Remember those good old anthology shows like The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Darkside? These half hour programs depicted characters in unusual situations, typically with a surprise twist ending. Though they varied in quality, shows like these trailblazed episodic storytelling on television and influenced a great many filmmakers.

Unfortunately, these shows also clearly influenced the makers of The Unknown Trilogy, a film with three parts that tries so hard - with a limited budget and fleeting appearances from second tier stars - to pay homage to those great shows. The title sequence has a score reminiscent of Tales from the Darkside's theme music, and the movie's three stories are hosted by one "Dr. Sol Rubin," a Dom Deluise-lookalike who serves the Rod Serling function of introducing and concluding each story's arc. It seems that the good doctor is "a behavioral psychologist whose expertise is crisis behavior." If the audience isn't used to ultra-low budget horror shenanigans, they may need crisis intervention by the end of this flick.

In the first story, Dr. Rubin introduces us to Frankie the Squirrel, a down-on-his-luck gambler who is given some money chips by a "Lucky" Smith and told that whatever he does, it needs to involve the number 22. And sure enough, he wins tons of money at some nondescript gambling joint with the number 22. If you thought about guns at all the first time you saw the number 22, I'm sure you're not alone - and 25 minutes later, the "surprise" ending is triggered. Ahem. To add insult to injury, a very frail and tired-looking Abe Vigoda makes a cameo as a hot dog vendor.

Dr. Rubin transitions us to the second story titled Fear (the previous story was called Frankie the Squirrel but it didn't have its own title sequence as this and the final story do). In Fear, a young boy is nervous and anxious because of something that happened to him at a funeral home during his father's funeral. He and his preteen friends, all of whom can't act, then decide to fool around one night at said funeral home. This is the creepiest of the three stories, but also the most tacky. Watching 10-year-olds get drunk on two cans of beer is not fun, regardless of whatever the filmmakers thought.

The third story of the trilogy is called Gone and is by far the best. In it, a father is grieving the loss of his young son after a car accident. Angie Everhart, credited as having a "Special Guest Appearance" in the opening credits, pops in from time to time in this story as the wife / mother. I've never really understood how you can make a guest appearance in a movie, but that's semantics. In any case, this story has a downbeat vibe to it antithetical to the holiday season, and choral Christmas music is used effectively to create a creepy atmosphere. Unfortunately, Dr. Rubin shows up at the end of this story and completely ruins the blue ambience of Gone by spouting out pseudo-scientific paranormal ramblings.

In sum, The Unknown Trilogy's only saving grace is its final story - Gone. I don't think it's worth sitting through the two other boring stories, but there's always the fast forward button if you're interested in this low budget film.

The DVD

Video:

The Unknown Trilogy is presented widescreen and non-anamorphic. The image is okay given this limiting format - and there's nothing all that visually interesting in this film that'll make you wish for greater detail.

Sound:

The only audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0. It's serviceable and clear - and as with the video image, there's nothing here that demands a lot more attention.

A Spanish subtitle option is also present.

Extras:

The menu system has a Trailer option that plays through a short trailer of the movie. No surprise there. A separate Previews option has three other trailers: Forget About It, Heavens Fall, and Niagara Motel. And that's it for the extras.

Final Thoughts:

I'm going with a "Rent It" rating only because the final story in The Unknown Trilogy has an interesting, downbeat feel to it that works well as a low budget short. Otherwise, you're better off watching three episodes of the classic The Twilight Zone.

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