TV's 25 Scariest Episodes - #5 - 'Trilogy of Terror'

October 28, 5:41 PMClassic TV ExaminerDoug Krentzlin

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Classic TV Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Karen Black in the "Amelia" segment of "Trilogy of Terror"
(ABC Broadcasting)

Producer/director Dan Curtis and writer Richard Matheson hit pay dirt in 1972 when their made-for-TV production of The Night Stalker became a ratings phenomenon after premiering on The ABC Movie of the Week. Three years later, they reunited for another made-for-TV horror flick to be aired as an ABC Movie of the Week. When Trilogy of Terror was first broadcast on March 4, 1975, lightning struck twice and again the ratings went through the roof.

Trilogy of Terror was an anthology of Matheson short stories. By Matheson’s own request, his friend William F. Nolan was hired to adapt the first two stories, while he did the script for the third episode which was based on his story Prey. (“I saved the best for myself,” Matheson once said.)

Karen Black was offered the leading roles, but initially turned the assignment down until Curtis agreed to cast her then-husband Robert Burton as the male lead in the first story Julie. Not surprisingly, her tour de force resulted in her being typecast in many low-budget horror films.

Julie is prim, repressed college professor Julie Eldrich (Black). One of her students Chad (Burton) becomes inexplicably obsessed with her and asks her out to a French horror film playing at the local drive-in. (Neat in-joke: The “French” film is actually redubbed black-and-white footage from The Night Stalker.) During the movie, Chad roofies Julie, takes her to a sleazy motel, takes some compromising photos and then rapes her. He blackmails her into becoming his sex slave, but as with many horror stories, he learns the hard way to be careful what you wish for…

Millicent and Therese is the weakest of the three stories mainly because the punchline is so predictable. Black plays two sisters, disapproving spinster Millicent and promiscuous Theresa, who are locked into a never-ending conflict.

Amelia is easily the most frightening of the trio. Amelia (Black) is a single young woman who plans to celebrate her new boyfriend’s birthday by presenting him with a Zuni “fetish” doll she purchased in an antique shop. Her happiness is short-lived because her mother guilt trips her on the phone about ignoring her. While Amelia unwinds by taking a shower, the small metal charm that deprives the doll of its powers falls off. When she comes out in her bathrobe, she can’t find the doll, until it jumps out and attacks her…

Trilogy of Terror is available from Netflix and Amazon.