Living Dolls (1980) Online

Have you ever found the stare of a mannequin to be morbid? Those plastic, unblinking eyes. A figure that is elegant, yet inhumanely perfect. The point is, if you have ever been unnerved by the dummy in the department store you will be able to relate to this little gem. Guaranteed to give you the willies, this short film has burned a place in my memory since I was a child. It used to run as filler at the end of USA Network's Saturday Nightmares. ah the days of real cable, alas.

Not much evidence of this film exists on the internet. Most of what comes up on google is attempts by me to arouse the memories of others. I have made attempts to contact the director, and failed.

"Living Dolls" shared the filler slot with a few other horror short films: "The Contraption", "The Dummy", and one about a fisherman who gets pulled into the lake by a hook.

Mannequins saunter right into the uncanny valley for me. The more realistic and detailed, the creepier they are. This short, another regular feature of Saturday Nightmares and HBO filler, understands this. Its opening credits close-up of dress shop mannequins is almost as creepy as anything else that happens in the film.

The story isn't complex. A janitor in a fabric shop takes abuse from his boss and costumers all day. In order to blow off steam, he goes up stares and abuses the mannequins. After falling sleep up there, he wakes up in the middle of the night surrounded by the dolls. That's when things get creepy… "Living Doll" would play fantastically on the big screen, where its creaking sound design, eerie musical score, and shadowy direction could be truly appreciated. It's not as effective as half-remembered long-ago TV viewings or a murky YouTube video. When the mannequins finally come to life, it has the potential to be campy. Still, the film's final images, of mannequins with bleeding eyes or a sudden, pasted-on doll face, are undeniably creepy. My first viewing of the film, years ago, played out in a not-dissimilar fashion. I fell asleep probably during an episode of "The Hitchhiker" or something and awoke to this disquieting, spooky short, not exactly sure of what I was watching. Man, I miss what the USA Network was in the early nineties… Anyway, "Living Dolls" is a very effective short. Give it a watch.