MovieChat Forums > Trilogy of Terror (1975) Discussion > For everyone who watched this as a kid.....

For everyone who watched this as a kid......

posted 19 years ago by tynabop
129 replies | jump to latest

I was born in '74, and saw it when I was 5. I was alone too, and scared out of my pants! My mom knew I was watching it in the livingroom, while she made dinner and thought nothing of it. Yeah, in today standards, thats crazy. I also watched Poltergeist when it first came out, and had nightmares for years! My husband thinks its really funny to sing "God is in His holy temple, earthly thoughts be silent now.." Anyway, my question is this: How many people are seriously angry that their parents let them watch this? Yes, I was freaked out as a kid, but it also sparked my LOVE for all horror movies, which my mom totally supported. I am now a mother of 2 myself, and tried to keep my little guys from watching scary things. But my 6 yr old hid in the hallway and watched Poltergesit 1 & 2, as well as some new ones like: Underworld etc.. I had no idea he was there, but he was there when we rented the movies, and looked at the boxes, so when we would put in the movies, after the kids were asleep, or so we thought he was in the hallway. He was caught this last time (Underworld) so we talked about it and watched the making of CGI etc... it's been a year and he has yet to have a nightmare because of it. And yes, he would tell me, because I have always told him if he was scared we could talk about it. I think that maybe, just maybe it really doesn't bother him, and actually likes them. Does that make me a "Twisted Parent"? Maybe. BTW I looked up the site where they are selling the Zuni doll just to see if I could look at it again (it has been a zillion years, LOL) He looked over my shoulder and asked what is that? I explained it was THE scary movie doll for me when I was a kid. He laughed and laughed saying "God mom, YOU were scared of THAT?"

Hey old man river! Zip it, before I break your hip!~~~~Tyna

[–] woodkmw 19 years ago

Yes, this was one of two shows that I watched as a kid that warped me for life. The other was one particular episode of Night Gallery which had some kind of Cousin It creatures living in trees from what I can remember. I was born in 1967 so I was older when I watched it. I was one of those little kids that liked scary stories and my Mom would let me stay up and watch such shows on TV unless I became too scared and couldn't sleep the night and then I couldn't watch them anymore. This show stands out in my mind as one of the two that horrified me as a kid and I watched it when it was first on TV in 1975 and haven't seen it since. Yet, I still remember it. It would be interesting to watch it again and see how I feel now. I just remember those little dolls running all over trying to kill Karen Black and hacking through her suitcase. I actually just stumbled on this show as I was researching Rod Serling and it got me to thinking of my repressed childhood horrors and I then started researching Karen Black to try to find this one show. Well I can't say if I would let little kids watch it but nowadays they have probably seen much more than I was exposed to as a kid. Special effects nowadays are so much more realistic it probably wouldn't cause them to blink an eye. I guess I turned out OK. No police record or anything. I'm not angry that my Mom let me watch it. If anything, I remember feeling like a "big boy" that I was allowed to stay up and watch this show and Night Gallery. In fact I remember my babysitters always thought my mother was crazy for letting me watch such things. What is the site where they are selling the doll? Not that I would ever want it in my house. I guess the moral is - if your child doesn't seem to be bothered by watching horror movies - I wouldn't worry about it. I turned out OK...I think.

[–] tynabop 19 years ago

According to another post here, the link is http://www.monstersinmotion.com/catalog/index.php
they are also selling it on Ebay. Creepy little thing, I still wouldn't want it in my house, LOL. Just to remind me how much things have changed, AND to make me feel old (LOL) my 6 yr old and I were watching a thing about the old tv show The Incredible Hulk with Bill Bixby. I was thrilled, because when I was little, I remember being in awe if this show. My son says "What is that?!? That is NOT the Hulk, that is a painted green man! And if he is so strong, how come his pants didn't rip off, when his other clothes did?" He then puts in the new CGI movie and says "Mom, now THAT is the Hulk!" Geez, sometimes CGI sucks! lol. I also felt a bit stupid never wondering why his pants never ripped off, when I was a kid. I dunno, kids today, huh?

Hey old man river! Zip it, before I break your hip!~~~~Tyna

[–] lyndawhitt70-1 11 years ago

Your commet makes me think of John Carpenter's The Thing. I was 13 when my dad and I saw it in the theater; I was practically in his lap the whole time! He and I love horror/sci-fi/scary movies and thought we would be immune. I had NEVER seen anything like it! I now have 3 boys of my own and have made them all watch it. We all agree that now, because of cgi, it looks dated. But we all agree that it is a crazy movie to watch and still holds up today.

