A New York woman’s Halloween decoration turned into a nightmare when the creepy doll she ordered from Amazon appeared to move on its own. What started as unsettling became terrifying as the unexplained activity escalated.
In a viral video with more than 3.1 million views, content creator Arika Harrington (@arikaharrington) films the Halloween decoration that has her seriously spooked. The doll—featuring a stark white face, jet black hair, and a nightgown while holding a teddy bear and sitting on a swing—was hanging on a swing outside her home.
“I bought her on Amazon. Two nights in a row, she slowly turned around to look at me as I walked outside, walked into my car. And when I got inside of my car, she would turn back around,” Harrington explains.
She initially tries to rationalize the movement, noting it’s currently windy outside. The video shows the doll slowly starting to turn around on the swing.
“OK. That’s normal because of the wind,” Harrington says. But then something changes.
“But hold up. Look at her. She’s turning back around. Why are you stopping right there to look at me? Uh-uh. I don’t play that,” she says.
The doll doesn’t just turn randomly in the wind; it appears to deliberately turn to face Harrington, then stop in that position.
“See, I think OK. She gonna turn back around? No. She turns, and she continues to look at me,” she says, clearly unnerved.
“It’s time for her to go. Anybody want her?” Harrington asks, only half-joking.
In her caption, she writes, “I’m having second thoughts about buying this doll off Amazon! Is she possessed? I’m scared to take her down!”
Strange Activity Escalates
In a follow-up video, Harrington reveals she took precautions before moving the doll.
“I prayed before and after removing the doll from the ground and back on the porch,” she writes in the caption.
She continues, “I am shipping her out on Friday and didn’t know where else to put her in the meantime. I faced her away from the door and my car.”
But the activity didn’t stop.
“We had an unexplained movement last night inside the house. A box fell over, and my dogs barked and growled. I pray it’s nothing. Pray for me!!!” she adds.
The situation took an even more disturbing turn in a subsequent update. Harrington explains that when she left that morning, the doll was lying exactly how she had positioned it from the previous video, sitting on a chair. Her daughter confirmed around 2:50pm that the doll was still in the same position when she got home from school.
But when Harrington returned home around 6:30pm, she says the doll had moved.
“Her dress is completely tucked under her and she is leaning the opposite way,” she says.
Her daughter also reported hearing two loud bangs on the front door that sounded like metal hitting. When she looked outside, no one was there.
Security Camera And Garage Door Add To The Mystery
The unexplained events continued to pile up. Harrington says she received a notification from her doorbell camera alerting her that a person was appearing on her porch. “When I look at the video, I see no one,” she writes.
Then, as she was typing her update, her garage door opened by itself.
“Either I am going completely insane or this is really real,” Harrington writes in another follow-up. “Tomorrow, I am seeking a priest or pastor to come out to the home. She is now in the trunk of my husband’s car. I am so scared that we may experience more things.”
Whether the doll is genuinely haunted, there’s a technical explanation for the events, or it’s an elaborate Halloween prank, Harrington’s documentation of the experience has captivated millions of viewers who are equal parts entertained and unsettled.
Why Dolls Creep Us Out, And Why We Love It
Harrington’s experience taps into a deep-seated psychological phenomenon. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, our unease around dolls stems from the “uncanny valley” effect, which is when objects look human but aren’t quite right.
Our brains are designed to read faces for important information, but when we encounter a face that looks human without being human, it unsettles our most basic instincts.
Psychologist Frank McAndrew told Smithsonian Magazine that creepiness comes down to uncertainty.
“If something is creepy, it might be dangerous but you’re not sure it is,” he explained.
Being “creeped out” makes us hyper-vigilant, helping us process information to determine if there’s a real threat.
The creepy doll phenomenon has been exploited in media from E.T.A. Hoffman’s 1816 story “The Sandman” to Chucky and Annabelle.
@arikaharrington I’m having second thoughts about buying this doll off Amazon! Is she possessed? I’m scared to take her down! 😳#fypシ #halloween #viral #scary #haunted
Commenters React
“Amazon Employee here…don’t send it back to us girl,” a top comment read.
“That’s why I stick to a lil pumpkin and some fake spiders sis,” a person said.
“Why would u even buy that in the first place,” another wrote.
“Everybody want to play spooky games but nobody want to be spooked,” a commenter pointed out.
BroBible reached out to Harrington for comment via TikTok direct message and comment. We’ll be sure to update this if she responds.