[miketardis]

TERROR TRAIN (1979)
Jamie Lee Curtis was very busy after HALLOWEEN [1978] doing this, THE FOG, PROM NIGHT then HALLOWEEN II in quick succession to establish herself as the horror genre teenage virgin scream queen as indestructible as Michael Myers himself when faced with implement-wielding psychopaths. She didn't go "legit" until TRADING PLACES in 1983 when, ironically, she was forced to do a gratuitous topless scene in order to hit the mainstream, something these more "disreputable" productions had never made her do.
TERROR TRAIN features a bunch of graduating medical school students on a train in peril from a psychopath out to avenge the usual sorority prank that went wrong (a device originally used in CARRIE then subsequently in films such as THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW and still going strong twenty years later with VALENTINE).
The cast includes ex-western star Ben Johnson, who gets top billing, as the conductor, Hart Bochner (whom Supergirl and Fay Dunaway were later to fight over) as one of the kids, and real-life magician David Copperfield as "the Magician".
Whilst director Roger Spotiswoode manages to make this, representationally, one of the better and more professional looking of the splatter genre, and there is a relatively spirited climax, the film as a whole is too long and could have done with some pruning. Copperfield's presence results in the narrative spluttering to a standstill on several occasions whilst he performs various illusions for the cast. My wife, who watched the last half an hour with me, picked up quickly that the packed train suddenly becomes deserted when the killer starts chasing Jamie Lee through it. Still, the photography is nice.
I watched the US DVD which comes in both w/s and p/s versions (I passed on the import UK DVD as it is apparently in a poor p/s transfer only and also twice as expensive). This comes with a poor quality full frame trailer which shows most of the main murders, including that of major cast members (so watch the movie first). In the UK this still has an "18" certificate although the gore is fairly restrained - there is an unconvincing severed head- and many of the killings actually occur off-screen.

[JJE_Outlaw]

This is one of my fav underated slashers, It got remade recently also (what isn't being remade these days)