PopHorror Let's Get Scared
March 4, 2020, marks the 45th anniversary of Emmy Award winning Director Dan Curtis’ TV movie, Trilogy Of Terror (1975). The film contains three different bizarre horror stories all staring Karen Black as four completely separate yet tormented women. Let’s take a look back at this infamous thriller with 9 little known facts about the film. The tales were all based on short stories written by Richard Matheson (The Legend of Hell House 1973, Dracula 1974, I Am Legend 2007)
Trivia Fun
1) During the “Julie” story, a drive-in theater can be seen showing the movie, The Night Stalker (1972). This is a reference to Director Dan Curtis’s eponymous film.
2) The original Zuni doll puppet, which was owned by Curtis, was used for the new sculpts of the Zuni doll for the sequel, Trilogy of Terror 2 (1996).
3) In “Julie,” when Chad (Robert Burton) goes to get a room, he uses the fake name Jonathan Harker, which was borrored from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
4) In March 1981 when Trilogy Of Terror was first shown on Brazilian television, censorship demanded that the third segment, “Amelia,” was completely cut. Because of this, the TV station was forced to change the Portuguese title to Duas Histórias de Terror (Two Horror Stories).
5) Trying to make the Zuni doll come to life kept the crew laughing as bits of the doll fell off, like an arm or its head.
6) The third story, “Amelia,” has gone down in as one of the scariest set pieces in cinema history.
7) Karen Black contributed to “Amelia” by rewriting the first conversation that her character has with her mother on the phone. Black wanted to emphasize the fact that the mother was controlling and manipulative, which would make the audience more on her side, especially after you find out what happens to her.
8) Karen Black helped special effects artist Richard Albain (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge 1985) when he couldn’t figure out how to show that Amelia had been cut by the doll as it is trying to escape from the suitcase. The actress thought to have them place the blood on her finger, which she would hide from the camera until it was time to reveal the bloody cut.
*Warning the following facts have spoilers*
9) The idea of grinning and showing fang-like teeth similar to the Zuni doll – inarguably the most chilling image in the film – actually came from Karen Black herself.
