31 Days of Horror- Day 30: Magic (1978)

(dir. Richard Attenborough)

20th Century Fox/Dark Sky Films

A struggling entertainer’s life is dominated by an ill-tempered ventriloquist dummy.

Right from the onset Magic establishes itself as a deeply sad movie. We watch as Corky Withers (Anthony Hopkins) stumbles through a magic set for late night club attendees who couldn’t care less that he’s on the stage. These scenes are interspersed with Corky recounting a positive reinvention of the night to his aging, and dying mentor, which only punctuates the sadness. The acute sense of failure and self-loathing that we witness in those opening minutes are horror scenes unto themselves, exquisite in their unflinching examination of human failure. This feeling of horror is doubled by the fact that Anthony Hopkins, at least from the modern perspective of looking back on this film, is so rarely depicted as fragile or unsure. While lacking a powerful frame or booming vocals, there’s often a level of control found in Hopkins' roles. But Corky is out of control, so much so that his failures in the face of being ignored or laughed at, feel only a few steps shy of being capped off by suicide. Attenborough carefully establishes the emotional horror and that’s the magic of this film. The sinister dummy, Fats, is simply an additional means to explore Corky’s fragile state.

After Corky’s tumultuous beginning, the film jumps ahead a year and we find Corky as a successful stage entertainer, accompanied by a ventriloquist Dummy, Fats, and manged by entertainment mogul, Ben Greene (Burgess Meredith). What’s great about Corky’s sudden shift in fortune is that it’s obviously attributed to Fats, and yet we get no information about where the dummy comes from. Hopkins voices Fats, and there’s an obvious psychological link between the two, but we’re never given any details into how that bond was formed. That missing year is situated as a darkly brewing threat that’s never accounted for, and the repercussions come back tenfold. Refusing the psych evaluation that stands as a must for his impending TV contract, Corky leaves NY and returns back to his hometown where he strikes up a romance with his teenage crush, Peggy (Ann-Margaret). What follows is a tension filled romance as Corky must contend with Peggy’s abusive husband (Ed Lauter), and Fats increasing insistence that he’s all Corky needs. Within the horror realm, Anthony Hopkins is synonymous with Hannibal Lecter, but as the profusely sweating, and agitated Corky Wither, Hopkins delivers a performance that’s just as worthy of our attention. Perhaps the greatest surprise of Magic is how little attention its given among genre fans, because it is a truly outstanding character study with horrific insights.

Scare Factor: 3/5 Built on carefully constructed character moments along with surprising bursts of violence, Magic is one of the best horror films of the 70s with a finale that’s hard to shake.