Magic(1978)
1978 · Richard Attenborough · 107 min
A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
Drama · Horror
6.8333 votes
TMDB score
3/5
Intensity
1/5
Gore
4/5
Stays with you
How Magic scares
It starts as a quiet character drama about a struggling performer and slowly tightens into something much more unsettling as his relationship with his dummy blurs the line between act and reality. There are almost no jump scares here; the fear builds through awkward silences, unstable behavior, and a growing sense that something in this man's mind has come loose. The dummy itself is creepy less because of anything supernatural and more because of what it seems to reveal about its owner's fracturing sanity. It's a slow, sad, and quietly disturbing watch rather than a fun scare, better suited to viewers who like their horror rooted in human breakdown than in gore or shocks.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Magic rates psychological 5/5, visceral 2/5, gore 1/5, lingering effect 4/5, and overall intensity 3/5.
- Psychological: 5 of 5
- Visceral: 2 of 5
- Gore: 1 of 5
- Lingering: 4 of 5
- Intensity: 3 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 12 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 85 of 100 — leans Real-world
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 72 of 100 — leans Disturbing
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A slow-building psychological drama that quietly ratchets up unease before tightening into a tense, unsettling final stretch.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5.
How scary is Magic?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, Magic rates 3/5 — solidly scary, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. The fear is mostly in your head — it unsettles far more than it assaults. Expect it to be restrained with gore and genuinely disturbing. Expect it to stay with you for days.
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