Review of Terror

Terror (1978)
7/10
Kind of bloody terror
15 October 2021
Terror is the third film from the Bloody Terror box set of Norman J. Warren's horror movies. At times it feels like a bit of rehash of Satan's Slave with the ancestral curse, "flashback" to puritans killing witches and the big beautiful cottage in the English countryside as a main location. It also feels more disjointed than his first two films not having a clearly defined main character. Is it the sleazy producer, the pretty girl or the less pretty girl or the redhead making softcore bath porn? The scenes of this bath-time movie add some humor to the movie and are more goofy than sexy, she doesn't even remove her bra for them. There's more blood and killings than in Prey but the kills aren't as nasty and sexual as in Satan's Slave. The women aren't as beautiful as Candace Glendenning or Barbara Kellerman either. The blonde is very pretty but she isn't in it for long. While not as gory as Satan's Slave there's still some decent kills here- a decapitation, a woman chased through the forest by an unseen assailant in a suspenseful scene who ends up knifed through the throat to a tree. There's a spiked fence impalement with the severed remains found in the trash, a crushing by heavy overhead light with a burned up face, an almost decapitation by window pane and more. The violence here is supernatural, lacking the mean-spiritedness of Satan's Slave.

Other interesting parts are a brief appearance by Chewbacca. The cast isn't overly notable though there's a preponderance of Peters in minor roles. There's a half disturbing/half sexy scene of a whip-strip inside a club, the woman has nice breasts (about the only nudity here) but a face that looks like Brian Warner's. There's another hilarious scene of one of the waitresses at the club being accosted by a horny Greek. He asks her "you, er, know, er...sucking?" and "you do sucking for me?" He pronounces it as "suck-kink" adding to the hilarity. There's also a well done chaotic scene in the movie studio, with film flying all over even attacking a person. Another great scene is a woman attacked in her car during a thunderstorm with the car lifted into the trees. The ending is pretty cool and unlike most films the credits roll almost immediately after. It's nice to see a movie with a definitive ending. Terror isn't nearly as good as Satan's Slave and might not be as good as Prey though it's certainly much livelier than those two. It also lacks the mean-spirited characters of both films having a comedic edge to it.
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