Mannequin
I have the most idiotic fear; retail mannequins. And let me tell you, working in a shop where you had to regular enter a room with dismembered dummies. I think any likeness to humanity in a lifeless form (including Victorian dolls,) freaks me out. You only have to watch one horror movie or Doctor Who episode to reinstate my fear that vacant unalive plastic humans will one day animate and take over the world. That shit scares me more than the zombie apocalypse.
Rooted deep in this fear was a film that I regularly watched when I was a child and, while it may seem silly now, enticed one of the biggest screams out of me and I had to turn away whenever we watched it. I still remember my heart thumping in my throat, my hands like claws over my eyes and gasps until the crescendo high pitched squeal left my mouth. I was utterly terrified.
That movie was 80’s RomCom Mannequin.
Mannequin is about Ancient Egyptian Emmy who hides in the pyramids from her mother, who wants her to get married against her will. The gods answer her prayers and she disappears. Luckily, for hapless sculpture/artist Jonathon Switcher, Emmy turns up in one of the mannequins he designs. Yes, you read that correctly. And he is the only one who can see her. So every time the lights go off in the department store, Emmy comes back to live to dance and mess around with Jonathon. Cue all the 80’s music, fashion and hijinks. It also stars a young Kim Cattrall and
Why Is It Bad?
I only recently just re-watched this movie. It is rubbish. It is appalling full of every romantic comedy cliché you can think off and it adds this ludicrous magically notion of a lost spirit who has travelled through time to become a high end dummy. It is almost as bad as Electric Dreams. And trust me, it is just as bit as lifeless as the other non-possessed dummy’s. The acting is so hammed up that it just reveals the underwritten and lazy plot that they have to deal with. Line up against the other 80’s classics, it comes up a dud.
Why Is It Good?
Well, the music is really good. I mean, who hasn’t blasted out Starships ‘Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now,” and felt alive? The soundtrack is ridiculously catchy and that kind of pulls you in. And I’m not saying Mannequin is so bad its good, but there is some redeeming quality in Andrew McCarthy our leading man and relentless villain James Spader. And let’s not forget the harrowing ordeal near the end where she nearly gets destroy, if only other people could see her, please no, save yourself, your foot is going to be mangled forever and it is so close to the chipper….
I may have just had a flashback.
The point is, I don’t have a really good reason as to why I enjoy this movie apart from its incredible amounts of cheesy and misjudged hilarity. It is highly innocent and I think that is in itself, endearing.
If only just a bit cheap and plastic.
TTFN
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