Terror Train

Rating:
Summary: Stow-Away
Review: Another bloody slasher film that trips in the tracks of superior shockers such as "Halloween" and "The Fog." The setting is an excursion train, filled with partying college students chugging through Canada. On board is a revenge-seeking psychotic who assumes various disguises as he murders the students and the train crew. Jamie Lee Curtis plays the heroine. A few interesting scenes stand out from the tripe which is quite similar to Jamie Lee's other 1980 horror flick "Prom Night." Also seems to have inspired the bad 90s horror flick "Valentine." I'd only recommend this to hardcore horror or Jamie Lee fans, those who don't mind a silly, trashy flick or anyone who wants to see David Copperfield in a truly bizarre "performance."

Rating:
Summary: The best horror pic of the 80s
Review: Jamie Lee stars. David Copperfield appears. The set is a train. A killer is on board. There is no way off. Excellent, excellent pic. Whoever is tying up the factories from making more copies on video should be flogged. This is the best horror movie of the 1980's. It's classy, not campy. It has sophistication and purity for not only horror fans but for anyone who enjoys watching films. Rent this title today, don't cheat yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Terror Train
Review: Terror Train in a classic horror movie. It had many scares. The plot was rather simple. A group of college teens play a prank that involves a dead body on a fellow classmate. key member of the prank was Alana who had no idea that there was a dead body. Neither did Mitchy (Sandee Currie) but Doc (Hart Bochner) Did. Then 3 years later the class is having a New Years Eve party on a train. But no one know that a killer hopped on the train. He starts killing random members of the prank and some had no part in it. He stabs One and steals there costume (Its a Costume party) taking his identity. He stalks Mitchy but gets stopped by A drunk friend of hers. Who he slams the head of in a glass mirror. Then he locks the door of the bathroom he commited the murder in. But the Conducter (Ben Johnson) gets it open. He sees the body and tells others. But when they get back the dead body just appears drunk. Little do they know its the killer. Mitchy takes who she thinks is her friend to a small bunk on the train. But he slits her throat.

Doc is with Alana's boyfriend when he falls dead. He takes the body out of the magician room. No one cares about Docs screams because is a real prankster. Alana's boyfriend dies. Then Alana finds Mitchy. The train is halted and a search is taken place in it. Doc stays on with Alana. She leaves and Doc is beheaded. Alana is taken to her own room to stay. A man stands guard at the door but is killed. Then the killer gets in and starts one of the scariest horror movie chase scenes ina horror film. She is chased through halls, To Conducter Box. She is stuck there as the killer breaks the lights. She stabs him through the wire with a letter holder. She goes to edge of train. Where she pushes him off the train. (or so she thinks). She runs to find the dead Magician(David Copperfield). She runs to another room shows his identity i wont give it away.

As You can tell this one scary movie. Jamie Lee Curtis does great and her acting out shines everybody here. Hart Bochner plays the (...)great here. Sandee Currie was killed to soon. She did great though. she would soon return to the genre in Curtains where she is credited as Sandra Warren. And Ben Johnson plays the conductor. What a great role. He did Great!!!!! Over all Terror Train is prolly the best horror film of the 80s. Its 5 out of 5 stars. 10/10 GREAT MOVIE

Rating:
Summary: Good, atmospheric slasher
Review: Terror Train is another notch in Jamie "Scream Queen" Curtis' belt, and it's a good slasher with talent behind it and a lot atmosphere.

To begin with, the setting. A fraternity decides to have a pre-graduation bash along a train that is travelling across what looks like the northeast or just plan north (maybe Canada) during a long night. It's a costume party, so all are done up as giant lizards, swordsmen, ghouls etc. One problem: a poor student they pulled a hideous prank on years earlier decides to crash it. And he's wearing a costume, too.

One by one the knucklehead fraternity bros and sorority gals are getting bumped off in the usual fashion: knifed, brain-bashed, etc. The killer dons the costume of each victim, keeping everyone guessing and scared.

Curtis is a pretty nice girl (of course), which leads to her inevitable siting and subsequent battle with the killer. A couple of differences though: a member of the adults (the crusty train conductor played by Ben Johnson(!) is effective in battling the killer, too, and a decent revelation about the killer's identity, er, costume.

This flick has a lot of atmosphere. John Alcott, who shot 3 Kubrick(!) classics, does the camerawork. Director Spottiswoode would go on to better things, even a 007 film (Tomorrow Never Dies). And Ben Johnson and Curtis are fine, as is Hart Bochner as the frat head (Bochner would go on to advance his slasher resume with a nice role in Urban Legends: Final Cut 20 years later) and just having David Copperfield play an entertaining magician is a bizarre touch that works.

A couple of gripes. Given its slasher golden age appearance it could have upped the gore factor. This was post-Halloween and the same year as Friday the 13th so I would have suspected more gore and style in the killing dept. I mean, this killer is pissed, as you can imagine when the see the opening prank. The second is not so much a gripe as a mixed feeling about some of the atmosphere. Too often is works as pieces that don't make a whole--one minute the train is partying hard and there are people everywhere. Then other times the place is empty with one or two or no people milling about. This is a frat party with a mass of people on there! Typically, the cast is so stupid that most of them don't suspect anything odd is going on as people begin to disappear. Oh well.

I don't watch slasher films for logic, etc. I like the atmosphere in this one (the lighting and the night, moving train setting) and the general setup and devices (like the costumes.) Don't expect a lot of gore, but it does generate a bit more suspense and interest than many others of its kind. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Railroad Slasher
Review: The success of John Carpenter's 1978 suspense thriller HALLOWEEN spawned a whole rash of slasher films, now numbering in the hundreds, that have stained and drenched the screens in blood and gore. The vast majority of these have been not just bad, but despicable and insulting.

Unlike most, however, the 1980 slasher film TERROR TRAIN has something to recommend to it. Like a lot of slasher movies, the film begins with an extended prologue detailing a high-school student be the victim of a pretty nasty prank (a la CARRIE) who decides to get revenge on his classmates.

The difference here, however, is that the action takes place on a train going across the snowbound Canadian countryside, and it involves a fraternity party. Everyone is dressed in costumes, but a lot of them soon start having this tendency of disappearing and later turning up dead. The question becomes: Who is the killer?

HALLOWEEN veteran Jamie Lee Curtis once again takes on the role of the main hero/heroine imperiled here, and she does her usual, highly effective job. The idea of setting the story on a train, having people (including magician David Copperfield) in costume, and making the audience guess in what disguise the killer has donned himself works wonders in lifting this film above its ilk.

But the talent behind TERROR TRAIN is very important as well. The director is Roger Spottiswoode, a British film editor who worked with Sam Peckinpah on that director's 1971 horror film STRAW DOGS. Ben Johnson, a veteran character actor of both Peckinpah and John Ford, is extremely good as the train conductor. And the film's atmospheric cinematography is provided by John Alcott, who worked with Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and THE SHINING.

I dock the film one star due to some slightly mediocre acting amongst some of the other participants. Otherwise, however, TERROR TRAIN is a highly suspenseful film that doesn't rely too terribly much on blood and gore to be atmospheric and chilling.

Rating:
Summary: killer on a train.
Review: This movie was not as bad as i thought it would be. Its not a gem but its not half bad. The acting is above average for films of this genre but it was short on the gore. slasher fans expect a certain level of blood to be served up with the suspense but this film just doesn't deliver.
The story takes place on a train bound for who knows where but theres a party on board...with teenagers...and booze...and sex...it can mean only one thing. There has to be a killer. A rental for sure but don't spend good money putting this in a collection.