Terror Train (1980)

3.0

08 Nov 2023

Med students are flush with limbs and cadavers

Damn medical students.

Some med students prank Kenny, making him think he is getting in bed with a woman, but in fact, slips in bed with a post-autopsy cadaver.

Three years later, the group of college graduates have a party on a train, complete costumes, a live band, and a magician (portrayed by David Copperfield).

Ed, the class clown, came dressed as off-brand Groucho Marx, annoying everyone in his perimeter with puns. Just out of view, somebody runs Ed through with a sword, leaving him on the tracks and taking his costume.

The train festivities kick off well. One of the train conductors, though, finds a blood-streaked sleeper bathroom and a dead body in a lizard costume on the floor.

He's dead, all right. I've never seen anyone so dead as that.

I initially mistook Ed for Kenny, but I figured it out when they discussed Kenny’s challenges in medical school.

The kids cheer for the train arriving in a very Francis Bourgeois way.

Overall, this is a goofy little slasher with a faint impression on me. Jamie Lee Curtis is a superb scream queen, and David Copperfield is hilarious in his brooding. I get why folks who grew up with this love it. I still enjoyed the experience.

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