Monsters Unleashed! Trilogy of Terror: Zuni Warrior Doll

Most of these movies have faded into memory but one film in particularly has lived on to this day thanks to one very scary doll. Dan Curtis’ production of Trilogy of Terror featured three short stories by well known author Richard Matheson: “Julie”, “Millicent and Therese” and “Amelia” with all four title characters to be played by one actress. After originally turning down the film, Karen Black ultimately took on the parts because her boyfriend at the time, Robert Burton, was in one of the segments. She gained praise for her tour de force performances but that was over shadowed and her thunder stolen by, of all things, a wooden doll.

The third part of Trilogy of Terror, “Amelia”, adapted by Richard Matheson from his short story “Prey”, had Karen Black playing a woman who was trying to get out from under her over-bearing mother and live on her own. “Amelia” was a one actor story and Black did a wonderful job of communicating her position through a phone call to her mom. It’s Friday night, the night Amelia usually goes out to dinner with her mother. But in a phone with her mom, Amelia tells her that she would like to spend just this one Friday with her boyfriend because it’s his birthday.

She goes on to tell her mom about the present she got her boyfriend who is an anthropology professor: an authentic Zuni Warrior fetish doll. She takes the foot high doll carved from wood out of its box and holds it as she describes how ugly the thing is.

A card enclosed with the doll reads “He who kills. Should this chain be removed spirit in doll will become one living”. The chain referenced is one wrapped around the waist of the doll. But we can tell Amelia’s mom doesn’t want to hear about it from Amelia’s conversation (the mother isn’t heard by the audience). Frustrated, Amelia calls her boyfriend to see if they could go out the next day but (again without hearing him) that conversation doesn’t go well either. Amelia slams down the doll on the table consigned to spending the evening alone. But the impact on the table loosens the chain and it falls off the doll. Amelia goes to the kitchen and prepares herself a steak then goes to the bathroom to draw a hot bath. Upon returning to the kitchen she can’t find the steak knife she had been using. Then she hears something and goes back to the living room only to find the doll isn’t on the table anymore!

What follows is a battle for survival as the Zuni Warrior doll relentlessly chases Amelia through her apartment. The sounds coming from the doll are both scary as hell and sometimes even funny. I could swear I hear him saying “Ooteeny!” and other Jawa like mutterings even though Star Wars was still two years away. So I guess it’s the Jawas that sound like the Zuni Warrior doll! The special effects were top notch–and expensive–for its time. A lot of close ups are used but for wider angle shots they actually had a fake floor built so that puppeteers could be under the floor dragging the doll across.

Battered and bloody–in one scene Amelia catches the doll in a suitcase then she sees the Zuni doll cutting his way out using her steak knife and she stupidly tries to get the knife by the blade and has her fingers sliced up–the battle between woman and spirit doll is won. But…by who?

Despite a rather concrete ending you just can’t keep the Zuni Warrior Doll down. So in 1996, over twenty years after He Who Kills first appeared, Trilogy Of Terror 2 came out with 3 more tales with the final one being the return of Zuni Warrior Doll. This time out Dan Curtis used Lysette Anthony as his star. Lysette Anthony should be remembered by fans of the Dark Shadows Revival from 1991 as the vengeful witch Angelique. Watch for my article on that show sometime soon.

I would like to dedicate this article to John Karlen who appeared in one of the Trilogy of Terror  segments but best known and loved by millions of Dark Shadows fans as Willie Loomis, groundskeeper for the Collins family who released Barnabas Collins from his coffin thus forever changing how vampires are portrayed. John passed away this year but his contribution to the horror genre will be remembered.