Rating: 
Summary: More like The Snore.
Review: OK, it's Corman so you gotta cut him some slack, but this one couldn't terrify a tourist in Disneyland. Karloff is you're typical SOB--Scary Old Baron; Nicholson's a miscast as a lovestruck Napoleanic officer (French lieutenant? Stick to LA gumshoe, Jake.); and what about that Community Theater witch?! Maybe they should have burned the sets down while filming--a la Gone with the Wind--in order to add some excitement to this one.
Rating:
Summary: Terror-able
Review: Sluggish pacing and some questionable shots make THE TERROR a recommendation only for those who want to see a very young Jack Nicholson and a very old Boris Karloff in something other than the immeasurably superior THE RAVEN. Director Roger Corman lays the atmosphere on with a trowel and leaves continuity, consistency and coherence far behind in his wake.
Karloff plays the Baron of a dark and brooding castle and Nicholson plays a misplaced French lieutenant in circa 1805 Somewherevania. There's a long dead wife, a diaphanous maiden prowling about a crypt at night and an old crone with a falcon borrowed from the set of Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. The plot? Well, you can mix those ingredients together and probably come up with something a little more substantial than this one.
Not recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: The birth of a great Jack Nicholson
Review: The film is banal in all its components except one. Boris Karloff is so old that he cannot act at the level the film requires. The story is in no way imaginative and creative. But the film is also the debut of Jack Nicholson and anyone who is interested in this actor will rush on this film because Jack Nicholson is still pure, naive and malleable. We recognize his voice and some of his intonations that will become famous in later films. It is always interesting to see the birth of a great actor, even if the film is not exactly enhancing his value.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating:
Summary: Yes, Adult Human Beings Really Got Together and Made This!
Review: The history of the movie is far more interesting than the movie, itself. Corman had three extra days after his prematurely wrapped The Raven shoot, and tossed this thing together off the top of his (and everybody else's) head to end up making two features for the price of one. Considering the circumstances, the thing is a masterpiece. Of course, the finished product neither knows nor cares about the circumstances, which is why this movie is doubly entertaining. The mix of costuming and acting styles, the endless anachronisms throwing the audience out of suspension of disbelief that they are in Napoleonic era Germany (or is it supposed to be Spain? and if so, why so many German names? and if not, where does one get a seaside cliff in Germany?) - not to mention the genuinely really bad acting from pretty much everyone involved (including Karloff, who almost certainly didn't take it seriously), and the grossly mixed accents of the cast - make this one endlessly entertaining, in that drop-your-jaw, I-can't-believe-adult-human-beings-actually-got-together-and-made-this-thing kind of way. It actually has a plot, which if you're really attentive and diligent you can pick out in the last five minutes of the movie, and if you do, it's terribly clever and grossly improbable, which just makes it all that much more fun. But you won't care about that. What you really want to see is Jack Nicholson performing flatter than a block of wood, his then-wife Sandra Knight with an accent and acting style flatter still (though she is quite beautiful), Dorothy Neumann as a cackling revenge-driven old witch, Bronx-accented Dick Miller as a supposedly very German manservant, and Karloff struggling to keep a straight face given all the preceding impediments. Nicholson happily confesses in interviews that they all had a ball making this wonderfully absurd movie, and it actually shows. Interestingly enough, if you're in the right mood, you can even see the horror movie this almost was, if they'd had more time to make it really work. There are some good gore effects - a man's eyes gouged out by a killer hawk, and an incredibly goopy melting woman, topping the list - and it's pretty handsomely produced, even with a decently eerie musical soundtrack throughout. Don't watch it because it's good - watch it because it's FUN.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, Adult Human Beings Really Got Together and Made This!
