TRILOGY OF TERROR

Julie. A high school teacher is seduced by one of her students who has put her at the center of a bet with the intention of sleeping with her. Once he gains the woman's trust, the boy drugs her, rapes her, and takes compromising photos of her with the intention of blackmailing her. But things will not go according to his plans. Millicent & Therese. Two sisters with completely opposite personalities hate and fight each other within the home they share. But the ending will turn the tables. Amelia. An anthropologist buys a fetish belonging to the Pacific Zuni tribe. The artifact comes with a parchment in which it is recommended not to remove the chain that the fetish has wrapped around its neck because it is a seal that keeps dormant the spirit of the warrior that haunts the statuette. Accidentally, however, the chain falls, and the fetish comes to life, beginning to hunt the woman in her apartment. If you ask a mid-40s person moderately interested in genre cinema today if they know the film "Trilogy of Terror" they will probably tell you about a killer statuette that hunts a woman in her apartment. Well, because if today Dan Curtis's film is remembered and celebrated it is exclusively for the magnificent episode of the Zuni fetish. If, on the other hand, you ask about the other two episodes, almost certainly a cold silence will fall on the discussion, followed by a "I don't remember at all, I'm sorry." This is the fate that befell Dan Curtis's TV movie, a three-episode film of which everyone only remembers one... and there is a reason for that! The episode titled "Amelia" is a small masterpiece of suspense and special effects, a true precursor to many other films featuring murderous toys and dolls: think of the "Killer Doll" saga and "Puppet Master," if "Trilogy of Terror" had not existed, they probably would never have been made or would have been made differently. The tension is masterfully managed, and the pace is frantic, perfectly suited to the short duration of the episode, so as not to give the viewer a moment's respite. The fetish itself, with its oversized dentition and caricatured body, is very unsettling, and the situation conveys a real sense of danger, also thanks to the clever use of spaces. This episode, adapted from Richard Matheson's story "Prey" and also scripted by him, has had such an impact over the years that it was remade in a sort of sequel/remake in "Trilogy of Terror II," directed again by Curtis in 1996. But let's move on to the other two episodes that make up the trilogy. Really not much, mediocre stuff and, moreover, poorly aged. If no one remembers "Julie" and "Millicent & Therese" it is simply because they are really forgettable, two episodes predictable in their twists and also a bit boring. Boredom, in fact, reigns supreme in "Millicent and Therese," a mini psychological thriller that stages the perverse hatred that arises between two cohabiting sisters and culminates in one of the most predictable finales possible. The contrasting dualism between the two women, one so shy and demure and the other so worldly and provocative, is portrayed with banality and all the clichés imaginable, while the slow pace and the measured action manage to make "heavy" an episode of just fifteen minutes. It goes a little better— but just a little— with "Julie," a story of stalking and blackmail involving a teacher and her odious student. Here too, the focus is on the final twist, here too of disarming banality and predictability, but the compactness of the story and its coherence make this episode appreciable, combined with a good pace that makes the unfolding of events interesting. The absolute star of the film is Karen Black, who excellently plays all three (well, four) roles that give the episodes their titles. Black, who left us in 2013, over time has been a somewhat forgotten actress, relegated to "alimentary" roles in direct-to-DVD productions and truly only honored by Rob Zombie, who gave her the role of Mamma Firefly in "House of 1000 Corpses," but at the time of "Trilogy of Terror" she was a rather well-known actress with films like "Easy Rider," "Cry Baby," "The Great Gatsby," "The Day of the Locust," and "Airport '75" on her resume. "Trilogy of Terror" was born as a TV movie, but the great success of the first broadcasts led the production to also grant it a theatrical release. A film that stands solely on the mastery and, now, notoriety of the excellent episode on the Zuni fetish, and for it is worth seeing, everything else, as the song said, is boredom.