Producer/Director Sam Raimi and Lionsgate are giving us more Magic, but for some of us, that’s not a good thing.

Over a decade before he won an Oscar for playing Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins shared the screen with a character that may have inspired more nightmares than old Hannibal the Cannibal: Fats the ventriloquist’s dummy, whose terrifying visage frightened unsuspecting Gen X kids (myself included) who only saw the television commercial for the cursed film.

It truly wasn’t just me: filmmaker Rodney Ascher made a short film called “The Wooden Boy” for an episode of the show Primal Screen detailing what seeing the commercial did to him. You can watch it on the Shudder streaming platform.

The commercial was so terrifying, a bit of trivium in IMDB tells us, “The original trailer for this movie, featuring the dummy Fats, was removed from broadcast stations after parents complained about how scary it was. In the ads, Fats talks, closes his eyes after he says the last line, which is “we’re dead”. The voice-over mentions the actors and the R-rating, at which point, Fats opens his eyes, and they roll to the left.”

I don’t have a source for that, but you can take my word for it. I was 12 years old when the film came out and the commercial alone inspired a life-long revulsion for ventriloquial figures. (I’m not keen on clowns either, but that might be the fault of John Wayne Gacy, whose arrest for being a serial killer inspired newspapers everywhere to show him in clown regalia while relating the story of his heinous crimes.)

You can head over to any social media site to find a cohort of like-minded people who got the heebie-jeebies from the commercial, which is available on YouTube should you wish to check it out. Obligatory trigger warning: It’s really disturbing. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

This confession comes because of Friday’s announcement that horror legend Sam Raimi (Evil Dead franchise, 2000s Spider-Man trilogy, Drag Me to Hell, Send Help, etc.) will not only produce a remake of Magic (along with Roy Lee) for Lionsgate, but that he will direct the film.

In the 1978 original, Hopkins played Corky Withers, a magician/ventriloquist who has severe mental issues, personified by his dummy Fats. Corky fights with Fats for control of his mind, which is bad news for the other characters in the film, played by Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, and Ed Lauter.

The movie’s premise is scary enough, but the producers chose to cast Fats in the likeness of Anthony Hopkins, crafting the dummy at the very bottom of the Uncanny Valley. The exaggerated features like Fats’ large, staring blue eyes, and wide mouth with a terrifying rack of teeth only added to the menace that Fats conveyed in his words.

Lionsgate is deservedly chuffed to have Raimi on board; he is a great director with a great track record. He made the Evil Dead movies, one of my favorite horror franchises of all time. (Sure, he also gave us Spider-Man 3 but everyone makes mistakes.)

“Sam is the dream director for this project — in fact, his coming aboard represents one of the truly great matches of director and material,” said Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group in a statement. “The script (by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon) is fantastic, and we could not be more excited to see Sam’s direction and creative vision take it to another level. We are absolutely thrilled he has chosen to direct the film.”

So, the remake is going to happen. It might even be good. Maybe one day I’ll even see it (unlike the original, which I could never bring myself to watch), albeit at home with all the lights on.

But I can’t help but fear for myself and my fellow Gen Xers who will most likely be traumatized all over again when the trailer for the rebooted Magic is released.