The Great Vorelli (Bryant Haliday) entertains theatre crowds with his lifelike dummy, Hugo, who talks, walks, and in a sinister twist, also kills. Watch out for those close-up shots of the dummy's shuffling feet. Danger ahead! Reporter Mark English (William Sylvester) is determined to find out the secrets of this amazing dummy so he asks his beautiful girlfriend, Marianne Horn (Yvonne Romain) to ask The Great Vorelli to perform at a fundraiser at a country estate. Attracted by Marianne's ravishing good looks, the devious ventriloquist-hypnotist agrees. But first he places her in a deep trance and commands her to obey all his telepathic commands in the future. After he snaps his fingers, she remembers nothing and soon finds herself drawn to Vorelli's bedroom for a midnight tryst. Haliday plays the evil trance master with a consistent intensity: sweat on his brow; eyes slightly mad; finger touching the tip of the sharp knife. In fact, his performance gives this $75,000 low budget horror film the psychological suspense and eerie atmosphere necessary to carry the viewers' curiosity to the final strange twist ending when the souls of The Great Vorelli and Hugo are interchanged. By the way, the action sequences of Hugo were performed by Sadie Corrie, a female midget, who later appeared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), The Dark Crystal (1982), and Star Wars IV - Return of the Jedi (1983).

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