Dan Curtis (1927–2006)

A made for TV portmanteau film, directed by Dan Curtis, written by Richard Matheson / William Nolan and starring Karen Black in all three segments. The first story, "Julie" sees a college student drugging and blackmailing his mousey teacher, while the second "Millicent / Therese" is the tale of a good sister and an evil sister. The third story, "Amelia" is the standout. It sees a young woman coming home with a terrifying-looking Zuni tribal fetish doll. The doll, possessed by the spirit of a show more Zuni warrior, comes to life and begins to viciously hunt Amelia. Despite the effects looking a bit creaky by todays standards this final section is still a powerful and effective piece of film-making. The doll is a disturbing looking thing with the single-minded ferocity of its attack making it doubly scary and giving the segment a more horrific tone than the first two tales. The camerawork in this segment is also very good with some great travelling swooping shots. The first two segments aren't bad but they are fairly obvious with the final punchline twist telegraph well in advance. Richard Matheson's usual razor-sharp scripting precision seems a touch dulled by the constraints of television. The film would also have benefitted by a framing story to more effectively tie the three tales together. All that said "Trilogy of Terror" is an effective, fun romp; each of the stories is worthwhile, but the best is definitely saved for last. show less

The Night Stalker was one of the best made-for-TV movies ever made. It was so popular that a sequel, The Night Strangler, was made and then the short-lived Kolchak television series. Both of these films (mine came on a double-sided DVD) are sensational. McGavin's Karl Kolchak is one of the greatest characters ever. And the supporting cast is great as well, particularly Simon Oakland. The Night Stalker is set in Las Vegas, where a vampire appears to be on the loose, and only Kolchak stands in show more his way--since no one else will believe him. The Night Strangler is set is the underground world of Seattle and manages to be just as good. You won't find a more entertaining double feature than this one. show less

Decent made-for-television effort from Dan Curtis. Despite some plodding moments and the obvious TV limitations there is still something reasonably compelling about the whole thing thanks to William F. ("Logan's Run") Nolan's zippy script and some decent cinematography by Ben Colman that helps provide an appropriately mysterious atmosphere. The overall movie is reasonably polished with decent central performances from Roy Thinnes and Angie Dickinson.

A synopsis of early episodes, followed by the discovery of Barnabas Collins the vampire. With that it went from being a really low-budget soap opera on the brink of being cancelled to a really low-budget soap opera with vampire, which went on to great success and even spawned a few movies. I was thrilled with it as a kid, but it doesn't take much viewing to see how bad this was--it was basically shot live on film, and it somebody fluffed a line, they just went on with it.