"Circle of Fear" Bad Connection (TV Episode 1972) Poster

(TV Series)

(1972)

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6/10
There's a reason why Karen Black is considered the campiest actress of the 1970's.
mark.waltz25 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Don't play the Karen Black screaming drinking game. You may not make it to the end of the 50 minute episode. she's the widow of a Vietnam veteran whom she insists is calling her to let her know that he is alive and is planning on killing her because she is getting remarried. Her fiance wants her to see a psychiatrist, but she insists that she knows what she's claiming to be hearing on the phone is correct.

"Barbara! The promise! Remember!" is the key line from the phone conversations of a whispering man and only she is around when these calls are being made so only black and the viewer have any idea that this is recurring, and the viewer isn't sure that this isn't all in her mind. At one point when layingng on a bed, she looks like all she's missing is the Tiki Monster from "Trilogy of Terror", which makes this really a campy but creepy episode. In spite of laughing at the unintentional humor, I found myself engrossed by it, and it's a must for 70's horror aficianados.
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7/10
Sounds Of A Ghost
AaronCapenBanner14 November 2014
Karen Black stars as Barbara Sanders, a war widow who is about to be remarried. Suddenly at work, she starts receiving strange phone calls from someone claiming to be her late husband who had been killed in Vietnam, and that she will die soon! Alarmed, she then starts to hear army combat boots following her when there is no one there, even at her home. Her efforts to inform the police of this prove frustrating as she has no proof for the skeptical police detective, but events will soon take a dramatic turn in a most unexpected way... Another intriguing episode with a good performance by Black, and reasonably effective story turns until the surprise finale.
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5/10
Karen Black!
BandSAboutMovies28 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
If you've watched enough made-for-TV horror, you may have asked, "How long will it be until Karen Black shows up as part of Ghost Story?" Good news. She's here.

In this episode - written by John McGreevey (The Death of Richie) and horror master Richard Matheson and directed by Walter Doniger, who made a lot of TV but I'm going to celebrate him for writing the Brian Bosworth vehicle Stone Cold - she plays Barbara Sanders, a widow who is just getting used to the idea that her husband died in Vietnam, which is a tremendously edgy thing for a network TV horror anthology to tackle back in 1972.

As she plans to remarry, the phone starts to ring, with her dead husband's voice on the other side, asking her to remember her promise and telling her that she'll soon die. Throw in the sound of army boots haunting her at night and you get what you want Karen Black to do: open up those gigantic eyes and just start screaming.

Anyone else would scream loudly and act slightly afraid.

When you hire Karen Black, you get full-on mania, the kind you're worried will stay with her long after the acting is done.
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6/10
Tedious but with a decent ending
ebeckstr-131 October 2021
This episode would have been better at 25 minutes. If you watch the first 10 minutes, skip the next 25, and then watch the last 10 you won't miss anything except a tedious repetition of one identical phone call after another. The first phone call or two are creepy, the next eight are unnecessary and boring. The ending of the episode is pretty decent, though, and redeems the episode to some extent.
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10/10
Karen Black: Camp At Its Best, Hysterical Unintentional Humor
perryvalentino14 August 2010
Karen Black plays Barbara Sanders, a widow who is about to be remarried. All of a sudden, she is being follow, receives phone calls at work and at home from a stastic voice, who states he is her husband and she will die soon. First of all, it is funny to see Karen Black with her big hair and heavy mascara in general, which may have been the style of the early seventies. What is really hilarious is to see Karen Black over act with her screaming every time the phone rings? The show is really more campy than scary, which was the original intention. Is Barbara Sanders really receiving calls from her deceased husband, being victimized by someone else, or imagining these things? You will have to find out on your own through a collector's copy, unless fans write to a DVD company to have these rare special stories placed on DVD. After watching this episode, I have become a real Karen Black fan. Hee, Hee, I dedicate this episode to Ms. Karen Black.
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