Terror Train
Year: 1980
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Written by: T.Y. Drake
Threat: Psychopath
Weapon of Choice: Sword
Based upon: none
IMDb page: 
Terror TrainYear: 1980 Director: Roger Spottiswoode Written by: T.Y. Drake Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Sword Based upon: none IMDb page: |
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Other movies in this series:
None
The tyranist's thoughts
Quick, name your favorite slasher scream queen. I'm betting that a significant percentage
of you said Jamie Lee Curtis. I don't know about the rest of you, but for someone in love
with the late-'70s, early-'80s slashers, there is almost no other choice.
As a freshman in college, Alana (our beloved Jamie Lee) helps some frat boys perform
what may be the cruelest prank ever. Flash forward to her senior year and a big pleasure
trip on an old train. I bet you can't guess who shows up and what happens next.
This is classic '80s slasher material. An excellent script and overall an excellent production,
especially considering it's Canadian. Directed by a future Bond director, not that it was the
best entry in the Bond franchise. Jamie Lee is her normal, spectacular self. Other than
what is almost a cameo by David Copperfield, the rest of the cast blends in nicely. I
suppose at the time, people wouldn't even have recognized Copperfield. It is only in
retrospect that we can appreciate his appearance.
At any rate, I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it to any and all. There is something we've lost since the '80s, something we aren't likely to get back. At least Jamie Lee is still a big enough star that early work like this gets recognition once in a while.
Posted: December 20, 2004
Rish's Reviews
This has been a review long in coming. Tyranist and I have been trying to check out
this, the last Jamie Lee Curtis flick on our list, for the whole life of the site. It just kept
elluding us. Oddly enough, though, we both ended up seeing it separately during a
thirty day period.
I love the Eighties, especially the early Eighties. The frat party stuff that starts this
flick is so great, I watched it with a big ole grin on my geeky face. Jamie Lee Curtis
is eminently likable and comes across as a decent person, though I doubt she was
EVER young enough to appear in these flicks. She does scream late in the film, and
that blessedly familiar sound reminded me of the greatness that is the end of
Halloween. Boy, I gotta watch that
again soon. Old Western actor Ben Johnson was supposed to be the star of the film,
as the conductor who's suspicious when the killings begin. Die Hard's Hart
Bochner was typically detestable in his role of the manipulative fratboy, and there were
a pair of dazzlingly-beautiful girls in supporting roles.
This is not a great film, not at all, but it's typical for the decade and the genre, made
memorable only because of its location (a train) and the inclusion of David Copperfield
as a slightly spooky and even less-slightly effeminate magician.
Posted: January 4, 2005
Total Skulls: 19
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup | ||
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears |  |
David Copperfield |
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | ||
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | |
|
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | |
|
| Death associated with sex | |
|
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | |
|
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | |
|
| Power is cut | ||
| Phone lines are cut | ||
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | |
|
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | |
|
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | |
|
| Shower/bath scene | ||
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | |
|
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | ||
| No one believes only witness | ||
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | |
|
| Flashback sequence | |
|
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | |
|
| Killer wears a mask | |
|
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | |
|
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | |
|
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | ||
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | ||
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? |