The Dummy

This is a very scary movie. It has a great story line. It also has great acting. See it. It is one of the scariest movies I have seen. If does not scary you no movie will. This is scarier then The silence of lambs could ever be.

A simple short horror film with a simple premise: a woman terrorized by a dummy. The scares actually work well, even if the acting is slightly weak. Anybody familiar with USA Network's Saturday Nightmares might want to rediscover this short film.

36 years ago, it was one of gems of the genre. And it has today, too, the potential for impress. For the exploration of old, deep fears. For admirable simplicity. For the memories about Chucky and resurection of the special fascination front to ventriloquist. Short, for inspired use of the rules and spices of the horror. And for the precise use of the traits of dark inside us. So, a nice short horror. Or, more exactly, a classic.

A woman gets ready to go out and finds she's not alone in her flat

This is a very simple short film of a woman finding herself stalked by a ventriloquist dummy . I can understand why some people find these dummies grotesque and unnerving . They look like humans but are more of a parody of humans . Or more likely it's because we've all seen a film featuring a dummy coming to life like the British classic DEAD OF NIGHT and if you see a film featuring a dummy you know what's coming next

This short by Louis La Volpe is keeping with this theme . Being a short there's very little exposition and it's up to the audience to interpret what caused the dummy to come to life . It also uses sound in a strange way with a lack of diegetic sound used on the soundtrack . That said there is a strange moment with a comedy whistle used for some reason For what it is

THE DUMMY is a fair horror short with a dark atmosphere and one wonders why La Volpe effectively disappeared after writing and directing it

This is a great example of what a horror short can accomplished. At only seven and a half minutes, the premise is as simple as can be: Woman alone in a house, menaced by an evil ventriloquist dummy. Killer dummies, dolls, and toys are a tricky horror trope. While the concept plays on our innate distrust of things that appear to be alive but aren't, if one goes too far, it can also be comical. "The Dummy" plays the balance just right. Through wholly lo-fi means the dummy is brought to life, almost certainly through someone moving the doll around off-screen. This gives the film a strange verisimilitude though, almost as if it's low budget effects somehow make it seem more probable. The dummy's mouth clopping mechanically while covered in blood is still pretty creepy.

A surprising amount of genuine suspense is generated in the brief run time. Like all the best horror villains, the dummy is persistent, pushing a butcher knife under a locked door, cornering our heroine and slicing her legs up. The spooky sound design and droning electronic score doubtlessly help the tension build. Frequently shown as filler on premium cable channels and USA's Saturday Nightmares, where I was exposed to it, I'm certain this film traumatized a whole generation of horror fans. Or, at the very least, confirmed that dummies are really creepy.