Kino Lorber offers a double feature of travel terror on one DVD with Death Ship and Terror Train. Dread, panic, and mind trips abound in these two horror tales from 1980. Respectively starring George Kennedy, Richard Crenna, Jamie Lee Curtis and magician David Copperfield, this twofer makes for fun viewing.
Buy Death Ship / Terror Train Double FeatureDeath Ship finds George Kennedy as a grumpy cruise ship captain on his final voyage before turning the helm over to Richard Crenna. There’s dancing, music, and fine dining until the dead of night when the ship’s radar detects a dark watercraft headed right for them. After a catastrophic crash and a Poseidon Adventure-like sequence, a small group of survivors are left floating on the open sea when a mysterious rusty ship sneaks up on them. In hope of rescue, the survivors board the abandoned vessel only to discover it’s more of a floating spook house than a refuge. As they search the ship for crewmen and provisions, they uncover it’s dark past as a seabound Nazi torture camp. The more they explore the faster they are killed off and the old captain slips further into madness.
Death Ship, directed by Alvin Rakoff, isn’t a great entry in the horror genre but it’s a head trip and a mind screw at times for sure. At one point as the story skips jaggedly forward and seemingly over parts, I found myself asking “what’s happening?” just as a character in the movie utters the same words. Overall, Death Ship is an interesting, spooky, fun romp for 91 minutes that isn’t really gory or overly scary but Rakoff keeps it atmospheric and suspenseful though the story is choppy. There are some decent special effects that help keep us on our toes as we scratch our heads at this Nazi death ship/haunted house yarn. Aside from Kennedy and Crenna, Nick Mancuso and sexy Victoria Burgoyne have prominent roles.
Terror Train, directed by Roger Spottiswood, sees scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis once again avoiding being killed by a deranged psycho. This time Ben Johnson and magician David Copperfield join in the fun. One New Year’s Eve, a bunch of pre-med college students pull a stupid prank with a cadaver and the victim ends up in a padded cell. Years later, this same group charters a local excursion train for their last (zing!) New Year’s fling as seniors. As they load the train, decked out in silly costumes, an uninvited guest slips aboard along with an intense young magician. While co-eds begin to drop off, Curtis and crew discover it’s the poor soul they pranked back as freshman that has corralled them like cattle onto this speeding terror train of revenge.
Terror Train is the slasher in this double bill and it’s a pretty standard early entry in the field of ’80s splatter films. Good special effects and some of Copperfield’s illusions mixed with a somewhat deceptive ending makes this one a must for fans of Curtis and the genre. Terror Train isn’t the highwater mark of knifey/stabby horror and the gore is at a minimum (which isn’t bad) but it’s a fun way to spend 97 minutes. Ben Johnson is solid as always in his role as the conductor and there’s a small part by one “D.D. Winters,” better known as sultry pop singer Vanity.
The Kino Lorber Double Feature DVD’s picture quality is clear but there are no extras. For fans interested in versions with full bells and whistles, Kino offers both as special edition Blu-rays.
