A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
Acting
Hopkins' dual performance is genuinely unhinged
Direction
Attenborough builds dread through uncomfortable intimacy
Writing
William Goldman script simmers with repressed desire
Director
Richard Attenborough
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hopkins practiced ventriloquism for months and performed all his own dummy dialogue live on set, no ADR.
Released the same year as Halloween, this bombed commercially but became a cult obsession—arguably the template for every 'cursed doll' movie since.
US
