I was born in the 70s and my little kid years were spent in the late 70s to the early 80s right in the middle of the slasher film craze that Carpenter's classic Halloween kicked off in 1978. During that time Jaime Lee Curtis was given the title of scream queen and every major and independent studio seemed to be churning out as many slasher flicks as possible for a quick profit; including such classics as Prom Night, Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp, Nightmare on Elm Street, Silent Night, Deadly Night and all the many sequels that followed, but the one that stood out more than any for my little kid brain was 1980's Terror Train starring the aforementioned Ms. Curtis. I saw this flick uncut on cable thanks to the perfect storm of irresponsible parenting and easy access to the cable box. Now as an adult I love this flick and marvel at how my imagination ran wild considering how low tech the effects were on this picture, but also the story is not bad.
A group of medical students play a terrible prank on one of the freshmen and the results are far from funny. A few years later their celebrating the new year with a costume party on a train and someone begins picking off each member of the group. They quickly figure out that the kid they played the prank upon is seeking his revenge, but they don't know who he could be on the train.
The transfer of the pic is not bad (then I don't think low tech horror pictures get the same treatment as award-winning movies) and honestly I just enjoy it for the cheesy effects and the twist ending. Plus the acting is good for a slasher flick. Academy Award-Winner Ben Johnson (The Last Picture Show), Hart Bochner (Ellis the coke fiend from Die Hard) and magician David Copperfield co-star in the picture and deliver good performances considering the story.
So, in conclusion, I highly recommend this picture as a fine example of the slasher film/scream queen craze and recommend you watch it with the lights turned out. The only thing truly scary in the movie today is David Copperfield's late 1970's helmet hair, but I do not recommend showing it to a six year old. I believe it would still freak out a small child.
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Terror Train [Blu-ray]
Spottiswoode, Roger
(Director),
Johnson, Ben
(Actor),
Curtis, Jamie Lee
(Actor)
&
0
more Rated: Format: Blu-ray
R
IMDb5.8/10.0
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Additional Multi-Format options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
Multi-Format
July 8, 2014 "Please retry" | Collector's Edition | 2 |
—
| — | $57.84 |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
Terror Train | — | — |
Format | Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Anamorphic, Widescreen, Blu-ray |
Contributor | Webber, Timothy, Currie, Sandee, Copperfield, David, Busgang, Howard, MacKinnon, Derek, Curtis, Jamie Lee, Spottiswoode, Roger, Johnson, Ben, Bochner, Hart, Sherwood, Anthony See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 1 hour and 37 minutes |
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Product Description
A slasher boards a conductor's train for a fraternity costume party featuring a magic act.
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 3.2 ounces
- Item model number : 826663135817
- Director : Spottiswoode, Roger
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Anamorphic, Widescreen, Blu-ray
- Run time : 1 hour and 37 minutes
- Release date : July 8, 2014
- Actors : Johnson, Ben, Curtis, Jamie Lee, Bochner, Hart, Copperfield, David, MacKinnon, Derek
- Studio : Cinedigm - Uni Dist Corp
- ASIN : B008HUSFXE
- Number of discs : 2
- Best Sellers Rank: #32,841 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #1,562 in Horror (Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
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506 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2014
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2020
I’ve seen a lot of ‘these kinds of movies’, but this one really stood out. Very well-crafted, believable storyline, very well-portrayed characters, and not just another mindless, slash-em-up flick either. Mixed in with the horror story were elements of romance, suspense (the last half hour or so really got my heart pounding!), and even a little real magic thrown in (who else remembers the wonderful days of David Copperfield?).
I have long admired Jamie Lee Curtis’ acting abilities; she has that just-right mixture of beauty, poise and smarts to keep you hooked on her characters. The first time I came across her (playing a movie role) was (like many folks around my age) in the original ‘Halloween’, walking home from school one day...(she was Michael Myers’ older sister in the film). But in this one she really shines - her bouncing back and forth between the two hunky ‘frat boys’ was a joy in itself to watch. Kudos also to the actor who played Kenny (Derek McKinnon, or Morrison); the end just blew me away, and the total immersion into his character was both convincing and thought-provoking at the end.
