Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Karen Black

Burnt Offerings Movie Review Haunted House Horrors

Well, it ain’t exactly “The Haunting” (1963), but the house in “Burnt Offerings” (1976) is also up to no good. Unfortunately, that also happens to describe just about every aspect of the production.

Opinions may vary. We’ll find out tomorrow night, when Roy and I commence our annual celebration of Halloween with an eerie discussion on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.

Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, and Bette Davis put their faith in Dan Curtis, whose “Dark Shadows” was notorious for getting things done efficiently – which is to say, fast and cheap. The screenplay was adapted by prolific sci-fi scribe William F. Nolan, who gave us “Logan’s Run.”

“Burnt Offerings” was shot at the Dunsmuir House in Oakland, California, soon to be used in “Phantasm” (1979), a much less formulaic film – which I hope we’ll cover soon – that at least had some creativity and the courage to swing for the fences.

The offerings won’t be the only things that are burned, when Roy and I convene for a lively discussion about a house that wants you dead. Bring your realtor to the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Sunday evening at 7:30 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

PHOTOS: The house (top), and Roy making me rewatch the film

September 30, 2023
Trilogy of Terror Karen Black and Zuni Doll Fears

Just as last week there were no vampires in “Planet of the Vampires,” this week there is no sci-fi in “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” Or, for that matter, will there be very much terror, although our topic will be “Trilogy of Terror,” a 1975 made-for-television ABC Movie of the Week.

Roy Bjellquist and I will look back with amusement at our younger selves, and the universal boyhood apprehension of walking across a darkened bedroom, only to be ambushed by a raging Zuni fetish doll. Karen Black is at the heart of these blackened tales, the kinds of stories that, with a little more refinement, might have turned up on “The Twilight Zone” or “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” It’s no coincidence that the screenplay was adapted from three stories by Richard Matheson, the guy who first envisioned a gremlin standing on an airplane wing outside William Shatner’s window.

FUN FACT: The original Zuni fetish doll sold at auction last year for over $200,000. I’m hoping that’s considered valuable enough that he’s now locked up in some vault somewhere, minimizing the threat of my getting stabbed in the ankles on nocturnal trips to the bathroom.

Share your Karen Black-related neuroses in the comments section of the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Our group-therapy will commence, live-streamed on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT.

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

October 2, 2020
Karen Black Trilogy of Terror Horror Review

There were few actresses in the 1970s who were as omnipresent as Karen Black.

She worked with Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Gene Wilder, Christopher Plummer, Alfred Hitchcock, and Robert Altman. Also, Kris Kristofferson, George Segal, Richard Benjamin, Elliot Gould, Lee Van Cleef, Dennis Hopper, and Fabian. She was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in “Five Easy Pieces” and for a Grammy for her singing and songwriting in “Nashville.”

But to those of a certain age, Karen Black will probably always be linked with a certain Zuni fetish doll.

This week on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner,” October is upon us. Roy Bjellquist and I will kick off a month of tricks and treats with a horrifying discussion of “Trilogy of Terror” (1975). For once, Karen Black really gets to exploit her range, in three creepy, campy segments – as a blackmailed, hypercorrect school marm; as hostile rival sisters (one’s been sucking on lemons, and the other is a free-spirited Satanist); and as the terryclothed target of a possessed anthropological artifact that sounds an awful lot like the Tasmanian Devil.

It may have been a made-for-TV, “ABC Movie of the Week,” and the “twists” may have all subtlety of an anvil, but the stories are by sci-fi, fantasy, and horror legend Richard Matheson, and they’re directed by Dan Curtis of “Dark Shadows” fame.

Black is the new black! Help us exorcise ourselves of the loony Zuni. Leave your comments and insights during the Facebook live-stream of Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

October 1, 2020

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