Steeped in the primal discomfort of the uncanny, dolls and the houses they inhabit are an especially fluid and perennially creepy motif within popular culture. Revealing historical and on-going tensions between what it means to be human and what it means to only perform those attributes, these remnants of childhood carry with them specific cultural messaging that has been particularly fertile ground for the horror genre.
For special issue #10 (spring 2026) of Horror Homeroom, we’re diving into the world of creepy dollhouses and their inhabitants. We’re interested in abstracts about the dolls and dollhouses of horror – or of horror adjacent narratives (thrillers, mysteries, science fiction etc.).
You can focus on literal dollhouses, from the sublime (Hereditary) to the wonderfully ridiculous (Amityville Dollhouse, Doll House) – and everything in between (e.g., The Twilight Zone, Betty Ren Wright’s The Dollhouse Murders, Creepshow’s “The House of the Head,” Tales from the Hood’s “KKK Comeuppance,” Doctor Who’s “Night Terrors,” The Lovely Bones, Sharp Objects). Think also miniatures and dioramas. And you can be creative: dolls and mannequins inevitably turn the places they live into de facto dollhouses – so what are the implications of this uncanny move? Read more
