La Terreur des morts-vivants

From Norman J. Warren, the cult horror film director who also graced us with "Inseminoid", "Satan's Slave", and "Prey", and screenwriter David McGillivray, known for his collaborations with another cult icon, Pete Walker, comes this decent supernatural shocker that buffs consider to be something of a knock-off of Dario Argento's "Suspiria". (However, "Terror", distributed stateside by Crown International, would fare better in theatres than "Suspiria".)

Much like that Argento film, it's more about its sometimes palpable atmosphere and its various set pieces than its story. However, the story really isn't that incoherent, although it is a little thin. A filmmaker named James Garrick (John Nolan) is intent on telling his own family's macabre legacy on film; it seems that a witch had cursed his ancestors and their subsequent generations (this is related in the opening film-within-the-film). Now, a mysterious force is out to murder anybody with a connection to James.

Some of the set pieces in "Terror" are really quite good. Granted, less than patient viewers may fidget while Warren and company mark some time to prepare for getting to the good stuff. There is, at least, a delightfully naughty bit of business with the "Bathtime for Brenda" scenes. When the true horror sequences come, they truly are impressive: Suzy (Sarah Keller) having car trouble during a storm and being frightened by a creepy mechanic (Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca in the "Star Wars" franchise), Viv (Tricia Walsh, eventually to become better known for her Internet appearances) getting brutally dispatched by an unseen attacker, Philip (James Aubrey) terrorized inside a studio, and especially the experience of Ann (Carolyn Courage) while she's out in a storm and the car she's in actually levitates.

Overall, the movie IS slow at times, but redeemed by some game performances and the genuine spooky ambiance of some of its scenes. It's a good if not great movie that delivers in both suspense and gore departments. Its opening is effective, and its resolution is very much to the point: once this movie is over, it's OVER.

Seven out of 10.

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.

There's not much to like about Norman J. Warren's work…. 'Inseminoid' (a.ka Horror Planet) was like the lamest Alien rip-off ever made and 'Satan's Slave' was a dreadfully tedious vehicle about a devil-worshiping cult (it starred horror maestro Michael Gough, but still…). To think those two disappointment almost held me from watching this 'Terror'! This film is Warren's finest achievement! A modestly produced, but blood-soaked and nasty horror film that'll keep you entertained for a good 80 minutes. The plot of 'Terror' is standard shlock, handling about a film producer who inadvertently awakened the spirit of an ancestral witch while shooting a film about his own family's history. Things start to go horribly wrong the film premieres in the old family mansion and the young niece gets possessed with the witch's soul. The film doesn't contain the slightest bit of continuity and numerous murders are completely random. Not one horror lover will complain about this, though, since every single slashing is darn gruesome and presented with the nastiest make-up effects possible. There are a few (beautiful) young girls stabbed to death and pinned to a tree, a film crew member is crushed by the set pieces, a cop is road-killed by his own car and there are multiple neat close-ups of slit throats and severed corpses! Every killing is a horror feast and – sometimes – that's all there is needed to satisfy fans of the genre. At some points, Warren even succeeds in creating tension through atmospheric camera-work! How about that? The sequence where the blond girl is chased through the woods almost feels like 'The Blair Witch Project' 20 years ahead of its time! Although the film doesn't feature an actual climax (everybody dies…period!) or no depth in general, it's still receives warm recommendation thanks to the bright dialogue, stunning camera-work and loads of fun it delivers.

I'm easily pleased, a late night horror film doesn't have to make a lot of sense to keep me watching but Terror(1979) was a film I genuinely struggled to watch to the end. It opens with a home made horror film being screened and its makers tittering over it. What follows is no better and certainly no more convincing. Excruciating acting abounds as an ancient curse returns..yawn. It sums up everything that is truly awful about 70s horror films. The women in it are 'naice' girls who have clearly had little experience acting and emote their every line and show uncertainty by starting to talk, pausing and then starting again. The awful bonhomie and hipness of the male characters is equally awful. It really does make little sense either. I especially liked the part where the girl returns home and is seen washing copious amounts of blood from her hands but her flatmate, who she barely knows, doesn't think to mention this to the police. There's clearly a rational explanation of course. Another outstanding part is when a woman is chased through the woods by a man with a knife. She takes refuge in a shed which he briefly attacks. Less than a minute later she decides it is probably safe to go outside (as you would of course) and is stabbed to death in perhaps the least enthusiastic attacking scene ever put to film. In short there isn't even any comedy value to be gained from this as a bad movie, it is just dire and is one of the least interesting films I have ever seen.