The Terror

The Terror

Yes, I fell asleep twice during this Corman snore-fest and it was only 2:00 in the afternoon. I taped it from cable, which enabled me to fast forward through most of the movie. (There are endless non-dialog scenes of Nicholson wandering around here and there.) Fast-forwarding also enables you to miss the out-of-tune orchestra grinding its way through Stein's cliché-ridden score. Nicholson is boring and miscast as a French officer, Karloff is going through the motions, and the other cast members gamely act out their stock characters (haunted girl, sadistic witch, loyal servant). The plot makes absolutely no sense, with twists that the writers must have thought were clever but which were simply ridiculous. Some scenes almost seem like repeats of earlier bits...the plot was probably enough for a 30-minute TV episode, but not a feature. The color quality on cable is quite good, enabling you to see how a corpse decays into something resembling caramel ice cream sauce.

I'm a huge B-movie buff. I revel in bad movies. This, however, is just too bad. It's incredibly slow-paced. It is supposed to surround us with an air of mystery and suspense. In fact, we don't care how it turns out- we just want all these people to go away. The suspension of disbelief is incredible. We are supposed to believe that Nicholson, a Napoleonic officer (Why Napoleonic? Who knows?) "lost" his army. Lost an army? On a beach?? He is haunted by visions of a young beautiful woman. Personally, I'd just get a restraining order against her, end of story. It's worth seeing (once) for Nicholson. Being well-known for his fun, over-the-top acting style, it's pretty interesting (for the first few minutes) to see him non-act his way through this film. You can practically see him making grocery lists in his head during his scenes.

This is, at times, a decent effort to tell a story. But when budgets get into the mix, things fall apart. I believe this was Nicholson's first film. Roger Corman is the director and how the two hooked up, I don't know. What I do know is that there are so many plots and subplots and errant visuals that half the time we don't know what is going on. I decided years ago that I would watch Karloff and Nicholson do their individual things and not worry about being fulfilled cinematically. They are both classic muggers for the camera. This is a ghost/witch story with people dying and the wrong people accused of killing them and a crazy castle. On and on and on. The film, which is normal length, seems about five hours long.

You get to see Nicholson and Karloff, that makes it somewhat watchable, but the muddled story and the lack of anything really exciting happening makes this movie a bit of a bore. Well one person is killed in a rather gruesome way, but other than that nothing much happens. This one has Nicholson as a soldier who is seperated from the rest of his troops. He meets a girl who seemingly wants to lead him to his death. He eventually stumbles upon an old castle and inside is a bit of a crazy old count. Nothing really shocking about it as it is a bit more mystery than horror. The mystery I am afraid is a bit to confusing and rather pointless to be very good. The end revelation is very stupid as it does not seem to add up at all. Still though you do get to see an old actor on his way down and a new actor (at that time anyway) on his way up.

This is quite a Gothic tale of horror, including sundry gory bits. The castle is expectedly dark and brooding, and Corman creates an eerie atmosphere very well. I spotted two directional errors. The handguns are revolver like, and I do not think such guns were used in Europe in the early years of the nineteenth century. Also, the servant Stefan often stands too close to the Baron, and to Lieutenant Duvalier. For reasons that become clear later, he could assume such familiarity with the Baron. However no nineteenth century officer of the French army, especially one of aristocratic lineage, would tolerate such behaviour from a minion. Jack Nicholson said of the film, 'This is the only Hollywood film with a complete script that has absolutely no story.' This about sums it up. It should be watched for the camera-work and the ambiance.

In 1806, the French Lieutenant Andre Duvalier (Jack Nicholson) is lost from his regiment and riding near the coast very thirsty. Out of the blue, he sees a gorgeous woman that shows him a spring. Then she tells her name, Helene (Sandra Knight), and she walks with him and vanishes into the sea water. Andre tries to save her but is attacked by an eagle and faints. He awakes in the house of and old woman, Katrina (Dorothy Neumann), and sees the eagle that belongs to her. He learns that her servant Gustaf (Jonathan Haze) has saved him. When Andre asks for Helene, Katrina tells that she does not know her. Andre walks during the night seeking out Helene; when he meets her, she asks him to follow her and brings him to a spot with quick sand, but Andre is saved by Gustaf again. He tells to Andre that Helene is possessed and he would find the answers at the castle of the Baron Victor Frederick Von Leppe (Boris Karloff) where he should ask for Eric. On the next day, Andre leaves Katrina's house and heads to the castle. He is received by the Baron himself and sees the picture of Helene on the wall. However he leans that the woman is Ilsa, the Baroness Von Leppe, who has been dead for twenty years. Further, the Baron lives alone in the castle with his butler Stefan (Richard Miller). Later he learns that the Baron found Ilsa in the bed with a man named Eric and he killed her and Stephan killed Eric. But Andre saw the woman at the window when he arrived at the castle. What is the secret of Helene? "The Terror" is an entertaining low-budget movie by Roger Corman with Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff. The plot is interesting and it is curious to know that Corman used sets left over from "The Raven". Boris Karloff's scenes were shot in three days only. Unfortunately the Brazilian DVD has a blurred image and it is very difficult to distinguish the characters and locations. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Sombras do Terror" ("Shadows of the Terror")

In one of Roger Corman's many movies about dead people who don't seem to want to stay dead, Lt. Andre Duvalier (a very young Jack Nicholson) meets a young woman (Sandra Knight, Nicholson's wife at the time) along the beach and follows her to a castle inhabited by elderly Baron Von Leppe (Boris Karloff). Von Leppe's deceased wife looked exactly like the woman on the beach. Sure enough, there's a deadly secret behind all this...something that threatens to destroy everyone. Obviously, this movie's sure to be a treat for any fan of early '60s camp. But specifically, this stars Karloff and Nicholson, plus Sandra Knight and frequent Corman cast member Dick Miller* as Karloff's servant. It's sort of weird - but neat - seeing Miller's husky face and hearing his New York accent in a Gothic tale. A pretty cool movie. *More recently, Dick Miller has appeared in every one of Joe Dante's movies. No doubt Dante grew up watching Corman's movies and decided to cast Miller in his own movies.

Actally its none too "original" either, being little more than a variation on Edgar Allan Poe's FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER coincidentally made by Corman himself five years earlier. Contrary to popular public opinion, THE TERROR was NOT filmed in four days. The scenes with Karloff were, but the remaining 2/3 of the movie were shot sporadically over a ten week period....with a little help from Corman's inner sanctum of friends, including Francis (Ford) Coppola no less! Filmed pricipally to capitalise on sets left over from THE RAVEN (yet another Edgar Allan Poe tale - Corman had already filmed THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM as well as THE TELL TALE HEART) this hastily produced little flick was mildy interesting with not a little charisma. Nicholson's performance here gives less than no clue as to the great work that was yet to come in such as ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST, FIVE EASY PIECES and BATMAN. One could be positively uncharitable and say his performance here amounted to little more than disinterested and amateurish acting. But still it remains today early Nicholson and by that token alone offers curiosity value. In the upshot way better than the sum of its parts...even given the garish Pathe color! The recently re-released DVD version offers surprisingly effective new 6-track surround sound.