Terror Train is a 1980 Canadian horror film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson, and David Copperfield.
Plot[]
At a college pre-med student fraternity New Year's Eve party, a reluctant Alana Maxwell is coerced into participating in a prank: she lures the shy and awkward pledge Kenny Hampson into a darkened room for sex. However the other students have placed a woman's corpse in the bed. The prank backfires horribly, as it turned out he had once killed accidentally before and was therefore lightly stable. He therefore ends up in a psychiatric hospital because of it.
Three years later the members of the same fraternities and sororities hold a costume party aboard a train. Attending are the jokester of the group, Ed, disguised as Groucho Marx, prank ringleader Doc Manley, disguised as a monk, Jackson who is disguised as an alien lizard, Doc's girlfriend and Alana's best friend Mitchy, disguised as a witch, and Alana's boyfriend Mo, disguised as a bird. Carne is the train conductor. Ken is the magician hired to entertain the crowd.
As the train journeys into the icy wilderness the students responsible for the prank are murdered one by one, with the killer assuming the mask and costume of each murder victim in turn. Carne discovers some bodies and sequesters the students in one car as the train begins its return journey. Alana remembers the prank and suspects that the magician is the killer as Kenny loved magic. However the magician has disappeared, presumed to have leapt off the train. Alana is sequestered in a locked compartment for her safety, but the killer is still aboard and is stalking her.
Ken turns out to be innocent, because the killer also killed him. He is found murdered. It turns out the killer is his female assistant, which turns out to be Kenny in disguise, whom Alana faces alone. She tries to apologize, but to no avail. When he forces her to kiss her, he relives the prank again and becomes even more insane. Carne then rushes in the nick of time, beats down Kenny and throws him out of the train with a shovel.
He falls on a a half-frozen river, is presumably dead and his body then floats on it, while the train continues its voyage across the snow.
List of Deaths[]
| Name | Cause of Death | Killer | On Screen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ed | Impaled through stomach with sword | Kenny Hampson | Partly | Costume stolen and used for next kill |
| Jackson | Head slammed against mirror, hand cut off (offscreen) | Kenny Hampson | Yes | Costume stolen and used for next kill |
| Mitchy | Throat slit | Kenny Hampson | No | |
| Mo | Stabbed in the chest. | Kenny Hampson | No | Death unseen as everyone else was paying attention to the magic show. |
| Doc Manley | Head cut off with knife | Kenny Hampson | No | |
| Magician | Impaled by sword in his sword trick box | Kenny Hampson | No | Kenny was also disguised as his assistant for half the train ride |
| Guard | Impaled through chest with a sword | Kenny Hampson | No | |
| Kenny Hampson | Knocked off train with shovel into icy river below | Carne | Yes |
Cast[]
- Ben Johnson as Carne, Train Conductor
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Alana Maxwell
- Hart Bochner as Doc Manley
- Sandee Currie as Mitchy
- Timothy Webber as Mo
- Derek MacKinnon as Kenny Hampson
- Anthony Sherwood as Jackson
- Joy Boushel as Pet
- D.D. Winters as Merry
- Greg Swanson as the Class President
- Howard Busgang as Ed
- David Copperfield as Ken the Magician
