Curtis Threesome

 

 (imdb)

DEAD OF NIGHT-1977-TV movie trilogy by director Dan Curtis and screenwriter Richard Matheson, narrated by John Dehner. 

 In "Second Chance"-A guy named Frank (Ed Begley Jr.) restores an old car that had been in a car crash (killing two people) in 1926. While driving it on a back road, he's transported to 1926. His car is stolen and he's stranded but the next day he's back in his own time. He meets Helen (Christina Hart) and her father (EJ Andre) & mother (Ann Doran) who have the exact same car. It seems Frank may have changed the past. From a story by Jack Finney.

In the second story "No Such Thing As A Vampire"-Prof. Gheria (Patrick Macnee) calls on his friend Michael (Horst Bucholtz) to help his daughter Alexis (Anjanette Comer) who he says has been attacked by a vampire. Elisha Cook Jr. is his butler. This has a good twist ending. From a story by Matheson.

"Bobby"-A woman (Joan Hackett) uses witchcraft to try and bring back her dead son. He (Lee Montgomery) comes back but wants to murder mom. His "friend" shows up in the finale. Based on the WW Jacobs classic short story "The Monkey's Paw". 

Director Dan Curtis made this a year after the feature film BURNT OFFERINGS. It's very good (especially for TV) but is usually pushed aside in favor of his earlier anthology TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975). 

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Bava

 

 (the moviedb.org)

BLACK SABBATH-1963-Three tales of terror are hosted by Boris Karloff in this Italian American co-production presented by AIP. 

The Drop of Water-A woman (Jacqueline Pierreux) is terrorized in her apartment after stealing a ring off a dead woman. Dripping water, weird lights and the dead woman seemingly back for revenge all help in the thief's demise. Credited as based on a story by Anton Chekov but he never wrote such a story.

The Telephone-A woman named Rosie (Michele Mercier) receives threatening phone calls from a man she thought was dead. Credited as a story by Tolstoy but not Leo, the author of “War and Peace” but a minor author Aleksei.

The Wurdaluk-A man (Mark Damon) stays with a family and awaits the return of their grandfather (Boris Karloff) who may now be a vampire. Based on a story by Guy de Maupassant. Usually said to be the only time King Karloff played a vampire.

Mario Bava directed this using lots of style and clever camera work. The original Italian version has a different story order, different music and alternate narration by Karloff. Plus an unusual ending for the vampire story. Bava made THE WHIP AND THE BODY the same year.

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3 By Curtis

 

 (imdb)

TRILOGY OF TERROR-1975-Very good TV horror anthology directed by Dan Curtis. In the first story “Julie” (written by William F. Nolan & Richard Matheson), Chad (Robert Burton), a college jerk becomes obsessed with nerdy teacher Julie (Karen Black). He drugs her, takes her to a hotel, takes pictures of her and rapes her. Then he blackmails her and he and his friends use her (not shown, only implied). But in the twist ending he finds out she's not what he thinks she is....

In the second “Millicent & Therese” (written by Nolan), Millicent (Black) complains about her sister Therese (also Black), being evil, practicing witchcraft and seducing men. She warns Therese's boyfriend (John Karlen) about her but he ignores it. Then Therese tries to seduce their doctor (George Gaynes). Millicent decides to do away with her sister using her own witchcraft. This story is ok but the ending is fairly guessable.

In the third and most famous episode “Amelia” (written by Matheson), Amelia, a woman with mother problems buys a weird Zuni fetish doll for her anthropologist boyfriend. After a fight with her mother, she breaks her date and is then terrorized by the evil looking doll that has big teeth and makes strange noises. 

Once again director Curtis shows that just because it's made for TV, horror stories can still be good.

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Poe X 3

 

 (imdb)

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD-1968-3 tales loosely based on stories by the legendary Edgar Allen Poe by 3 different directors. 

