Twisted Dolls owner turns unwanted dolls into handcrafted horror creations
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| Photo: Haunt Hunters App |
It often starts with an idea, and then the search for a good face and body begins. Once a match is found, the eyes are removed, the hair is plucked off, and the clothes and makeup are stripped away.
By then, the transition into a spooky doll is well underway.
Mary Jo Chudley, founder and owner of Twisted Dolls and Penn Paranormal, started making her horror creations about two years ago. She developed an interest in painting, crafts, and photography as a young child, an artistic side she continued to develop into adulthood.
“I wanted to do something different,” said Chudley, who also is a paranormal investigator. “People don’t collect dolls like they used to. You see them at flea markets, thrift stores, etc. So, I had an idea two years ago to take a few dolls I found at the thrift store and turn them into horror dolls.”
Her first creation was a Lizzie Borden doll she made from a tall, Irish doll. She also made a baby “Annabelle” doll from an old Shirley Temple doll. She created the baby “Annabelle” doll to accompany her larger “Annabelle” movie doll.
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| Photo courtesy of Twisted Dolls |
Chudley also collects haunted dolls and objects, which she keeps in her Pennsylvania home. The dolls she makes are not haunted, she said.
Once her dolls are ready for their transformations, Chudley said she paints them and then inserts custom eyes, prepares the wigs, searches for outfits, and usually looks for objects the dolls can hold.
One of Chudley’s largest creations was an approximately 5-foot-tall and lifelike doll depicting Regan from the movie, “The Exorcist.”
She got the idea to make the Regan doll after visiting a Halloween store last year with the intention of buying one, but, ultimately, leaving without it.“She was expensive and didn’t look real,” Chudley said of the store doll. So, I thought, ‘Let me try to make one for this Halloween. Then everyone loved her.’”
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| Photo: Haunt Hunters App |
Chudley bought a high quality and sturdy kids’ size mannequin with a stand and used a plain mask to build Regan’s face. She used plaster and paint to create her menacing expression and replicate the wounds Regan had on her face and arms in the movie. She added green to her eyes to resemble the demon-plagued girl’s malevolent glare and affixed a real human hair wig to the mannequin’s head.
“Then comes the fun with the throw up,” Chudley said of the textured mixture that looks like pea soup-colored vomit, which she splattered on the front of a green-flowered night gown.
Chudley makes a variety of spooky dolls, from demented clowns to sinister baby vampires.
“I do custom dolls for people and haunted houses,” she said. “I have made dolls for the Enfield Demon House, Haunted SK Mansion; [I’m] working on one for The Warren’s Paracon and made a bunch of paranormal mascot dolls and more.”
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| Photo courtesy of Twisted Dolls |
Chudley said her dolls have been featured in events at movie theaters, including “Date Night with Annabelle,” and “Date Night with Regan,” in which people watch the movies and have their photos taken with the dolls.
She said she loves making dolls that people will enjoy.
“I give old, unwanted dolls a new beginning with something different that everyone can enjoy all year round,” she said.
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| Photo courtesy of Twisted Dolls |
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| Photo courtesy of Twisted Dolls |
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| Photo courtesy of Twisted Dolls |
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| Photo courtesy of Twisted Dolls |
