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My children asked me about the oldest movie I can remember (as a kid). It is a movie from before 1977 (probably mid 60's - early 70's) about a house where (children? owners?) were not taking care of the home appliances (I do not remember how exactly, but I think by not cleaning them, etc.)

This home equipment, one day, decided to revolt against the owners and attack them. I am sure the TV was part of the plot, and probably a vacuum cleaner.

I know that sounds like a comedy but it was not one, and what is left of the 5-6 years old boy in me is still terrified. Sorry for not having more details but my brain probably erased them.

It may have been a short movie (The Twilight Zone - like) and it was broadcast in Europe (in France I think, may have been Poland or Germany). I tried to Google for "home appliance attack" and this indeed brings a movie, but from the 00's.

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    Probably going to be hard to search for, as a lot of home appliances in the 60s and 70s were revolting. The only one that springs to mind is the 80s movie Pulse but that's quite a bit after your time frame. Apr 12, 2019 at 12:26
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    Yeah, I was thinking Maximum Overdrive, but that's also too late, being released in 1986. But it does feature appliances (and all other machines) turning on humans... Apr 12, 2019 at 15:27
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    The wonderful short story "No One" by Diana Wynne Jones (found in the book "Unexpected Magic") has some similarities. Except that the appliances are fighting against intruders who are attempting a kidnapping (not against the owners), and are led by the title character, a robot with the very useful name "No One." (Obviously not what you're looking for, but might be of interest.)
    – Wildcard
    Apr 12, 2019 at 20:43

7 Answers 7

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You may be thinking of the 1965 Benny Hill skit One Step Behind:

The skit exposits a movie in which appliances become monsters and attack a family. It is, as one might expect given the milieu, cheesy.

I also watched it at a young age, and it gave me nightmares.

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You may be thinking of The Twilight Zone episode "A Thing about Machines".

Bartlett Finchley is an odd man, a writer who contributes to food magazines and the like. He lives alone and is always it seems in need of a repairman for one piece of household equipment or another. As time has gone by, he seems to be in a constant battle with machines - his typewriter, his television - which all have the same message for him: get out of the house. He has no intention of doing so however and the battle begins.

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This is a long shot, but there was a 1978 Star Wars parody called Hardware Wars where home appliances played a big role. The plot, if you can call it that, is quite different, however.

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This is a pretty long shot, but your description sounds a little like The Twonky, which came out in the early 1950s. There's a TV that turns out to be able to do all kinds of things, and is determined to take charge of the life of the protagonist. It's intended to be a comedy, but the story is pretty creepy.

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I think you are thinking of Demon Seed, a great film.

True high octane nightmare fuel. The Proteus AI takes over the house, builds a battle droid, kills a guy, makes a replicate of her to dissuade her husband from bothering its machinations, rapes a woman and impregnates her with a clone of her late daughter and uploads its mind into the child's body.

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My suggestion is a French movie called Le démon dans l'île (apparently "Demon of the Island" in English), from 1983. I remember a lady being killed by her (unplugged) oven, played straight.

I rented it with friends in the late 1980s, for laughs, during our Toxic Avenger phase when we were about 18. But I can imagine it being impressive and disturbing to a child.

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A (slightly) more recent one...
Pulse (1988)
A boy tries to warn his father that they are being menaced by a malevolent pulse of electricity that moves from house to house, terrorizing the residents.

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