The Boy with Two Heads (1974– )

For a very long time (until last year to be precise), I really thought that I had "dreamed" this serial, since noone around me ever remembered having seen it.It actually came only once on french TV, late summer 1978, and then vanished into thin air. Miraculously, the DVD got released in France last December, and through various internet forums I have managed to talk to a few people who DID remember it... and thought they were they only ones ! Actually this show was something to be remembered : it is the tale of two kids who find a shrunken jivaro head in a box stolen in an antique dealer shop, and who spend the whole series carrying it around, hidden inside a football, to preserve it from the hands of two evilish thugs who want to make money out of it. Of course, a second vision, almost 25 years later, of this naive and childish scary story really doesn't enhance the terrified memory I had of it. The shrunken head, which looked absolutely horrid when I was 7 now looks like a corny wooden puppet with two eyes that go from left to right. The mood of the story is more detective-like than terror-oriented, but the simple fact that it was a head with no body attached to it made the whole thing totally spooky. Actually, the whole thing looks more like an Enid Blyton one-shot than like an episode from the "Tales from the Crypt". But I probably should remain faithful to my memories and not slouch in the usual and obvious adult contempt, cynicism and mockery. After all, this was made for kids, and it worked. Well, for kids in the 70's it did. Today's would probably find "The Boy with Two Heads" atrociously ridiculous !