Really Surprised!

People are voting emotionally.

Film Perfection

Expected more

Three years after a fraternity prank on a virginal pre-med student ends badly, with the unfortunate young man apparently carted off to a mental hospital, the same hedonistic classmates responsible for the gag board an excursion train on New Year's Eve dressed in costumes. Before the train even gets rolling, one of the kids is killed and his mask stolen by a psychopath, who stalks the others in cramped corridors, sleeper cars and the office/locker-room. Despite a fine pedigree, with direction by Roger Spottiswoode and cinematography from John Alcott, this extremely muddled, non-scary slasher flick is awfully thin and incredibly dull. Ben Johnson plays the train conductor who finds a costumed corpse in the bathroom, but is then bamboozled by the killer who takes the place of the deceased and pretends to be drunk (but what about the blood on the sink and on the body?). Jamie Lee Curtis, overstretching her stint as the '80s Scream Queen, does nothing here she didn't already do in "Prom Night", released a few months prior in 1980. Magician David Cooperfield supplies the evening's entertainment, but what is the point of staging magic tricks in a movie? They can easily be faked, much like the acting, writing and directing in "Terror Train". *1/2 from ****

Three years after a prank gone wrong, a costumed killer is targeting some snotty college kids on board a train. I happen to like trains and I enjoy a good '80s slasher film as well. This one isn't half bad. Not great but good. Some will be disappointed as there isn't much gore. The cute girl quota is filled by Jamie Lee Curtis, Sandee Currie, Joy Boushel, and Vanity. Who can forget Hart Bochner and Ben Johnson? Well, quite a few people can but they're good here anyway. Of course the big selling point is David Copperfield playing -- wait for it -- a magician! The plot's fairly thin and the killer is hardly a surprise but it's all good fun with some suspense and a decent cast for the genre. All aboard!

Jamie Lee Curtis electrifies the opening scene of Terror Train with her beaming, toothy smile. She was a beautiful young actress. Sadly, because of her trite label as the "Scream Queen," I believe she never reached her full potential. She was terrific in A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies, and even Halloween, but she could've really been a talent. However, she settled for something that may not be as prestigious, but is just as remembered as an Academy Award: being the face of a genre that always draws fans. She's very good in Terror Train; although it feels like a very similar role to those she portrayed in Halloween and Prom Night, there's something stronger about the character that makes Curtis work standout more.There are some stereotypical college partying scenes and generic characters, but Terror Train is very entertaining. With movies such as this, you can't judge them on a regular film rating scale that you would judge film such as The Godfather, Taxi Driver, or Citizen Kane with. Instead you have to look at what's in front of you. Terror Train isn't a film with ambitious goals to meet, it's meant to purely entertain its audience and it does an acceptable job at that. It's a decent of the genre and for what it sets out to be. The exposition of horror films in the 1980s was dreadful, all falling to the same fate. They barely involve the viewer in the characters or the story, they keep them afar from the action. Terror Train has traces of that in explaining the characters, besides the character of Jamie Lee Curtis and the train conductor. All the other indistinguishable characters are expressed to have no moral values. Other problems Terror Train runs into is the convenient plot devices working in the plot's favor (the train used take has no radio...hmm?). Sometimes the screenplay has the characters do things just to say they did them without, but the plot wasn't advanced by said action. The choreography of the final chase scene was so sloppy; it was probably put together a few minutes before shooting.Setting can sometimes make or break a horror film, and I love the setting in Terror Train! It's ominous, spooky, and gives a distinctive quality to the horror flick. Hitchcock used trains a lot in his films, the setting serves as an homage to the legend in a way. The different color of lights are used to create mood and it's mostly effective. The villain works in Terror Train very well. It's a different take on the antagonist in a horror film, the mask at the beginning was my favorite face of the killer. Terror Train holds the anticipation of the killings, but its a film that rejects the graphic violent scenes. I'm not sure if it adds to retracts the film's overall quality, but it's certainly noticed with each death. Is Terror Train bursting with originality? No. Does it use clichés of the 1980s horror films? Yes. It's not an expertly made film, but I did enjoy the time I spent watching it. It's more entertaining than Prom Night, but lacks Halloween's brilliance and insight. Rating: 5/10Grade: C+

A college fraternity prank goes bad and student ends up in the mental ward.Four years later, it's graduation time, and the members of the fraternity decide to have a costume party aboard a train trip to celebrate their graduation.Unknowingly to them, a killer has slipped aboard, whacking them off one by one, disguised in the costumes of the victims....heres the thing about slasher movies from the eighties, why is it that all the awful ones are never remade? Prom Night isn't very good, but it's Friday the 13th compared to this poor excuse of a movie.What ruins the whole movie is th beginning, as it gives the whole surprise of who the killer is and why they are doing it. Other films do have an opening scene like this, but usually the killer is someone looking on or observing, no the Keneth Williams lookalike in his pants.Th setting on a train, has a very good claustrophobic feel, but the potential is wasted as they do not explore the whole train.Kills are a little naff and mundane, Curtis looks fed up with the whole genre and it all ends abruptly and very lame.One of the worse eighties slashers i have seen.