The first is "Metzengerstein" by Roger Vadim, about a cruel countess (Jane Fonda) whose life of debauchery is changed by the death of her mysterious cousin (Peter Fonda) and a wild horse he owned. "William Wilson" by Louis Malle is about a psychotic man (Alain Delon) plagued by another man who has the same name. He plays cards with a woman (Bridgitte Bardot) and wins by cheating. To pay her debt, he whips her but the other Wilson exposes him. They have a duel; both end up dying. "Toby Dammit" by Federico Fellini is about a burnout film star (Terence Stamp) who agrees to be in an Italian movie because the producers promise to give him a Ferrari in lieu of payment. It seems to be a plot by the devil, in the guise of a sinister little girl, to get his head. 

Strange trilogy that could have been better. Despite the three directors, it's missing something. Originally, Orson Welles and/or Luis Bunel were supposed to direct a segment. When AIP released it in the US it had opening narration by Vincent Price.

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Crap Train To Terror

 

 (imdb)

NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR-1985-On a train, a terrible rock band play. Also on the train are God (un-billed Ferdy Mayne) and Satan (un-billed Tony Giorgio) who discuss various things in this low budget trilogy. 

In the first story, “The Case of Harry Bilings”, an accident victim named Harry (John Phillip Law) is turned into a weirdo who drugs women and brings them to an institution where a big doofus intern Otto (Richard Moll) rapes and dismembers them and sells their body parts. Later a female doctor lobotomizes a male doctor. Harry decapitates Otto and discovers the male doctor operating on the female doctor. I thought this might have been a misfire black comedy despite the subject matter.

Number 2: “The Case of Gretta Connors”. A musician named Greta (Merideth Hayes) is turned into a porno actress by a jerk named George (J. Martin Sellers). Glen, a preppie type sees one of Gretta's movies and falls in love with her. Somehow, he meets her and they become lovers. It turns out George is the head of “The Death Club” whose members have all had brushes with death. Something called a “Transinian Winged Beetle” (terrible animation) stings a guy to death and his eyeballs explode. They also play an electrocution game where an African American guy is burned to death. Later they play a game of death with a construction ball that looks like something from the '60's “Batman” TV show.

The third story is called “The Case of Claire Hansen”, Mr. Weiss (Marc Lawrence) enlists a police Lt. (Cameron Mitchell) and his assistant Dieter (also Marc Lawrence) to help him trap a Nazi. Then Weiss is killed by a fanged monster. Coroner Claire Hansen (Faith Cliff) examines the body. Her husband Peter is the author of the book “Is God Dead?”. A guy named Papini warns Peter the devil is coming for him. The Nazi is now the still young Mr. Oliver (Robert Bristol), a murderer sporting goat legs. The boyfriend of one of Oliver's victims tries to kill him but is crushed by a red eyed monster (terrible animation). Strange rubbery demons attack Claire but it seems to be an illusion. A priest tells her she was picked by God to battle the devil. He gives her a box and tells her to cut out Oliver's heart and put it in the box. A badly animated monster kills Papini. The Lt and Dieter are blown up. Then Oliver turns into a demon (bad puppet) and kills Peter. Somehow Claire runs Oliver down with her car and takes him to a hospital to remove his heart. Everything goes awry in the bloody operating room finale but Satan wins.

 The band plays some more but fortunately are killed when the train crashes. (but sadly, they seem to come back to life) This out of whack z budget trilogy was actually made from three full length or almost finished films and the third story actually was released in full length form as CATACLYSM. Four directors are credited but the screenwriting for all the stories go to one person, Phillip Yordan, who once won an Oscar for the screenplay of BROKEN LANCE (1954)!

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Low Budget Trilogy

 

 (imdb)

GREEDY TERROR-(aka SHOCK CHAMBER)-1985-A trilogy of terror from Canada. 

1) “Symbol of Victory”-The nerdy son of corporation head is sweet on a woman who couldn't care less. He buys a love potion and tragedy results. 

2) “Southern Hospitality”- A husband & wife and two dimwitted brothers kill a guy with poison for his money and find out he was a kidnapper traveling with the ransom money. More deaths follow and the survivor gets a big surprise in the twist ending. 

3) “The Injection”-Two brothers are involved in an insurance scam. One brother is given an injection that makes him appear to be dead. But an insurance investigator seems to catch on. This is the worst of the 3 with very bad acting, stupid characters and a woman sings a terrible song. 

