Trilogy of Terror was a horror anthology movie of the week made for television. Dan Curtis (Burnt Offerings and The Night Strangler) does the directing here. The stories as all written by classic horror writer Richard Mattheson. Matthewson also gave us I Am Legend, Duel, and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Legendary stuff! Trilogy of Terror consists of three short stories, all starring Karen Black, who you might have seen in Easy Rider or House of 1,000 Corpses. Also starring in the first story is Black’s husband (at the time) Robert Burton (Bucktown and Prey for the Wildcats) as Chad. The first story is titled Julie (Black) who is a college English teacher. Chad is her student and after several attempts she agrees to go out with him on a date. He seems obsessed with her and creeps around Julie’s bedroom and watches her undress.
Things get really creepy afterwards when Chad spikes her drink in order to take her back to his place and take photos of her. This one doesn’t play out like you would expect it to. The second story, Millicent and Therese, is about two sisters both of which are played by Black. Millicent hates her twin sister Therese. Millicent tells her therapist, Dr. Ramsey, that Therese had a sexual affair with their father and poisoned their mother. Ramsey goes to the family house and speaks to Therese who comes onto him. After he refuses her advances, she throws him out of the house. Millicent decides to use voodoo to try and kill her sister. Ramsey is portrayed by George Gaines who you might know from several of the Police Academy movies, but I will always remember him as the mob boss Frank Smith that Luke and Laura brought down on General Hospital back in the 80's.
The third (and best) story is titled Amelia. Amelia, once again played by Black, cancels plans with her mother to see her boyfriend on his birthday. Her boyfriend is an anthropologist, and she has gotten him a Zuni fetish doll as a gift. The small doll looks like a sort of ancient hunter/warrior. It has long, pointed teeth and carries a spear. Legend says that the doll has the spirit of a Zuni hunter and is named He Who Kills. Nice name. There is a gold chain around the doll’s waist that is supposed to keep the spirit under control. Amelia leaves the room and while she is away the gold chain falls off. As you can guess, chaos ensues. Black felt Trilogy of Terror pigeonholed her into a career filled with B movie horror films. This doesn’t seem to be so far fetched because after Trilogy, she was in quite a lot of horror films that were less than blockbusters.
Now, here’s the thing, this is considered a horror classic for one reason and that is the third story. The first story is OK, the second one is a bit better (Black plays crazy well in it), but they are both nothing compared to Amelia. That motha effin’ little doll! I watched this when it first came out at the impressionable age of six. I was in first grade! Amelia scared the pants off me. At that time of night, I probably had my jam jams on by then, so it scared me out of my blue Scooby Doo footie pj's. This is often described as one of the scariest TV horror films ever made and, in some instances, the number one TV horror film of all time. For the most part, I agree but I wish the first two stories were a bit better and unfortunately, I lay most of the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of horror writer William F. Nolan. Nolan (Logan’s Run and Burnt Offerings), a regular co-creator with Curtis, adapted the first two stories for the small screen.
Amelia was adapted by Mattheson himself. So, did that make the difference? Maybe, but I get why the first two are the way they are, and the third one is the way it is. The first two are more psychological horror with more of the story happens in the viewers’ minds and left to the imagination. The third story would have aired sometime around 10:00 in the evening, which would have given it a bit more leeway and allowed the insanity that we see. The final twenty minutes or so are some of the best moments of TV that I’ve ever seen. Of course, there is little to no blood and gore at all but there doesn’t need to be. You can watch Amelia and see where Chucky from Child’s Play came from, in fact I’m going to go out on a limb and say “He Who Kills” is Chucky's grandfather. I will give this cult classic three and a half drive in movie theaters out of five. If you watch it only for the last story you will be doing yourself a huge solid. The other two – meh.
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