Synopsis
A terrifying love story.
A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
Magic
1978 Directed by Richard Attenborough
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Alternative Titles
Magia, Magia Negra, Магия, Magic - Die Puppe des Grauens
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Anthony Hopkins is a massively successful ventriloquist named Corky and Ann-Margaret is occasionally naked. If you need more than that, we're very different people.
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part 1 of the father extended cinematic universe, this beautifully heartwarming story of a man struggling with and overcoming personal and mental obstacles in the face of...
woooowwwzeeee is this movie fucking nuts. it’s tonally so all over the place. sometimes feeling like a ‘72 after school special while other times an adaptation of our worst childhood nightmares involving creepy ass dolls. Hopkins is so certifiably crazed that it’s easy to see why he took this part, his dedication to the ventriloquist doll act along with his undeniable study magic tricks and the slight of hand that’s clearly not a camera trick is extremely impressive.
what’s also clear to me now is that as moved everyone was of in & of…
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When you take your hand and put it inside of yourself and move the levers and gears that make you blink and talk and smile and raise your eyebrows to punctuate a sentence or improve your line delivery whose hand is it and whose voice?
Uncanny from the very start, wherein the misdirection is that it never is not what it is and what it is doing all along even as it encourages us to forget a little here a little there, puts off our attention so that maybe we don't notice the lengthening shadows until night has really fallen and we can't find our way back to a place that never really was and we knew that all along but we forgot just a little here or there or forgot to pay attention but that isn't true because we wanted to even though we knew better and what does that always get us in the end?
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I love how the dummy "Fats" was such a clear influence on "Slappy", the evil dummy from the Goosebumps horror book franchise that I grew up with from the 90's. Fats is basically the horny, cat-calling adult version of what Slappy would become, right down to Hopkins' trademark vocal style. Even apart from Fats, this film is just full of icons, right? Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, and, perhaps best of all, Burgess Meredith as Hopkins' agent! Meredith was a true professional, who brought the same kind of scene-stealing character nuance and charisma to pretty much every role, whether it was someone as iconic as The Penguin or Mickey Goldmill, or a more underappeciated role, as seen here.
Now this was not… -
For when there needs to be wtf oscars or Anthony Hopkins&Dummy matching dagger collar shirts and fair isle sweaters oscars.
Doing a promotional soon for my patreon. Next 13 pledges $3-$20 get some stuff. All current pledges will also get some stuff. Find out more on my instagram, thehorrorofmarnalarsen if u want.
70s horror # 130
I found the whole card trick scene inexplicably hot WTF is wrong with me?
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This was a great psychological thriller and it’s one that’s been on my list forever.
Hopkins is unsurprisingly fantastic in his role as the mentally unwell magician, Corky. The dummy (Fats) is as unsettling as most.
You can tell there was a low production value but that doesn’t make the atmosphere any less eerie and effective or the story any less disturbing. There’s still lots of attention paid to the cinematography in creating scenes that are downright chilling.
If you enjoy 70s horror, this is one of the good ones.
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h͟o͟w͟ ͟d͟o͟ ͟y͟o͟u͟ ͟t͟h͟i͟n͟k͟ ͟i͟ ͟r͟e͟h͟e͟a͟r͟s͟e͟ ͟?͟
the great anthony hopkins. guys i think i found another one for my favorite movies. i’ve been wanting to see this hidden gem for sooooo long. the tension, the humanity, the atmosphere. there’s a lot more going on in this film instead of being a psychological horror flick. and i love that shit. i love the character of corky and his shy mild-mannered ways. the chemistry hopkins gives him and fats is the charm of the whole film! it was good breath of fresh air with a straight-forward thriller that cared about its character(s).
and dayummm isn’t ann margret a cutie! what a red headed beauty! so grateful i got to see this! i highly recommend it. it does suffer from pacing issues and (as always) editing mistakes. but if the premise doesn’t sell to you then hopkins performance will. what a movie!
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September Horror 2020, Day 12 - Jerry Goldsmith
This is a perfect spooky season watch and I didn't even know it! Ann-Margret's cosy walking around the lake outfit is all I need now. The movie is kind of weird but she and (young, hot??) Anthony Hopkins are so good and the deserted cabin atmosphere is pretty and kind of sad. It's off-season, and it always will be. This is a sad movie. I was wondering at one point if it was even horror or just a drama about a crazy ventriloquist, but then there's a shocking moment of violence and shit gets real. I did enjoy Jerry Goldsmith's score, whenever the dummy appeared there was this sort of... evil harmonica and then it would go back to the normal music? You're not gonna hear that every day!
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The scene where Burgess Meredith is attacked in the woods is amazing cinema. On the one hand, from a narrative perspective, it's a heavy scene. It's sad to see a character fall so far, so fast and hurt the only living person who has been looking out for him. On the other hand, It is insidiously hilarious. The mental image of Anthony Hopkins swinging a ventriloquist's dummy like a club at an old man while screaming in the puppet's voice... I almost passed out I was laughing so hard.
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Magic is essentially a re-imagining of Psycho and it almost measures up in many ways. There's a seemingly sympathetic yet secretly psychopathic leading man. There's a small cast of victims and would-be heroes to conflict with the erratic nature of the madman. Instead of a hotel, there's a secluded cabin where secrets and heinous acts reside. Jerry Goldsmith's score compliments and homages master maestro Bernard Herrmann. And instead of the lingering nurture of one's dead mother, there an equally unsettling ventriloquist dummy bubbling with evil behind the veneer of mental stability in the protagonist. Anthony Hopkins is very good in the Norman Bates model, possibly just as good as Anthony Perkins. In a battle of the Tony's, I would have…