Popular reviews

• 

  Review by 👽 Zara 👽 ★★★ 2

  seeing anthony hopkins not old is so fucking weird

• 

  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 10

  This film is like a box of chocolates; you never know what to expect. I mean, you have a picture that would normally feature and be made by a low-level actor and director that everyone would probably forget. And yet, you have Richard Attenborough directing a film written by William Goldman, composed by Jerry Goldsmith, and starring a deranged young Anthony Hopkins in a dual role as this pathetic puppeteer and the voice of this diabolical puppet whose banter is all pure gold. It's bizarre, disturbing, and amusing; it's a film that, in a rational world, would never exist, but here it is.

  All in all, I'm not sure what more to say; if the cast and crew, as well as the premise of a disturbed guy who utilizes a spooky-looking puppet to offload his homicidal traumas, don't compel you to see this film, I'm not sure what will.

  TODAY SCHEDULE
  Magic
  Novitiate
  Agnes of God
  Forgotten

• 

  Review by Joe ★★★★½

  They're reportedly doing a new version of this movie and since it's Sam Raimi I hope it'll be good but I'm also worried that M3GAN fever will turn it into a campy killer-dummy clown show and not the deeply sad psychological horror story this is. Anthony Hopkins is absolutely heartbreaking, a performance like this could have easily turned ridiculous but he gives so many of his scenes here have this queasy intimacy, almost too painful to look at. You really can make a great movie about almost anything.

• 

  Review by Erin 🍺 ★★★★ 2

  That man is right! Ann-Margret’s tits do belong in a museum

• 

  Review by Dan Abel ★★★★ 6

  Corky is a struggling magician trying to get by on open mic nights with card tricks. Audiences aren't biting and desperation is setting in. That is until Corky spices up his routine and introduces Fats the ventriloquist dummy to audiences. Fats is the sharp personality that the shy Corky lacks and his addition has a tremendous impact on his life. On the verge of mainstream fame he takes Fats and runs away to escape the pressure. Up to the Catskills near an old love interest. A love interest who has no idea that Corky isn't himself anymore. He's different. Dangerously different.

  Young Anthony Hopkins and the great Burgess Meredith in the same film? That's a lot of legend on one…

• 

  Review by Helen ★★★★

  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.

• 

  Review by Marna Larsen ★★★★★ 8

  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?

• 

  Review by MrSneakyMan ★★★★ 2

  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.

• 

  Review by 💀EmperorCupcake🧁 ★★★½

  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!

• 

  Review by Trevor Henderson ★★★★ 1

  Devastating. I went in, not expecting Child’s Play, but something more traditionally spooky with a killer doll. What I got was more akin to Dead Ringers, with an incredible dual performance from Anthony Hopkins as Corky and his dummy Fats. The “five minutes” scene is gut-wrenching, and the ending cuts you open.

  “It was always just you.”

• 

  Review by ♠ Benja ♠ ★★★★

  In 1978 Sir Richard Attenborough tried his hand at horror and directed a piece that plays off more like a psychological thriller with atmospheric nuances rather than horror itself and conducted it the old-fashioned way with slow yet steady steps and low numbers in the kill count but high ones in the thrill count. Needless to say that Sir Richard, William Goldman, and the superb cast succeeded and crafted a film drenched in dread that drives the viewer through Hopkins' ominous down the rabbit hole duality with his dummy. Speaking of Hopkins, wow, his performance here is almost larger than life, doing every slick card trick and ventriloquist technique himself and handling an extremely demanding performance with such incredible menacing fineness.

  "Magic" is indeed hauntingly magical and more proof of Hopkins' juggernaut status as an actor.

• 

  Review by Carlo V

  Sometimes it's nice seeing actual trained actors working in the confines of something shlocky like a killer(?) doll movie. Only sometimes though.