The film begins with a young Jack Nicholson dressed in a French military uniform circa about 1800. He's somehow gotten separated from his regiment and he is riding his horse around the seashore. Why anyone would cast Nicholson as a Frenchman is beyond me. Sure, he later became a dandy actor but he seemed about as French as Chop Suey! Anyway, Nicholson meets up with a woman who gives him water and shows him about then just disappears. In fact, he later sees her again and again and yet when he asks an old hag about the young lady, she says no such lady exists. It seems as if he's seen some sort of ghost.
Well, Nicholson doesn't believe this is a ghost and follows the trail to the mansion of a very old Boris Karloff in his old castle. When Nicholson mentions the lady, it turns out the woman is Karloff's long-dead wife!!!! Now up until this point and through the first 90% of the movie, American-International Pictures actually does a dandy job of setting the mood and making the film interesting. My wife, who usually hates such films, really got into the story and was wondering out loud what was really occurring--as the movie deliberately makes the mystery of the lady very vague and difficult to anticipate.
SPOILER ALERT---DON'T READ ANY MORE UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW THE FILM'S ENDING!!! Unfortunately, when all the loose ends are tied together, the film becomes a huge mess and you find yourself angry that you got hooked into a film with no real payoff. It was as if they hadn't finished the film and just made up the ending, as it turns out that Karloff ISN'T the count after all, but the son of the old hag--even though Karloff was 27 years older than the lady--27 years, mind you!!! It would be like having Shirley Temple play Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's sister! And as for the ghostly young woman, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense either--especially when out of nowhere, her face turned to liquid chocolate! I guess they just ran out of ideas and decided to end it and end it quickly--whether or not any of it made any sense. Too bad, as the film was quite successful until the sloppy and very contrived ending. According to IMDb, this film was made in only four days--it really looks it.
UPDATE: When I recently watched "Corman's World" (a documentary about Roger Corman), Jack Nicholson talked about "The Terror" and indicated the film had one serious problem--it had no plot!! Corman seemed to agree!!
Well, Nicholson doesn't believe this is a ghost and follows the trail to the mansion of a very old Boris Karloff in his old castle. When Nicholson mentions the lady, it turns out the woman is Karloff's long-dead wife!!!! Now up until this point and through the first 90% of the movie, American-International Pictures actually does a dandy job of setting the mood and making the film interesting. My wife, who usually hates such films, really got into the story and was wondering out loud what was really occurring--as the movie deliberately makes the mystery of the lady very vague and difficult to anticipate.
SPOILER ALERT---DON'T READ ANY MORE UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW THE FILM'S ENDING!!! Unfortunately, when all the loose ends are tied together, the film becomes a huge mess and you find yourself angry that you got hooked into a film with no real payoff. It was as if they hadn't finished the film and just made up the ending, as it turns out that Karloff ISN'T the count after all, but the son of the old hag--even though Karloff was 27 years older than the lady--27 years, mind you!!! It would be like having Shirley Temple play Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's sister! And as for the ghostly young woman, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense either--especially when out of nowhere, her face turned to liquid chocolate! I guess they just ran out of ideas and decided to end it and end it quickly--whether or not any of it made any sense. Too bad, as the film was quite successful until the sloppy and very contrived ending. According to IMDb, this film was made in only four days--it really looks it.
UPDATE: When I recently watched "Corman's World" (a documentary about Roger Corman), Jack Nicholson talked about "The Terror" and indicated the film had one serious problem--it had no plot!! Corman seemed to agree!!