The Film (2/5)

    Dan Curtis could very well be considered the Godfather of made for televison horror. He is the creator of Dark Shadows, one of the very first horror franchises in television history, and also the two sequel films to that series House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows. Following up on that he launched the Kolchak franchise with the 2 television films the Night Stalker and the Night Strangler (both out on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber in October 2018). After that he directed such fantastic genre fare as his own adaptation of Dracula, and the haunted house chiller Burnt Offerings (again on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber, I'm starting to see a pattern here).    Also, this October they have released what is quite possibly  (outside of Dark Shadows) Dan Curtis' most popular offering, the landmark anthology horror film Trilogy of Terror.

    Trilogy of Terror adapts 3 stories by the legendary horror and sci-fi author Richard Matheson into an anthology framework. The first story "Julie" is about a college professor played by Karen Black who finds herself blackmailed for sexual favors by a student. The 2nd Millicent and Therese is about 2 witchy sisters who are trying to get revenge on each other. The third and most famous is Amelia which finds Black playing a woman alone in her apartment, when a doll she ordered arrives she finds herself getting more than she bargained for from her recent purchase.

    Though all 3 were based on Matheson works, only Amelia is actually adapted to the screen by the author.  It is also the only film of the 3 to really have a pulse to it, though I'm not sure one can prescribe that to Matheson, or just to the premise itself which lends itself better to a claustrophobic horror situation. The other 2 films are more or less like episodic made for TV horror with a twist, great for a one time viewing, but after that, there are not many rewards to repeat viewers. Amelia though, is a horror classic through and through, and continues to justify it's reputation as both suspenseful and scary with a great central performance from Black (who is the lead in all 3 shorts).

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

    Kino Lorber does a very admirable job brining Trilogy of Terror to Blu-ray. Everything here looks quite solid with detail looking quite nice, grain coming across naturally, and colors be reproduced accurately.

    Audio is presented with a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track in English that does the job well with dialogue and score coming through solidly with no obvious issues to report.

Extras (3.5/5)

    There are 2 commentary tracks one from William E. Nolan and the other from Richard Harland Smith. A new interview with Robert Cobert, and 2 archival interviews one with Richard Matheson, and the other with Karen Black. There is also a booklet of liner notes.

Overall

    Trilogy of Terror is considered a classic horror anthology film, and partly for good reason. It is based on the work of Richard Matheson who is an icon of horror and science fiction, and directed by Dan Curtis who is also iconic in the realm of horror in his own way. The Amelia segment is still scary and powerful, but the other 2 are very much tepid, and feel more like by the numbers horror with a twist. The restoration by Kino Lorber is quite solid, and the extras are also quite excellent. RECOMMENDED.