Saturday, May 30, 2009

Trilogy of Terror

Trilogy of Terror is a 1975 three part television horror thriller film. The film, which starred Karen Black in the four lead roles of each chapter, including roles as twin sisters, was originally a failed pilot for a horror anthology television series. All three segments are based on unrelated short stories, with film titles being the names for the film's main character, played by Black. The third one is my favorite, giving me chills down to my bone and the fear of Tiki dolls. I wrote about the first two but the third one deserves to be watched, especially if you haven’t seen it.
Segment 1: JulieChad and Eddie are university students who admire their English teacher, Julie Eldrich. During one class, Chad is distracted by Julie's low cut shirt and begins to daydream about her. Eddie discourages Chad against becoming romantically involved with teachers. Later that evening, when Julie is undressing alone in her room, Chad is seen watching through a window. The next day at university, Chad asks Julie out on a date, and after initially refusing, accepts Chad's offer. Basically, during the date, Chad spikes Julie’s drink, drives them to a motel, takes sexually provocative pictures of her and blackmails her into continuing their affair. After several weeks of being threatened, Julie announces "The game is over". Julie then asks Chad, "Did you really think that dull, little mind of yours could possibly have conceived any of the rather dramatic experiences we've shared? Why do you think you suddenly had the overwhelming desire to see what I looked like under 'all those clothes?' Don't feel bad, I always get bored after a while." Chad realises his own drink has been poisoned. Chad dies, and Julie drags his body into the darkroom where she sets fire to the offending photographs. Chad's death is later reported in local media as a house fire. Julie adds the newspaper story to a scrapbook containing students who met similar fates. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door, and another student in need of a tutor enters.

Segment 2: Millicent and ThereseA tale of two sisters, one being the prudish Millicent with curly brown hair and large glasses, and the easy going Therese with long blonde hair. Millicent is determined that Therese is evil, and plants a voodoo device to kill her. When Millicent's friend Dr. Ramsey enters the house, he finds Therese dead on her bedroom floor with the doll next to her. After speaking with the family doctor, Dr. Ramsey reveals that it was Millicent acting in a blonde wig and make-up in a dual personality manner.

Segment 3: Amelia






4 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! I remember these well. I saw these when I was young and watched it with my mom and they totally freaked us out. Especially that little tribal doll!

    Thanks for posting this, how fun!

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  2. I actually forgot what the other two were about but that last one gave me nightmares! I loved it!

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  3. Mike and Julie -thanks so very much for these!! I was somewhat like Marbella at first-I thought i had vague memories of these -the Tiki/Voodoo doll was really strong-but my memory has a tendency to put things together that do not go together especially as more time has passed!! I always enjoyed Karen Black -I do not hear her name often so i guess she is not too famous -Hey do either one of you remember Kolchak the Night Stalker-I am gonna feel real stupid if you have done an article on that show!! I just can't keep up with everybody anymore and know I miss a lot of posts -having a real bad time with insomnia lately and some days i am so tired i do not even get online-hopefully this is not an all summer trend!! best as always to both of you and thanks so much for being a friend to MFM and I consider you friends outside of blogdom as I do Autumnforest-all the best to both of you!!!

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  4. Yeah, that zuni doll was the show-stealer. That was so scary. I remember watching it as a teen again, thinking I was old enough to handle it this time, but nope--scared me just as much as when I was a kid. Right up there with that Twilight Zone with the little girl's doll who doesn't like Telly Savalas. I'm telling you, dolls are evil. :-)

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