IT’S an undeniable fact that ventriloquist dummies are utterly terrifying. There’s something deeply unpleasant in that fixed maniacal grin and an emptiness in those dead, glassy eyes, those rosy plastic cheeks and that devilish detachable jawline that renders them the stuff of very bad dreams indeed.
Their inherent evil – and let’s be clear, I’m talking about the old-school puppets of pure terror rather than the more cuddly variant here, although Nookie The Bear is horrific in his own cross-eyed way – has seen them grace more than their fair share of horror films down the years.
Those seeking full-blown wooden wonderment are advised to check out Hugo the malevolently murderous dummy who manipulates Michael Redgrave in the most famous segment of Ealing Films' portmanteau classic Dead Of Night (1945) but those looking for a little full-length head-spinning horror need some Magic in their lives.
Magic was unleashed upon cinema audiences in 1978 and, as a brand new Blu-ray release from Second Sight Video confirms, has lost little of its power to chill despite the passing decades.
It’s got some serious thespian weight behind its relatively low-rent thrills as well. It was directed by Richard Attenborough and scripted, from his own novel, by the much-revered William Goldman. At it’s creepy core it has Anthony Hopkins playing a troubled ventriloquist called Corky who lets his little wooden pal Fats start to call the shots in the relationship, with disastrous results.
Like every ventriloquist horror ever made, it’s all about who’s talking for who and just how mad is the man operating the miniature man on his knee but within that predictable set-up there’s a lot of eerie fun to be had.
Hopkins gives an impressively eye-rolling turn as the damaged Corky who runs off to the country to be with his childhood sweetheart (Ann-Margret) just as a big TV contract is offered that is set to change his life. Once there, old Fats starts playing up and bloody incident follows bloody incident before the wooden wonder is willing to get back in his box.
Besides Hopkins and his wild-eyed turn, there’s much to recommend this nasty little slice of 70s horror. There’s Batman alumnus Burgess Meredith hamming it up as a big-talking showbiz manager who meets a sticky end, there’s a brilliant Jerry Goldsmith score that creeps you out when little Fats can’t manage it and there’s the grand, impressively cinematic vision of director Attenborough to enjoy.
Everything works best in the early sequences when the novelty of the idea is still fresh and before a final act limps along to wind things up on a depressingly downbeat note but there’s still enough Magic on show here to make it worth a repeat performance.
Extras include the usual trailers, some archive interviews with both Goldman and Hopkins and a revealing documentary on the history of ventriloquism that reminds you of the art and craft behind the garish visuals. Still doesn’t make the nasty little monsters any less terrifying though, if you ask me.