Whenever I watch a ‘dinosaur film’ like this, it’s funny to me (and it makes me a little bit sad) to realize how much time has gone by since it first came out. I’m no ‘spring chicken’ myself, and I know that all of the ‘young college hotties’ featured in this film are now even older than I am. But that is the part of the beauty of watching old nuggets like this - in our minds we can always remember the days gone by, and with a little bit of magic (thank you Mr. Copperfield), we can go back to the ‘great train parties’ from an earlier decade.
Because somewhere in my mind it will always be party time, somewhere in the 1980’s!
I have long admired Jamie Lee Curtis’ acting abilities; she has that just-right mixture of beauty, poise and smarts to keep you hooked on her characters. The first time I came across her (playing a movie role) was (like many folks around my age) in the original ‘Halloween’, walking home from school one day...(she was Michael Myers’ older sister in the film). But in this one she really shines - her bouncing back and forth between the two hunky ‘frat boys’ was a joy in itself to watch. Kudos also to the actor who played Kenny (Derek McKinnon, or Morrison); the end just blew me away, and the total immersion into his character was both convincing and thought-provoking at the end.
Whenever I watch a ‘dinosaur film’ like this, it’s funny to me (and it makes me a little bit sad) to realize how much time has gone by since it first came out. I’m no ‘spring chicken’ myself, and I know that all of the ‘young college hotties’ featured in this film are now even older than I am. But that is the part of the beauty of watching old nuggets like this - in our minds we can always remember the days gone by, and with a little bit of magic (thank you Mr. Copperfield), we can go back to the ‘great train parties’ from an earlier decade.
Because somewhere in my mind it will always be party time, somewhere in the 1980’s!
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2002
Lets just start off with a blanket statement that is unequivocal; I typically DESPISE "slasher" films. Oh, I worship every frame of Halloween (1978, which is classic cinema period) and had fun seeing Friday the 13th (1980) for the first time and going BOO! But I don't go to see "dead teenager" movies, don't rent them, and don't care. I didn't even like Red Dragon with Ralph Fiennes as a very worthy screen monster; I don't want to get to know mad killers, I want to see them smacked over the head with a coal shovel and done away with.
I first saw Terror Train quite by chance -- sleepover party at a friends in 1981 at the age of 14 where a bottle got passed around. Everyone else zonked out; I snuck upstairs to watch HBO on his parent's big screen TV set, and what did they happen to show, but Terror Train.
I had never seen a movie like it before. We had whispered to each other in the hallways of our middle school about Jason Vorhees and his mad mother, but I had never seen a film where some maniac runs around with an ax chasing comely college girls before. It was something new and sensational, and as usual my memory of the film proved to be more lurid than what actually turned up in my mailbox after buying the now out of print film from an Amazon.com reseller.
Terror Train follows the proven formula of building up a descent into madness and violence: A young fraternity pledge is subjected to a horrifying initiation stunt and goes bonkers. Cut to three years later and his now graduating pre-med classmates are staging an elaborate New Year's Eve costume party on a chartered excursion train, The completely psychotic former pledge gets on board via an elaborate ruse to murder his way through the principal cast members who set him up. The gimmick is that since everyone is wearing identity concealing costumes he can pretend to be someone else while getting close to his prey. The result are some truly unsettling scenes of mistaken identity and a final denoument that is completely out of left field, unexpected, and refreshingly final in it's closing act. There was no Terror Train 2, nor should there have been.
The film is known mostly these days as a post-Halloween Jamie Lee Curtis screamer fest, and on that level has developed a cult following of such (being out of print also helps make a film a "cult" item; just try bidding for this tape on eBay sometime to see what I mean). Of more interest to film afficianados is the presence of first time director Roger Spottiswoode (a frequent editor of Sam Peckinpah's 1970's movies, and of later Stop! Or My Mom will Shoot! and Tomorrow Never Dies fame) and longtime Stanley Kubrick cameraman John Alcott filming the proceedings with a nice recurring motif of light vs. dark and truly haunting color schemes.
The result is a film that was better than it's genre demanded. Sure, the dialogue and performances are either wooden or hysterical, but the smoothness with which the story unfolds and sweeps those involved in the proceedings up is inspired and follows a path of logic. Screen legend Ben Johnson (probably doing Spottiswoode a favor; they certainly would have met while working with Peckinpah) is on hand to provide a calming authority figure for Jamie Lee to think things out with.
Also on hand is magician David Copperfield, playing a magician who resembles a waxwork figure. His presence in the film serves three roles; he annoys us, kills screen time with his disco music magic shows, and serves as a convenient red herring for the film's climax. And no, I didn't just give the killer's identity away.
