Vengeful Serial Killer, Jackson (Lizard)Doc (Monk)The Magician's AssistantBrakeman Charlie, "I am, He didn't know how to cut a woman into pieces.". Runtime "[29], Contemporary internet film guide AllMovie praised John Alcott's cinematography, but concluded, "Terror Train is too mediocre a piece of work to raise interest from anyone but the genre's most devoted fans",[30] Time Out London called it "better than most of its kind. Attending are the jokester of the group, Ed, disguised as Groucho Marx, prank ringleader Doc Manley, disguised as a monk, Jackson who is disguised as an alien lizard, Doc's girlfriend and Alana's best friend Mitchy, disguised as a witch, and Alana's boyfriend Mo, disguised as a bird. The killer is revealed as Kenny, who was disguised as the magician's female assistant. "The kiss was totally my idea. During a magic show held by the magician and his female assistant, Doc finds Mo stabbed to death in the crowd and though the partying onlookers assume the scene to be a prank, Carne and Charlie stop the train and they sequester the students in one car; while doing so, two pullman porters find the corpse of Pet, another student who was presumably killed by Kenny. "[24], A review in the Los Angeles Times praised the film's atmosphere and characterized it as "stylish, scary fun". [40] Scorpion released a general retail Blu-ray edition of the film on April 7, 2020 in association with Kino Lorber. She tells him the magician is dead, and lays her head on the table, when he grabs her by her wrists. "[16], Canadian actor Derek MacKinnon, who played the masked killer, appears in 11 scenes in Terror Train, wearing a different costume or masked disguise in each scene, including his real character of Kenny. He then forces her closer as she has no choice but to kiss him, however, seconds after kissing, he begins to freak out as memories of what happened come back to him as he starts thrashing around the cable car the same way he had at the frat party years prior. Country Kenny is traumatized by the prank and is sent to a psychiatric hospital. Death unseen as everyone else was paying attention to the magic show. Alana apologizes to Kenny about the prank, but he refuses to accept her apology and forces her to kiss him; the kiss causes Kenny to relive his memories from the prank and drives him deeper into insanity. Class clown Ed is disguised as Groucho Marx; Prank ringleader Doc Manley is disguised as a monk; Jackson is disguised as an alien lizard; Doc's girlfriend, Alana's best friend Mitchy, is disguised as a witch; and Alana's boyfriend Mo is disguised as a bird. Feed My Coffee Addiction . "[15], Principal photography for Terror Train mainly took place in and around Montreal, Quebec, Canada. [9] Copperfield's character becomes the suspect at one point of the movie, but it turns out to be a red herring when the real killer is revealed to be Kenny Hampson. Carne is the train conductor. Full Name Pledge (formerly)Serial killer He hits Kenny twice with the second blow finally knocking him out of the train car as he falls from the train and to his death ending his killing spree. He falls on a a half-frozen river, is presumably dead and his body then floats on it, while the train continues its voyage across the snow. Powers/Skills A nothing movie. : An Interview with Roger Spottiswoode", "Rockers' 20 Best Appearances in Eighties Horror Movies", "Jamie Lee Curtis: The Making of a Scream Queen – Terror Train", "Terror Train Blu-ray: Collector's Edition", "Terror Train Blu-ray Ronin Flix Exclusive", "Terror Train Blu-ray - Slasher Classics Collection #41", Ice Bound: A Woman's Survival at the South Pole, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Terror_Train&oldid=979641489, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 21 September 2020, at 22:06. [7], There was no stage show magician in the original script, but producer Howard was a fan of magic tricks and illusions, so a magician character was written in. [7] Grodnik pitched the film to American producer Sandy Howard, who was impressed by the concept. Doc is dressed as a monk; Class clown Ed is disguised as Groucho Marx; Jackson is disguised as an alien lizard; Doc's girlfriend and Alana's best friend, Mitchy, is disguised as a witch; and Alana's boyfriend Mo is disguised as a bird. However, some other students have placed a woman's corpse (stolen from the university medical school during the Christmas vacation) in the bed instead. Spottiswoode was hired to direct the film by Sandy Howard on the condition that he also edit the film[8] (though Anne Henderson was later brought in to edit). Carne finds Jackson's bloodied body in the bathroom, still donning the lizard costume. Groucho He returns years later to exact revenge on those involved during a New Year's costume party for the now seniors on a train and proceeds to kill them one by one all while he roams the train in disguise. Alana is pursued through the train. At a college fraternity's New Year's Eve party, a reluctant Alana Maxwell is coerced into participating in a prank: she lures the shy and awkward pledge Kenny Hampson into a darkened room on the promise of a sexual liaison. Any plot will do. IMDb rating of 5.9 Kenny removes the uniform cap to reveal a blonde wig, and Alana realizes he has been posing in drag as the magician's female assistant. It turns out the killer is his female assistant, which turns out to be Kenny in disguise, whom Alana faces alone. 