Magic

If you’re like me, there’s nothing you hate more than ventriloquist dummies, and there’s nothing scarier than the thought of one of those cruel, dead-eyed blocks of wood coming to life and taking over your brain. Richard Attenborough’s 1978 Magic taps into this fear by casting Anthony Hopkins as Corky, an edgy ventriloquist whose dummy won’t shut up, even without a hand in his back. Corky escapes to the Catskills, but an encounter with a boyhood crush enrages the jealous dummy, and bodies start piling up. Hopkins is merely adequate, easily out-acted by the dummy (himself a creepy and unflattering Hopkins caricature), but the film is effective—even when Attenborough loses control of the story. Bonus points for Burgess Meredith as Corky’s agent and for Ann-Margret’s thoroughly gratuitous nude scene.