Directed by Canadian Roger Spottiswoode Terror Train is narrowly one of the better Halloween (1978) rip-offs that flooded cinemas in the early 1980's having a more original premise than most by being a slasher movie set on board a moving train.
After we see a horrific prank go wrong in a medical college which traumatises a student we fast forward three years to a New Year's Eve costume party where the same group of students are now graduating and celebrate by going on a train trip, only to be terrorised by a mystery killer who picks them off one by one. It's a familiar story of someone with a grudge out for revenge but with the added gimmick of having a magician on board (featuring real life magician David Copperfield) to confuse reality with illusion.
This was the only slasher film 20th Century Fox distributed and it has sustained it's credentials for having the then scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis on board, fresh off of Halloween. This was also the directorial debut of Spottiswoode who would go on to greater success with Turner & Hooch (1989), Air America (1990) and the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Terror Train is however a low budget low rent affair with little imagination or flair despite the promising premise.
I was due to see this at my local cinema in 1980 but at the last minute my girlfriend didn't want to go so I never got to see it. 40 years later I finally caught up with it but it hasn't aged as well as Halloween or some of the others that followed like Friday the 13th (1980), so I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it as a young person on it's release. It's competently done but lacks tension or scares. A curiosity for fans of Jamie Lee Curtis.
After we see a horrific prank go wrong in a medical college which traumatises a student we fast forward three years to a New Year's Eve costume party where the same group of students are now graduating and celebrate by going on a train trip, only to be terrorised by a mystery killer who picks them off one by one. It's a familiar story of someone with a grudge out for revenge but with the added gimmick of having a magician on board (featuring real life magician David Copperfield) to confuse reality with illusion.
This was the only slasher film 20th Century Fox distributed and it has sustained it's credentials for having the then scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis on board, fresh off of Halloween. This was also the directorial debut of Spottiswoode who would go on to greater success with Turner & Hooch (1989), Air America (1990) and the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Terror Train is however a low budget low rent affair with little imagination or flair despite the promising premise.
I was due to see this at my local cinema in 1980 but at the last minute my girlfriend didn't want to go so I never got to see it. 40 years later I finally caught up with it but it hasn't aged as well as Halloween or some of the others that followed like Friday the 13th (1980), so I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it as a young person on it's release. It's competently done but lacks tension or scares. A curiosity for fans of Jamie Lee Curtis.