Pupaphobia

What Is Pupaphobia? It is a physically and emotionally, and illogical fear of puppets. The person coping with this phobia may also fear marionettes and team mascots. Perhaps the pupaphobic person fears the puppet's exaggerated features or its disjointed, bizarre movements. In extreme cases of Pupaphobia, the person may avoid any situation that may involve performances for children because of their morbid fear of puppets. Pupaphobia derives from the Latin word “pupa”, meaning doll and the Greek “phobos” meaning fear.

What Makes Puppets So Scary? Horror films can ofter make a seamlessly harmless doll or puppet into a cold blooded killer. This is the case in Child's Play where magic turns a friendly talking doll, Chucky, into a destructive murderer. The Great Gabbo, 1929, which may be the first of this genera featured a very disturbed ventriloquist with a dummy that seems to have a mind of its own. More movies followed, such as the Dead of Night, a 1949 movie about a crazy sarcastic ventriloquist, and Devil Doll, a 1965 movie with the puppet turning on its master, just to name a couple. The dummy turning on its master is also an episode in the classic show, The Twilight Zone titled, "The Dummy”, which was one of my favorites. Other movies such as Child’s Play, Shadow Puppets, and Puppet Master (1989) added to the phobia by having puppets and dolls as killers.

Another phobia that goes along with Pupaphobia is Automatonophobia. This phobia is the fear of Ventriloquist dummies, dolls, mannequins, wax statues, humanoid robots, audio animatronics and any human like inanimate objects coming to life. Only rarely does the fear become a full-blown phobia, but it is relatively common to experience hesitation or nerves when confronting these figures.

What brings on these fears and the causes of Automatonophobia or Pupaphobia? It is currently unknown precisely what causes these phobias. Maybe it’s our own beliefs about how humans should act, so we tend to mistrust people who stare blankly, remain quiet, or act in ways that we do not consider normal behavior. Automatons are programmed to either move or to just standing still and quiet and can look surprisingly lifelike. Usually upon closer inspection it will show that they are slightly different. They have smooth perfect skin, vacant eyes, and other qualities that are typical for automatons but do not emphasis a human’s body. Automaton designers realize there are some restrictions of their work. This may involve dim lights, spotlights and other effects that could be considered unnerving adding to the frightening realistic effects that may bring on these phobias.

I don’t think I suffer from these phobias, but I didn’t want my daughter displaying her dolls on the shelves. I was creeped out by their starring vacant eyes.

Vincent Price: Master of Horror

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was born on May 27, 1911 and was an American film actor, remembered for his distinctive voice, his 6-foot 4-inch stature and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Marguerite Cobb and Vincent Leonard Price, Sr., who was the president of the National Candy Company. His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented "Dr. Price's Baking Powder", the first cream of tartar baking powder, and secured the family's fortune. He attended St. Louis Country Day School and furthered his education at Yale in art history and fine art. He was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity and the Courtauld Institute, London.

He became interested in the theater during the 1930s, appearing professionally on stage in 1935. He made his film debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe and established himself as a competent actor, in the movie Laura in 1944. His first venture into the horror genre was in the 1939 Boris Karloff film Tower of London and then following year he portrayed the title character in the film The Invisible Man Returns. He also protrayed some villainous roles in thrillers and he was also active in radio, lending his voice to the character of Robin Hood and crime-fighter Simon Templar, aka. The Saint.

In the 1950s, he started working in horror films, with a role in House of Wax (1953), and The Fly (1958). He also starred in the original House on Haunted Hill (1959) as the eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. In between these horror films, he protrayed Baka in The Ten Commandments. In the 1960s, he had a number of low-budget successes and played Egghead in the Batman television series. It was also in the 1960s that he began his role as a guest on the game show Hollywood Squares, even becoming a semi-regular in the 1970s, including being one of the guest panelists on the finale in 1980.

During the early 1970s, Vincent hosted and starred in BBC Radio's horror and mystery series The Price of Fear, and also appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Theatre of Blood (1973), in which he created a pair of serial killers. He also recorded dramatic readings of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poems. By 1975, he did less movies, more voice work and smaller venues like TV. His voice can be heard on Alice Cooper's first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare from 1975, and in a syndicated daily radio program, Tales of the Unexplained. He also made guest appearances in a 1970 episode of Here's Lucy and in a 1972 episode of The Brady Bunch, in which he played a disturbed archaeologist. By the summer of 1977, he began performing as Oscar Wilde in the one-man stage play Diversions and Delighs which was a success in every city, except for New York City.

In 1982, Price provided the narrator's voice in Vincent, Tim Burton's six-minute film and he performed a sinister type rap on the title track of Michael Jackson's Thriller album. One of his last major roles, and one of his favorites, was as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney Pictures' The Great Mouse Detective from 1986. In the 1980’s, Vincent could be heard in various places such as the PBS television series Mystery, on the Hanna-Barbera series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo as the mysterious Vincent Van Ghoul, and in horror-themed commercials for Tilex bathroom cleanser. In 1989, Price was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. In 1990, he did his last meaningful acting part as the inventor in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands.

Known for his clever stories, Vincent was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, where he once demonstrated how to poach a fish in a dishwasher. He was a noted gourmet cook and art collector, wrote several cookbooks, and hosted a cookery TV show, Cooking Pricewise.
Price was married three times and fathered a son, named Vincent Barrett Price, with his first wife, former actress Edith Barrett. He and his second wife, Mary Grant Price, donated hundreds of works of art and a large amount of money to East Los Angeles College in the early 1960s in order to provide for the Vincent and Mary Price Gallery there. Their daughter, Victoria, was born in 1962. His last marriage was to the Australian actress Coral Browne, who appeared with him in Theatre of Blood in 1973. He converted to Catholicism to marry her, and she became a U.S. citizen for him.

Vincent Price was a lifelong smoker and suffered from emphysema and Parkinson's disease for some time. His health forced his role in Edward Scissorhands to be much smaller than intended and also contributed to his retirement from Mystery, because his condition was becoming quite apparent on-screen. He died of lung cancer on October 25, 1993. He was cremated and his ashes scattered off Point Dume in Malibu, California.
I will forever remember Vincent Price for his creepy distintive voice and look in his eyes in all the horror flicks he was in. He did a good job of scaring me, sometimes chills to the bone. I also remember clearly his comedic wit on the game shows and talk shows he was on. That talent showed up on the sit-coms he was a guest on as well. He is truly one of a kind.