Before Chucky came along, the most iconic knife-wielding killer doll was probably the Zuni fetish doll from director Dan Curtis's TV movie anthology TRILOGY OF TERROR, which starred Karen Black as three different characters in three separate segments, each of them based on stories written by Richard Matheson.
Black crossed paths with the Zuni doll in the segment called Amelia, which was based on Matheson story Prey.
Amelia gave a generation of viewers nightmares, and has since been described as “the scariest 25 minutes on U.S television”. The largely dialogue-free story features a woman being terrorized by a Zuni fetish doll, which has been possessed by the spirit of an ancient hunter known as He Who Kills. The haunted doll comes to life and lives up to its name…
He Who Kills was so popular that he was brought back twenty years later for a segment in the 1996 sequel TRILOGY OF TERROR II. More than forty years after he first appeared on screen, he's still so popular that the hero puppet from the filming of the '75 TV movie has become "the most expensive horror movie prop of all time".
When the Zuni doll went up for auction at Profiles in History a couple weeks ago, it was expected to go for a price in the $12,000 to $15,000 range. Instead, it sold for more than $200,000. Including the buyer's premium, the doll was purchased for a total of $217,600.
Standing 13" tall, the doll was one of three that were made for the production of TRILOGY OF TERROR. This one was used in all of the close-up shots, and now it's set to stand proudly on the shelf of one lucky collector.
The "most expensive horror movie prop" record was previously held by the axe used by Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING. The hero axe was sold for $211,700 at London's Prop Store in October.
I would gladly watch an entire movie built around the He Who Kills doll, and I'm kind of surprised that hasn't been made yet. In the meantime, copies of TRILOGY OF TERROR can be purchased on Amazon.
