John Ary Boards TERROR TRAIN!!

John Ary here with a look at a new Blu-ray release to help get you in the Halloween spirit.  When a train full of fraternity brothers and sorority sisters embark on a night of drinking, sex and David Copperfield magic tricks, their lives are forever changed.  This my friends is the setup of Terror Train, a 1980 slasher that cemented Jamie Lee Curtis as a certified “scream queen.”

It’s New Year’s Eve and an excited group of college students plan to party in style, on a train!  For our main characters, this appears to be their final big college blowout as several of them will soon be graduating and getting jobs.  The first 15 minutes establishes just what kind of people we’re dealing with.  The members of Sigma Phi love a good prank, especially if it involves stealing cadavers from the college research lab.  Their ringleader Doc Manley, seems to drive the gags and cruel jokes played on the freshmen.  We find out early on that one of his freshman pranks ended very badly, sending a pledge into a mental hospital where he hasn’t been heard from since.  They also like to drink and have sex.  Annnnnnyway, enough of this boring exposition.  It’s time to don a costume and get this party started.  Throughout the trip, college kids begin to disappear one-by-one.  Is this just another dumb prank by Doc Manley and his fraternity brothers or are the partygoers in real danger?  That’s what the train’s conductor must find out before it’s too late.  Did I also mention that these college kids like to drink and have sex?

Terror Train surprised me.  This little picture delivers some decent kills, good performances, and tight production values throughout.  It handles the murders in a clever way, never really showing the bloody details.  Instead, it usually just gives us the bloody aftermath.  With everyone wearing costumes, you never truly know if the person standing next to one of the main characters is a Sigma Phi member or deranged serial killer. This also makes the protagonists question throughout the movie whether the deaths are part of a sick prank or the deadly plan of a deranged individual.  Thanks to a tight script that allows for some minor character development and brisk pacing, the film never slows down, continually chugging away to the finale.  If you’re really paying attention to all of the characters and clues, it won’t be hard to spot the mastermind behind this New Year’s Eve massacre.  Even if you do figure it out, the pace and atmosphere will keep you engaged until the train pulls into the station.

The film benefits from having a great mix of talent.  Although it was an independent film shot in Canada, it featured an impressive roster both behind the scenes and in front of the camera.  This was Roger Spottiswoode’s first film as a director.  Before this he was editing movies for Sam Peckinpah and Walter Hill.  He brought with him a strong sense of timing as the film ebbs and flows nicely in between the exposition and the bloody killings.  The look of the movie can be attributed to John Alcott, a cinematographer who frequently worked with Stanley Kubrick on films like Barry Lyndon and The Shining.  He relies on practical lighting for the train’s brooding darkness, using items like christmas lights, flashlights and the fixtures within the scene to set the mood.  On screen, Ben Johnson played Carne the train conductor.  The Oscar winner adds some depth to the role as he works to protect the young people from the torment of their attacker.  Johnson’s scenes with his younger co-stars have a wonderful grandfather-like quality to them.  Then there is THE go to girl for slasher movies between 1978 and 1981. This is the fourth starring role for Jamie Lee Curtis in a horror flick and she gives a strong performance.  Before this, she proved herself to be bankable genre lead with films like Halloween,  The Fog and Prom Night.  Terror Train gives Curtis some good material to work with as she constantly shifts between scenes of soft vulnerability and gritty toughness.  It’s a fine performance that anchors the film.

 

Then there’s the Copperfield effect.

Yes.  David Copperfield shows his acting range by playing a creepy magician.  Before he made the Statue of Liberty disappear or he walked through the Great Wall of China on TV...

 

...there was Terror Train.  Not only does he perform for the drunk college kids in a terribly generic stage show, but he attempts to woo Jamie Lee Curtis with his greatest weapon... the power of magic!  For those who enjoy a good drinking game may I suggest taking a shot every time Mr. Copperfield gives his best “blue steel” facial expression and two shots for every terrible trick he performs.  I guarantee that you’ll be wasted before the final act.  As someone who doesn’t appreciate the talents of Mr. Copperfield, I find myself conflicted.  His appearance in the film actually works.  The filmmakers incorporate his dark and intense persona into the movie and make him a convincing suspect in the killings.  Why Jamie Lee Curtis’ character would ever be attracted to him is a mystery to me, but then again, this guy was somehow engaged to Claudia Schiffer for five years.

The movie got a VHS release in 1988 and a couple of barebone DVD releases in 2004 and 2008, but on Tuesday, October 16 Shout Factory will give it the Blu-ray treatment.  The pack comes with a DVD copy of the film, interviews with some of the production folks involved and your standard photo gallery and marketing materials.  The image quality on the transfer is okay.  The print has lots of small dusts particles and scratches, but in a way it adds to the early 80’s vibe.

Terror Train holds up well with solid production values, good performances and a script that keeps the viewer engaged until the end.  It’s not as good as the horror movie it stole much of it’s material from, but few films can rival the filmmaking of the original Halloween.  

If you can’t get enough horror this month, check out my Ain’t It Scary Reviews series.

 

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