In 1975, long before Childs Play's Chucky and The Bride of Chucky scared audiences with killer dolls, there was TRILOGY OF TERROR where Oscar nominated and 2 time Golden Globe winning actress Karen Black met a razor-fanged plaything that led to stabbings, near-drowning and immolation. Black's character purchases a ZUNI FETISH WARRIOR DOLL for her boyfriend and foolishly ignores the warning of doom, the owner faces, if the protective chain is removed from his' waist. Does she remove it? Of course, she does, and all Hell breaks loose within the tight confines of her small apartment. He stabs at her feet with a tiny knife, and whizzes around the room like a bat out of Hell while he growls and gnashes his teeth. Black runs from him like a track star and screams like she invented it. Though she manages to trap him in a suitcase, he cuts his way out before she finally tricks him into jumping inside the oven. But if you think cooking him alive is the end of the story you'd be wrong. Dead wrong.Everyone who has ever seen this three story film by horror producer Dan Curtis always comments on the relentless nature of the doll and it's, "ANG, ANG, ARRGGGG," gravel throated growl. "That growl is something I've never forgotten," says Majestic Studios CEO Rick Phares. "Infact, I've always kept a replica of the Zuni Fetish Warrior, made by an effects person from the original film, in my office. It's one of my favorite pieces of movie memorabilia." Phares continued, "When we asked Dan Curtis for the rights to make the figure, he said he couldn't believe no one's thought of this before."Curtis began his horror producing and directing legacy back in 1966 with the vampire chic soap opera, Dark Shadows. He continued with the classic ‘seedy investigative reporter meets supernatural forces' movie of the week The Night Stalker, later turned into a TV series with Darrin McGavin as newspaper man Carl Kolchak, a precursor to The X-Files. The Zuni Fetish Doll section of the trilogy was written by sci-fi and horror author Richard Matheson. His string of movie writing triumphs began with The Incredible Shrinking Man and continued with the Vincent Price hits Pit & The Pendulum, The Legend of Hell House, and I Am Legend; Steven Spielberg's Duel; Somewhere In Time; and the recent Kevin Bacon film Stir Of Echoes. In TV he wrote some of the best Twilight Zone episodes ever. Ultimately he and Dan Curtis would team up for 4 made-for-TV movies and 1 theatrical feature. Trilogy of Terror would go on to spawn an ankle-stabbing made-for-TV sequel in 1996 written and directed by Curtis. The Zuni Fetish Warrior Doll from Majestic Studios will be lurking in your local collectibles store and ready to strike in mid-September, 2004. After coming half way around the world, packed in his own real wooden crate, he can't wait to play with YOU. Watch out for him! |