Terror Train (1980)
What's It About?
A group of medical students on a train to a New Years Eve party are slowly picked off by a masked killer in apparent retaliation for a prank gone wrong.
Is It Any Good?
There's a million and one slashers that came out between Black Christmas and Scream and a lot of them are pretty forgettable. There's nothing overtly special about Terror Train: it's got a silly title, Jamie Lee Curtis is in it but that is also true of the forgettable Prom Night, the iconic look of the killer is a Groucho Marx mask that he only wears for a small portion of the movie, and the plot sounds like nothing terribly special. And yet Terror Train features on a lot of "Best Horror Movies You Haven't Seen" lists so I've always been curious about it?
So what is so special about this movie? Is it the set-up? No, the set-up involves a medical student who is traumatized when he attempts to romance a woman only to find out that she's a mutilated cadaver, which causes him to spin around in circles and wind himself up in a drape for some reason. Is it the characters? Not really, it's your usual mix of aggro jerks, loose women, drunks, and one good girl. Is it the killer or the kills? As I stated above, the Groucho Mask, while creepy is only really featured in a couple scenes and the lizard, phantom, and old man masks he dons in other scenes are nothing special and the third act reveal is obvious and not at all surprising. Similarly the kills are neither unique or exciting, while the special effects are competent they're not a reason why anybody will watch this movie.
There are three things that work in Terror Train's favor. 1. The setting of the train creates a nice claustrophobic environment of a limited number of sets that keeps our characters trapped for the entire movie. It adds to the tension. 2. Jamie Lee Curtis puts in probably the best performance of her early horror career, here. Laurie Strode is a more fleshed out character but Alana has a confidence and charm that Laurie didn't. 3. The way the story unfolds is decidedly unslasher-like. The way the first victim dies happens so casually and we don't even see it happen until the deed is already done. Other murders from that point aren't quite as well executed but with two exceptions we're discovering the bodies with the characters. It's a bit of a middle-ground between something like Murder on the Orient Express and your garden variety slasher movie. Some people will no doubt find this aspect infuriating but I thought it was clever.
Those three things may seem small but they absolutely carry the movie. It's a nice slow-burn and even when you're disappointed by the identity of the killer it doesn't manage to spoil the enjoyment you've had up to that point. Terror Train is great and it has one of the best "fuck you" killer deaths of any horror movie I've ever seen. Believe the hype!
Watch, Toss, or Buy?
Buy it.