Terror on the Tube.....

Even Made for Television movies were getting stranger and bleaker in the seventies. Creepy is the best word to describe many of these movies, as they haunted unsuspecting, impressionable young minds in the dark of the living room. Probably the most unforgettable chills for most came from TRILOGY OF TERROR 1975, three adaptations of short stories by Twilight Zone writer Richard Matheson. All stories starred '70s sooperstar Karen Black in the lead. The last one's the best, as Karen receives a Zuni fetish doll as a gift. The doll's chain falls off turning it into a fierce bitin' n' stabbin' killin' machine. Karen does her best to get away but in the end the doll's curse prevails. BAD RONALD 1973 gets my vote as the creepiest TV flick ever made. When we first meet Ronald he's celebrating his 15th. birthday alone with his overly protective mother. Soon after he accidentally kills a little girl. Mom get the idea to hide Ronald inside the house. Things get pretty routine, she feeds him and he studies, exercises. Until mom dies and new residents move in, including a little girl who resembles the one he killed. Ronald drills holes in all the rooms so he can spy on everybody around the house. As his isolation drags on he creates a fantasy world "Atranta." He draws pictures of himself as "the Prince" who must save his "Princess" the little girl he spies on. As you can imagine, RONALD does not have a happy ending. Shitmeister Steven Spielberg directed the stylish, minimal classic DUEL 1971. Dennis Weaver hits the road on a routine business trip, soon he's inexplicably being chased by an unseen mystery truckdriver who wants to run Weaver down with his 18 wheeler. This TV movie could be enjoyed as a tense thriller or an existential study of modern man against the monsters of technology. KILLDOZER 1974 has a somewhat similar plot, except this time a bulldozer possessed by aliens, attacks workers at a desert construction site. GARGOYLES 1972 is yet another nightmare-inducer. An anthropologist hears legends about a family of gargoyles who live in a cave and occasionally fly around and kidnap folks. He finds their hide out and discovers they're sympathetic creatures from another more primitive time, threatened with extinction in this modern age. The make up is quite bad-ass and long slow motion scenes, especially a gargoyle birth, are memorable. Seek this one out. More chills can be found in DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK 1972 as a young housewife who finds out her new dream home includes ugly little green gremlins in her basement.
A cut above most TV movies, the ABC production A COLD NIGHT’S DEATH (THE CHILL FACTOR) 1973 is set at a remote research lab in the inhospitable Arctic. Scientists Robert Culp and Eli Wallach arrive to continue the project another researcher was doing before he mysteriously died. The experiments are on a group of super-intelligent monkeys to observe how much confinement, depravation, fear and exposure to cold they can endure. Wallach is a rational, by the book scientist whereas Culp is more intrigued by the mysteries of nature. As the days of boredom and isolation go on and on, both develop a bad case of cabin fever. They begin to accuse each other of playing mind games when odd occurrences start popping up. Who left the windows open? Who trashed the food supply? Wallach is dismissive of Culp’s speculations that something extraordinary is happening, instead chalking up their peculiar behavior to the high altitude. As tensions between the two psychologists ripen, the beleaguered chimps start protesting their abuse leading us to the spooky, if not obvious conclusion. Both actors ham it up well in what occasionally feels like off-Broadway theater. Gil Mellé, veteran composer from B.J. LANG PRESENTS to THE NIGHT STALKER series, provides an appropriately chilly score. His sparse, eerie electronics ominously counterpoint the continual howl of blizzard winds and screeching simians. Bleak, atmospheric and well worth seeking out.
Dennis Weaver returned to TV movies in 1974 with TERROR AT THE BEACH. Along with Susan Dey, from The Partridge Family, he stars as the head of family vacationing at an out of the way beach. They meet up with some Manson-like hippies who terrorize them. A rather ridiculous quickie with some absurd plot loopholes. But there are some cool, creepy touches thanks to the hippie clan, like a beached mannequin and the moog soundtrack.

Troubled Teens on the Small Screen.....

Audiences from coast to coast tuned in to stories of runaways and delinquents. The first big "teen trauma" telecast featured Linda Blair, fresh from her role in THE EXORCIST 1973, heading off to a juvy jail in BORN INNOCENT 1974. While locked up she's continually harassed by the big dykes, and finally gets sexually assaulted with a broom handle. A copy cat case inspired by this violation was reported after it aired. This was shocking stuff for Mr. and Mrs. America, but they couldn't get enough and it was a big hit. Linda next appeared as SARAH T. - PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE ALCOHOLIC 1974. Based on the (phony) bestseller that everybody read in school GO ASK ALICE 1974 tells the tragic tale of a young drug addict. When Alice arrives at a new high school, she's a nerdy outcast and her only friend is her equally awkward companion. But as summer rolls around, she hooks up with some bad company, and her road to oblivion begins. She does acid, makes it with older guys, and sells dope to grade school kids. Things get worse when she runs away from home and gets molested by some weird couple. Later, back at home she accidentally drops acid while babysitting and serious burns her arms. Part of her problems maybe the fact her dad is the one and only William Shatner. Look out for a real young Mackenzie Phillips as a pill-popping waif. Eve Plumb, Jan from The Brady Bunch, leaves home and winds up selling her as on the street in DAWN, PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE RUNAWAY 1976. Dawn runs away from her alcoholic mom and small town life and heads for Hollywood. When she hits the Boulevard she's greeted by pimps, hustlers, hookers and freaks. The only way she can make a living is working the streets for played by Bo Hoskins. Like most TV movies there's plenty of saccharine melodrama, but there's also some creepy moments and a general seedy atmosphere. To help the vibe, the soundtrack includes the jailbait anthem "Cherry Bomb" by the all-girl teen punkers The Runaways. NBC had a big hit with this one and it even spawned a sequel ALEX, THE OTHER SIDE OF DAWN 1977 about her boyfriend hustling lonely spinsters and an "in the closet" football star. ABC made their own the "underage-teen-prostitute-on-Hollywood Blvd" drama with LITTLE LADIES OF THE NIGHT 1977. Linda Purl stars a runaway who finds a home with the pimp "Comfort", while "Stick" (David Soul from Starsky and Hutch) an ex-pimp working with the fuzz tries to get her off the street. This one has more of an economical, "cop show" feel than DAWN and it's an entertaining waste of 90 minutes.

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