31 Days of Horror- Day 10: Terror Train (1980)

(dir. Roger Spottiswoode)

20th Century Fox

*First time viewing

Another entry in Jamie Lee Curtis’ scream queen canon, Terror Train brings the tropes of the slasher film aboard as a pre-med fraternity’s New Year’s Eve costume party goes off the rails as a masked killer conducts gruesome murders one by one.

When it comes to slasher movies, a great location can make all the difference. There’s so much of Terror Train that is familiar, Jamie Lee Curtis as the virginal lead, Alana, her friends and acquaintances fulfilling all the fundamental supporting character clichés, a masked killer set on a path of vengeance by a prank gone wrong. All of those aspects are enjoyable in their own right, but the simple fact that the film is set on a train rather than a suburb, or camp grounds elevates the material by creating a new spatial dynamic. Spottiswoode carefully uses the claustrophobic conditions of the train to create an inescapable sense that these college co-eds are trapped even before any of the characters are aware of what’s at play. The costume party, drunken sexual entanglements, and overly-decorated rooms with disco balls and neon lights create a fever dream like scenario that’s bacchanalian in its madness. Add in the presence of David Copperfield as the party’s entertainer known only as The Magician, and there’s a delightful sense of unreality within these tight corridors, which Spottiswoode with the significant help from unique lighting devised by cinematographer, John Alcott, pulls off some beautiful shots from.

Given the costume party element, the killer changes costumes throughout the film, inhabiting the roles and guises of his victims. Besides the location, this is the film’s most unique element and something that surprisingly didn’t occur more often as slasher films had their boom throughout the 80s. Even though we’re made aware of the prank gone awry at the beginning of the film, Terror Train maintains a sense of “Who Done It?”, and still manages to pull off a fantastic twist. But more memorable than the twist, is the role of sex in the film, the fear of it and obsession with it that propels all the central characters in this film. Of course, sex isn’t anything new in horror movies, but Terror Train is less concerned with the morality of it, and rather the impact and memory of it- the potential horror that stems from the acceptance or rejection of it.

Scare Factor: 2/5 There are some chilling moments that are quite effective when you’re watching this in the dark alone (take it from experience.) And the setting allows for a unique experience, and series of twists that make Terror Train worthy of sitting alongside your favorite 80s slasher. But the real surprise here is John Alcott’s cinematography. Alcott worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Barry Lyndon, and A Clockwork Orange. While Terror Train is a far-cry from those films, Alcott displays the same commitment to presenting unique lighting and shots that makes Terror Train a horror experience that that deserves to be part of the conversation.