Night Terror Movie Review

Trailer here.

Night Terror is a 1977 TV movie directed by E.W.Swackhamer and starring Valerie Harper, Richard Romanus, Michael Tolan and Nicholas Pryor.

The movie begins with a woman called Carol(Harper), who is moving house with her husband and children. She and her husband Walter(Tolan) are going on a road trip first. The kids are staying with Aunt Vera. Carol drives to a motel and she waits for Walter as they are going from there together. Walter gets stuck at work so she is alone. Vera calls her and tells her that her son is very sick and has to go to the hospital. Carol tries to book a flight to Denver but there aren't any, so she decides to drive there. She leaves a note at the motel for Walter and she sets off. Carol needs petrol so she looks for a gas station. The nearest one is closed so she drives along looking for another. She sees a police man who has pulled over an odd looking man(Romanus), who just happens to be a killer and a weirdo. She asks the cop where she can get gas but the killer uses the opportunity to shoot the cop dead. He aims the gun at Carol, but she is saved by the gun jamming. She jumps back into the car and takes off. He follows her.

Carol drives along and the killer follows her. She tries to flag down other drivers, but to no avail. She manages to lose the killer and she finds an emergency phone. She talks to someone but gets too worried to tell him her location. She knows that the killer isn't far behind her. She has to push the car to a gas station, which is also closed. This time, she breaks in and she gets the key to the pumps and fills the car. She meets a homeless guy who is sleeping in there at night. She leaves, as the killer is coming. That night, there is heavy rain and she has to stop. She sees a car with a man in it(Nicholas Pryor). He is drinking and he tells her that he can't go anywhere in the rain. She tells him about the killer but he thinks that she has imagined it. The killer has pulled up behind them. The guy goes out to talk to him and gets shot dead for his trouble. Carol takes his car and heads off. The next day, she runs out of petrol and has to knock on someone's door.

She speaks to an old man who tells her that the nearest phone is four miles away. He has a son, but he is working and he has the keys to his truck, so there is nothing he can do to help. Carol walks off. She sees an old truck and it pulls over to give her a lift. She doesn't realise that the driver is the killer. He is driving the old man's truck. She realises that the man doesn't have the keys and she knows who he is. They struggle and she falls out. She manages to grab his gun and she throws it at him and takes the truck. He shoots at her, but she runs him over. She sets the truck on fire, hoping that a helicopter might see her. The truck explodes into flames and she does get spotted by a helicopter in the area. The movie ends with Carol at the hospital with her son and husband.

I liked this film. It reminded me of Duel but it wasn't as good. I liked the premise and I liked the actors. Harper does a good job playing a woman who is relentlessly pursued by a psycho. We get to see the killer early on and we know what will happen to her if he catches up with her. It is a fun thriller with good tension. I recommend it. I will give it a 5/10.

Theatre of Death Movie Review

Trailer here.

Theatre of Death is a 1967 horror movie directed by Samuel Gallu and starring Christopher Lee and Julian Glover.

The film begins in Paris. There is a theatre there that has horror shows. The theatre director is a man called Phillipe Darvas(Lee). He is having a party.  He tries to hypnotise a couple of the guests and then he gets them to act out a scene from a play. Things get a bit weird. A man called Charles(Glover) is there and he doesn't think that it is appropriate. He intervenes and annoys Darvas. Charles meets a friend of his called George(Ivor Dean), who happens to be an Inspector. He has three bodies on his hands. They were all murdered by the same killer. We find out that Charles was in an accident and his hands were badly damaged. He talks to George about Darvas and the party. George tells him that the bodies had no blood left in them. It is a mystery. A homeless man is murdered.

An actress, Dani(Lelia Goldoni) warns another actress, Nicole about Darvas. Darvas hypnotises Nicole.

Madam Angelique is working in the theatre and she wants to recast Nicole in the performance. Nicole  moves in with Darvas, Charles meets Darvas and asks him some questions about the recent spate of killings. Dani visits Darvas and talks to him about Nicole. He insults her and fires her. Charles sees her and she is very upset. He goes to see Darvas once again. He isn't there. He seems to have disappeared. Everyone thinks that he might have met with a bad end. George goes to the theatre and tells the cast. He asks Charles if he knows anything about Darvas. Charles tells him that he doesn't think that Darvas is dead. Dani is worried about Darvas. She finds Nicole sitting, staring at a picture of Darvas. The doctor thinks that she is in some sort of trance. More bodies turn up.

Dani discovers an underground passage and she finds tapes and Darvas' final sketch. It turns out that Nicole is the killer. There is some story about her being fed blood when she was young and she turned into a killer. She was the one who disposed of Darvas. She wants to frame Dani for it. She gets Dani to sign a suicide note she has written. Charles arrives to save the day. He chases Nicole. She runs to the theatre and she hides. She ends up getting killed as she hides under the stage. It turns out that Darvas was aware of her madness and he knew that she was the one killing people. 

This was a decent film. The cast were good and of course Christopher Lee was good as the smarmy Darvas. The ending is a little ropey but overall it is a good film. The killer was obvious, but it didn't ruin the movie. I would recommend this to fans of Christopher Lee. It isn't his best film, but it will pass the time quite nicely. I will give it a 5/10.