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Supposedly, there is a cursed doll named Robert on display in the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida.
Recently, professional ghost hunter Kalani Smith visited Robert and shared his experience on TikTok.
Now, the 25-year-old, along with Josh of the “Exploring with Joshy” TikTok channel, claim they have been cursed by Robert the doll after visiting it in Key West.
Smith and Josh kind of asked for it though, since they performed some sort of ritual service in the 117-year-old doll’s presence, but what happened to them following it is still pretty strange.
“Tonight, whatever happened in this room, truly changed my outlook, not only of the paranormal, but the power of this doll behind me,” Smith said in a TikTok video.
According to Smith, “We got attacked after the blood ritual was performed and felt like we caught on fire. It got insanely hot and then we both ended up throwing up.”
@kalanighosthunter @Sam Golbach warned us about Robert the doll , we didnt listen…. #kalanighosthunter @Exploring With Josh ♬ original sound – Kalani Ghost Hunter
Josh shared a different video and said his luck has been horrible since visiting Robert.
“After filming Robert the doll I’ve been having the worst luck and things have not been that good,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I do honestly believe the doll is the cause of it. This is the most haunted doll in the world.”
So, what’s up with this Robert doll anyway?
Well, according to Andy Wright of Atlas Obscura, Robert the doll was given to Robert Eugene Otto by his grandfather as a child.
“What people really remember is what they would probably term as an unhealthy relationship with the doll,” Cori Convertito, curator of the Fort East Martello Museum, said. “He brought it everywhere, he talked about it in the first person as if he weren’t a doll, he was Robert. As in he is a live entity.”
According to legend, young Otto began to blame mishaps on the doll. While this could have been laughed off as childish storytelling, adults also started noticing odd occurrences, especially as Otto and Robert grew older. As an adult, Otto lived in a stately home he called “The Artist House,” where Robert could be seen positioned at the upstairs window. Schoolchildren swore that he would appear and reappear, and they avoided the house. Myrtle Reuter purchased the Artist House after Otto’s death in 1974, and also became Robert’s new caretaker. Visitors swore they heard footsteps in the attic and giggling. Some claimed Robert’s expression changed when anyone badmouthed Otto in his presence. Rueter said Robert would move around the house on his own, and after twenty years of antics, she donated him to the museum.
If all of that sounds like a mix of Annabelle (another real life haunted doll) and Chucky from the Child’s Play films, it should. Traces of Robert’s story appear in films featuring both of those haunted dolls.
Robert has also been the subject of his own horror film franchise with the movies Robert, The Curse of Robert the Doll, The Toymaker, The Revenge of Robert the Doll, and Robert Reborn.
Check out Josh and Smith’s entire visit with Robert, the world’s “most haunted doll,” below…