Terror Train

Infobox Film
name = Terror Train


image_size =
caption = theatrical poster for "Terror Train"
director = Roger Spottiswoode
producer = Harold Greenberg
writer = T. Y. Drake
starring = Ben Johnson
Jamie Lee Curtis
Hart Bochner
David Copperfield
music = John Mills-Cockell
cinematography = John Alcott
editing = Anne Henderson
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = October 3, 1980
runtime = 97 min.
country = Canada/United States
language = English
budget = $3,500,000
amg_id = 1:49126
imdb_id = 0081617

"Terror Train" is a 1980 Canadian-made horror film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Johnson, directed by Roger Spottiswoode. It was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from November 21 to December 23, 1979.

Plot

A college is celebrating New Year's and everybody is happy. One of the fraternities, Sigma Phi, decide to play a prank on a shy and awkward young man, pledge Kenny Hampson (Derek MacKinnion). Alana Maxwell (Jamie Lee Curtis) is coerced into leading Kenny into a bedroom at the fraternity party under the pretense of having sex. However, when Kenny comes to the bed to kiss Alana, he instead finds a woman's corpse! The prank backfires horribly, and poor Kenny ends up in a mental ward.

Three years later, it's graduation time, and the members of the fraternites and sororities decide to have a costume party aboard a train trip to celebrate their graduation. The jokester of the group, Ed (Howard Busgang), is found run through with a sword, everybody thinks it's a joke while Ed falls dead. The unseen killer steals Ed's Groucho Marx costume and boards the train, disguised as him.

The guy who made up the cruel prank on Kenny, Doc Manley (Hart Bochner) boasts about how he set the prank up. But, Alana walks in and tells him that it was a mean joke, reminding them all of poor Kenny's fate. The group decides to forget about it, and open a bottle of champagne. Meanwhile, Jackson (Anthony Sherwood) runs into the killer, who he thinks is Ed, brings him into the bathroom to get drunk, and is hurled into a mirror. Alana tries to get into the bathroom, but the door is locked, so she gets Carne (Ben Johnson), the train conductor, to unlock it. Inside is Jackson's body, with blood everywhere. Luckily, most of the other students are watching a performance by a magician named Ken (David Copperfield), so they don't know what's happening yet. Carne gets another crew member to take a look at it, but the killer has cleaned up all the blood and is now in Jackson's alien-lizard costume.

Now dressed as Jackson, the killer goes for Alana's best friend Mitchy. She wants to have a one night stand with him in a sleeping compartment, but as he fondles her breasts, she looks down to see Jack's severed hand on her. Before she can scream, the killer strangles her, and slits her throat. Alana and Carne discover her body shortly afterwards, yet the killer is still on the loose.

Next, Alana's boyfriend, Mo (Timothy Webber) is stabbed in the chest while watching the magician's show. This time, everybody knows about it as he was among a crowd of people, but no one saw who stabbed him. The train is stopped to a halt. Everybody else on the train are told to get off so the crew can search for the killer and take roll call. Doc and Alana realize that Kenny is the killer and is getting revenge. Alana tries to warn everybody else, but Doc locks himself in a cabin, locking Alana out. As Alana gets off the train, Doc is confronted by the killer, now wearing Mitchy's witch costume.

As everybody gets back on the train, Alana and Carne discover Doc's body, along with his decapitated head! The killer has stolen Doc's monk costume as well. Now, Carne has herded the students on one side of the train, so he'll be able to find the killer. Alana begins to think the killer is the magician, as Kenny always had a love for magic, but the magician has disappeared. Alana is to stay in one of the locked cabins. But eventually, Kenny (still in Mitchy's witch costume) finds Alana, and he chases her into the conductor's car. Alana locks herself in the conductor's office (which is caged off). Kenny finds her, and she stabs him in the face with a letter opener. She runs out of the office and pushes Kenny off the train.

Now relieved, she decides to walk over to the magician's cabin, and she discovers his dismembered body in a cabinet! So it couldn't have been him. Alana runs into Carne's cabin, she finds him sitting at his desk, with his head down. But, Alana realizes it isn't Carne: dressed in a conductor's uniform, it's Kenny! He never fell out of the train, and he wasn't the magician, but, dressed in drag as the magician's female assistant! He tells Alana to kiss him - exactly what Alana told Kenny the night of the prank - and when she does, Kenny goes crazy, reliving the fateful night. Before anything else can happen, however, Carne runs in with a shovel, and finally knocks Kenny out of the train, his body falling in a river.

Information

"Halloween" made Jamie Lee Curtis a young star; starring in three horror films in one year made her a "Scream Queen", (which was improvised in the movie "Scream"). "Terror Train" is probably the least remembered of these films. Released in the United States on October 3, 1980 by 20th Century Fox, the film probably suffered from overexposure of its main star. "The Fog" and "Prom Night" had already been released to theaters, and enjoyed some success at the height of the early 1980s horror craze. "Terror Train" was first released on VHS home video in 1988 by CBS/Fox Video. A DVD was finally released in 2004 and is available with different cover art than the original VHS version. Original VHS copies were fetching up to $30 USD on eBay before the DVD was available.

This was the first motion picture directed by Spottiswoode. He later went on to direct the films "Tomorrow Never Dies" "Turner & Hooch" and "Air America". He is an Emmy Award winning director, who has also won several other directing honors.

Selected cast

*Ben Johnson as Carne (Train Conductor)
*Jamie Lee Curtis as Alana Maxwell
*Hart Bochner as Doc Manley
*David Copperfield as Ken the Magician
*Derek MacKinnon as Kenny Hampson (and the Magician's Assistant)
*Sandee Currie as Mitchy
*Timothy Webber as Mo
*Anthony Sherwood as Jackson
*Howard Busgang as Ed
*Steve Michaels as Charley the train Brakeman
*Greg Swanson as the Class President
*Vanity (credited as D.D. Winters) as Merry
*Joy Boushel as Pet
*Victor Knight as Walter the Engineer
*Donald Lamoureux as Shovels the Stoker (as Don Lamoureux)

Remake

A remake is in production, and is set for a 2008 release. Thora Birch is set to play Alana Maxwell.

External links

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