Terror Train

(1980)***

It’s New Year’s Eve 1977 and the fraternity Sigma Phi Omega is throwing a bash where their newest pledges must lose their virginity or be forced to wear humiliating beanies. Jamie Lee Curtis lures nerdy virgin Kenny into a bedroom under the pretense of deflowering the boy. In reality she is part of a (pretty lame) prank that nonetheless sends Kenny into a mental institution. Three years later the students who perpetrated the prank are about to graduate and to celebrate they decide to throw a costume party aboard a train (I must admit, that would be cool). They even hire David Copperfield and a rock band to enhance the festivities. What the party animals don’t realize is that there is an uninvited guest among them. As the train is leaving the station Mr. Mystery guest begins a night of serial killing, which involves donning the costume of whomever he kills as he makes his way through the graduates.



With Terror Train, Prom Night, The Fog all released in 1980 and Halloween II (1 year later), Jamie Lee Curtis rightly earned her “scream queen” moniker. Terror Train is one of the better 1980s slashers and is often overlooked given the popularity of Lee’s other films released around the same time. Setting the film on a train provides the perfect claustrophobic backdrop for mayhem. Frequent wide shots of the train weaving through a snowy landscape effectively engender an eerie sense of apprehension. The unique twist of having the killer don the costume of whomever he kills makes the film much more fun than the usual slasher fare. At any given time the viewer essentially knows what mask the killer is wearing but the snotty characters do not.

If for no other reason to watch Terror Train you must see train wreck David Copperfield (playing a magician) attempt to play sexy and alluring when instead he comes across as one of the biggest nerds ever portrayed on film. God he’s such a narcissistic creep.

Which one of you lucky ladies am I going to choose to bed?