Halloween Horrorfest: Terror Train

With Jamie Lee Curtis' triumphant return to her Scream Queen roots with the newest Halloween, I felt inspired to take a look back at one of her earliest films. After the original 1978 Halloween turned out to be a hit, Jamie wound up doing several similar thrillers, including a follow-up to that film, Halloween II. One of the more distinctive films of that run, and of the slasher film boon of the early 80's in general, was a little film called Terror Train. With it's unique setting on a train and some inspired casting choices made this one stand out a little for me. 

A group of college students belonging to the Sigma Phi fraternity have rented an excursion train for their annual New Years Eve bash, and it's a costume party no less. Along for the ride are fraternity heads Doc (played by Hart Bochner) and Mo (played by Timothy Webber), Mo's girlfriend Alana (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), her friend and Doc's girlfriend Mitchy (played by Sandee Currie), their friend Jackson (played by Anthony Sherwood) and class clown Ed (played by Howard Busgang), along with assorted others all looking to have a good time. Also along for the ride is train conductor Carne (played by Ben Johnson), who is worried a train full of drunk college students spells trouble. Also on board to provide some entertainment is a Magician (played by David Copperfield. Yes, that David Copperfield). However, someone else has come aboard, a killer with a score to settle as he stalks Alana and her friends through the train, taking them out one at a time and adopting their costume as their own.     

Originally conceived pretty blatantly as Halloween on a train, this film was written by T.Y Drake from a concept by David Grodnik. The film was the directorial debut of Roger Spotiswoode who gamely tackled the challenges of filming a movie that largely takes place on a train. The close quarters of the film and the frequently tight framing, while a realistic part of filming on a real train also gives the film a nice feeling of claustrophobia that adds to the suspense of the picture. From a storytelling point of view, the film is a pretty by the book slasher flick, although as one of the earliest entries in the genre it is one of the films that laid the groundwork for the films the immediately followed it just as much as genre mainstays such as Halloween or even Friday the 13th. It does throw in a few red herrings to keep the audience guessing who the killer is, which is a bit of a surprise or at least was for me the first time I saw to oh so many years ago. The film does have some plot points that are just a little too convenient, like the fact that there is no radio on the train (granted it's an excursion train not a coast to coast passenger train), which seems like something too negligent for a real train company to be okay with, or their insurance carriers for that matter. 

The cast is a pretty strong one, with Jamie Lee Curtis already established as the Scream Queen as our resident final girl. She gives her a lot of character and spunkiness that I really liked. Her character in this one isn't as vulnerable as some others and really knows how to stand up for herself and others, either to her obnoxious friends or the killer. Veteran character actor Ben Johnson, who got his start with the likes of John Ford, shows up here playing the train's conductor, Carne. He certainly adds a lot to what is basically a straight-forward heroic character who has to step up and try to keep order as things begin to descend into chaos as people discover there is a killer on board. Hart Bochner makes for a perfectly detestable and obnoxious twerp as Doc, who delights in pranking others. It's a role he would refine further and most memorably as Ellis in Die Hard. And yes, perhaps one of the things this movie is most notorious for is a rare acting role for world famous magician David Copperfield, who is actually pretty decent here, not that the role was much of a stretch for him. But after growing up on his T.V specials and even seeing a couple of his live shows, it's weird to see him show up in a cheap 80's slasher flick. 

In the end, Terror Train is probably only going to be of any real interest to fans of the genre it comfortably sits in. It's nothing revolutionary and follows the formula pretty much to the letter. But it does innovate here and there, has a couple good twists and is solidly made. If you're a sucker for early 80's slasher flicks like I am, it's worth checking out.