97 min. [16] The bulk of the film's train sequences were shot first, while the film's opening sequence was shot on December 22, 1979, the penultimate day of the shoot; filming of it took place at a real fraternity house belonging to McGill University. Alana stumbles upon the scene, and Carne informs her that Mitchy is dead. Get revenge on all the people who bullied and harshly pranked him (Mostly succeeded but ultimately failed). Kenny was also disguised as his assistant for half the train ride, Knocked off train with shovel into icy river below. Occupation At times, Alcott also used medical lights-"pen torches"- to hand light the actors' faces,[12] as well as Christmas lights. "[33] Horror fiction scholar John Kenneth Muir also praised the film in his book Horror Films of the 1980s, writing: "The thrill of a picture like Terror Train is the shrewd manner in which it plays against audience expectations; the sense that the slasher film paradigm gives it parameters which it can then undercut, subvert, and if needs be, violate. Believing the magician may be Kenny in disguise, Alana notifies Carne, who goes to lock him inside the parlor car; there he finds the magician's female assistant, but Carne and the porters are unable to find the magician. At a college pre-med student fraternity New Year's Eve party, a reluctant Alana Maxwell is coerced into participating in a prank: she lures the shy and awkward pledge Kenny Hampson into a darkened room for sex. His body lands in a nearly frozen river and floats away as the train roars off. Factory released a collector's edition Blu-ray and DVD combo-pack under their Scream Factory label in October 2012. Alias The killer enters the compartment but Alana escapes, and is pursued by the killer through the train. [41], In the UK, 88 Films released a limited-edition Blu-ray on November 4, 2019 with a new HD transfer plus extra bonus content. There is some confusion about David Copperfield's character's name. [35] The film was released twice on DVD by 20th Century Fox; once in 2004 as a single edition release[36] and again in 2008 in a triple pack alongside Candyman 2 and the original The Fog. Carne then rushes in the nick of time, beats down Kenny and throws him out of the train with a shovel. With her eyes closed, He takes Jackson's severed hand and caresses her with it as it cuts away. However, he is wrong as Kenny then proceeds to decapitate him. Ed (Groucho Marx)Jackson (Lizard)Doc (Monk)The Magician's AssistantBrakeman Charlie Three years later, the same members of the same fraternities and sororities who played the prank on Kenny hold a New Year's Eve costume party aboard a train, unknowingly, Kenny has left the hospital and has planned his revenge. An independently produced film, Terror Train was purchased for distribution by the major studio 20th Century Fox, who had yet to release a slasher film; the studio was able to supply an expansive marketing campaign for the film that cost an estimated $5 million. Terror Train "[16], The film was purchased for theatrical release in the United States by 20th Century Fox, who had recently garnered attention with the release of Star Wars (1977). She tries to apologise, but to no avail. [16], The interior train sequences posed numerous obstacles for the crew, specifically cinematographer John Alcott, who devised a unique method of lighting Terror Train given the limited space and scant natural lighting of the sets: He rewired the entire train and mounted individual dimmers on the exteriors of the carriage cars. He was traumatized and sent to a psychiatric hospital. [7] Curtis was also signed on to star in Paul Lynch's Prom Night, which she filmed in Toronto two months before production began on Terror Train. T.Y. At a college fraternity's New Year's Eve party, a reluctant Alana Maxwell is coerced into participating in a prank: she lures the shy and awkward pledge Kenny Hampson into a darkened room on the promise of a sexual liaison. Roger Spottiswoode Brakeman [12] Jamie Lee Curtis also provided input in regard to her character during the filming process: The kissing sequence between her character and that of the killer was an idea that she originated: "I just thought that if she kissed him that it would bring a lot of tenderness to the scene and to the film," she recalled. Assistant In the sleeper bathroom, he murders Jackson by smashing his head into a mirror. [34], The film was first released on VHS home video in 1988 by CBS/Fox Video. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. He is found murdered. Three years later the members of the same fraternities and sororities hold a costume party aboard a train. The concept for the film was based on an idea by executive producer Daniel Grodnik, who sought to "make Halloween on a train."