Trilogy of Terror
(1975) 72 min.
Rated: Unrated
Country: USA
Director: Dan Curtis
Starring: Karen Black, Robert Burton
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
An anthology of stories starring Karen Black.
Synopsis:
This made for TV movie is broken up into three parts. All main characters are women and they are all played by Karen Black.
Story One: “Julie”
Chad (Burton) is a college student who suddenly decides one day to sexually conquer his teacher Julie (Black). His friend, Eddie, tries to discourage Chad and calls her ugly.
However, during class he becomes more and more obsessed with the idea and one day while Julie is undressing, Chad is there watching her through a window.
The next day Chad asks her out on a date. At first she refuses, ultimately she decides to go through with it. During their date at a drive-in movie theater, however, Chad spikes her drink. Julie becomes unconscious and Chad takes her to a motel room and takes a few photographs of her in sexually suggestive poses on a bed. He then takes her home and explains to her that she fell asleep during the movie when she awakes.
Chad develops the pictures in a darkroom. Later he takes Julie for a car ride and reveals the pictures to her. She is furious. He blackmails her into doing whatever he wants or he will release the pictures publicly. She reluctantly agrees.
After a period of time Julie announces that the game is over and reveals that all along it was she who was the mastermind and manipulated Chad. She has poisoned his drink and he dies. She drags his body into the darkroom and sets it on fire. Later it is reported in the papers as a fire and Julie adds the newspaper clipping to a scrapbook with other student murders she’s committed.
Just then, a new student arrives at her door so that she can tutor him.
Story Two: “Millicent and Therese”
Millicent is a prudish looking woman who has determined that her sister Therese is evil. Millicent tries to call the family doctor to have a meeting, but when Dr. Ramsay arrives he only meets Therese who tries to seduce him. When he rebuffs her, she kicks him out of the house.
Later Millicent promises to put an end to Therese. When Dr. Ramsay visits he finds Therese dead on the floor. He reveals that Millicent and Therese were the same person (both played by Black). She suffered from multiple personality disorder.
Story Three: “Amelia”
Amelia (Black) arrives home with a package. It’s planned as a present for her boyfriend. It’s a Zuni warrior fetish doll. A scroll that comes with the doll claims that a hunter’s spirit is trapped within the doll. She gets a call from her mother who insists that she cancel her dinner date with her boyfriend so that Amelia can spend her evening with her mom. Amelia reluctantly complies.
As Amelia puts the doll down roughly a gold chain falls off from around the doll’s waist.
Amelia is in the kitchen using a knife to cut vegetables for dinner. She wanders into the living room to find that the doll is missing. When she hears a noise in the kitchen the knife is gone as well.
The doll, now alive, starts to stab her in the ankles and she runs away from it. The doll continues to chase her and she continues to run and try to trap the doll, meanwhile getting stabbed in the hands and feet.
She ultimately is able to throw the doll in the already hot oven and hold the door shut. Black clouds start to come out of it and the doll screams and hits the window repeatedly. Finally the noise stops and she investigates.
In a calm voice she calls her mother and invites her to dinner. We then see Amelia squatting down in front of the door, smirking viciously with pointy teeth and stabbing at the floor rhythmically with the knife, waiting for her mother to arrive.
Review:
This is a made-for-TV movie, so the gore level is pretty sparse. The first two segments are actually rather quickly paced and dull. They’re written well, but the twist at the end can be easily seen in both. So they’re both not surprising and also a little silly.
The third portion of this movie is the best one and also what launched this movie into cult status. It certainly was shocking and engaging to me when I was a child. I first saw it when I was younger and the Zuni doll was so terrifying that it stuck with me. Of course, I’m an adult now and the doll looks a little bit more silly. Still, at the time it was daring enough to garner attention and so a sequel to this film was made.
Notes:
The 2006 DVD release of Trilogy of Terror has two extra featurettes that include interviews with Karen Black and Richard Matheson.
