Made in 1974, Trilogy of Terror was made for ABC, included in their "Movie of the Week" series.It features three Dumbed-down-for-TV versions on short stories by Richard Matheson. It is definitely not as good as another Matheson ABC movie, "Duel", which starred Dennis Weaver, and was directed by Stephen Spielberg.
Now, I can see you might be frightened by this film if you were a 10 year old kid in 1975 who had turned the TV on to the Zuni doll story by mistake, but the first two stories just don't cut it, and even the Zuni doll seems more funny than scary today (as it probably was in 1975 too.) There is even a post on a message board on this site that claims you must be in denial to even say that this movie isn't scary, and that you are scarred on the inside from fear. But I just don't think this movie was the least bit frightening.
Let's have a look at the first story "Julie". (spoilers ahead). It features a woman with some sort of demonic powers who lures men into a seductive deathtrap. I wasn't exactly surprised by the ending of this story, mostly because I had already read the original short story by Richard Matheson. Now, maybe people who haven't read the story before might find it clever, but certainly not scary.
The next story, "Millicent and Therese" has an ending so predictable, a blind cave fish trapped in an oil spill would have seen it coming.
And the last story, "Amelia", the only story that anyone remembers, was written by Matheson himself, and is the only one that even comes close to being scary. But even here, there isn't as much suspense as one would expect, and even less jolts. However, it does manage to be entertaining, and even a little gory.
I do have to give credit to Karen Black, though. She does a fine job juggling four (or is it three?) completely different characters in one movie.
But while the first two stories do have their moments, I felt they were really only there to build up to the last, and best story, which isn't all that great in itself.
Now, I can see you might be frightened by this film if you were a 10 year old kid in 1975 who had turned the TV on to the Zuni doll story by mistake, but the first two stories just don't cut it, and even the Zuni doll seems more funny than scary today (as it probably was in 1975 too.) There is even a post on a message board on this site that claims you must be in denial to even say that this movie isn't scary, and that you are scarred on the inside from fear. But I just don't think this movie was the least bit frightening.
Let's have a look at the first story "Julie". (spoilers ahead). It features a woman with some sort of demonic powers who lures men into a seductive deathtrap. I wasn't exactly surprised by the ending of this story, mostly because I had already read the original short story by Richard Matheson. Now, maybe people who haven't read the story before might find it clever, but certainly not scary.
The next story, "Millicent and Therese" has an ending so predictable, a blind cave fish trapped in an oil spill would have seen it coming.
And the last story, "Amelia", the only story that anyone remembers, was written by Matheson himself, and is the only one that even comes close to being scary. But even here, there isn't as much suspense as one would expect, and even less jolts. However, it does manage to be entertaining, and even a little gory.
I do have to give credit to Karen Black, though. She does a fine job juggling four (or is it three?) completely different characters in one movie.
But while the first two stories do have their moments, I felt they were really only there to build up to the last, and best story, which isn't all that great in itself.