Nor will I do so by saying that his name is Kenny, and he is apparently one resourceful little insane waife. Kenny is able to magically transport himself to different parts of the train to commit acts of mayhem while the person he is impersonating is somewhere else. He can apparently materialize inside of locked train compartments, and in one preposterous shot has the ability to crawl around on the outside of the train like a spider. The fact that he is on a mission of revenge and the people who he harms more or less "had it coming to them" makes him seem more like an avenging spirit at times, yet he is clearly a real person.
What the hell is going on here? I suspect that what Spottiswoode and his asscociate scriptwriters did is to actually craft a clever little nightmare of vengance or justice, propably playing in the guilt-ridden mind of Curtis' good girl character who was, of course, suckered into taking part in the prank that scarred Kenny. She also contends that he was sick to begin with in a revelation I didn't catch the first couple times through, and already had killed someone under suspicious circumstances prior to his hazing incident. Curtis is also put through such a visually compelling ordeal at the end that it suggests a nightmare unfolding in the vivid detail we see them in. And like a nightmare, the film comes to an abrupt end when Kenny's body smacks into the ice of a frozen river after being beaned over the brainpan with a shovel. There is no post script, no explanation, only a ridiculous closing theme playing over the credits. Kind of like waking up, and finding yourself right there in the same old bed all along.
I'm probably reading a certain amount of this into the film, but the fact remains that for it's genre, Terror Train was very well made and has some distinguished talent behind it. Notice I have not dwelled on topics like gore and nudity, mostly because they are used with restraint and only at times that make sense in the scope of the story. There is not a truly gratuitous moment in the script, which is also unique of it's kind. And once you get down to it, the fact that it never had a sequel is a sign that maybe they had an idea here that was too good to mess with once the final print was snapped into the can.
Amen for that.
I first saw Terror Train quite by chance -- sleepover party at a friends in 1981 at the age of 14 where a bottle got passed around. Everyone else zonked out; I snuck upstairs to watch HBO on his parent's big screen TV set, and what did they happen to show, but Terror Train.
I had never seen a movie like it before. We had whispered to each other in the hallways of our middle school about Jason Vorhees and his mad mother, but I had never seen a film where some maniac runs around with an ax chasing comely college girls before. It was something new and sensational, and as usual my memory of the film proved to be more lurid than what actually turned up in my mailbox after buying the now out of print film from an Amazon.com reseller.
Terror Train follows the proven formula of building up a descent into madness and violence: A young fraternity pledge is subjected to a horrifying initiation stunt and goes bonkers. Cut to three years later and his now graduating pre-med classmates are staging an elaborate New Year's Eve costume party on a chartered excursion train, The completely psychotic former pledge gets on board via an elaborate ruse to murder his way through the principal cast members who set him up. The gimmick is that since everyone is wearing identity concealing costumes he can pretend to be someone else while getting close to his prey. The result are some truly unsettling scenes of mistaken identity and a final denoument that is completely out of left field, unexpected, and refreshingly final in it's closing act. There was no Terror Train 2, nor should there have been.
The film is known mostly these days as a post-Halloween Jamie Lee Curtis screamer fest, and on that level has developed a cult following of such (being out of print also helps make a film a "cult" item; just try bidding for this tape on eBay sometime to see what I mean). Of more interest to film afficianados is the presence of first time director Roger Spottiswoode (a frequent editor of Sam Peckinpah's 1970's movies, and of later Stop! Or My Mom will Shoot! and Tomorrow Never Dies fame) and longtime Stanley Kubrick cameraman John Alcott filming the proceedings with a nice recurring motif of light vs. dark and truly haunting color schemes.
The result is a film that was better than it's genre demanded. Sure, the dialogue and performances are either wooden or hysterical, but the smoothness with which the story unfolds and sweeps those involved in the proceedings up is inspired and follows a path of logic. Screen legend Ben Johnson (probably doing Spottiswoode a favor; they certainly would have met while working with Peckinpah) is on hand to provide a calming authority figure for Jamie Lee to think things out with.
Also on hand is magician David Copperfield, playing a magician who resembles a waxwork figure. His presence in the film serves three roles; he annoys us, kills screen time with his disco music magic shows, and serves as a convenient red herring for the film's climax. And no, I didn't just give the killer's identity away.
