James Wan Says This Free-to-Watch Horror Anthology Made Him “Terrified” and “Obsessed” With Creepy Puppets
Back when he was gearing up for the much-anticipated premiere of the campy killer doll film M3GAN, James Wan took to Instagram to share an anthology film recommendation that he credits with inspiring his obsession with creepy dolls, dummies, and puppets. In fact, Wan was so taken with the 1945 horror film Dead of Night that he ranks the ‘Ventriloquist’s Dummy’ segment as the most “psychologically unnerving” and “scary” story of its subgenre.
The setup for Dead of Night goes like this:
Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) goes to Pilgrim’s Farm to see a potential client. When he arrives at the house, he gets the feeling that he has been there before. Once inside, he meets a group of people who seem oddly familiar. He tells them that he has dreamt about each one of them and begins to list events that occurred in the dream. Walter’s revelations begin a conversation amongst the group, and each person admits to having experienced a strange, unexplainable event.
In his post, Wan wrote, “In light of our first introduction of M3GAN, here is a movie (along with Poltergeist) that scarred me at a young age and made me terrified/obsessed with the idea of dolls and puppets coming to life (with malign intent).”
Wan continues, saying,
“This 1945 Ealing Studios production is a beautifully haunting and eerie anthology with a wrap-around story about a guy who arrives at a country home, meets some people who proceed to share stories of their supernatural experiences. And of course the episode that I’m most attracted to, and the creepiest, is the one about a ventriloquist and his dummy with a life of its own (or does it?). Probably the most psychologically unnerving and scary story of the “haunted ventriloquist dummy” sub-genre. Most people pick Magic as the best of this, but for me, it’s hands down this episode of Dead of Night, played wonderfully by Michael Redgrave.”
If you’re keen to scope the film that set James Wan off on a trajectory of terrifying viewers with inanimate objects come to life, you can find the flick streaming on Kanopy, as of the publication of this post.
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