PATOKA - At first glance, Nancy Ansley seems like a regular artist. But Nancy, the founder of Nancy’s Museum of Horror and Rejects by Nancy Dolls, is not your typical painter.
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With her museum filled with horror movie scenes and her thriving business of gory dolls, Nancy stays in the Halloween spirit year-round. She hopes that everyone who checks out the museum or dolls learns to love horror as much as she does.
“It doesn’t seem like work to me,” Nancy said of running her various businesses. “I just always loved it. I would stay up all night painting and sewing and things like that…I want to be down there painting in my studio all the time.”
A longtime horror fan, Nancy has always gone all-out for Halloween. She and her husband, John, started decorating their house for trick-or-treat night 37 years ago. It soon became a major attraction for local kids, which was always the Ansleys’ goal.
As more and more people fell in love with their Halloween decorations, the couple decided to expand. They bought a rundown two-story building in Patoka, Illinois and set to work transforming it into Nancy’s Museum of Horror. Described by Nancy as “a museum of horror movies,” the building has several rooms dedicated to both classic and contemporary horror movies.
“I just remember going trick-or-treating as a little kid and being scared of certain houses and stuff like that, and then you look back and you just really remember that,” Nancy said. “That’s why I started doing all of this, to have my children and other children in the community to have memories. And now those children are bringing their children through.”
Complete with two real caskets and countless movie references, the museum is a labor of love that the Ansleys are constantly adding to. They offer individual tours year-round, with an option to tone down or amp up the scare factor depending on your preference.
But they’re particularly proud of their free Halloween tours, which conclude with a performance of an Alice Cooper doll’s head being chopped off by a guillotine, usually manned by John in an elaborate Halloween costume.
When the couple isn’t busy with the museum, Nancy can be found in their basement, working on the hand-painted dolls that she sells through Rejects by Nancy’s Dolls. From porcelain dolls to life-sized mannequins to plush toys, most of her creations are horror-based and bloody.
She started the doll business because she always touched up her store-bought Halloween decorations and added special effects using paint and clay. When COVID-19 put a halt in her career as a bartender, Nancy decided to just create the creepiness herself.
Even though — or maybe because — the dolls are scary, Nancy said that children tend to love her work. She recently gifted a bloody Barney doll to her granddaughter, who “lit up” when she unwrapped it. In fact, most of the horror attracts kids. Nancy recalls that she once collected “a mob of children” while dressed as a gory Ronald McDonald for a Halloween event.
“I was like the babysitter of all the kids. I was dancing with them,” she said. “One time, I looked down at this one kid and she turned around and she screamed, and I just screamed back. And she just loved it. I mean, they wouldn’t let me sit down.”
In a lot of ways, Nancy and John have made horror their life. They’re working on expanding the museum, and Nancy is currently searching for a spot in Alton to display her dolls. The couple wants to spread their love of horror, though Nancy admits that she often falls in love with her dolls and keeps them for herself.
“The inside of our house is not a normal home,” John joked.
And they wouldn’t have it any other way. It might be the stuff of nightmares, but the Ansleys are living their dream.
You can message Nancy at her personal Facebook page or on the Nancy’s Museum of Horror Facebook page to schedule a tour of the museum, and you can find her products at Rejects by Nancy Dolls on Facebook.
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