FAQ

Andre Duvalier (Jack Nicholson), a French soldier separated from his troop and on the verge of exhaustion, is helped by the mysterious Helene (Sandra Knight), a beautiful girl he meets while wandering along the seashore. After he recovers, Andre tries to find his savior but is told that she does not exist until he is told that she is possessed and being held at the castle of Baron Victor Von Leppe (Boris Karloff). Von Leppe also denies that she exists, but Duvalier cannot help but notice the striking resemblence between Helene and a portrait of Von Leppe's dead wife Ilsa.

The Terror is based on a screenplay co-written by American screenwriters Leo Gordon and Jack Hill along with co-director Roger Corman.

Yes. The Terror is in public domain and can be viewed online at Veoh.com and the Internet Archive.

1806, evidenced when Andre looks at a portrait of Baroness Ilsa Von Leppe, notices the date as 1786, and remarks, "That was 20 years ago."

After rescuing Andre from the surf and carrying him to Katrina (Dorothy Neumann)'s house, Gustaf (Jonathan Haze) watches as Katrina tries to convince Andre that there is no woman named Helene. When Katrina isn't looking, Gustaf places his first two fingers of both hands near the corners of his eyes as though trying to tell Andre something. It's uncertain what the gesture actually was supposed to mean, but viewers have suggested that Gustav was attempting to warn Andre about Katrina being either a witch or giving him the evil eye.

Her husband, the Baron Von Leppe, killed her. He explains to Andre that he fell in love with Ilsa, a young peasant girl from the village, and eventually married her. Almost immediately after their marriage, however, he was called away for military service. When he returned, he found that his bride was not alone in her bed. "With my bare hands, I killed her," Von Leppe says remorsefully. His servant Stefan (Dick Miller) took care of Ilsa's lover, Eric.

Nicholson was born 22 April 1937, so he was about 26 years old when The Terror was made.

The German DVD offers a versions which runs longer for 9 minutes. Dick Miller appears in a new side plot in which he wants to kill the son of Baron Von Leppe. To make it short, the side plot is as strange as the rest of the movie and does not offer anything new beside the fact that Corman just earned some money.