As another 'lucky' day is upon us, let me look at another Episode of Friday The 13th: The Series.
This one- like 1945's Dead of Night features a conflict between Ventriloquist and Dummy.
It also features an era appropriate Plot Point in...
He can do it without terribly offensive puppets, you say?
Oh, never mind- he just tried a rap that was like Aerosmith's, but at about half the speed.
He also has to kill people- like this random Security Guard- after being compelled to 'pay the piper' by his Dummy Oscar.
It was either kill people or tip Roddy- he chose the bad option.
He plans to marry and leave the act, which the Dummy watches.
I know that this is supposed to be scary and creepy, but it is just funny to me.
Just like in Dead of Night, he argues with the Dummy and gets bit on the hand.
I mean, is that a common Evil Dummy trope that I missed?
Things go rather poorly for Drago here as he gets into several fights with Oscar in public, culminating in a public freakout at his Wedding, which ends with him being hit by a car- non-fatally, mind you.
As such, the Ventriloquist hired to cover his spot during the honeymoon takes over at Oscar's prompting and has ZERO issue with this obviously sentient and evil wood figure!
FYI the Plot hinges on some massive timing coincidences. The Fiancée happens to be old friends with our Heroine, and she just happens to get our Hero invited to the Bachelor Party to see things go down.
The dummy grows in power after 2 more kills by the replacement- one of a random Tough Guy in the street and one of his Business Manager.
As such, it turns more human...and kills him too...for no good reason.
Make note of his death face.
This culminates in the epic battle of John D. LeMay vs. Obvious Little Person with a knife.
Make note of his death face.
Somehow, he barely pulls the Boutonniere off of it, turning it back to normal.
Why is it evil and magical? Because it belonged to ADOLF HITLER.
Yep, just going to drop that factoid in on you like the Episode did. Enjoy!
A decent to good Episode, albeit with some odd pacing and payoffs.
They build up the insanity of Drago and Oscar quite nicely, even if they do kind of repeat Scenes a bit to really drive the effect home. Does he have to be mean to the Fiancée for a third time for us to get it? Once he's out of the Story, it kind of pivots interestingly.
They don't quite explain enough in-character, so stuff like Oscar just handing a knife to the new guy and him instantly killing a guy doesn't feel earned. The idea is that he can control you- see the irony?!?- but they don't make it quite clear enough for me.
Another note- all of the kills are done with a small pocketknife- small enough for Oscar to hold- but the first body is described as being 'chopped into 16 pieces.' Um...how?!?
Ultimately, this one succeeds or fails based on how scary you find a small, wooden dummy- possessed by a Nazi artifact or otherwise. Either way, it can be unsettling, until it is silly.
Speaking of which, does everyone make the same 'death face' in this Episode? Look at the Ventriloquist and then at this guy...
I hope nothing too crazy happened to you on this special Day. No killer Dummies, right? Right?!?
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