Trilogy of Terror (1975)

Director: Dan Curtis

Writers: William F. Nolan, Richard Matheson

Composer: Bob Cobert

Starring: Karen Black, Robert Burton, John Karlen, George Gaynes, Jim Storm, Gregory Harrison, Kathryn Reynolds, Tracy Curtis, Orin Cannon, Walker Edmiston

More info: IMDb

Tagline: An electrifying experience - you won't believe your eyes!

Plot: Three horror anthology stories of tormented women. In the first story, Julie Eldridge is a sexually-repressed college teacher who is blackmailed by one of her students for a past indiscretion in which she played an unwilling part. But the student is unaware that Julie plots to turn the tables on him the first chance she gets. In the second story, Millicent Larimore is a plain-looking, almost reclusive woman who lives with her amoral twin sister Therese whom delights in tormenting her. However, only their doctor who visits from time to time knows the real thing behind the scene. In the final story, Amelia in a solo horror story monologue is a mother-dominated woman who buys an African Zuni fetish doll for her latest boyfriend in which the doll comes to life and terrorizes her in her own apartment.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

If there's only one thing that you might know about this, even without having seen it, it's this little fella...

That's just your friendly neighborhood Zuni fetish doll.  This TV movie was directed by Dan "DARK SHADOWS (1966)" Curtis and co-written by the great Richard Matheson who is best known for his wonderful work on THE TWILIGHT ZONE (1959) and many wonderful sci-fi/horror pictures of the 60s and beyond. 

Julie - The story that opens the picture is good but it's the ending that makes it.  No spoilers here.  It's an admirable opener.

Millicent and Therese - This one is rather slow but it's got a nice ending.  I don't know what they could've done to spice things up to make it more interesting but think of this one as the calm before the storm because the third and final story is a doozie. 

Amelia - this is what folks remember most about this telefilm.  The doll is freaky as shit, not to mention pretty damn terrifying.  They made great use of camera angles, low to the flow handheld cameras, sounds and editing.  It's got a nice ending, too.

I imagine that if you saw this when it originally aired, the Zuni doll was what everyone was talking about the next day.   Overall, it's a good anthology.  The weakest of the stories is in the middle and I can see skipping that one when I watch it again someday.  Karen Allen does a great job in all three tales.  She's a lot of fun.  Curtis resurrected the idea for the sequel TV movie twenty years later.  I don't think I've seen it but it's got Geoffrey Lewis in it so that might be enough for me to check it out.