Karen Black in TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975)

talesfromthecrypts' 25k gif party

@georgeromeros: Trilogy of Terror (1975) dir. Dan Curtis

Horror movies of 1975

“New York glitter-punk outfit The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black began life as a near-death experience. Shortly before forming the band in 1990, front woman Kembra Pfahler was strangled in a brutal mugging and almost died. While recovering, battered and zonked on painkillers, she watched the 1975 horror movie Trilogy of Terror on television. The film stars Karen Black, the quirky cross-eyed actress whose wildly erratic career encompasses everything from some of the key American films of the 1970s (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Nashville, Day of the Locust) to mainstream Hollywood schmaltz (Airport 1975) to obscure straight-to-VHS exploitation / horror dreck. In Trilogy's best-known segment, Black is stalked by and eventually possessed by a cursed malevolent Zuni fetish doll which has come to life. [SPOILER ALERT] It concludes with a final jolting image of the now-crazed and murderous, knife-wielding Black grinning blank-eyed and maniacal to the camera to reveal a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth identical to the Zuni doll’s … In her traumatized state, that savage and disturbing image -- combined with almost dying -- made a powerful impression on Pfahler. Inspired, she would blacken out her teeth, conceal her natural fine-featured beauty under cadaverous make-up and take to the stage clad in little more than a pair of thigh boots and a coat of body paint. Pfahler’s look can suggest a character from a John Waters film given an “ugly make-over”: think of Divine as the acid-scarred Dawn Davenport in Female Trouble (1974), an image which seems to anticipate TVHKB’s twisted glamour. Like Divine before her, Pfahler shaves off her eyebrows and shaves back her hairline to accommodate her extreme eye make-up. “I want to be both very beautiful and very repulsive,” Pfahler would explain to The Toronto Star in 1994.”

/ From my own blog post “The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black at Meltdown Festival 10 August 2012” /

Born on this day 62 years ago (4 August 1961): California girl-turned-NYC provocative performance artist, Cinema of Transgression actress and Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black voodoo-dolly singer Kembra Pfahler. Photo of Pfahler by me!

M3gan and Friends in Fantastic Four #1 (2023)

Talky Tina and the Zuni doll live in my nightmares, rent free, btw. Source: DeviantArt

You see, I'm bored. And when I'm bored, the game is over. Bored? Um-hmm. Not terrified, not shocked. Just plain bored. Who's idea did you think this whole thing was? What are you talking about? What I am talking about Chad, is that you are a singularly, unimaginative young man. Did you really think that, that dull little mind of yours could possibly have conceived any of the rather dramatic experiences we've shared? Do you remember the day you watched me walk up the steps? Since that moment, your mind has not been your own. Why do you think you suddenly had the overwhelming desire to see what I looked like, under all those clothes? Don't feel bad. I always get bored after awhile. Although, there was one boy in Denver who did keep me amused for almost nine weeks. But then he was wonderfully creative. First you'll experience dizziness. Then mild paralysis and then total cardiac arrest. You've drugged me. No dear, I've killed you. No! I told you about those chemicals Chad. How dangerous they could be. - 1.1 Julie

I knew the darkness behind it. I knew the fomenting ugliness in her soul. 1.2 - Millicent & Therese

Why don't you come by my place and we'll go from here. 1.3 - Amelia

Trilogy of Terror 1975 ~ Karen Black

Karen Black / "Trilogy of Terror" / Happy Halloween!

Horror sub genres #20

Anthologies:

Tales From The Hood - Creepshow

Trick ‘r Treat - V/H/S

Trilogy of Terror - The ABC’s Of Death

The colorful moment the cursed statue reawakens. (Tiki statue about to chase Karen Black until she turns red)

“Spears are not enough”