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When you thought that television was a source of harmless entertainment...
It's the 70s. My mother just got divorced and we ended up living with my grandparents. They rent a huge apartment with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a winter garden and a huge corridor of more than 10 meters that connects the living room with the kitchen. We occupy the last of the bedrooms, where we accommodate two beds, a closet, and our black & white TV.
I am 7 years old and my grandparents spoil me. They know the pain I feel for the absence of my father, who seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, hiding out in sleazy jobs to avoid paying us alimony.. That's why they spoil me and let me watch TV until late. Since school starts at noon, I am often in our bedroom watching movies and series until around midnight. My mother, who has gotten a strenuous job, comes home around 10 p.m. She eats something quick and goes to bed almost immediately, exhausted after hours and hours of work.
And although my mother is sleeping in one of the beds a few meters away from me, I am practically alone in the room, sitting in front of the TV. In my native Uruguay there were no such controls as in other countries - as in the case of Argentina - where at 10 p.m. a sign would come out warning that the child protection schedule was over, an alert to warn that the channels now had a free stone to show much more adult content. Much more violent cop movies. Comedies with racy jokes. Documentary series - like The World At War - that explicitly showed the horrors of World War II in the foreground. And, of course, horror series and horror movies.
And this happens because the 1970s represents the golden age of television horror. A lot of films and series appear that are intelligent, stylish and manage to shock the viewer within the rigid limits imposed by the format. Thus we have the horrifying Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973); a researcher discovers a race of demons that live in the desert in Gargoyles (1972); a tabloid reporter hunts a vampire in the city of Las Vegas in the memorable The Night Stalker (1972) - the unforgettable character of Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) was born - and then chases an immortal in its 1973 sequel The Night Strangler; there's a similar premise in The Norliss Tapes (1973); and the formula is repeated with variations in Curse of the Black Widow (1977), with another investigator (Tony Franciosa) following the trail of a series of grisly murders committed by a giant spider (!).
The common factor in most of these titles is Dan Curtis, a director and producer who had discovered a vein of gold when he found himself trying to revive a gothic soap opera that had been on the air for ten months and was plummeting in the ratings. In a fit of desperation he decided to make an experimental move, and introduced a new character - a vampire! - who was a distant relative visiting the Collins family mansion. What was to be a coup that was to last a few episodes became not only a permanent character but a popular icon. Thus was born Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid), who would go from a secondary character to the absolute protagonist of Dark Shadows (1966 - 1971), which would lead the ratings during the five years it was on the air, even being broadcast in Latin America (and I got to see some chapters!).
In the middle of all these productions there is one that is very close to my heart: Trilogy of Terror (1975). It is an anthology composed of three chapters: the first one is about a female teacher blackmailed by one of her students, who will soon get revenge. The second is even more routine, a case of split personality. But the third... is one that would be memorable and turn the film and its protagonist into cult icons.
The third segment is called Amelia, and takes place in a minimalist setting. To spread terror, Curtis only needs an apartment, a telephone, a woman... and a Zuni doll. And, in less than 20 minutes, Curtis manages to traumatize a whole generation... among whose victims I include myself.
Imagine you're 7 years old. Your whole house is quiet - the adults have gone to bed early - and you're practically alone in your bedroom, which is dark and barely lit by the glow of the TV screen. It's already close to midnight, so by the time the film is over the TV channel's programming will end, and you'll have to go to bed in the most closed darkness. And the last thing you're going to see that night is one of the scariest scenes of your entire life.
The Amelia of the title is Karen Black - a successful actress in the 1960s, Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee for Five Easy Pieces (1970) -. Black is no a conventional beauty; her angular features and screwball looks give her a magnetic presence when she's on screen. In Amelia she plays a young woman who lives tortured by the constant control of her domineering mother. Her phone chats always end badly - her mother questions all the time all the life decisions that Amelia makes - and her conscience eats away at her to the point that she always ends up giving in to his desires. In this case, she must contemplate canceling her boyfriend's birthday dinner in exchange for fulfilling the weekly ritual of eating with her mother every Friday night.
And since the groom is an anthropologist, what better than to buy him an exotic gift. In an antique store he has found a miniature - the wooden statue of a Zuni warrior - which comes with a papyrus that talks about the curse that weighs on the statuette. A sorcerer has managed to imprison the spirit of the relentless Zuni demon in the doll's wooden body, and the gold chain around it is the only thing preventing the warrior from coming back to life. But after an argument with her mother, Amelia is so upset that she throws the doll on the table... and the chain comes off, unleashing the unthinkable.
What follows is a perfect combo of direction, Black's performance, editing and soundtrack. The scene starts in silence... until Robert Colbert's ominous score begins to play - Colbert will be to Curtis what Bernard Herrmann was to Hitchcock; his soundtracks are the ideal complement to his horror productions -. Suddenly you feel that something is running all over the house. There are lamps that stop working. There are knives that disappear from the kitchen. And when something comes running at full speed towards Black - seriously damaging his heels - our worst fears have come true. The Zuni doll is alive and is now hunting Black in her own apartment.
Consider the miracles Curtis has to perform to make the whole premise work. Starting with the design of the doll, a demonic figure with shark-like teeth and deep black, lifeless eyes, which is frightening to look at. Then - with the limited budget and technology of the time - he must make the doll's attacks look believable and, especially, shocking. Too many shots and too many cuts in the editing room to make the doll look alive. The Zuni doll is a demon that screams all the time, destroys everything in its path, and mercilessly attacks whatever parts of Black's body it can get its hands on. A ground-level camera simulates the speed of his attacks. Close-ups of his gruesome teeth demonstrate a terrifying ferocity. At one point Karen Black is in a nervous breakdown - locked in her bedroom -, trying to call for help on the phone... as she begins to watch the doorknob slowly start to turn and the door opens... And suddenly the apartment is transformed into a battlefield where Black is fighting for her life. She has cuts all over her body, her fear dominates her, the attacks are relentless, there is barely time to improvise any kind of defense. And when she finally seems to get rid of the doll, throwing it into the oven where she was cooking her dinner....
If the Zuni doll's attacks are terrifying, wait until you see the final frame. It's one that makes your skin crawl. Black rips the latches off the front door and squats down. Her face is unhinged. She has the biggest knife in her kitchen, which she begins to stab relentlessly into the floor. And suddenly that frightening smile appears, riddled with giant and diabolical fangs... like those of the Zuni warrior, whose spirit has possessed her.
Today I am 56 years old and still the vision of the third episode of Trilogy of Terror gives me chills. Technology has advanced tremendously, special effects are now superior; I have seen much more explicit and gory horror films such as John Carpenter's The Thing, Coralie Fargeat's The Substance, or even David Cronenberg's The Fly. However, the terror of the Amelia episode is still etched in my memory. Because the films that impress us the most are part of our history creating indelible memories. That's why when I watch the Amelia segment, I don't see a cheap film with a plastic doll trying to attack an actress screaming like crazy; I go back to my 7 years, I relive the fear that the story provoked in me and I relive my night terror... the one that made me stay up all night, attentive to the slightest noises that sounded in my house... fearing that the Zuni warrior was lurking in the bedroom and could attack me at any moment in my bed.
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Amelia was written by Richard Matheson, based on his short story “Prey”.
A couple of quotes from Wikipedia: the Zuni Doll from the segment Amelia has been called by some as being "one of the scariest dolls in movie history".
In 2011, Complex magazine named Trilogy of Terror the fourth-greatest television film of all time, while MeTV deemed it the scariest television film of all time in 2016.
On the internet review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 13 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 7.8/10.
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