I need to stop writing these with a hangover.
Well...
Anyway...
Let's get into it.
 |
| Were ventriloquist dummies ever not creepy? |
'Night of The Living Dummy' stars Kris and Lindy Powell. Two twin preteen girls who are always in fierce competition and rivalry with each other. One day, while walking through the in-construction house of their neighbours, Lindy spots an old ventriloquist dummy in a dumpster. She immediately falls in love with it and decides to become a ventriloquist.
At first Kris thinks this is super weird. Probably because it is super weird. But Lindy, it turns out, has a natural talent for ventriloquism and she begins putting on performances that wow their friends, neighbours, and family. Lindy starts doing shows at children's birthday parties, making herself some money, and even gets invited on TV. Kris is jealous of the attention Lindy is getting with her weird new hobby, and that jealousy peaks when Lindy's ventriloquist act even gets the attention of a boy at school Kris has a crush on.
Kris decides to try and get her own dummy and start putting on her own ventriloquism show. She asks if she can practice with her sister's dummy - which Lindy has named Slappy - but Slappy rebukes her, calls her ugly, even strikes her. Lindy insists she didn't do it, that Slappy acted on his own, but of course nobody believes her and her parents force her to apologise.
Kris and Lindy's father, known only as Mr Powell, finds a second ventriloquist dummy for cheap in a pawn shop, and brings it home for Kris. Now both girls have their own dummy and can do their own shows. Even though Lindy is more talented, has more practice, and seems to have a better grasp of comedy, Kris does okay for herself and even gets invited to perform, with her dummy Mr Wood, as MC of the school's spring concert. But none of this quite serves to quell the jealous rivalry between the sisters. Lindy is furious her sister is stealing her schtick, and Kris hates that Lindy is better than her and still getting more praise and attention.
But something far more sinister is afoot.
One morning the girls wake up and find Mr Wood posed in such a way that it is though he has been attacking Slappy, trying to choke the dummy to death. Another morning, Kris finds that Mr Wood has put on all her finest clothing, wrinkling them and ruining her outfit for the day. After a fit of frustration at being outdone by her sister, Kris throws Mr Wood hard against the floor, and that night, she discovers Mr Wood in the kitchen, all the contents of the fridge strewn across the floor, and among it all is Kris' favourite jewellery. Kris and Lindy both insist they had nothing to do with it, that it must have been Mr Wood all along. But of course their parents, who have been driven to wits end by their daughters' rivalry, do not believe the dummy is alive and threaten to punish them both and take both dummies away unless they begin behaving themselves and getting along. During the night, Kris is sure she can hear Mr Wood in the closet, demanding to be let out.
Kris sits frightened on her bed, sure her dummy is alive, but sudden unexpected twist! Lindy admits she was responsible for it all. The kitchen mess, the dummies fighting, the clothes, even the voice - Linday was doing it all just to frighten Kris. Kris is, of course, furious, and swears she will never speak to her sister again. And for a while, the girls continue to be cold to each other.
Then one day, just before the Spring Concert, Kris notices something she has never noticed before. A slip of paper in Mr Wood's shirt pocket. She unfolds it and reads what appears to be a short phrase of nonsense words. Nothing happens, and she puts the paper back in Mr Wood's pocket.
The Powell's elderly neighbours arrive and Mr Powell suggests the twins each do a short performance for the neighbours. Lindy puts on a great performance, as usual, but when Kris sets up to do her performance, sudden twist! Mr Wood seems to come alive again, all by himself, and insults the elderly neighbours. Kris swears it is not her, but of course nobody believes her and she is made to apologise. Lindy even scorns her for trying to pull the same mad-insulting-dummy that she had pulled with Mr Slappy, earlier in the story.
A similar horror occurs at the Spring Concert, but far worse. A nervous Kris sets herself up on stage, ready to begin, but once again Mr Wood seems to come to life and begin insulting one of Kris' teachers. When the teacher tries to stop the performance, Mr Wood suddenly projectile vomits a putrid green slime across the auditorium. A sticky, awful, and unexpected end to the concert before it has even begun, and, it would seem, an end to Kris' career as a ventriloquist. Her parents are too angry to even contemplate a suitable punishment, but they assure her this will be the last time she sees Mr Wood. Mr Powell plans to return it to the pawn shop the following Monday.
