This movie starts with a prank at a frat party. Kenny thinks he is going to become a man with the beauteous Alana (Jamie Lee Curtis). What Kenny doesn’t realize (and it should’ve been glaringly obvious) is that he is about to be set up. As Kenny goes to make his move, the woman of his dreams turns out to be a dismembered med school cadaver. Kenny promptly goes insane while doing bizarre pirouettes on the bed.

Four years later the wealthy boys and girls rent a train for a masquerade graduation party. Before they even leave the station one of their friends is killed, luckily for us he was the most annoying character, so hey that’s out of the way. The killer then dons the unfortunate victim’s costume, boards the train, and away we go! While on board the killer systematically begins to kill everyone involved in the prank and change into their costume.

There are some good things about this movie; most specifically the photography by John Alcott makes for a creepy atmosphere. The director, Roger Spottiswode, went on to bigger and better things. Academy Award winner, Ben Johnson, is the train conductor, and of course Jamie Lee in her fourth scream queen appearance. There is also the obligatory drunk blonde showing everyone her breasts.

There are a few bad things as well. There isn’t a lot of gore in the movie. It’s one of those that suggests the slashings rather than show them. Now I’m not one who needs the blood to soak my TV screen but I thought they could show just a little more. Parts of the movie are very slow. They spend a lot of time showing the kids partying when they could’ve cut that time in half.

Alright folks now we come to the Deal Breaker. David Copperfield as The Magician. He’s supposed to be all creepy and mysterious but comes off as arrogant and annoying. Those of you who like a little cheese with your entertainment will probably enjoy his performance just for the laughs. Some of you will probably hate the sight of him and run screaming from the room.

Commonly referred to as Halloween on a train, Terror Train isn’t the best slasher movie you’ll ever see, but for the reasons above neither is it the worst.

7/10