Baby Annette in Amazon’s ‘Annette’ Is The World’s Creepiest Puppet

Warning: This article contains minor Annette spoilers. Sort of.

No matter how ready you think you are for the chaotic madness that is Leos Carax’s rock opera, Annette, nothing will prepare you for the baby Annette puppet.

Even the most stoic of viewers—the ones who didn’t blink when Adam Driver flashed the audience at the end of his stand-up set, who yawned while he hit the high note with his head in between Marion Cotillard‘s legs, who weren’t phased by the sickening snap of scissors cutting an umbilical cord—will not be able to suppress a shiver when the world’s creepiest puppet, aka Baby Annette, toddles on to screen.

And yes, Baby Annette is a puppet, and not a real baby, though some of her impossible movements must be at least a little bit of CGI. (Surely no puppet’s eyes move quite like that, right?) The result is the worst kind of uncanny valley vibes; this puppet baby will haunt your nightmares.

Despite Annette‘s reputation for nonsense, the plot is actually fairly straightforward. Henry McHenry (Driver) is a mean-spirited, neurotic stand-up comedian who falls in love with a beautiful, beloved opera singer named Ann (Cotillard). The two get married in a whirlwind love affair, and it isn’t long before Ann is giving birth to the couple’s baby daughter, whom they name Annette, or Baby Annette. Rather than deal with the hardships that come with working with real infants and child actors, director Leos Carax opted to use a series of puppets to play the child as she grew. He worked with puppeteers Estelle Charlier and Romuald Collinet to design Baby Annette. In an interview for the film’s press notes, Carax explained, “Estelle created Annette’s faces at different ages, Romuald took care of Annette’s body and all the technical aspects. They saved the film!”

No disrespect to Art with a capital A intended, but… did they, though? Did they really? The first time audiences get a glimpse of the Annette puppet, it’s not so bad: it’s held up in a delivery room cast and shadow. You can tell the baby is not human, but you don’t yet have to stare into those terrifyingly dead eyes. But then Henry and Ann take the baby home, and she (it?) lies awake as her parents sleep on either side. Here, you will start to feel uneasy, as Baby Annette’s head stiffly swivels from side to side. There’s some not right about those ears. Not right at all.

Unfortunately, it only gets worse from here. When Baby Annette is somewhere around two years old, she toddles into a room where her mother Ann is lamenting her troubled marriage. Actually, “toddle” is the wrong word for a scene that is straight out of a horror film—Annette stalks into the room, seen first by her threatening silhouette as she cracks open the door in a menacing manner. Never have I related to Marion Cotillard less than when her face lights up in adoration as she watches her abomination of a child bounce around in a frankly upsetting way. If I were Marion Cotillard, I would be running from that room screaming at the top of my lungs.

Somehow, hair makes it worse? It’s just a little too close to looking like an actual child, and at the same time, looks absolutely nothing like an actual child! I will give Baby Annette this: She is, at least, slightly less creepy than the haunted Renesmee doll from Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2. Slightly. Considering Annette premiered at Cannes Film Festival and Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 is the last movie in a vampire YA romance series, I’m not entirely sure that’s a compliment.

Honestly, the Academy should give every actor who worked with the Baby Annette puppet in Annette an Oscar nod. They deserve is for never once betraying a hint of fear.

Watch Annette on Amazon Prime Video