There aren't that many horror movies set on New Year's Eve, but the clear standout choice is 1980's Jamie Lee Curtis. While Curtis went on to be a mainstream A-lister, it was her years as a scream queen, perhaps the best of all time, that first made her a household name. Following her debut in John Carpenter's seminal 1978 classic Halloween, Curtis would star in a string of horror flicks, including several more slashers, and never fail to entertain fans.
Fellow Carpenter movie The Fog tends to get a lot of respect, and Prom Night spawned a franchise, ensuring its notoriety, even though Curtis' performance is easily the best thing in it. Of Curtis' post-Halloween horror films though, one that often gets overlooked and underrated is Terror Train. It was a decent performer at the box office, and garnered fairly good reviews, so it's a bit puzzling how few people seem to champion it as a worthy entry into the 1980s slasher canon.
That's especially true considering that every major holiday is entitled to a signature horror movie to call its own, and New Year's Eve doesn't really have a good contender. Sure, there's New Year's Evil, but well, that's a terrible movie only really enjoyable on a so bad it's hilarious level. Terror Train should be an annual horror tradition instead.
Why Terror Train Is The Ultimate New Year's Eve Horror Movie
Terror Train has a lot going for it, and was made right at the beginning of what would become the golden age of slasher movies. Not only does it have Jamie Lee Curtis steering things as the lead, but another notable 1980s face in the cast is Hart Bochner, famous for playing the sleazy businessman Ellis in Die Hard. He's just as big a jerk here, leading a prank that goes awry at the beginning of the film, ultimately causing the later killing spree. The prank itself is a prime slasher setup, and disgustingly cruel, with a student tricked into a sexual situation with a corpse. That premise screams 1980s slasher in the best possible way.
There's also a fun ing role for real-life superstar magician David Copperfield, playing a magician hired to entertain a train full of engers celebrating a college fraternity's wild New Year's Eve party. Copperfield even gets killed off, for anyone ever annoyed by his magic in the past to enjoy. The setting itself, a moving train, makes for a great location, with its limited width making for several claustrophobic cars to do cat and mouse scenes in, but also offering many different rooms to show off. There's also a lot of places for both the killer and potential victims to hide. As for the party, it's dripping with late 1970s/early 1980s charm, from the clothes, to the music, to the conversations. Terror Train is a blast, and deserves to help horror fans ring in the New Year.
