Terror

Many of the movies included in Rhino's Horrible Horrors Vol. 1 box set are just that. This one was fairly good though, certainly comparatively.

The deaths scenes in this movies are definitely stand-outs, and if people are looking for good scenes like that, here's a movie that's been overlooked. There's some decent suspense at times too, and fair special effects in poltergeist-type witch activity.

The movie starts with a title sequence of black and white still frames tinted red of people's faces, sometimes a succession of them giving the appearance of movement, then freezing. The title appears, cracks, and bleeds. Not bad. There's then a segment that is a movie-in- the-movie, a witch film in which a witch gets caught and burned at the stake, but gets her revenge on the people responsible.

This film is projected in the home of the producer, and the film was based on his family history, and his home and other items were used in the film. After a game of hypnosis seems to go wrong, resulting in the producer getting sliced with a sword, a woman runs off into the woods and gets attacked seemingly by a slasher. Other people get attacked by blades, while others die in more bizarre ways. At one point, a car floats up into tree branches!

The acting is pretty good, but somehow there was something lacking that kept me from getting terribly involved in the movie.

British exploitation filmmaker Norman J. Warren sure knew how to lay on the gratuitous shocks -- thick and fast. On "TERROR" he doesn't disappoint. In what is definitely the most fun, I've had with a Warren film. With that in mind, his previous 1977 "PREY" would still be my favorite. It's hard not to think Warren was influenced by Dario Argento's "SUSPIRIA", in what clearly looks a crude, downbeat and cheap knockoff.

Anyhow, Warren does the best, with what's in front of him. Working with such a stringy plot where clichés form the basis. It's easy to see what we get are set-pieces looking to shock and thrill. As the build-up of those highly-charged moments (with an ominously dynamic electronic score) are far more enticing, than that of the thinly detailed dramas in between. Well, outside of a few amusing moments caught on a film-set. The actual central story involving a witch cursing the family descendents of those who burned her at the stake remains an afterthought --- almost becoming a shadow to the mean-spirited violence and nightmarish absurdity. I must say best not to delve too deep into the narrative, as making sense is the furthest thing on mind. Even the lead performances of John Nolan and Carolyn Courage are fairly po-faced, but, I guess, it's only natural when there's no escaping your foretold doom. At least there are colourful minor supports, like Glynis Barber and Elaine Ives-Cameron. Another bright inclusion was the posters of "THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE" (1973) and Warren's "SATAN'S SLAVE" (1976) making their way into a few shots. Sure the former poster would bring a smile to cult-fans.

Like most of Warren's presentations, pacing can be bumpy, yet his nonchalant handling, atmospheric lighting and use of authentic locations pays off. What starts slow and conventional by playing out like a slasher / giallo --- gradually begins to go off the rails when the supernatural fury of our string-pulling entity comes to the forefront, where each death madly outdoes the last. It's well worth-the-wait, as during the creative third act when the action returns to the cottage, there are some crazy stunts, like the evaluating car and maniac light-show climax.

A witch's curse causes bad things to happen to all the people involved in the production of a horror movie and the witch herself might have possessed one of its stars.

Clearly inspired by the work of Dario Argento, Terror is one of those movies where it's best to leave logic at the door and enjoy the gory set pieces and colorful lighting. It starts off slow and even frustrating since there's not a lot of plot or character development to latch on to, but something happens midway through where, if you just turn off your brain and go along for the ride, you'll have a good time.

This got a late Friday night screening on BBC2 recently. Who negotiated that deal, Mr. Warren?.

And apart from an excruciating synth score by one Ivor Slaney (who also draped his dubious doodlings all over Norman's 'Prey'), it was pretty much all good.

Sexy stage-trained actresses never to be heard from again? Present and correct, sir.

On-the-hoof shots of Soho at night? Tick.

Strangely antiseptic sequences of murder and mayhem? You betcha.

Look out for Dirty Dave McGillivray cameoing as a TV reporter, Peter 'Chewbacca' Mayhew deathlessly intoning "You want a mechanic?". And Milton Reid throwing a Greek out of a nightclub.

He didn't make Hammer rip-offs and he didn't make counterfeit Amicus flicks, either. Norman J. Warren created a horror sub-genre instead, and "Terror" is the second best of these while "Prey" is the best. Though this was clearly inspired by "Suspiria" and equally ropey in terms of structure, is is still an entertaining hour and a half.

The opening film-within-a-film, a witch burning sequence, has better production values than the rest of this shocker, but it is, nevertheless, a graphic slasher (for its time) that takes some risks. Most of the murders are knife murders and we get lots of knife POV's and a procession of red herrings. A car lifted off the ground and up into a forest canopy shows some creativity and a poor sod impaled on spikes notches another one up for bloody horror.

Despite good transfers, the Warren films still look ugly because they were not lit too well. Some of the interiors are overexposed and the hard lighting looks more accidental than planned. The performances range from adequate to somnambulistic (perhaps intentionally) and the electronic score (by Ivor Slaney) is more noisy than musical.

Worth seeing, sure, but not anything groundbreaking.