Living Dolls (1980)

Directed by:

Todd Coleman

Though mannequins have been regularly featured in genre films and TV shows (notably the Twilight Zone episode "The After Hours") for quite some time, there are two films in particular, released just a year apart, that immediately spring to mind whenever people discuss mannequins and horror. The first is David Schmoeller's Tourist Trap (1979), a Charles Band production about some young folks who become stranded at the titular location, which happens to be filled with a bunch of creepy mannequins that seem to have a life of their own. Second is William Lustig's Maniac (1980), a graphically gory tale of a NYC serial killer who staples the scalps of his victims to mannequins he keeps in his apartment. Though Trap didn't do particularly well in theaters and took quite a bit of time to build up a cult following (one I'm not quite sure the uneven film really deserves to be honest), Lustig's film had been a fan favorite since the early days of home video.

Made at around the same time was this 9-minute short, which many people of a certain age remember being used as a bumper between TV programs or late night movies that fell a little short of fitting into a 2 hour time slot. Supposedly, this was first aired on TV on the USA Network's variety series Night Flight, which began in 1981 and lasted until 1988. However, since I vaguely recall seeing this myself as a young kid yet was not even born yet when Night Flight began, I can guarantee this was also shown between movies on the long-running USA Up All Night, which I started watching when I was about 8 or 9. Other viewers saw this on yet another USA program: Saturday Nightmares.

Put-upon, virginal "mama's boy" Melvin (Park Dougherty) works as a janitor at a bridal shop and is constantly being disparaged and / or henpecked by his domineering female boss (Judith Vane), the condescending female staff and whining bridezillas. Melvin retreats to the quiet of the attic where numerous mannequins are stored and receives similar treatment from them ("Oh Melvin, what are we going to do with you?"). We're to assume it's all just in the depressed and mentally-unstable young man's head... but is it?

Unlike how he passively handles mistreatment from the "real" women in his life, Melvin has no issue snapping back at these "fake" replicas of women. He rips the buttons off of one's dress, removes a fake eyelash and puts in above another's lip like a Hitler mustache and then snaps a finger backwards. After he wakes up from a nap, he finds the mannequins are angry and they proceed to insult ("Big boys shouldn't play with dolls!") and emasculate ("Twenty-six years old and doing woman's work!") him. When Melvin is found by his boss the next morning, he's not quite himself.

While this doesn't do anything particularly original and is clearly a homemade amateur effort, it does succeed as an eerie mood piece due mainly to the sound design, music, lighting, ultra-low production values and, well, the fact that lifelike mannequins are indeed a little on the creepy side.

★★1/2