Riding the coattails of the resurgent boom in horror films after the success of
Halloween, Terror Train features teeth-chattering direction by
Roger Spottiswoode and pristine cinematography from
John Alcott. The story is the basic slasher film premise, remounted on a moving train. A college fraternity decides to hold a New Year's Eve party on a train. But an uninvited guest, a disturbed ex-fraternity member, decides to take revenge on the partying students by killing them off one by one in increasingly grisly fashion. On board the terror train is horror film perennial
Jamie Lee Curtis, along with
David Copperfield, and
Ben Johnson as Carne the conductor, who tries to calm the women students by saying things like, "Now you young ladies stay up here --it's too dangerous down in that other car." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide