The Island of Dolls: A Nightmare Come True
Dolls can be scary. They have beady eyes that follow your every move. Sometimes they’ve switched poses when you return to a room. Or they just have creepy scare, and they’re plastic or porcelain yet they look so human. If you’re scared of dolls, then imagine a whole island filled with them.
Yep, that’s what La Isla de las Munecas is. It’s an island overrun by dolls. The dolls dangle from trees. They’re missing eyes, hair, clothes, arms, legs. And it’s real, not just some twisted nightmare.
The Isla can be found in the Xochimilco area, in Mexico. And it’s creepy. Trust me.
Not only is the island a paradise for fans of dolls, it’s also reported to be haunted. The reason why the dolls are there is in fact a ghost story from the 1950s. A man named Julian Barrera lived in a lonely life in a hut on the island. He witnessed a girl drown, and grew convinced the girl’s spirit was haunting him. He heard disembodied giggles, silly songs, scraping noises from outside his cabin. In short, he experienced all typical signs of a haunting.
Barrara grew afraid, and when he saw a doll drift by in the water one night, he thought that was a sign from the deceased girl. He hung it on a tree on the island, hoping it would appease the spirit. But one doll wasn’t enough. He began hanging more and more dolls all across the island, and the doll-collecting turned into a real obsession.
Now, of course, rumors spread like wildfire about this strange man collecting numerous dolls to appease a spirit girl. Witnesses even claimed that Barrera talked to the dolls and acted like they were actual children.
Are you scared yet?
Well, when Barrera died, they found him floating face down in the same canal the little girl drowned – the girl that supposedly haunted him. Locals say Barrera’s spirit now tied to the island as well. And, because it’s apparently a fun tourist attraction, no one bothered to take down the dolls. Decades later, they’re still there, and their number has only grown over the years. People who visit the island sometimes bring a doll with them to appease the bad spirits that have infected the island. Others just bring a photo camera, and take dozens of equally-creepy pictures.
The current tenant is Barrera’s cousin, and he has plenty of spooky stories to tell about the dolls, the curse, and all the eerie things that happened on the island so far.
If you haven’t found an interesting holiday location yet, there’s no reason not to add La Isla de las Munecas to your list. Except, you know, how it’s just about one of the creepiest places on earth.
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Interested in reading more about haunted dolls? “The Doll Maker”, a scary lower grade chapter book focuses on possessed dolls. It’s a great book for kids – just the appropriate amount of scary.
Derek’s little sister wants one of those creepy-looking dolls, staring at him from the strange new doll shop in town, and what his sister wants, she gets. Now they’re stuck with a doll that looks so human, it gives Derek the creeps.
When Derek tells his friends, Martin and Jamie, about the new shop with creepy human-like dolls, they want to see for themselves. That has “bad idea” written all over it, but he takes his friends there anyway.
They meet the mysterious doll maker, who reminds Derek of Dr. Frankenstein, and who brainwashes Martin into buying one of those scary dolls. Derek and Jamie push and pull Martin out of the shop, but something isn’t right with their friend. He’s shivering all over, and he has no memory of what happened in the shop.
Martin’s condition worsens every day, and Derek’s sister grows more and more obsessed with her new doll. Derek and Jamie have to find out what’s going on, and fast, because….
…the doll maker seems linked to a bunch of mysterious disappearances, and the last thing Derek wants is his sister, or his friend, being next on the doll maker’s list.
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