Terror en el patio de butacas

Well edited tribute to horror films made before 1984 with a good selection of clips even if some of them are more action/crime oriented than horror. Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen make for excellent hosts. It's a fun ride especially for those who haven't seen all of the movies featured.

"Terror In The Aisles" is not a definitive compilation film of clips from terror movies,but it is still good.

It contains a lot of interesting clips from movies,many of which are often famous terror movies.

The film,however,has two main difficulties.

One,the narration by Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen rings flat. two,as famous as the different scenes from the movies mentioned often are,THEY ARE NOT SCARY out of the context of the original films that they are from.

Almost anyone who has seen most of or all of the movies that these film clips are from will have a lot of fun recognizing what scenes are from what movies,especially before the names of those movies are mentioned in the closing credits to this film.

Overall,"Terror In The Aisles" is a good movie,but it DOES HAVE ITS LIMITATIONS.

I give this movie a rating of 6/10.

Saw this one in a drive in back in 1984. It was a great place to see this compilation of the best clips of (mostly) more recent Horror and Suspense movies. This movie was released in theatres first, not direct to video as with many other compilations, so the highlighting of 1970s slasher movies is totally understandable from a marketing viewpoint. For fans of early horror, I recommend the documentary "Universal Horror" which highlights the classic horror films and influences of Universal Studios. Donald Pleasance was at his prime then, starring in slasher films galore, he camps it up here as does Nancy Allen, trying to keep the suspense up in between clips. It all works. For horror fans, its a fantastic sampler platter of some of the greatest moments in Horror film. It will steer you toward films you may not be aware of, or it will give you peeks at films you may have heard of but never seen.

Another one of my favourite VHS rentals as a kid was Terror in the Aisles. Essentially a compilation of clips from horror movies, this is That's Entertainment for weirdos. And it works beautifully.

A major reason why this works is the sheer breadth of the films that are used from the old to the new, the well known to the obscure. There are also films used that aren't strictly horror movies but are still examples of how suspense can be brilliantly generated in a film (Midnight Express, Night Hawks).

This film was also extremely popular in the UK as it contained clips from movies that were either banned by the BBFC (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) or discreetly removed from video shelves by them (The Exorcist).

Another masterstroke by the movie are the links that involve horror royalty Donald Pleasance and Nancy Allen in a cinema pontificating on horror tropes and what makes them work. These sequences are priceless. Look out for a young Angel Salazar as a 'feature moviegoer'.

Themes such as the villain and the victim/Final Girl are examined with the respective appropriate clips being used to illustrate the filmmakers points. Theres also a lesson in suspense by the master himself, Mr Alfred Hitchcock.

This is a great compilation for either the young horror hound looking for new thrills or the seasoned purveyor of all things cinematically depraved. I never thought this film would see the light of day because of the logistical nightmare associated with a compilation like this and rights issues. I'm very glad to say that I was wrong. A few years back Universal released Halloween 2 (1981) on Blu ray with Terror in the Aisles as one of the bonus features. An essential purchase.

Terror in the Aisles is essentially just a clip show of showcasing the many highlights of horror Cinema from the 1930s up to the films time period of 1984. There's quite a wide variety shown & some are even broken down into topics such as satanic occult films & the dangers of sex in horror movies. Beyond that there's nothing really to the movie than to just enjoy a montage of random scenes. One bad thing though is that a lot of the climaxes from the films shown are spoiled and that really hurts the audience who's never seen those yet. Not to mention some films shown like Strangers on a Train and Klute feel pretty out of place here. You do at least get Donald Pleasence narrating through the segments & combining that with the cheesy and phony reactions from the film's theater goers it makes for a solid enjoyable watch.