A significant attempt was made in the 1970s to persuade families to watch movies at home instead of going to the movies. As a result, full-length movies created especially for television started to be produced by ABC, CBS, and NBC. When it came to producing movies for television, ABC was by far the leader, and every Tuesday night, millions of people gathered in front of their TVs to watch Movie of the Week. Below are the ABC Movies of the Week that most horrified viewers as they watched them from the comfort of their couches.
1. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)
Director- John Newland
Sally Farnham and her husband Alex Farnham relocate to an old estate that once belonged to Sally’s grandmother. They commission an interior decorator and the carpenter Mr. Harris to renovate the mansion. An ash pit and sealed fireplace are discovered after Sally unlocks a door in the house. She requests that Mr. Harris open the fireplace, but the elderly man objects to her request and won’t comply. To unbolt the ash pit cover’s bolts, Sally utilises Mr. Harris’ wrench. Sooner or later, Sally discovers that she is being threatened by wicked, small creatures that are afraid of the light that have emerged from the subterranean area through the ash hole. Alex and Joan Kahn, however, are of the opinion that Mr. Harris’ comments have an impact on Sally’s vivid imagination.
2. Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Director- Dan Curtis
Tales of three tortured ladies from a horror anthology. In the first tale, Julie Eldridge plays the role of a sexually inhibited college professor who is subjected to blackmail by one of her students for an inappropriate past behaviour in which she unwittingly participated. The student is unaware that Julie is working on a plan to use this opportunity to turn the tables on him. A plain-looking, nearly reclusive woman named Millicent Larimore lives with her immoral twin sister Therese, who enjoys taunting her, in the second story. The truth behind the scenes, however, is only known by their doctor who occasionally visits. The doll she buys for her newest boyfriend, an African Zuni fetish doll, comes to life and terrorises her in her own apartment in the last chapter, which Amelia tells in a solo horror story monologue.
3. The Screaming Woman (1972)
Director- Jack Smight
An affluent former mental patient retreats to her estate to rest and recover. One day when she is strolling around the grounds, she overhears a woman who has been buried alive yelling from below the ground. Her family, on the other hand, is sceptical of her account and uses the incident as justification for seizing the woman’s assets.
4. The Night Stalker (1972)
Director- John Llewellyn Moxey
Newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak has got sack eleven times from different big-city publications due to his aggressive demeanour. He is now limited to reporting for a Las Vegas newspaper that is very small-time. He learns the details of his life’s journey here. But will the district attorney, the local sheriff, or even his own boss allow him to print it? The FBI agent hired to look into this peculiar case is his ally. Young ladies’ necks appear to be being bit by someone who then draws blood.
5. Bad Ronald (1974)
Director- Buzz Kulik
A nerdy high school student named Scott Jacoby accidentally kills a neighbor’s small daughter. Kim Hunter, a worried mother, worries that the police won’t accept that it was an accident. She places her son in the bathroom after converting it into a covert hiding place. A new family relocates after she passes away. In the interim, as a result of spending so much time alone, Ronald has become engrossed in a fantasy world he has formed in his mind.
6. Crowhaven Farm (1970)
Director- Walter Grauman
When Ben and Maggie Porter, a couple travelling to the farm to attempt for a chance to heal their failing marriage, take possession of it. Crowhaven Farm is shroud in mystery and stories of paranormal activity. Maggie has a gut feeling that something is off and that the farm’s lore of being haunted by ghosts and the residence of an old coven of witches may be true.
7. Satan’s School For Girls (1973)
Director- David Lowell Rich
Elizabeth is not sure if her sister’s death cause was suicide. Elizabeth chooses to enrol in her sister’s school and conduct her own investigation because the police have declined to open an investigation. She discovers that there have been several previous student suicides and starts to hear rumours that the institution is hiding a sinister secret. Elizabeth and her companions Roberta and Jody must now flee the occult’s influence since they know too much.
