Blog From The Bench

This question was so great, I had to share it and the answer because it comes up a lot!

Q: Hi Cynthia,

I hope you can help me. I was doing a google for a 70's made for TV movie, I thought the name was, "Ugly, Uglier, and Ugliest". I am mostly trying to find the name of a movie I remember. It stared Karen Black. In the movie, a friend went to Africa, (I think) and as a souvinier for Karen's character, brought back this super ugly doll that was so evil it had a charm belt to keep it from becoming live. Of course..the belt comes off, the doll comes to live and then proceedes to chase Karen's character around the house trying to stab her. Ok..please help me. If this story rings any bells..could you please tell me the name of this movie? I'd greatly appreciat it. Thank you!

A:

Aw, give me a hard one next time. That's Trilogy of Terror and it's the greatest. When the movie was new, TV Guide ran a photo story about how they made the Zuni fetish doll. They had three heads for the thing which were dubbed, Ugly, Uglier and Ugliest. The name stuck and it seems to be what people remember best about the movie.

In reality, it was three movies - one with Dark Shadow's John Karlen and Karen as a dual personality. But the Fetish doll story was the best and still ranks as one of the creepiest things ever shown on TV.

Keep 'em coming!