TerrorTrain

Terror Train (1980)

You know Jamie Lee Curtis sure made a lot of these slasher movies…

This time around she plays Alana, a nice college girl that gets roped into playing a prank. As is the case with most pranks in slasher movie history it goes horribly wrong. Basically Alana’s boyfriend and his frat brothers use her to lure up a pledge for what he thinks is some nookie, but is actually a bit of hazing. But when the young guy realizes he is making out with a cadaver he snaps. Years later as Alana and her friends are celebrating graduation and just having a killer party on a rented train someone comes back to get revenge on them!

You know this is a strange movie for me to review. Honestly even for 1980 the plot is already fairly standard fare, though it would be continually beaten into the ground over the next 5 or 6 years. You have the loner that has something bad done to him and comes back to get revenge on the cruel, unthinking popular “kids”. So this is your basic body count movie. But it does have a cool bit of mystery to it. Unlike many of the slasher movies Terror Train does a wonderful job keeping the killer’s identity in doubt until the end of the movie and has a nifty twist. I’m not going to spoil the movie by saying anymore.

The twist isn’t all the movie has going for it, there are a few casting decisions that make the movie stand out. First of all Jamie Lee Curtis is at the top of her game here. Not sure why, but she was really able to nail this kind of character and bring some screen presence to it. I’m also a big fan of actor Ben Johnson, who plays the Train Conductor in the movie. Again I just think that you have an actor like Johnson who is able to make the material he is in better than it maybe should be. Though unlike some of the other gimmicky casting moves that later slasher movies would make with bigger names this is a real part and not a glorified cameo. Finally I’ve always liked that the movie cast David Copperfield as the magician. Even before recent history I’ve always thought that the guy was kind of creepy, which works so well in a horror movie like this, especially with what his character means to the plot.

Of course we can’t talk about a slasher movie without delving into the gore and special effects. I’ll say right up front that Terror Train is going to disappoint the gore hounds. The kills are kind of tame, and many of them happen off-screen. Hell I actually think that most of them happen off screen! This is one of those movies that you have a lot of bodies being discovered afterwards, as they tend to keep falling out of the closets. But there is some of the red stuff splattered about, and the attacks on Alana character are kind of nasty.

So I love the cast and enjoyed the twist and mystery to the story. But I also have to admit that this is basically not much more than a body count movie that skimps a bit on the gore. Still as far as slasher movies go I think this is worth checking out, especially if you are a fan of Jamie Lee Curtis.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer