Dead By Dummy.

Welcome to the pit of darkness and day 4 of the Candy and Corpses 2021 Strychnine Awards! Make yourself uncomfortable. So what's your opinion on ventriloquist dummies? They've always creeped me out but I kinda like them in the same way I like picking Corn Nuts out of my teeth. Speaking of teeth, why are they always smiling. That weird toothy fake smile. 

Anyways, on to the awards!

October 4th, 2021: ...and the winner for the best Death by Dummy award goes to...

Dead of Night (1945)
Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti (Christmas Party, The Ventriloquist's Dummy), Charles Crichton (Golfing Story), & Basil Dearden (Hearse Driver, Linking Narrative)

I don't know about you but if I arrived at a creepy British cottage with a bunch of weird strangers and there was a hearse parked outside and everyone was acting all ominous and spooky I would immediately know that I was dead. Once I was stuck in the DMV all day and I looked outside the greasy window and saw a hearse. Maybe I've been dead since that day? I've watched enough Amicus anthologies to know that I must've done something horrible like letting loose my beloved pack of vicious dobermans on the gardener for trimming the hedges unspeakably crooked and now have to pay the price. 

Dead of Night has a couple of fun spooky tales but my favorite is the one called The Ventriloquist's Dummy. Anyways, I sure as hell know that if I was a ventriloquist and my dummy started talking to me and running around on it's own killing everyone I would immediately set it on fire. "But what if it was a misunderstood friendly nice alive dummy containing the soul of your mom and it only killed in self-defense?" you ask. No, I don't believe you. I've seen this film, and Magic (1978), and Devil Doll (1964), and that one episode of Goosebumps. All ventriloquist dolls are pure evil and want to punish you for being alive.