H13: 4. Terror Train

Hi all,

Another cool Halloween flick for you now, this time it's a slasher. And a scary one at that! This is probably my favourite of the films I've seen so far because it fits more easily into what scares me and why I watch horror movies. Thankfully, it's also not really that gory. Okay, there's a bit of blood and a decapitated head (which made me scream) but it's from the 80s so it's not really all that graphic. That's how I tend to get around the problem of gory and scary horror films. Generally, the classic films (before the 2000s and the rise of the Saw movies) are less gory and sometimes scarier, but that could just be me. Some people watch movies from 20 years ago and laugh because it's all so dated, but that's part of the appeal to me. Anyway, this has just inspired me to continue the marathon unabated so expect more reviews in the coming days!

Thanks,

James

 Terror Train

1980, USA, Directed by Roger Spottiswoode

It begins slowly, does Terror Train. Really slowly. For about the first 45 minutes, you’re desperately waiting for something truly scary. Okay, there are murders but they aren’t scary, not really. It’s got quite a common revenge plot, surrounding a nasty prank gone horribly wrong and I was expectation so much more. But then we get to the climax. I have this habit while watching horror movies to grab something. As I didn’t have a partner or table with me, I usually resort to grabbing my leg as a sort of shock absorption. While watching this film, I scratched my leg so hard that a small mark there now. And I don’t have long nails. It’s terrifying. I was literally pulling my hair out as I watched Jamie Lee Curtis (who I always think looks like Bastian from The NeverEnding Story. They look identical, except for gender differences) trying to escape the murderer who’s wearing a Groucho Marx mask. There’s a bit where she gets trapped inside a cage and the killer uses this as target practice with a pole. Nasty. It doesn’t take much to scare me and it’s been something I’ve been looking forward to while undertaking this marathon. I was disappointed by the fact that the first three films weren’t all that frightening (only Final Destination came close and even that didn’t involve deep leg scratching) so Terror Train was always going to rank pretty highly in my books. It’s got quite a bad rap by critics, but I think it’s destined to become something of a guilty pleasure for me. A brilliantly scary horror movie well worth watching.

 

Gore/Violence: 2 (blood and a decapitated head)
Sex/Nudity: 1 (almost naked breasts)
Scares: 5 (no more sleeping after this)
Best Scene: The lengthy (almost) climax
Overall Verdict: 9 

 

Alana: You're better than he is. I'm sure you're better.
The Killer: I am. He didn't know to cut a woman into pieces.

- Terror Train