Blatty’s The Exorcist (1971) repeated the phe-
nomenon, convincing the publishing and film in-
dustries that the American public was ready for
high-quality horror. This set the stage for the ap-
pearance of Stephen KINGand the emergence of
horror as a separate publishing genre.
The nonsupernatural portions of the novel
are partly based on a real case of a child so emo-
tionally disturbed that his family believed demonic
possession was the cause. Blatty’s novel is far less
ambiguous. Two priests strive to drive a satanic
presence from a little girl, but they are made vul-
nerable by their own self-doubts and lack of faith.
Readers who believed in the possibility of demonic
possession were particularly enthralled, and those
who did not were still impressed with the clever-
ness with which the creature manipulates the
forces of good. The treatment is understated and
sometimes reads like nonfiction, which lends an air
of authenticity and plausibility to the plot. It is, of
course, a classic story of good versus evil made
even more obvious in the 1973 film version, which
Blatty himself adapted for the screen.
Blatty later wrote a sequel, Legion(1990), in
which a serial killer mimics the methods of the
Gemini Killer, who is dead. The detective from the
first novel returns to discover that the worlds of the
living and dead are not as widely separated as he
once believed. The story appeared as a lackluster
film under the title Exorcist III(1990), and the novel
was reissued under that title. Blatty had no connec-
tion to Exorcist II,the first sequel, and his only other
fantastic fiction is a short story, “Elsewhere” (1999).
“The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy”
Gerald Kersh(1946)
The malevolent ventriloquist’s dummy is a natural
subject for horror fiction. The simulation of human
life given to an assembly of wood and wires speaks
to some basic fear in us, and even the puppet from
Carlo Collodi’s PINOCCHIO(1871), who strives to
be a real boy, is not an entirely comfortable image.
Malevolent puppets have come to life, or an imita-
tion of life, in fiction, most notably in Magic(1976)
by William Goldman, although in this case it
proves to be a delusion, in movies such as the Pup-
petmaster series, and even as an episode of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer,in the latter case turned cleverly
end over end. One of the earliest and best of such
stories is by Gerald Kersh, a British writer who
wrote in so many different genres that he is not as-
sociated with any one in particular.
We learn the story of Ecco, the ventriloquist,
and his puppet, Micky, from the man who lives in
the adjacent room in a rundown rooming house.
The narrator believes Ecco to be the greatest ven-
triloquist of all time, but Ecco is down on his luck
and clearly unhappy with his situation. At times he
rehearses loudly in his room with Micky, but often
it sounds more like a tense argument than practice
for a performance. One night the noise grows so
loud that the nameless narrator hesitantly com-
plains. Ecco apologizes and lays Micky to rest al-
most as if he were human, then suggests that they
have a drink together. Over the drinks he reveals
his story.
He was raised and trained by Dr. Vox, a gifted
ventriloquist in his own right, but a cruel man who
beat his student mercilessly. When Vox died in an
accident, Ecco inherited Micky and set out to pur-
sue a career in show business, but Micky, he tells
his companion, was not inert. The wooden body
has apparently become the resting place for the
angry spirit of Dr. Vox, who continues to torment
his pupil from beyond the grave. The narrator
takes his leave, certain that Ecco is insane, but
there are several final hints that suggest that Ecco
was indeed telling the truth. This quite short tale,
originally published under the title “The Whisper,”
is surprisingly effective considering that nothing
much happens overtly during the course of the
story. Like much of the best of horror fiction, it
achieves its effect through insinuation rather than
explanation and is designed to leave us feeling not
quite sure what is real and what is not.“The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy” 111