Ventriloquist Dummies and "Dead Of Night"

Some people know that I hate dolls, specially the old porcelain ones. But there is something scarier than dolls: ventriloquist dummies. Who hasn't had a nightmare with one of them? I don't care about monsters, dark or ugly creatures, aliens, other supernatural forces, witches, zombies or insane serial killers in films, but I have to say that I get scared with dolls, those dummies, and scary little girls that look like dolls.

Vent Haven Museum is very close to my worst nightmares: it's a museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism. That means to me: many of those creepy creatures. Can it be worse than that? Of course it can, they have a session with the Figure of the Month. (via Eye of the Goof)

If you have courage enough, also visit Tribute to Ventriloquism, with more scary images, famous ventriloquists and the history of ventriloquism. If you are evil try a course of Ventriloquism in a Month, to scare your friends. But remember: the most important part is finding a dummy with crazy look/insane eyes and that macabre smile.

There is only one good thing associated with dummies for me, a film called Dead of Night. That is a great horror English film produced by Ealing Studios in 1945. It's composed by five supernatural episodes that have as connection a party. The psychological terror of the film is constructed by the atmosphere, the characters and the story in itself. The film is most known for its excellent episode called The Ventriloquist's Dummy, directed by the fantastic Brazilian director Alberto Cavalcanti, the most European of our directors, in my humble opinion. The episode is brilliant, but creepy, which makes it a must see film.

If you have the opportunity go to the next DVD rental and rent it. I saw Dead of Night three years ago on that cinema festival that always makes me busy on October, Mostra, when they did a retrospective of Cavalcanti's films. The director has a very good reputation on UK, specially on the documentary area, when he worked on GPO Film Unit. He also male some popular productions on Ealing Studios and two studios in Brazil, Vera Cruz and Maristela. Anyway, that was the only opportunity that I had to appreciate his foreign films, that have superior results (for many reasons that I won't list know), but fundamentally because he learned to make films on Europe, on France, on UK, and there he could make his films his own way.

There is a review of the film on Guardian Unlimited; Screenonline has an analysis, synopsis, the cast list, , production stills and videos clips if inside the UK, in a school, college or library (what made me terribly sad); British Horror Films has a review and extracts of audio dialogues; Agence eureka posted 3 images of it with a good quality; and I found also two movie posters.