Made-for-TV sequel to 1975's Trilogy of Terror, which was also made-for-TV. In the original movie, Karen Black starred in three separate stories. Here it's Lysette Anthony. The first story is "The Graveyard Rats." It's about a millionaire's young wife and her lover/cousin (Geraint Wyn Davies), who murder the old guy but find out all the money he had left was in Swiss bank accounts. The passcode for these accounts is on microfilm the old man had buried with him. So they have to go dig him up. But, oh no, what's this? There are giant fake rubber rats that are stealing corpses out of coffins. Good for some laughs, I guess. Anthony isn't a particularly strong actress and Davies is TERRIBLE. But it's got Geoffrey Lewis using an Irish accent so it's not all bad.
The second story is "Bobby," about a mother who uses witchcraft to bring her son (Blake Heron) back from the dead. But he comes back not quite right and soon is trying to murder his mom. This is a forgettable story that starts out one way but quickly devolves into a repetitive slasher story with the kid terrorizing the mom. A very annoying musical score accompanies the kid on his rampage. I screamed for those stupid horns to stop. Weakest story in the movie.
The final story is "He Who Kills." This is a sequel to the most popular segment from the original film, the Zuni fetish doll story. The police drop the doll from the first film off at a museum. It was badly burned so they want Dr. Simpson (Anthony) to examine it right away and tell them what it is. From here, in typical sequel fashion, we get a retread of the first film where the doll comes alive and tries to kill Anthony. Nowhere near as exciting or scary as the original but still the best of this movie. More annoying music.
Made-for-TV movies had decreased in quality quite a bit by the 1990s. This is in large part because in the '70s and '80s, the weekly TV movie was a staple of network television. By the '90s the TV movie became something reduced to crappy cable channels and the occasional network effort like the Amy Fisher crap. They were a higher quality in the old days, for the most part. I'm not saying they were equal to theatrical films but they were a lot better than most of the stuff that's been produced for cable the last 25 years or so. Anyway, this is watchable enough. It helps that Dan Curtis, the director of the original, returned to direct this. It's nothing that will leave an impression but you won't hate yourself for having watched it either.
The second story is "Bobby," about a mother who uses witchcraft to bring her son (Blake Heron) back from the dead. But he comes back not quite right and soon is trying to murder his mom. This is a forgettable story that starts out one way but quickly devolves into a repetitive slasher story with the kid terrorizing the mom. A very annoying musical score accompanies the kid on his rampage. I screamed for those stupid horns to stop. Weakest story in the movie.
The final story is "He Who Kills." This is a sequel to the most popular segment from the original film, the Zuni fetish doll story. The police drop the doll from the first film off at a museum. It was badly burned so they want Dr. Simpson (Anthony) to examine it right away and tell them what it is. From here, in typical sequel fashion, we get a retread of the first film where the doll comes alive and tries to kill Anthony. Nowhere near as exciting or scary as the original but still the best of this movie. More annoying music.
Made-for-TV movies had decreased in quality quite a bit by the 1990s. This is in large part because in the '70s and '80s, the weekly TV movie was a staple of network television. By the '90s the TV movie became something reduced to crappy cable channels and the occasional network effort like the Amy Fisher crap. They were a higher quality in the old days, for the most part. I'm not saying they were equal to theatrical films but they were a lot better than most of the stuff that's been produced for cable the last 25 years or so. Anyway, this is watchable enough. It helps that Dan Curtis, the director of the original, returned to direct this. It's nothing that will leave an impression but you won't hate yourself for having watched it either.