So I’m gonna take it way way back to this 70s made for TV classic that scared the bejesus out of me as a kid. Trilogy of Terror is a horror anthology movie that came out in 1975. It tells three stories all starring scream queen, Karen Black.
The first story, titled ‘Julie’ involves a teacher getting blackmailed by a student. The second story ‘Millicent & Therese’ involves two sisters beefing with a twist. And the last (most Iconic) story, ‘Amelia’ tells the tale of a woman and her fight against a living doll.
I will be getting into some spoilers later on, for now my ranking of the shorts would be:
- Amelia
- Julie
- Millicent & Therese
I believe all of the shorts complemented each other nicely. Karen Black was phenomenal in all of the lead roles. There is a clear distinction between the four characters she plays and she gives them all such depth. Each story has a plot twist (some stronger than others), and each story was very engaging. For a 72 minute runtime this is a great film for people with short attention spans, because it is paced so well and each story is very intriguing.
Spoilers:
Julie
I really enjoyed the setup to this one. The icky student, Chad drugs his teacher Julie and he takes provocative photos of her. He uses this as blackmail against her and orders that she do things for him. Julie is a quiet and timid teacher so you really root for her as Chad preys on her meekness. In the climax it is revealed that Julie is actually the predator in this story. She uses telepathic abilities to make men want her, so she can kill them and scrapbook it. This twist really caught me so off guard. It is so strange but I really enjoyed how this story played out.
Millicent & Therese
In my opinion this short was the weakest out of the bunch, I called the twist as soon as it started. After Millicent and Therese’s father dies, Millicent goes on a rampage trying to expose her sister as a demon. She makes calls to a doctor and Therese’s lover to try and warn them. When the doctor visits the following day, we meet Therese who is a free spirit and makes advances toward him. She is shown to be a little off when she breaks a little girl’s favorite toy, leaving Millicent to get even more angry at her sister. Millicent creates a voodoo doll of Therese and stabs it with a needle offscreen. Karen Black plays these two opposing characters so well, her performance alone is the best thing about this short. To no one’s surprise Millicent and Therese are the same person, and she suffered from multiple personality disorder. I think this is a tired trope in some horror movies, but for the time this was probably shocking.
Amelia
This was my favorite out of all the shorts, and the most famous one. We follow Amelia as she buys her boyfriend a Zuni Hunting Fetish Doll. The doll’s design is so cool and scared me so bad when I was a kid. She cancels her friday night plans with her overbearing mother and gives a really good monologue while on the phone with her. She reads a passage from the scroll that comes with the doll and on it it says “do not take the gold chain off, if you do the spirit of the doll will come to life.” Needless to say the chain falls off, and from there is an intense fight with Amelia and the knife wielding doll. This short is filled with such good moments like Amelia falling over nothing, The doll flying toward her, and Amelia’s multiple attempts to kill the doll. Amelia finally gets the upper hand and cooks the doll alive, sadly the fumes from the cooking doll is actually its trapped spirit and it uses Amelia as its next host. The short ends with Amelia calling her mom and asking to have her for dinner.
This film was so much fun to revisit. If you like dippy 70s gems, you will definitely love this. I highly recommend the last segment to everyone reading this. It is so much fun and it is filled with some great moments.
I give this movie ★★★ / ★★★★★
(You can watch this on Sling TV and Youtube for free)