[–] barbiegal7 19 years ago

Man oh man....this movie haunted me for YEARS! I was 6 when I saw it (I still can't believe my mother let me watch it!!) I was convinced that damn doll was under my bed for about three years. If I had to go to the bathroom at night, I would stand up on my bed and literally JUMP across to the door and HAUL BUTT to the bathroom. Same thing coming back - running jump. I could just envision that knife sliding around from under the bed like the movie - when he's sliding it around under the door of the bathroom. I definitely kept my feet away from the bottom of closed doors!!

We got TOT on VHS about five years ago. I watched that film for the first time since I was 6, and although I wasn't scared like I was then, it's amazing to me how the psychological horror of it is still so intense. When she is sitting by the door at the end with those horrible teeth, holding that HUGE butcher knife (who owns a knife that big????), it still gave me chills.

I have a 12 (almost 13) year old daughter. I bet she'd laugh her behind off. The Exorcist scared the mess out of me as a kid as well. We were watching 100 Scariest Movie Moments on TV last night, and she saw the scene where Linda Blair's head spins around. She thought it was cheesy and hilarious. Looking at it now, I guess it does look pretty lame, but I told her she needed to watch the whole thing to get the true horror of it.

She'd probably still laugh........kids are SO jaded.......

Rene' - Who LOVED LOVED LOVED the original Hulk TV show and HATED HATED HATED that CGI garbage (I didn't care if his pants didn't rip! By the way - he always had the SAME pants on as the Hulk, but sometimes they didn't match the pants Bill Bixby had on....)

[–] goldiegoo 17 years ago

OMG I was 8 when I saw it and I too felt a kind of mental warping from watching it. I was truly terrified the only movie that I can remember that gave me nightmares for real. I used to think one was inside my mattress and if I moved around a little his knife would stab me right through the bed! Many sleepless and sweaty nights from that movie.

I wonder if I watch it now if I would just laugh....

[–] sommerdai 14 years ago

Oh My God! I used to do the same thing when having to go to the bathroom at night. Not to mention turning off the light and running and jumping into bed.

Watched it not to long ago from Netflix. Not as bad but I still remember the eeks of when I was little.

ZuZu Petal's

[–] bhobnine 13 years ago

They were dishing out a lot of decent made for tv movies back in those days. Awesome stuff from the ABC movie of the week and such. The whacked out voodoo doll is classic goods.

"Pffft, my suspension of disbelief has higher standards than that"

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[–] einTeufel 19 years ago

I was TERRIFIED of that doll when I was a kid!!!

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[–] citrusman 19 years ago

That doll scared the CRAP out of me! Why would someone want something looking like that in their house? NO thanks! I hated the way they made Karen Black look at the end of the movie. That freaked me out too.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing!"- Lord Vader

[–] tha1trupriest 19 years ago

yeah that doll was a *beep* alright.....didn't give me nightmares but I can't say I exactly slept that night....(born in 79 btw so caught it in a late nite rerun at some tender age or another)...another thing that really bothered me as a child was an episode of the 80s Twilight Zone called Nightcrawlers, based on a short story by Robert R. McCammon. It was about this Nam vet who was given an experimental drugwhich enabled him to conjure things just by thinking of them....anyway he screwed over his whole unit and left them to die in a rice paddy by using their bodies as stepping stones to make it out of the mud....and every time he slept he would have horrible nightmares about them and wake up to find them coming to kill him due to the effects of the drug....it was pretty intense, anyone else seen it? Just when he was talking about that night in Nam to the other characters......I don't know, it bothered the crap out of me...a bit off the subject, but hey.
Oh, and incidentally I would LOVE to have that doll, having become a hopeless horror fanatic due to those two and countless other things I was exposed to as a kid. Not mad about it in the slightest.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] mungvacume 19 years ago

im glad i have always been able to wacht horror movies since i was like 2

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[–] porfiada 18 years ago

Oh, that creepy little doll...he never gave up, never relented...ankle height, or your knees height when you were a kid.

And my folks thought it was cute...the only saw the occasional scene where he's just walking around...not when he's trying to bust through the door...

[–] Brynnda 17 years ago

Interesting.. i wasn't even THAT young when i saw this movie. I was about 13, but it DID scare the poor out of me lol. Especially the story most people have talked about on this board- the one with the doll. I didn't really have nightmares, but it spooked me for along time afterwards. I really feel for those of you who saw it when you were only 6 or 7- Wow.

I was glad to find this message board. I first found this board a couple of years ago and was so surprised to see that so many people had been bothered by the doll storyline. But it was good to see that i wasn't the only one who'd been spooked by it! I haven't seen it again, but have Tril. of Terror 2 which is almost as scary with that doll. Pretty spooky.

