“The boys and girls of Sigma
Phi. Some will live. Some will die”
There are several things that
make this one memorable and great; they include the various costumes and masks
that the killer wears, performances by Ben Johnson and Jamie Lee Curtis, the
appearance and performance of magician David Copperfield, and also knowing that
the killer is on board with the fraternity members but not being able to
identify him amongst the other train riders.
The masks that were chosen are as
creepy and weird as ones that have been used in other successful horror movies
and include Groucho Marx, a Lizard, and an old man. The Groucho mask is the
best and most unforgettable of the three, but the wonderful thing about the
masks is that they become even more terrifying within this type of setting.
They wouldn’t really be scary unless the situation involved someone murdering
other people.
Johnson and Curtis are both superb in their roles; Johnson as the train conductor and Curtis as the final girl who was intimately involved in the events that took place. Johnson is probably best known for appearing in The Wild Bunch, but also had major roles in Dillinger and The Town that Dreaded Sundown. Curtis by this time had become known as the horror scream queen, appearing in Halloween, The Fog, and Prom Night. The appearance of Copperfield may be what puts this picture over the top, with him performing multiple tricks and being an important part of the story once they are on the train. By this time he had begun to slowly become noticed, doing television performances on both ABC and a contracted series for CBS.
Johnson and Curtis are both superb in their roles; Johnson as the train conductor and Curtis as the final girl who was intimately involved in the events that took place. Johnson is probably best known for appearing in The Wild Bunch, but also had major roles in Dillinger and The Town that Dreaded Sundown. Curtis by this time had become known as the horror scream queen, appearing in Halloween, The Fog, and Prom Night. The appearance of Copperfield may be what puts this picture over the top, with him performing multiple tricks and being an important part of the story once they are on the train. By this time he had begun to slowly become noticed, doing television performances on both ABC and a contracted series for CBS.
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| Would you like some fries with your ketchup? |
The deaths in this motion picture are not overly gruesome and there is only one real instance of gore, it does get intense in the end with one particular sequence. The music isn’t as good as Halloween or Friday the 13th, but it is adequate enough for a horror genre. The lighting is very effective and the trains were actually rewired with dimmers to control it in a fast and efficient way and also used medical pen lights to light the actor’s faces [1].
If you haven’t seen this one before, it is a somewhat forgotten gem that would be considered part of the slasher horror subgenre.
Share the terror.
[1] "IMDB," IMDB, 12 5 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081617/?ref_=nv_sr_1. [Accessed 12 5 2016].