| Genre: | Horror Thriller |
| Director: | Dan Curtis |
| Starring: | Lysette Anthony |
| Music: | Bob Cobert |
| Country: | United States Canada |
| Language: | English |
| Producer: | Julian Marks |
| Location: | Toronto |
| Editor: | Bill Blunden |
| Cinematography: | Elemér Ragályi |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Company: | Dan Curtis Productions Wilshire Court Productions Power Pictures |
| Network: | USA Network |
Trilogy of Terror II is a 1996 American made-for-television anthology horror film and a sequel to Trilogy of Terror (1975), both directed by Dan Curtis. The film follows the formula of the original, with one female lead (Lysette Anthony) playing parts in each of three segments.
A millionaire named Ansford discovers his young wife Laura having an affair with her cousin. Having video proof, he orders Laura to be faithful and honest or he will turn the video over to the news stations and cut her out of his will. Her lover Ben comes up with the idea to murder Ansford and collect all his money. Ansford is pushed down the stairs and killed. Before dying, Ansford transferred all of his money into an account in Zürich and microfilmed the access codes, which were buried with him. Laura and Ben dig up his coffin to retrieve the microfilm. Laura shoots and kills Ben to claim all the money for herself. Ansford's body is dragged through a hole in the side of the coffin by large flesh-eating rats, so Laura crawls in after them through a network of underground graveyard tunnels. The advancing rats corner her in another buried coffin. Laura tries to keep the rats away by firing her gun at them, but the rats pour into the coffin and devour her.
It has been some time since Bobby "accidentally" drowned, leaving his mother Alma depressed and guilty. While her husband is away on business, she determines to raise her son from the dead. Armed with a magic book and a "Key of Solomon" (in this case, a talisman rather than a book), she conjures up dark forces to bring her son back. Before she goes to bed, a vicious thunderstorm approaches the luxurious beach mansion. Hearing a knock, she opens the door to discover her son. After cleaning him up, she begins to make him feel at home again. However, Bobby acts completely mad and begins to terrorize his mother in the dark house with a sledgehammer and a butcher knife. The mother realizes that it is not Bobby who returned to her, but a demon, as he says "Bobby hates you, Mommy, so he sent me instead," revealing his demonic face.
After finding a Zuni fetish doll at the scene of a double homicide of a woman and her mother, the police drop off the doll to Dr. Simpson. She learns that the doll comes to life when a gold chain is removed from its neck and that the doll has a desire for flesh. It also seems to regenerate; when she chips away the charred wood, the doll seems to be brand new.
After a pizza break, she discovers the doll missing. One of the officers investigates the surrounding museum, only to be shot by the doll with an arrow from one of the exhibits. Simpson finds the doll running towards her with a lab knife. After the doll attacks her, Simpson catches the doll in a briefcase, giving her time to try to reach her keys. As the doll cuts through the case, Simpson tries to grab the knife, only to get cut. The doll breaks through, and Simpson stabs it with a screwdriver-like object. Simpson opens the briefcase, only to be bitten ferociously by the doll. She regains control and tosses the doll into a large container of sulfuric acid. As the doll breaks apart, Simpson puts on some black rubber gloves and grabs tongs in an attempt to remove the doll's remains, only to be possessed by the spirit inhabiting the doll. Later on, Simpson's date arrives at the museum, and she kills him with an ax.
Trilogy of Terror II was produced by Dan Curtis Productions and first aired on Showtime on October 30, 1996. The film was directed by Dan Curtis, who also directed the 1975 TV movie Trilogy of Terror which inspired this sequel.
This first segment (screenplay by William F. Nolan and Dan Curtis) is based on Henry Kuttner's short story "The Graveyard Rats", albeit considerably altered. In Kuttner's tale, the thief is a male cemetery caretaker who habitually steals valuables from the corpses in a graveyard beset by a colony of abnormally large rats. The second segment is a re-filming of a script by Richard Matheson. It was originally written by Matheson for the Dan Curtis omnibus movie Dead of Night. The third segment, about the Zuni Fetish Doll "He Who Kills," is a sequel to the third segment of the original film Trilogy of Terror, "Amelia". Its screenplay was written by Nolan and Curtis.
Trilogy of Terror II was released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on September 2, 2008 and on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber on Oct 22, 2019.
Brett Gallman from Oh, the Horror! gave the film a mixed review, feeling that the film was "a quick way to cash in on a well-known property".[1] TV Guide awarded the film 1/5 stars, calling it "belated", and felt that it was essentially a rerun of the original film.[2]