Further strangeness -- the partying oddly ebbs and flows with the needs of the script; one minute the live disco band is raging, the next the rooms are empty and dark for a moment of quiet tension [which would also be consistent with a dream's irrational structure]. The few authority figures at hand seem to condone rampant use of drugs, alcohol, and casual sex [a teenager's dream come true?], then just need to "Sit down for a few minutes to get my head together ..." after finding another body: Maybe this kind of thing has happened before. Jamie Lee arms herself with one of her trademark coathangers, but by the time the killer comes to attack her [a very chilling moment] it has inexplicably turned into a sword. Kenny is also able to crawl around on the outside of the train like a spider while peering in through a window, defying gravity's laws as I learned them. And his psycho unmasked is actually quite a frightening individual as Kenny literally peels away his layers of false identities in the film's ultimate climax, then speaks with a voice like a croaking toad. He is quickly killed off moments later before we can really pry into what made him tick -- it is a film that does not answer one of the structural riddles it poses, and in this case that is a plus. Terror Train is a film to be seen once, maybe twice if you really like Jamie Lee, and then more or less forgotten except for it's individual nightmarish images. It is very much about the moment when you are watching it, rather than creating something to ponder and reflect upon.
My attachment to this film is entirely nostalgic; I saw it as a fourteen year old on the then totally novel HBO in 1981, unsupervised, at a sleepover after
everyone else had passed out, in the middle of the night, all by myself, in a very dark room that wasn't mine. Even then, the movie didn't
"scare" me as much as it was unnerving, although it did have a great shock image of a decapitated body tumbling out of an overhead compartment,
followed by it's bouncing head a moment later, that I remembered for years. But the film is more atmospheric and suggestive than overtly graphic.
Director Spottiswoode is very good at snapping his camera away just as a blade is about to slash a throat open -- the film is not as violent as it actually
might seem, though we do get some lingering closeups of the dead slutty girlfriend that are in as poor taste as anything you can ask for from an early
1980's low budget Mad Slasher film.
And that is what I "like" about this nasty little movie -- it is totally in bad taste to be sure, but manages to tell it's story effectively, with a visual style that is compelling, and enough cinematic guile to create a couple of lingering images and general feeling of claustrophobic unease, very much like a nightmare. The sight of the psycho killer chasing Jamie Lee while dressed as a monk, wearing a disfigured mask and brandishing an ax, is quite effective in announcing the arrival of the film's climax sequences. We know all hell is about to break loose, and it is an exciting little chase. I also am impressed by the finality if the movie's conclusion, effectively shutting down the option of a Terror Train 2 before someone could even propose it.
Too many slasher films base their appeal on a supposedly inhuman, unkillable monster who will inevitably be back for another dumb sequel; It is refreshing to see one of these creeps done in by no more than a good whack or two with a shovel like the rest of us would be. Terror Train also succeeds because it knows when to back off or cut away, thus forcing us to use our imagination to fill in what the camera had suggested. The film even abruptly ends with no tacked on post script to wrap it all up neatly and answer our questions about how and why. When Kenny's body smacks into the ice, that's it, kind of like waking up and having a nightmare over. Roll the credits: let the bastards watch the movie again if they need to work things out.
If I could change anything about the film it would be to cast a less fruity little waif as Kenny, eliminate David Copperfield's non-magic disco show plot
scenes, trim the banter between the train crew, and find someone for makeup effects who actually knows how to make a severed head that doesn't make me laugh. If
a closeup shot of a character's chopped off head is so fake looking that you laugh, you know you have found yourself one gem of a slasher -- too many go
out of their way to mortify us with grim splatterings of ooze, so this may be a fine line to tread. I'd prefer to laugh, I guess, which is one of the reasons I
admire this and actually obtained a VHS copy to revisit my youth from time to time. It is the only "slasher" film I will probably ever own a copy of.
Another aspect of the film that I picked up on only after reading the few online reviews I have been able to find is the recurring motif of light and dark in the film. John Alcott's camera opens the film with the image of a bonfire, then prowls frat house rooms adorned with flashing colored lights. When Kenny is nailed on his prank the characters turn the lights on in the darkened room so he can be more completely humiliated. Copperfield's ridiculous magic show has sets of fog-penetraing mood lights that Pink Floyd would be jealous of. The murders all happen in more or less well lit rooms, which is also odd. When Jamie Lee is given a compartment to hide out in, the first thing she does is to turn on all the lights and shut the windows to block out the night. In spite of some crummy "day for night" photography, the entire film is set after dark; the only sources of illumination are man made. Spottiswoode and his designers also use color effectively to create ambiance that underscores the claustrophobic confines of the train, especially in the relatively bare crew compartments. I like the bit where Jamie Lee locks herself into some sort of cage and the psycho starts popping out the light bulbs with a giant crowbar to hide him in the dark, one of the most unnerving sequences in the whole movie.
While far from a "classic", Terror Train is an important early entry in this decrepit genre, and one of the more enjoyable offerings of the original crop. It was only because audiences turned out for films like Terror Train, Prom Night, Hell Night, My Bloody Valentine and the pointless Friday the 13th, Halloween and Freddy Kreuger sequels that the genre was able to "mature" to the point now where only humor, satire and parody can justify new examples [just look at the dreadful Jason X from 2002 ...better yet, don't]. You can't make movies like Terror Train anymore because, frankly, the studios simply won't let you -- they will want to direct the production away from the unromaticized sets that serve as the effective backdrops for Spottiswoode's vision, craft the scenario to fit their predictable formula of proven genre hits, and generally ruin what is an interesting independent little Mad Slasher Looking for Revenge film. If I am forced to pick a favorite from the genre, this is it.
Do I recommend Terror Train? Well, not only is it out of print and hard to find, but recommending it would kind of be like pimping a nice plate of
cold turnips for breakfast. If turnip salads are your kind of thing you are all set, but I don't know many people who actually "like" turnips,
especially cold. I think they are disgusting, and many viewers are disgusted by slasher films, period. But if you enjoy watching some yayhoo with an ax running
around on a train chasing a still young Jamie Lee Curtis tucked into very snug, "nice ass" defining pants, I think you will be surprised by
this film if you keep your expectations appropriately low. If you are looking for a horror classic to chill your marrow, rent Halloween, The
Exorcist or Alien and scare yourself shitless.
I'd rather have a good laugh and feel like I'm 14 again for 87 minutes. Have a Happy Halloween.
The Bottom Line: 2.5 out of 5 Pumpkins
SQ102702
email: squonkamatic@excite.com
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