“Make Fats shut up for five minutes.”
Director: Richard Attenborough
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter, E.J. Andre, Jerry Houser, David Ogden Stiers
Plot: Corky (Hopkins) is a magician without any confidence or stage presence. He eventually incorporates a dummy, known as Fats (also Hopkins), into his act and becomes a huge success. After a visit to the city where Corky is asked to undertake a medical exam before signing a contract with NBC, he decides to go into hiding in a log cabin owned by his high school crush. But is Fats in some way controlling Corky? And if so, what are his intentions?
Ventriloquist dummies are probably just behind clowns in the list of things that are meant for kids but actually freak you the hell out. It’s something about those dead eyes, the way the mouth moves with a clunky knocking wooden sound, but most of all, the ventriloquist themselves. You see, I just can’t trust ventriloquists or puppeteers in general. By acting through a puppet, they relieve themselves of all accountability. Watch any clip of someone interacting with a puppet and it’s like the man pulling the strings or moving the mouth isn’t even there. When it comes to ventriloquist acts the puppets are often insulting and cruel, and yet we laugh it off instead of stabbing the real person responsible in the face.
This is never better demonstrated than in Richard (the better brother – Oh I went there!) Attenborough’s classic MAGIC. Anthony Hopkins plays the talented magician who couldn’t grab your attention if he made a pink elephant materialise on your crotch; he is that dull. So he decides to bring in a ventriloquist dummy to give him something to play off, and as you can imagine the line where the dummy ends and Hopkins’ Corky begins becomes severely blurred. This is what makes MAGIC so terrifying. There are no real supernatural elements to the film, it is simply psychological. It’s scary to think that if you were this crazy and dangerous, you would have absolutely no clue about it. I’m sure all of us talk to ourselves sometimes; maybe justify certain courses of action we’ve taken even when nobody else is around. If not, then it may be better if you stay away from me for awhile.
MAGIC also works as an exceptional horror because in reality it could turn into any genre at anytime. When it begins, with a rather clever voice over of Corky lying about his first time on stage accompanied by the images of what actually happened, it could be a tragedy about an unappreciated talent. Once he gets successful it could easily turn into a feel good family affair about achieving your goals. Maybe, it will be a quirky independent comedy romance like LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (2007), a film in which Ryan Gosling starts dating a lifelike sex doll. This means that it isn’t just a horror at all, and that places it in the realm of reality, especially when the romance element sets in. We really do love and feel for Corky, and we want his romantic interest Peggy (Ann-Margret) to leave her dull marriage, but we know exactly how things will turn out if she does. We become the people on the ground watching a plane crash, with nothing to do or say that can change the outcome.
And that may cover all of the psychological and cinematic scares, but in the end that dummy is just creepy. The original TV spot was pulled from circulation in the US for frightening kids. One night Richard Attenborough reportedly had to collect the dummy from Hopkins’ hotel because it was freaking him out too much. No matter what the mood or tone is, just a quick cut away to the dummy and we resume pooping our pants once again. This isn’t helped by the accordion that acts as Fats’ signature instrument in the score. In one romantic and purposefully cheesy scene, Corky makes love to Peggy as the violins swell, when suddenly we cut to Fats sitting on a sofa in another room and the accordion takes over. The lingering shots on that wooden face, purposefully made to resemble Hopkins, get to us as well. They last so long you’ll find yourself swearing that the left eyebrow moved a fraction. Aided by the incredible performance of Hopkins as both Corky and Fats the dummy, MAGIC is a horror film that deserves to be watched this Halloween. After all, when was the last time a horror film required an experienced thespian to learn ventriloquism and card tricks, as well as cementing us in the middle of an emotional and psychological war?
Horror Highlights: The dummy itself, Hopkins’ creepy voice as Fats, the psychological torment, and the accordion that plays whenever Fats pops up.
Best Scare: Corky’s agent, Ben Green (Burgess Meredith) is wise to Corky’s mental health. He asks Corky to make Fats shut up for five minutes. After placing Fats down, Corky begins to sweat, make awkward conversation, and constantly asks how long it has been. His inability to perform this simple task shows how far Corky has gone, as well as showing us the heartbreak Green feels at the same time.
We’ll have another terror for you tomorrow at THN and you can view them all here.