[–] seeg1919 19 years ago

good lord...the only segment of this movie i watched was the one w/ the zulu doll. i was 8 or so, and i distinctly remember sitting in front of the tv totally and utterly transfixed by karen black getting her ass kicked by the doll. at the end of the movie when it went to credits, my mother grabbed my shoulder and went "RAH!" really loud. she scared the HELL out of me! i have seen a lot of horror movies, but that one point in my life is forever burned onto my brain.

you can't go home again...but i guess you can shop there

[–] scottmetal666 19 years ago

Man, I just now thought to Google "Trilogy of Terror" and hit this site (which I use sometimes to remember names of old actors from lame-o tv and movies, etc.), and found this...yeah, that doll *beep* me up for life pretty much! I still have nightmares sometimes, though sometimes I"M the atagonist, or at least can fight back 'gainst it. I was born in '67, and remember seeing an add in TV Guide and matbe some commercials for the movie before it aired, but fell asleep before the Zuni doll episode (can't remeber the name...starts with 'C' for the Karen Black character's name?), But I think I woke up and watched the ending credits, sorta a kightlight real from the movie....creepy *beep* sharp...love that puppetry though! \m/

[–] zenazeebk 19 years ago

Please join me on December 11th for the 1st annual Trilogy of Terror support group at the Starbucks in Union Square in NYC.

[–] LadyDi4476 19 years ago

Aww damn I just missed it!!! I didn't hear about this until now and I live in NY. Are you guys having another one?

I wish I knew how to quit you-BBM

[–] angiedee00 19 years ago

I wished I had seen this sooner also though I don't live in NY. Maybe the 2nd TOT support group could be held in Las Vegas where I live.

I stumbled across this post after watching Saw II and telling my co-workers about my phobias: dolls, clowns and dogs. The dogs are not movie related fears but the others are. I then spoke about why I'm afraid of dolls and of course TOT was the first thing out of my mouth. I was born in '69 and figure I saw it with my mother on TV when I was seven or eight. Not only did this movie scare me senseless but my mother thought it would be funny to make a face mocking the doll when I was mouthy or whenever. I remember nights riding home and looking over at my mother baring all of her teeth and chomping while she held up her fist as if she was holding a knife and motioned like she was stabbing. She actually thought this was funny! What a horrible woman!

Couple that with Magic, Child's Play and Barbarella...I absolutely hate dolls. Oh yeah, I can't forget the Christmas my mother (the sweetheart she is) bought me a Lester ventriliquist doll. I can't tell you how many nightmares I had of that doll chasing me around the house. The last time I saw it I buried in under a mound of junk in her basement. That was about 25 years ago.

I do agree though that kid's nowadays would laugh at the movies I thought were terrifying. Even I watched Amityville Horror as an adult and found it not scary in the least. As a kid, I thought it was one of the scariest movies ever made. I will never again watch TOT though...adult or not. I saw some movie (I think it was Creepshow) which kind of remade the Tuni doll story after I grew up and I was still afraid.

FYI - Stephen King's It and Poltergeist were the reasons for the clown fear.

[–] Brynnda 17 years ago

<I was born in '69 and figure I saw it with my mother on TV when I was seven or eight. Not only did this movie scare me senseless but my mother thought it would be funny to make a face mocking the doll when I was mouthy or whenever. I remember nights riding home and looking over at my mother baring all of her teeth and chomping while she held up her fist as if she was holding a knife and motioned like she was stabbing. She actually thought this was funny! What a horrible woman! > angiedee

angiedee, you poor thing! So sorry to hear about how your mother teased/terrorized you about that doll when you were little. Geez ! Thank goodness my mom never did that with me. I've seen this movie too, and I probably would have had to see a counselor for along time afterwards if she had done what your mom did.

[–] thepizzaman 19 years ago

Well the stories seem to be very similar. I too was born in 1967.
I saw this on TV when it first aired and it scared the sh@# out of me. Like many, I didn't see the movie again for many many years. In fact, I didn't even realize there were other segments besides the doll. That's how much it affected me. It really was one of the scariest things I saw as a kid. It scared me more than The Exorcist did. The only thing that freaked me out even close to that was in a morning kids show when I was really young. Anyone from the Southern Ontario/Buffalo New York area would remember a show called RocketShip 7 hosted by the Eyewittness News Weatherman Dave Thomas. On this show he had a segment with this crazy looking doll (I think it's name was Dustmop). That doll really scared the cr#@ out of me at an early age. I don't know why but it did.

[–] jnkbox89 19 years ago

I guess I am not the only kid born in 1967 and saw this evil movie! That doll scared the crap out of me. I snuck out of bed and watched that movie while my parents were sleeping. I don't remember having nightmares but I do remember thinking about that darn doll many nights afterward before going to sleep at night. Still love a good horror movie today.

