he has a small bomb implanted in his neck. In order to prevent the bomb from being detonated, Les must perform a series of brutal tasks, including killing people.
These puppets are eerily realistic, and lend a very strong creepiness to the fascinating and harrowing storyline. Creator/Director Evan Marlowe worked on his film for eight years before it was released, and the attention to detail with the characters is very evident. Abruptio can be rented or purchased on Amazon Prime.
Dead Silence
For this entry, I am counting a ventriloquist dummy as a puppet. Jamie and Lisa receive an anonymous gift, a ventriloquist dummy named Billy. When Lisa is brutally murdered, Jamie is determined to get answers, and returns to his home town of Raven’s Fair to investigate the history of now-dead ventriloquist Mary Shaw.
As Jamie discovers, Mary Shaw vowed revenge upon his entire family after his great-uncle (then a child) heckled Mary during one of her performances, claiming he could see her lips move. In a macabre twist, Mary kills anyone who screams at the sight of her.
Billy is bad enough as far as creepy puppets go, but Mary had multiple dolls, which were buried, and she even turned one of her victims into a marionette. Not only that, she can actually re-animate the dead as lifelike dummies.
Judith Roberts gives a truly killer performance as the evil Mary Shaw, and True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten is solid as Jamie. Dead Silence can be rented on a number of streaming platforms, including Prime.
Mad God
This modern stop-motion masterpiece was 30 years in the making, and was created by visual effects master Phil Tippett (who worked on such blockbusters as Star Wars, Jurassic Park and RoboCop).
A human figure, who we know as “the assassin” descends into a universe filled with strange creatures and monsters. Although it is nearly impossible to break down the plotline for you, it doesn’t even matter if you have any idea of all as to what is happening – what’s important is the visual effects, which are jaw-dropping.
To be honest, I don’t even know if I should count these grotesque stop-motion figures as puppets, but it’s the closest description that fits. The creatures are terrifying, and there is an ample amount of gore and killing to fit Mad God into the horror category.
Mad God can be watched on Shudder.
Magic
This 1978 psychological horror/thriller truly holds up after all these years. Anthony Hopkins plays a ventriloquist named Corky who has made a living with his foul-mouthed dummy Fats. When his agent scores him a television show, Corky is worried that his mental health issues may stand in his way, so he takes off.
What mental health issues are we talking about? Well, Corky has come to believe that Fats is actually alive, and regularly converses and argues with him. All of this moves into deadly territory when Fats becomes jealous of Corky’s budding relationship with an old flame (Ann Margaret), and soon the bodies begin to fall.
With a great cast and a truly frightening dummy, Magic is a movie that will give you the full-on creeps, and leave you wondering whether or not Fats was alive.
Magic can be seen on Tubi.
Saw
With a total of 10 films (including Spiral), Saw is one of the top-grossing horror franchises of all time. And of course, the iconic figure from the movies is “Billy”, the puppet that rides a tricycle, tells Jigsaw’s victims why they have been chosen, and what they must do to avoid a grisly death.
I will confess that I haven’t seen all of the Saw movies, but the first one really blew me away, and Billy was truly an inspired touch. His first appearance in Saw was a real WTF moment thanks to his bizarre, almost childlike look and actions.
Billy has become a recognized figure in the world of horror, and has been parodied multiple times. He also appears as graffiti or in drawings in multiple James Wan films.
Saw and its sequels can be viewed on many different streaming apps.