Ontario's Creepy Doll Museum hits the road this Halloween

Some things are too scary to keep around the house — like a haunted doll someone discovered in a deep freeze, for example. But that hasn't stopped one Ontario school teacher.

Kathryn Bahun has dolls stashed absolutely everywhere. There's a dozen displayed in her living room, and another dozen in the kitchen — plus a few hundred more that are stuffed away in the closet.

For most of the year, Bahun's house in Peterborough is the official collections repository of the Creepy Doll Museum, a project she founded in 2019 with her friend, Ben Hatcher. And over the last five years, the museum has become a local tradition during spooky season.

For two days every October, visitors can find the Creepy Doll Museum inside a small local arts venue (Theatre on King). To set the mood, the space is transformed with eerie lighting and music. And then, of course, there's the dolls. Rows and rows of dolls. And mint-condition beauties, they aren't.

They're not deliberately sinister in the vein of horror-movie killers like Chucky, M3gan and Annabelle. These are "wayward dolls," per the curators: second-hand toys that have lost eyes, hair or a chunk of cranium. 

"Even if they have cracked skin and cloudy eyes, I see them as beloved playthings that are old and worn and want some love," says Bahun.

"But I do find that when they're all together in the collection, their creepiness is contagious," adds Hatcher.

"Yeah, I agree," says Bahun. "All set up, the event has an ominous, creepy feel."

Welcome to the dollhouse

In the beginning, the project was the quirky byproduct of the duo's thrifting habit. "I couldn't stop buying them — rescuing them from yard sales and thrift shops," says Bahun, and as her collection grew, the idea of a pop-up museum felt inevitable. "People needed to see these dolls," she laughs.

In its first year, the museum put 50 dolls on display. Since then, the collection has more than quadrupled, and while the duo still loves a garage-sale haul, most of their dolls were donated by folks across the country — from Vancouver Island to Halifax — and they credit a 2019 appearance on CBC's a 2019 appearance on CBC's As it Happens for the boost in acquisitions.

This year, as the museum marks its fifth anniversary, the curators are ambitious to expand. After a successful stint in Prince Edward County last fall, they've decided to make the museum a touring event, and they'll bring it anywhere that's brave enough to host it.

Where can you find the Creepy Doll Museum?

Later this week, the Creepy Doll Museum will make its Toronto debut at the Red Sandcastle Theatre (Oct. 20-21) — steps from another local cache of creepy toys (the Leslieville Value Village) — before returning to Peterborough's Theatre on King the following weekend (Oct. 27-28). 

For the Peterborough event, there'll be puppet shows (check the museum's Instagram for info), and the curators have prepared "perfect attendance buttons" for visitors who've bought tickets to all five editions. 

Both weekends will feature a curated selection of the museum's weirdest artifacts, and as in previous years, the dolls will be displayed with biographies written by the founders and a few of their author friends (Michelle Berry, Devon Code, Sarah Higginson, Mike Pettit and Matt Snell). 

Hardcore hobbyists be warned, however: any info on the dolls' actual provenance is 99 per cent fiction — and played up for laughs and/or terror. But if you have any questions, the curators will be in attendance. (Look for the two grown adults wearing doll costumes.) 

We had a few questions ourselves, which they graciously answered this week. 

When you started, did you imagine this would be something you'd continue every year? 

KB: (Laughs) We weren't sure it would happen the first year.

BH: Our goal for the first year was to walk out of there with enough money to share a pitcher of beer. 

KB: Yeah, if we were lucky.

BH: But before we even opened — on the first night — there was a line up around the block. 

The first year we got a fair amount of media coverage, and from that, people from all over Canada heard of us and just started mailing us their dolls. 

A lot of people have dolls that were left to them — and they're horrifying. They don't want them in the house, but they feel really guilty just throwing them out or donating them. They feel like if they can send it to us, they can pass the doll on to a better place. And so now, our collection is mostly donations from all over Canada. 

What's new for 2023? Are there any new acquisitions you'd like to highlight?

BH: Well, a week or two ago, someone got in contact with us. Her sister had passed, and she had a doll collection.

KB: A large doll collection …

BH: She reached out to us with some photos of them, and they were perfect for us, so Kathryn went to pick them up …

KB: And I filled the car.

BH: We figure there's 80 dolls from that donation, so we are furiously writing biographies for all of these new dolls.

Do you accept every offer that you get, or what are you looking for? What makes a doll a good fit for the museum?

KB: It depends. For myself, I'm looking for a doll that looks like it has seen a lot of life. So cracked skin, cloudy eyes, matted hair. It could be the outfit. 

BH: I don't know if this was ever a conscious decision, but our collection is made up of dolls that weren't intended to be creepy. They're dolls that were beautiful at some point — or cuddly. But over time, tastes have changed — or just living in the barn for a hundred years has turned them creepy.

Does it change how you approach the project when you're entrusted with an heirloom or someone's beloved childhood toy?

BH: Definitely. It's harder when we get, like, 80 at a time (laughs), but sometimes we'll get one or two dolls. If they're local, we'll go and pick them up in person. And often those transfers are somewhat emotional for the person parting with the doll, because most of the time, they're giving away an item that belonged to somebody they really loved.

We'll often ask, "Do you know if this doll had a name?" "Where did it come from?"

We try to work in some of the back story, if we can, into the biographies of the donated dolls. 

KB: Any time I pick up a doll [from a donor], they say: "I just want it to go to a good home." Right now, we are that good home. In the future I will find them good homes again, because it'd be nice to have them live on.

Are you still actively accepting donations? And if so, how can people reach out to you?

BH: Facebook or Instagram would be the easiest way.

KB: Or email. Our email is creepydollmuseum@gmail.com. Typically, people send us photos of the doll, and then if we're interested, we work out shipping and go from there. But we are always actively looking for dolls. I think that every single show we've ever had has resulted in somebody leaving and coming back with a doll.

BH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Last year in Prince Edward County, someone left and came back with a doll that was made out of burlap sacks. It was filled with straw and looked like it had its arms cut off by a thresher. It was perfect.

It's been five years since you started. What keeps you going?

KB: It's a lot of fun. It really is. Hearing the laughter — and people recoiling.

BH: Yeah, the show itself is probably what keeps me going. In Peterborough, there's people that have come year after year after year. There's a strange amount of people on first or second dates — so I am hoping that one day there'll be a proposal at the museum. 

KB: And then maybe a wedding! (laughs)

BH: Since the COVID restrictions were lifted, the event feels more like a party. 

We're sort of in character as the museum curators during the night. At every event, we get all kinds of people coming at us asking questions about the collection. Whether or not our answers are true, we're not sure, but we do try to be consistent.

What are the more common questions that get thrown your way?  

BH: Are any of them haunted?

KB: Yeah, we get that one a lot. 

What do you tell them? 

BH: We often say: "What do you think?" (laughs)

BH: You're not allowed to touch the dolls. But we've had some people come in and ask if they can "feel the presence" of the dolls, like put their hands really close to them. So some people have told us which dolls have — maybe nefarious energies? (laughs)

Are any of those coming to Toronto?

BH: They are all coming to Toronto.

KB: But if it makes anybody feel better, these dolls are inside my house all year and they seem very happy. We've had no incidents. Me, my two children: we're all good. 

This conversation has been edited and condensed.

The Creepy Doll Museum. Oct. 20-21 at Red Sandcastle Theatre, Toronto. Oct. 27-28 at Theatre on King, Peterborough. Find more info on Facebook and Instagram.