The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Magic
Drama · Horror · 1978
A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
Movie details
Magic
“A terrifying love story.”
1978 Drama · Horror 1h 47m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.8 / 10
Community rating
A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Magic?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Frankenstein
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Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
Freaks
Drama · 1932
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Fear Street: 1994
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After a series of brutal slayings, a teen and her friends take on an evil force that's plagued their notorious town for centuries.
The Surrender
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A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
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The crew of the merchant ship Demeter attempts to survive the ocean voyage from Carpathia to London as they are stalked each night by a merciless presence onboard the ship.
Come Play
Horror · 2020
Oliver, a lonely autistic boy, seeks solace and refuge in his ever-present cell phone and tablet. When a mysterious creature uses the boy's devices against him, his parents must fight to save their son from the monster beyond the screen.
The Beaver
Drama · 2011
Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter pushes for his parents to get a divorce.
Nosferatu
Horror · 2024
A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.
Dolls
Fantasy · 1987
A precocious girl, her nasty parents, two punk-rock losers and a weak-kneed salesman inadvertently become the guests of two ghoulish senior citizens in their dark, haunted mansion.
The Howling
Horror · 1981
After a bizarre and near fatal encounter with a serial killer, a newswoman is sent to a rehabilitation center whose inhabitants may not be what they seem.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Richard Attenborough
Written by
William Goldman
Anthony Hopkins
Corky Withers / Fats (voice)
Ann-Margret
Peggy Ann Snow
Burgess Meredith
Ben Greene
Ed Lauter
Duke
E.J. André
Merlin
Jerry Houser
Cab Driver
David Ogden Stiers
George Todson
Court is in session
Put Magic on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.