[–] marcus_jackson 19 years ago

I was born in '70 and saw the movie when I was about 5 years old. Needless to say it scared the crap out of me. I remember being at Blockbuster in '97 and I decided to rent it thinking that it would probably be funny to watch it as an adult. I was soooo lucky that my roommate was home at the time because the same fear crept through my body just like I was 5 years old again. When I saw the doll's face for the first time in 22 years the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up and all i could think was "Oh SH!T" I'm in trouble now!

[–] theplanworks 19 years ago

I remember in 1976 I was 16 years old and had just got my first part time job flipping burgers at Mcdonalds. My parents went to visit my grandparents and I couldn't get off work so for the first time ever I was alone for the whole weekend. I had worked that Saturday morning and watched the movie that night alone. 6ft 2in and 190 lbs of pure scared s***less. When it was over I called Mcdonalds and asked my best friend Steve to come over and spend the night with the reason that since my folks were away we could put on a "buzz". I never let on that I was scared. I haven't seen it since. Not because it was scarey but I just never had the chance. I think I'll rent it this weekend. God, I hope I get just as scared this time.

[–] pnc1221 19 years ago

Yes, I remember this one! Periodically, I mention the film to friends, coworkers, passersby, etc... None know of what I speak. They do not understand the horror of the Zuni and his 'heh, heh, heh' breathing as he works the knife, IN AND OUT! Or the teeth! Or Karen Black's crooked eyes! The horror! The horror!

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[–] ladyorthetygr 19 years ago

lol it's so interesting that we all seemed to feel the same way about this doll in this movie. Incidentally, i was a TEEN when i first saw it and it STILL scared me ! lol Scared me pretty good. I didn't really have nightmares about it, but i did think about it for a long time afterward. It haunted me for quite awhile, in fact, i ended up weriting a suspense/horror story based on it lol. So, for anyone who was a bit older the first time they saw it and was scared by it, you're not alone !

[–] drandie2 19 years ago

Oh man! I was born in '72 and saw this movie for the first time in '78 and yes! It scared the bejesus out of me...that little doll! I remember when I was in Kinder, I thought that doll would come out of my closet (or from anywhere for that matter) and would be ready to get me! Now that I'm 33, it still creeps me out somewhat. I can tell you this: I would never have a doll like that in my ownership. That's for sure! People sure do have BIG imaginations when it comes to horror...makes you wonder sometimes! Oh, and the sound it made? "Yadda...YaDa...yaaaah!" (Or something like that!)

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[–] alice_doesntlivehere 18 years ago

Leilani, your post made me laugh out loud and wake my husband up!

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] LadyDi4476 18 years ago

LOL Leilani!!

I agree with everything you said. The only other movie that scares me as much as Trilogy of Terror is also The Amityville Horror. Actually the book and the real DeFeo story are much more horrific than the 1979 movie. But the theme music (with the singing girls) terrifies the crap out of me. I still can't watch that movie at night alone by myself.

As for Trilogy of Terror, I don't know if I can watch that at all! I'd like to see the new dvd but I know I'm not going to be sleeping a wink for a week! If I ever saw that thing in person or heard it's screaming voice I would definitely end up in a mental institution.

BUT I think I need closure. I need to face my fear and look at the damn doll and get it over with. LOL

"There's never enough time, never enough" ~ BBM

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[–] idp123 19 years ago

Count me in..this scared the crap out of me when I was younger! I was born in '65, and saw this on the late, late show one night when my best friend was spending the night at my house. We were probably 12 or so. The first two episodes were OK, nothing that exciting, so we thought we might as well stay up and watch the last one...WOW. We were forever changed! The tension built up so much that when he popped out of the suitcase, we both screamed and woke up my mom! She came out and we were sitting with our knees up and hiding our faces with our hands, but peeking out to see the ending. What a great ending, I always think of those huge teeth, and that knife going up and down, up and down, waiting for "mother" to get there! [shudder]
To this day, I would not have any doll that looked like a Zuni warrior doll, so I guess I won't be buying one. (Also, after seeing Poltergeist, I would never have a clown doll in my house)
That was my first really scary movie, and I grew up to be a horror movie fan, so thank you TOT!
(My kids would probably laugh themselves silly if they watched it, but then they would want to sleep with the lights on!)

idp123

[–] noveltylibrary 19 years ago

I was born in 65 too and probably saw it when you did...it was the first time I ever laughed so nervously at a movie. I love how Karen Black acts in that one too. That doll will forever haunt us folks, but I somehow think kids today would just laugh and then sleep soundly!