Retro-Video: Living Dolls Horror Short Film

Those in their late-twenties and up are old enough to remember USA Saturday Nightmares, a weekly programming block consisting of horror films and analogy shows (including The Ray Bradbury Theater, my introduction to the legendary author) on the USA Network.

Every so often the feature wasn't long enough and to fill vacant air-time, horror shorts aired including Living Dolls. The spooker centers on a kid (emasculated at his janitorial job at a bridal shop) locked upstairs on the third floor. A room full of mannequins. In the middle of the night.

As the slasher genre ruled the roost, writer/director Todd Coleman showed you don't need mask-wearing psychos, accompanied by Tom Savini-caliber makeup effects, to scare. Mood and atmosphere (Thanks to good old-fashioned editing, cinematography and sound) work wonders. This scared the crap outta me as a little kid and to prove it isn't nostalgia talking, I showed this to Phil Gee. It freaked him out too.

Almost as a means to calm you down, the video is immediately followed by the opening seconds of frothy 80s sitcom My Sister Sam.