But Mr Wood has other plans. He well and truly comes to life that night and tries to escape. Kris and Lindy have a brief scuffle and fight with Mr Wood and subdue him and lock him in a suitcase. They drop the suitcase into a hole in the next door yard and bury him deep. It seems they have won, at last, but sudden twist! Mr Wood is back again the next morning, and he plans to make sure the girls suffer for their slight against them. He warns them he has great power and cannot be killed. And if the girls don't become his slaves, he will murder their friends and family, starting with the family pet dog, whom Mr Wood begins to strangle to death.
Another fight ensues and this time the girls carry Mr Wood out into the construciton yard, where two steamrollers are flattening the land, and they throw Mr Wood in the path of the steamrollers. Mr Wood is finally defeated for good, crushed to death by a steam roller.
The girls return to their home, to their room, the nightmare over at last. But sudden twist! Slappy comes to life and asks if the other terrible dummy is finally gone!
This book has twists like 'Welcome To Dead House' has moist things.
Just a whole lot.
But it is also a work which forms part of a broad and very old tradition in fiction, both horror and otherwise. The villain of this book is one in a long line of cunning, deceptive, manipulative, and frankly sociopathic evil master minds. Fu Manchu, John Sunlight, Lex Luthor, Hannibal Lecter, and now - well now as of 1993 - Lindy Powell.
Oh, and I guess evil living dolls are a thing to but, eh, whatever.
The real horror is Lindy, clearly the evil twin of the two, and an absolute psychopath. For much of the book, you think that Kris is kind of the bitch sister, always jealous, always bitter, always trying to outdo her sister. And Lindy, sweet innocent Lindy, is helpful and supportive of her sister, giving Kris tips on being a better ventriloquist, and just being rightfully proud of her own accomplishments, regardless of her sister. Sweet innocent Lindy.
But it's an act! Lindy isn't proud. Pride isn't an emotion Lindy can feel. All Lindy knows is the pure ecstasy of inflicting pain on others. Beneath that saccharine smile, Lindy knows she is driving her own sister into a agonising jealous rage. She knows that their parents, who she has wrapped around her fingers, will punish Kris when Kris inevitably lashes out.
And why would Lindy be proud anyway? She's not a good ventriloquist, she has a living dummy of her own! Not that she mentions this at all through the story. It is clear she has made a dark Faustian pact with Slappy. Together they will wreak havoc on the world, while Lindy builds fortune and fame from their partnership. But don't mistake me - in this arrangement, Slappy is Faust and Lindy is the demon Mephistopheles.
That's just one part of her scheme. The other, of course, is to make poor Kris question her own sense of reality, by fooling her into believing Mr Wood has come to life. No doubt an idea she had from her dealings with her own living dummy. And when Lindy seems like she has had her fun and revealed her scheme to Kris, only then does she plant the ancient spell in Mr Wood's pocket, knowing her sister will read it aloud and bring Mr Wood to life.
So long is this con, so convoluted is this plan, that even though Lindy risks losing her own dummy, even though Lindy has to help clean up the kitchen she trashed, these are all minor sacrificial pains that bring her closer to her own goal. She plays the helpful ally, in the climax, of course, but only because at last her goal is within her grasp. Together, she and Kris destroy Mr Wood, leaving Lindy and Slappy as the only ventriloquist act in town.
But not only that, all evidence of Mr Wood's short and violent life, all evidence that he was responsible for the slime and insults, is gone. The Powell parents think their daughter Kris might have genuinely lost her mind, and there is punishment yet in store for her, and she will never prove that she was innocent.
She will never prove that Lindy was the puppet master pulling all the strings right from the beginning.
Lindy Powell. The master villain. The greatest monster of Goosebumps series.
Forget the existential horrors of the cursed camera or the invisibility mirror.
Forget the iconic terrors of Slappy, Monster Blood, and the Haunted Mask.*
Forget the creeps seemingly designed to frighten me specifically in 'Stay Out of The Basement'.
Lindy Powell is the most frightening creation of RL Stine.
But, like, I guess haunted dolls are kinda creepy too. If you're into that. Whatever.
I'm doing an episode 7.1 for this one. I have a much bigger question to pose about Lindy Powell that demands its own blog space. So check back next week for that.
See you then. If you dare.
*I haven't read the haunted mask book, yet, but I understand it is one of the most popular/memorable ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment