Starring Rod Serling, Robert Ginnaven, Gary Brockette, John Leslie, Tom Haywood
Directed by Harry Thomason
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
Three stories purportedly based on true events involving people who had encounters with the supernatural are retold, narrated by familiar television writer & host Rod Serling.
When I first heard about this film, based on Serling's involvement and the year of release, I thought this might be a compilation of episodes from his series Night Gallery, but apparently it's not. All three tales (none of which were written by Serling) were apparently filmed by the same crew, and directed by Thomason, who would later go on to be a hit television producer with his wife Linda. Despite the supernatural angle, they aren't really tales of horror, and aren't photographed that way, with the emphasis more on capturing picturesque scenery as background for the stories. The first tale was the one I found the best, concerning three young men who inadvertently cause another boy's death and are warned of supernatural vengeance by his mother. The second tale concerns a boy in rural America who loses his dog, but on looking for her, finds a hole in the ground that emanates fearsome sounds. The third tale involves the story of a young woman who was denied permission by her father to marry her poor beau and is sighted decades later on a bridge where tragedy struck. Strangely, Serling doesn't narrate the whole film, with another speaker brought in to introduce and wrap up the movie. Speaking of the wrap-up, it's a much too long conclusion, replaying scenes from all the tales while the narrator tries to perform lengthy analysis. All in all, this is far from a prime example of a good horror anthology, but I found some elements of interest in it.
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