In short: Trilogy of Terror II (1996)

Like the original Trilogy of Terror, this was also directed, produced and partially written by the King of TV horror of his time (which were long gone at the point this was made), Dan Curtis. Like the 70s version, this TV production tells three half hour tales of horror and suspense while utilizing a single actress as the lead in all three stories. Lysette Anthony has the difficult honour of following in Karen Black’s footsteps, and while she’s no Karen Black, she does a good job going with whatever the film throws at her in any given tale.

The first story, “The Graveyard Rats” is a rather free adaptation of the Henry Kuttner weird tale which adds a noir set-up to the giant rats in a graveyard business of the original. That set-up is the segment’s main flaw, mostly because it doesn’t really connect terribly well with the giant rat business, turning this into an EC style tale of bad people finding a brutal and ironic end where the end isn’t actually properly ironic. However, the final five minutes of the segment are a fantastic example of how to shoot around not terribly convincing special effects and turn them threatening via the magic of effective editing and clever lighting.

The second tale, “Bobby” (a do-over of a Richard Matheson script Curtis had already used in his anthology movie Dead of Night) is the clear high point of the film. It is the tense tale of a grieving mother using a black magic ritual to bring her dead son back to life, slowly realizing that what has returned isn’t exactly what she asked for. It’s an excellently paced, thematically dark and very suspensefully executed story, featuring a surprisingly creepy child turn by Blake Heron. This part of the film hardly makes a bad move. Well, the big special make-up reveal isn’t great.

Finally, the film finishes on “He Who Kills”, a direct sequel to the 70s trilogy’s much loved “Zuni Doll” segment (which was actually called “Amelia”). It’s not as great as you’d hope for: for one, “Bobby” did the whole “woman stalked and attacked in isolated setting” quite a bit better and more intense just minutes earlier. Secondly, there’s really very little that is an improvement or interesting change in comparison to the original Zuni doll bit. Of course, it is still efficiently and competently filmed, treating its adorable little monster in a way that must fill Charles Band with envy even decades after. It may not be as good as the original segment but it is still very good fun. Props to whoever did the voice acting for the doll’s incessant vocalising – it’s as impressive as it is silly.

As a whole, this is, not surprisingly, clearly inferior to the first Trilogy, yet if you don’t compare the two directly but try to treat this as its own thing, there’s quite a bit of enjoyment to be had here.