TRILOGY OF TERROR (TV)
Summary
This 1975 made-for-television anthology horror film is made up of three separate episodes, all of which star Karen Black. In the first segment, Black plays a wallflower teacher named Julie whose friends constantly ask to set her up on blind dates. Although Julie always turns them down, she finds herself strangely intrigued by a talented male student named Chad who regularly spends entire class periods ogling her body. When Chad asks Julie on a date she is initially reluctant but finally gives in. At a drive-in movie, Chad slips some sort of sleeping drug into Julie's drink, and she passes out within moments. While she is unconscious, Chad takes Julie to a nearby motel, strips her clothes off, and takes photographs of her limp body before peeling off his clothes and climbing into bed with her. When she wakes up, Chad has delivered her back to her front door. The next day, he tells Julie that if she doesn't do exactly as he says, he will blackmail her with the photos he took the night he raped her. When his blackmail scheme starts spiraling out of control, however, Chad begins to wonder who is really in charge of his unorthodox relationship with Julie.
In the second segment of the film, Black plays a shy homemaker named Millicent who is always trying to pick up the pieces left behind by her incorrigibly wild sister, Therese. When Millicent consults the family physician, Doctor Ramsay, about her sister's sudden interest in voodoo, pornography, and the dark arts, the doctor begins to wonder just how close the sisters are. In the final section of the movie, Black plays Amelia, a guilt-ridden young woman who desperately wants to please everyone. The segment opens to find her unpacking a curio that she has picked up as a birthday gift for her boyfriend -- an African Zuni Fetish Doll. She plans to give the gift to her boyfriend at dinner, but her mother convinces her to come spend time with her instead. While Amelia draws a bath, she unwittingly breaks one of the rules that keep the doll from taking on the evil spirit of a real Zuni hunter from Africa. Suddenly, Amelia is confronted with the tiny face of evil. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: March 4, 1975 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:12:07
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:59979
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, mystery/suspense; Festishism - Drama; Rape - Drama; Schizophrenia - Drama
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1975
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Dan Curtis … Producer, Director
- Robert Singer … Associate Producer
- William F. Nolan … Writer
- Richard Matheson … Based on the stories by
- Robert Cobert … Music by
- Karen Black … Cast, Julie, Millicent, Therese, Amelia
- Robert Burton … Cast, Chad
- John Karlin … Cast, Therese's Date
- George Gaynes … Cast, Doctor Ramsay
- James Storm … Cast, Eddie
- Kathryn Reynolds … Cast, Anne
- Orin Cannon … Cast, Hotel Clerk
- Gregory Harrison … Cast, New Student
- Tracy Curtis … Cast, Little Girl