My Uncanny Valley Experience ~ the doll from hell

Posted on February 18, 2024 by Amythyst Raine

I received the doll when I was 3 or 4-years-old. She was a gift from my Aunt, and she was the same size as me. She had shoulder length auburn hair and bangs, big blue eyes with dark lashes, a stretchy narrow gold headband, a light blue and white party dress, and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes. She eventually found a permanent spot in my upstairs bedroom, and this is where she stayed for many years to come, and so did I.

I grew to be very afraid of this doll, and I grew to hate her.

It started when I was about 6-years-old. I would get an uneasy feeling around this doll. She stood as a sentinel at my bedroom door, and I would have to pass by her every time I entered or exited the room. I noticed that when I did this, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up. This is something that I kept to myself, thinking it was just me. I never told anyone of my experiences, or even how I felt about this doll.

But there was an even more disturbing phenomena, which became more pronounced and troubling with time, and it’s also something that I never told anyone… out of the corner of my eye, with my peripheral vision, I would see this doll move. She would raise an arm slightly, or turn her head. And I always had the unnerving feeling that it was watching me.

One day, when I was about 9-years-old, I was exiting my bedroom door, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw the doll raise her arm. Without hesitation, I bolted down the short hallway, spun around the banister at the top of the stairs, took the first 2 or 3 steps, and then leaped from the staircase to the floor below. I don’t know how I did this without getting hurt. I didn’t go back upstairs for hours that day. I put it off as long as I could, dreading going back up to my room.

When my grandmother passed away, I was 28 and still living in this house, still the inhabitant of the upstairs bedroom, and that wretched doll still stood guard at that bedroom doorway. Now, having the house to myself, I picked it up and shoved it in the upstairs hallway closet. Everytime I passed through my bedroom doorway and walked down that short hallway, past the closet door, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up.

Fast forward decades later, I’m 36-years-old. I’m visitng my Aunt in South Dakota, and my sister had come out to her house to visit as well. My Aunt dug out photo albums from our childhood, and my sister and I sat in a huddle at the kitchen table, pouring over these photos and reminicing. We came to a photo of a 4-year-old me and the life-size doll. My sister lowered her voice, leaned in close to my face, and she said…. “Did you ever see her move?”

Patti PlayPal 1959 ~ everything is identical to my doll, except the hair, which was more auburn, straight, and to the shoulders.

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Uncanny Valley… What is it?

Posted on February 17, 2024 by Amythyst Raine

I have never heard of this term until today, but it makes a lot of sense and puts a name to something that so many people experience — fear of dolls, mannequins, clowns, elves, robots, etc. Why are they so creepy? Well, there’s a reason…

Uncanny Valley, definition: a term that describes the “eerie sensation” people feel when they encounter a robot with human-like characteristics. It was first coined in 1970 by Masahiro Mori, a robotics professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

The Uncanny Valley theory: The uncanny valley is a theory in aesthetics suggesting a humanoid object appearing almost, but not exactly, like a real human can evoke feelings of eeriness or revulsion, rather than familiarity, due to the object’s proximity to reality yet noticeable imperfections.

Why do we experience Uncanny Valley: Some cognitive explanations of the uncanny valley include the idea that we assign humanlike qualities or a mind to artificial people, and this can cause cognitive dissonance and confusion since we don’t know if we should treat them as human, or trust them to behave as such.

Why is the movie, The Polar Experess, considered Uncanny Valley: The Polar Express is controversial and creepy to some viewers thanks to its animation style, which created a phenomenon known as Uncanny Valley. While the filmmakers clearly opted for a more realistic art style, many of The Polar Express’s characters look human but not human enough.For those who are creeped out by The Polar Express, know that you’re not alone. What’s more, while the visuals were pretty impressive when the movie was released back in 2004, it hasn’t aged well and the sense of Uncanny Valley has arguably worsened with its age. The creators of The Polar Express made the fatal mistake of filming actors with motion-capture technology, which gave every character dead lifeless eyes.

Is Uncanny Valley a psychologcial response: There are a number of psychological phenomena in which dramatic emotional responses are evoked by seemingly innocuous stimuli. A well known example is the Uncanny Valley effect, whereby a near human-looking artifact can trigger feelings of eeriness and repulsion.

Does everyone experience Uncanny Valley: Further, neuroscientists have found that not everyone experiences the uncanny valley the same way; one may be more or less affected by the phenomenon based on previous life experience.

How do you overcome Uncanny Valley: For those professionals who create humanoid figures and characters for movies and books… A good way to avoid Uncanny Valley is to move a character’s proportions and structure outside the range of human. One reason Gollum was so successful is that he has big eyes, and the shape of his face is not quite human. Grendel in Beowulf is also disfigured and deformed.

Why is Uncanny Valley so creepy: Mori coined the term Uncanny Valley to describe his observation that as robots appear more humanlike, they become more appealing, but only up to a certain point. Upon reaching Uncanny Valley, our affinity descends into a feeling of strangeness, a sense of unease, and a tendency to be scared or freaked out.