This was the first movie for director Steve DiMarco who later directed a lot of cable TV.

Thanks for reading about this low budget bullshit!

Tabloid

 

TABLOID!-1985-During an aerobics class (very popular in the '80's) 2 aliens kidnap the instructor. At a sleazy tabloid newspaper run by a crabby old bitch, a new writer works hard creating new stories for the paper. 

In the first story, 3 rednecks try to take revenge on a hick who sold them some bad weed. The hick, his pregnant wife and her mother kill all three rednecks and at the end the wife gives birth to a baby with a beard. This one seemed very influenced by John Waters. In the second three recently dead people come back to life and have a BBQ while having a kind of philosophical discussion about life and death. This whole story is filmed too darkly. The third involves a guy who can predict tornadoes with help from his daughter, a vacuum and a small town TV station. Parts are funny but this one goes on too long. There were three directors, one for low budget loony segment.

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Quadead

 

TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE-1987-An African American woman (Shirley Jones from the same director's BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL) reads stories from the title book to her dead invisible ghost (?) son. In the first tale, “Food For ?”, a white hillbilly family has only enough food for four people and there are 8 of them. It's an "every man for himself" dive for food. Eventually a guy in overalls kills 3 of them. Later there's not enough food for 5 of them. 

In the second, “The Brothers”, 2 guys steal a corpse from funeral home for the dead guy's brother. He planned on killing his now dead bro because he stole the guy's wife and she killed herself after bro spend all their inheritance. He rants "What a terrible childhood I had". Since he couldn't enact the murder he dresses bro up in a clown costume and laughs a lot. Dead bro's spirit (?) enters the clowny body and kills living bro with a pitchfork. Just when mom is going to read another story dad Daryl comes by and beats her with the book. They have a kind of violent fight until she stabs him (this scene goes on for a while). 

TALES of course was the brainchild of producer/director/writer Chester N. Turner, once more working his camcorder magic, in this follow up to his previous insanity, the aforementioned BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL. 

TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE IS cheap and shoddy beyond belief but it's so crazy, it really has to be seen to be believed. For years it was believed do it all Turner was killed in a car accident but that was untrue. He is among the living and has threatened to make sequels to both his movies. This has not happened at the time of this writing as far as I know.

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Mexican Trio

PANICO-1970-Three short tales from Mexico. In the first a young woman in her nightgown is pursued  by a crazy woman with a knife. Some guys seem to be hanging around but do nothing. She has a flashback to when he was assaulted by a group of men. After running some more she tangles with the crazy woman and kills her. But things are not what they seem.

In the second story, two men Carlos and Abel try to escape the jungle and an attack of yellow fever. Both have memories of Abel’s dead wife. Due to fatigue they crash their canoe and are stranded in the jungle swamp. Abel seems to take it in stride but Carlos is a mess on the verge of losing it completely but it's more likely guilt than fear that's driving Carlos batty.  In a fit he reveals he had an affair with his friend’s wife! Raging Abel tries to kill Carlos who stabs Abel to death. He buries Abel but he rises from the grave several times (perhaps all in Carlos’ mind) and Carlos loses it completely.

In the third a scientist creates narcotic drug for use in surgery. It mimics death but the patient is still conscious and can see. I'm not sure what makes this a great drug but I believe this segment is actually a comedy. His cat knocks over a beaker of the solution and it spills in to the scientist's coffee. Not realizing what's happened he drinks it and falls into a narcoleptic coma. His wife calls a doctor who pronounces him dead. He hears and sees everything but no one can hear his pleas. His wife's cousin has an inkling he’s not dead but to no avail. He’s buried just as he regains consciousness. His cat who also drank some of the drug and looked dead revives. The wife and the doctor have feelings for each other. Somehow at the end he’s reborn as a maggot but doesn't survive too long. This is very reminiscent of an episode of TV’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents with Joseph Cotten in a similar situation.

PANICO is a well made psychological horror film but basically the stories aren't that good. The last two go on too long and don't really provide that much suspense (although the last segment tries hard).

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