Magic

Magic (1978) is a psychological horror film directed by Richard Attenborough that you can watch online on iFILM. Ventriloquist Corky Withers and his dummy Fats are on the verge of a real television breakthrough — then Corky vanishes, retreating to a lakeside cabin to reconnect with a girl he knew in school, Peggy (Ann-Margret). His agent (Burgess Meredith) tracks him down and finds something he can't quite name wrong with the man.

Anthony Hopkins plays Corky fourteen years before The Silence of the Lambs, and the same quiet, building unease is already fully present here. Fats says things Corky can't bring himself to say directly. Or Corky says them through Fats. The distinction gradually blurs, and that slow erosion of the line between performer and puppet is what the film is actually about.

William Goldman adapted his own novel for the screenplay. Attenborough shoots it without relying on horror machinery — the dread comes from what you start to suspect rather than anything you're shown outright. For fans of slow-burn psychological thrillers, it's a film that tends to stick. Stream Magic (1978) online on iFILM.