DVD Review: "Terror Train"

After the success of John Carpenter's "Halloween," the horror film industry began looking for ways to capitalize on the slasher genre. While some of the products of this era are pure schlock, there are a few that ended up being decent films in their own right. One such film is 1980's "Terror Train." It may not stand the test of time quite as good as those that inspired it, but it still yields enough creepy imagery to warrant a viewing, espcecially for those of us who consider ourselves fans of the genre.

The story is about a group of fraternity brothers who, as freshman, played a horrible prank on a fellow pledge that not only drove him out of school, but put him right into a mental institution. Now, four years later, those same frat guys have chartered a party train to celebrate their upcoming graduation with a costume party (despite the fact that the film takes place in January.) When an uninvited guest starts to kill off the members of the frat one by one, there seems to be only one person with reason to do so-- or is there?

The film was not quite as cheesy as it sounds. Sure, it's a complete product of it's time-- complete with a disco soundtrack and a co-starring role for then-newcomer David Copperfield. But the film does have an upside. First off, the idea of the killer using the costumes of each victim in order to get around the train worked beautifully. In fact, some of the costumes were quite creepy when used as the mask of a killer (Groucho Marx never looked so scary.) Also, the cinematography was very impressive, thanks to frequent Stanley Kubrick collaborator John Alcott. And of course seventies scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis is the heroine-- as she is seemingly every horror film of the decade.

The film was pretty tame by today's standards-- actually it was tame even by seventies standards. Most of the more brutal scenes take place off camera, and there is not much blood in the film at all. But still had it's fair amount of scary moments, and it will keep you guessing about the killer's true identity right up to the end. So, If you can look past the seventies score, and campy plot, I think you'll find it's something of a forgotten classic of the genre.

Score: 3 out of 5