Nor will I do so by saying that his name is Kenny, and he is apparently one resourceful little insane waife. Kenny is able to magically transport himself to different parts of the train to commit acts of mayhem while the person he is impersonating is somewhere else. He can apparently materialize inside of locked train compartments, and in one preposterous shot has the ability to crawl around on the outside of the train like a spider. The fact that he is on a mission of revenge and the people who he harms more or less "had it coming to them" makes him seem more like an avenging spirit at times, yet he is clearly a real person.
What the hell is going on here? I suspect that what Spottiswoode and his asscociate scriptwriters did is to actually craft a clever little nightmare of vengance or justice, propably playing in the guilt-ridden mind of Curtis' good girl character who was, of course, suckered into taking part in the prank that scarred Kenny. She also contends that he was sick to begin with in a revelation I didn't catch the first couple times through, and already had killed someone under suspicious circumstances prior to his hazing incident. Curtis is also put through such a visually compelling ordeal at the end that it suggests a nightmare unfolding in the vivid detail we see them in. And like a nightmare, the film comes to an abrupt end when Kenny's body smacks into the ice of a frozen river after being beaned over the brainpan with a shovel. There is no post script, no explanation, only a ridiculous closing theme playing over the credits. Kind of like waking up, and finding yourself right there in the same old bed all along.
I'm probably reading a certain amount of this into the film, but the fact remains that for it's genre, Terror Train was very well made and has some distinguished talent behind it. Notice I have not dwelled on topics like gore and nudity, mostly because they are used with restraint and only at times that make sense in the scope of the story. There is not a truly gratuitous moment in the script, which is also unique of it's kind. And once you get down to it, the fact that it never had a sequel is a sign that maybe they had an idea here that was too good to mess with once the final print was snapped into the can.
Amen for that.
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2023
I remember watching this movie for the first time as a kid in the 80’s and I still like watching it 👍
Top reviews from other countries
Enrique Luis CH B
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excelente edición a mejor precio
Reviewed in Mexico on October 31, 2021
Muy contento porqué es exactamente la misma edición que hace unos años sacó Shout! Y que se agotó y descontinuó muy rápidamente. Tenía mis dudas al pedirla pero al recibirla descubro que es el mismo transfer y los mismos extras. Una joya
Dustdevil
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shout Factory Blu
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2015
Region Locked
Bonus Features
Destination Death - An interview with Producer Daniel Grodnik
Riding The Rails - An interview with Production Executive Don Carmody
All Aboard! - An interview with Production Designer Glenn Bydwell
Music For Murder - An interview with Composer John Mills-Cockell
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spot
Still Gallery
Excellent picture quality
Bonus Features
Destination Death - An interview with Producer Daniel Grodnik
Riding The Rails - An interview with Production Executive Don Carmody
All Aboard! - An interview with Production Designer Glenn Bydwell
Music For Murder - An interview with Composer John Mills-Cockell
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spot
Still Gallery
Excellent picture quality
3 people found this helpful
Report
Jared
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great movie
Reviewed in Canada on November 21, 2012
This is a classic from the early 1980's slasher boom. Good cast good setting make this a must see for fans of the genre. This edition from
Scream Factory is a little light on extras compared to some of their other releases, but the upgrade alone is well worth the money. If you only have the old Sony or TVA editions of this film, it's time for an upgrade.
Scream Factory is a little light on extras compared to some of their other releases, but the upgrade alone is well worth the money. If you only have the old Sony or TVA editions of this film, it's time for an upgrade.
4 people found this helpful
Report
Mister Madel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Horrorkomödie mit Jamie Lee Curtis
Reviewed in Germany on September 23, 2019
Habe den Film zum ersten Mal im Zuge des Privatfernsehen in Deutschland , etwa um 1986
gesehen. War da 13 Jahre, hat mich von der Art her,ständiger Wechsel zwischen Horror und Klamauk und Satire voll begeistert! Jetzt auf DVD geholt.
Es gibt aber auch andere Anbieter mit einer besseren Filmkopie und Ton. Für mich reicht diese.
gesehen. War da 13 Jahre, hat mich von der Art her,ständiger Wechsel zwischen Horror und Klamauk und Satire voll begeistert! Jetzt auf DVD geholt.
Es gibt aber auch andere Anbieter mit einer besseren Filmkopie und Ton. Für mich reicht diese.
Mr. Peter Stevens
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2016
Good slasher movie