TERROR TRAIN (1980)

TERROR TRAIN (1980)

Tagline: Don't waste money on a return fare. You won't be coming back!

This movie stars scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis,(who plays Alana) who once again has managed to attract yet another killer, out for some sort of freakin revenge. This time a group of kids plays a gross over-the-top “this is how you make an enemy for life”, prank on Kenny Hampson. Kenny kind of loses his mind and ends up in the hospital. 3 years later for graduation, the whole school it seems decides to have a massive masquerade-style party on a train. The bad news for them is that there is a killer on this train and we pretty much know who that is. With each kill, he dresses in the costume of his last victim. So sometimes he’s got a lizard face, sometimes he’s a creepy old man, etc. However that is at least the 2nd most disquieting thing on this damn train, they also will be forced to endure the most terrifying hell known to mankind….a terrible live band.

Overall the performances are top-notch. The script actually does take the time to explain things to an extent and there is a good amount of light magic from the magician played by David Copperfield, (one of the 5 acting credits he has) to keep the atmosphere eerie. Where the script fails is in telling us who the killer most likely is in the very first scene of the movie, because that in and of itself could have been a cool mystery to add to this thing which already sort of tries to play itself off as a mystery. Having said that, I guess the killer was a mystery to a point to the passengers even if they had figured it out because so many people on this train had masks. It would have been like a FRIDAY THE 13th situation where the whole movie took place at an early ’80s goalie convention rather than a camp in the forest.

The score is just okay in this movie, and the gore is pretty tame, which I never complain about. I do feel like there were a few plot points that kind of missed the boat and as eluded to in the opening paragraph, the band they hired was beyond terrible. Like ear bleed terrible.  Alana’s character sadly ends up being the only one we kind of care about outside of the train’s conductor. Everyone else is a jerk and there are at least 2 or 3 pissing contests going on during this movie which doesn’t add value or make things more interesting. 

TERROR TRAIN definitely delivers more blood than some of the other slashers out there, but overall I would put this one in the middle of the road. Maybe it makes your Halloween horror fest for a year, but I don’t think this is one you put on the docket often. 

For its interesting concept, I give TERROR TRAIN a 3 out of 7 but it could have easily been a 4 out of 7 with a few tweaks. Just a note to anyone making horror flicks of this type out there, at least have some of the characters in your movie be relatable, even if they are pretty much all medical students.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TRIPLE T PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.  

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