Terror en los pasillos

Rather pointless but also quite entertaining compilation of clips from famous (pre-1984) horror films. Many of the complaints that others have expressed about this film are valid (unnecessary "narration", too much footage from "Halloween II", some odd selections of sources - what are "To Catch A Thief" and "Midnight Express" doing here?), but I still believe most horror buffs will find enough to enjoy here - you may even feel a chill running down your spine during some of the scenes. (**1/2)

"Terror in the Aisles" is an interesting documentary about horror movies. Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen host this movie which feature scenes from 75 movies that deal with horror, science fiction, suspense, or crime that have scared moviegoers over the years. You get scenes from classic horror films such as "The Exorcist", "Psycho", "Halloween", and "Rosemary's Baby"; sci-fi flicks such as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "The Thing", and "Alien"; crime pictures such as "Nighthawks", and "Vice Squad"; and suspense thrillers such as "Wait Until Dark", "The Seduction", and "Klute". You even get to see a little comentary from the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock (scenes from a couple of his films are featured in here). Not a great documentary, but a good one.

*** (out of four)

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.

I had a lot of fun watching 'Terror in the Aisles,' despite its shortcomings. This has nothing to say about horror movies; its narration by Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen is just patter designed to lead us into the next clip or montage. Unless you're bowled over by revelations like "scary movies tap into your childhood fears," or the news that special effects used to be primitive but are now more advanced, you're going to get nothing out of this as a documentary.

But the way in which various scenes are cut together is entertaining. Sometimes there are extended segments in which two or three films are intercut at length, leading to climaxes in which, for instance, 'Ms. 45' ends up taking out the killer from 'Klute.' You'll get a quick idea of the plots of several films, even enough to get caught up in them a little (it's funny how effective the first twenty-odd minutes of 'When a Stranger Calls' still are, even broken up and spread across an hour and a half). Other parts have no narrative at all, with a dozen different films cut together for a montage of horror-type things happening, but it sure looks neat. Occasionally this remembers it's supposed to be a documentary and we'll see Leatherface, Damien, Bruno Antony and Baby Jane go across the screen as Pleasence notes that great movie villains range in appearance.

What does it add up to? This was made by a company that normally specializes in movie trailers, and they don't seem to have changed their approach at all to make this film: it's a feature-length mashup, all cutting technique and big moments. If you're familiar with most of these movies it will be a snappily edited trip down memory lane; if you're not but wish you were, it'll be a pretty good advertisement (although, maddeningly, it doesn't tell you which clip comes from what). I'm a real horror nut, especially for the 1960s-to-early-1980s period this spends most of its time on, and I enjoyed it.

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.