Doll-A-Day 2023 #321: Trilogy of Terror Zuni Warrior

   I know it's December now, but you can't expect a Christmassy doll every day. Some days you just feel beastly...

    Today we're looking at a doll that some of us might rather not look at! If you were a kid in the 70's, you might have been scared, shall we say, without bowel content, when a TV movie premiered that has been freaking people out ever since. As doll collectors, it's our worst nightmare.

  It was 1975. Dan Curtis was not long from his job as creator of the daytime horror soap opera, "Dark Shadows". The TV movie, "Trilogy of Terror, based on three short stories by Richard Matheson, and directed by Dan Curtis was broadcast on March 4. I was less than a week short of my 13th birthday, but I remember the story, "Amelia" quite well! I think I've only seen the movie once since, but it still bothers me.

  "Amelia" concerned a woman who had bought her anthropologist boyfriend a Zuni warrior doll for his birthday. The doll contains the spirit of a warrior named 'He Who Kills', and all that's holding the sprit in is a small chain it wears. So, of course, as soon as Amelia leaves the room, the chain just drops off. Amelia returns to the room and wonders where the warrior has gone. She follows a sound in the kitchen and finds a knife missing. (Like Foghorn Leghorn and his feathers, apparently she 'keeps her knives numbered, for just such an occasion'.) You know where this is going. Amelia spends the whole movie being attacked by the warrior doll, and attempting to fight back and kill it. Then there's that creepy ending...

   The one saving grace seems to be that the warrior didn't come back full sized. Amelia is chased and ankle stabbed by an 8 inch Zuni warrior. Sounds ridiculous, but manages to be terrifying. In fact, the movie has gained a cult following. So much so that a sequel, "Trilogy of Terror II", written and directed by Dan Curtis, was made in 1996. I haven't seen it, but the plot of the Zuni warrior segment sounds like a repeat of most of the action from the original. That includes the female lead trapping the doll in a briefcase, which he cuts his way out of, and her being dumb enough to try to grab the blade that is poking through the case, and being cut. Who is that stupid? I don't think the second film has nearly the following of the first one.

  And why am I telling you all this? Because the doll from the sequel, which looks just like the original doll, is about to go up for auction. You can own your own Zuni warrior, but you'd better get yourself one of those chains.

Everything but the chain.

Pretty scary looking little dude.

I think he's supposed to be made of wood. He burns, at least.

Scary from any direction.

Scary from the back.

Nakey warrior! His lower body is skirt shaped! 

Hole in his back for putting a stick to move him around, I would think.

His skirt closes with Velcro!

  The auction is by Julien's Auctions. You can find it HERE. Bids can be made now, and the auction ends on December 14th. They're auctioning a lot of movie and TV related items, but none of it is cheap. The Zuni Warrior has two bids, and he's already at $5000.

  That's it for today. Tomorrow we'll see something cute and Christmassy. I promise.