Review: The history of the movie is far more interesting than the movie, itself. Corman had three extra days after his prematurely wrapped The Raven shoot, and tossed this thing together off the top of his (and everybody else's) head to end up making two features for the price of one. Considering the circumstances, the thing is a masterpiece. Of course, the finished product neither knows nor cares about the circumstances, which is why this movie is doubly entertaining. The mix of costuming and acting styles, the endless anachronisms throwing the audience out of suspension of disbelief that they are in Napoleonic era Germany (or is it supposed to be Spain? and if so, why so many German names? and if not, where does one get a seaside cliff in Germany?) - not to mention the genuinely really bad acting from pretty much everyone involved (including Karloff, who almost certainly didn't take it seriously), and the grossly mixed accents of the cast - make this one endlessly entertaining, in that drop-your-jaw, I-can't-believe-adult-human-beings-actually-got-together-and-made-this-thing kind of way. It actually has a plot, which if you're really attentive and diligent you can pick out in the last five minutes of the movie, and if you do, it's terribly clever and grossly improbable, which just makes it all that much more fun. But you won't care about that. What you really want to see is Jack Nicholson performing flatter than a block of wood, his then-wife Sandra Knight with an accent and acting style flatter still (though she is quite beautiful), Dorothy Neumann as a cackling revenge-driven old witch, Bronx-accented Dick Miller as a supposedly very German manservant, and Karloff struggling to keep a straight face given all the preceding impediments. Nicholson happily confesses in interviews that they all had a ball making this wonderfully absurd movie, and it actually shows. Interestingly enough, if you're in the right mood, you can even see the horror movie this almost was, if they'd had more time to make it really work. There are some good gore effects - a man's eyes gouged out by a killer hawk, and an incredibly goopy melting woman, topping the list - and it's pretty handsomely produced, even with a decently eerie musical soundtrack throughout. Don't watch it because it's good - watch it because it's FUN.
Rating: 
Summary: The best B horror movie of its class!
Review: The Terror is simply a fun B horror flick. Forget the acting, it's terrible, but that's its charm (it's worth it just to see the early Nicholson). It's the atmosphere that makes this movie a classic. The musical score gives it the true feel of the late night horror genre. Of course it's not scary, but that's beside the point. The ancient castle with its wonderful architecture, the ocean waves crashing on the rocky beach, the "old women" and her shack in the woods, and Stephan (the butler) whose performance is reminiscent of a Mel Brooks movie, make it a treat. For Karloff fans, this is a must see. I've been a fan of Corman's work for quite some time, and I think this is one of his better films. I would also recommend "Die Monster Die," directed by Daniel Haller, for those incurable Karloff fans.
Rating:
Summary: The best B horror movie of its class!
Review: The Terror is simply a fun B horror flick. Forget the acting, it's terrible, but that's its charm (it's worth it just to see the early Nicholson). It's the atmosphere that makes this movie a classic. The musical score gives it the true feel of the late night horror genre. Of course it's not scary, but that's beside the point. The ancient castle with its wonderful architecture, the ocean waves crashing on the rocky beach, the "old women" and her shack in the woods, and Stephan (the butler) whose performance is reminiscent of a Mel Brooks movie, make it a treat. For Karloff fans, this is a must see. I've been a fan of Corman's work for quite some time, and I think this is one of his better films. I would also recommend "Die Monster Die," directed by Daniel Haller, for those incurable Karloff fans.
Rating:
Summary: Classic, if not just completely absurd
Review: This is a work of art. I'm sure there was no script for this film, nor any actual plot. Apparently, its Karloff, Nicholson and his wife just reading ambiguously dark lines on a set that was going to be torn down, wearing whatever costumes could be found. Later, Corman pieced them all together and actually made something resembling a good horror film. Spectacular! A must see. Its the epitomy of Corman and everything that makes his work great. Definitely an accidental piece of commentary for an era where "big-budget" is supposed to mean "good film."
Rating:
Summary: Too many cooks?
Review: This movie is a legendary mess - Roger Corman wrapped filming on THE RAVEN early, and not wishing to waste a castle set and the remainder of Boris Karloff's contract, started a gothic movie, then handed this unfinished flick to a series of proteges to complete. Jack Hill, Francis Ford Coppola, and Monte Hellman all took cracks at trying to make sense of an unfinished script. THE TERROR is often referred to as a movie without a plot - there's a plot in there alright, but you've got to be prepared to fight for it. Worth seeing if only for the combination of Karloff and an alarmingly young Jack Nicholson.
Rating:
Summary: Low-budget, snail-paced movie...typical Jack Nicholson stuff
Review: This movie moves at a snail's pace as a soldier takes shelter at an old Baron's castle while searching for a mysterious woman he discovered at the beach near the castle. Boris Karlof's performance as the elderly Baron is the only one that makes this movie worth watching for the first half hour, and even then his acting gets lame and overleveled. Just like other typical Jack Nicholson movies, the movie is very slow, and extremely boring. It is not scary, and it is very easy to see that it is fake and stagy...Rent it, don't buy it.
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