Although most might not remember Terror Train, aside from cult horror or diehard Jamie Lee Curtis fans, it now joins a growing lineage of cult horror classics that have received remakes thanks to Tubi’s upcoming remake. Unfortunately, it’s stuck slumming it with a crowd of mediocre remakes as it lacks a strong vision and struggles to leave a memorable mark.
Just like the 1980 cult classic from director Roger Spottiswoode, Terror Train takes viewers on a bumping party train on Halloween where a frat must face their past mistakes as a masked killer starts to pick them off one by one likely for revenge against a hazing prank gone wrong years prior. A big part of Terror Train’s identity — aside from its setting — is the idea behind its central masked killer. With each kill, the killer steals and changes into their costumes creating some interesting moments of mistaken identity. It’s a concept that works in making the killer approach characters a lot of fun since they don’t realize they’re interacting with a killer and have some fun moments playing around with them. It’s also a really cool concept for a killer and it certainly makes them stand out in the slasher genre.
However, it’s a concept that isn’t played around with creatively enough and there are a lot of missed opportunities to fully utilize this unique kind of killer. Since most of the characters are either wearing too revealing of costumes or having no masks at all, there aren’t a lot of fun costume changes with the killer. The idea of the characters not understanding that there’s a killer standing before them rather than their friends eventually loses its luster and becomes repetitive. It would’ve been fun to maybe have a surprise death off-screen and have the killer be casually amongst the group without them realizing making for an eventual killer twist. It’s just a shame to see a great concept go to waste like this and even the costumes that are used are nothing special and sadly reflect the cheapness of this film.
Now, with the film coming from a lesser-known streaming service like Tubi, it’s no surprise to see some shoddy visual effects or less gory kills … and frankly, it’s kind of fitting. The original Terror Train was a low-budget cult horror movie after all so it’s kind of nice that it keeps to those roots in modern fashion. The performances certainly ooze that B-movie quality cheese that can be a lot of fun and there are some decently memorable bloody kills to please horror fans. Even for the remake sticking to some roots though, you can’t help but wish this remake has a little more meat on its bones and was given a little more care.
Yet, the over-reliance on these less-than-stellar CG-effects is a total eye sore. The budget short comings of the set designs, kill effects, and the minimal costume changes weaken the experience. As for its characters and story, well, they’re a gift and a curse. As said before, the performances definitely know how to delivers some cheesy trope-y fun and there are some good standouts. Lead character Alana (Robyn Alomar) can be enjoyable with her persistence and Alomar’s fun performance, and there’s a magician character (Tim Rozon) that audiences will love because he’s just so dark and weird in a fun way that makes you laugh and cheer whenever he’s on-screen. Unfortunately, that’s about all the good that’s worth talking about with Terror Train.
Most of the characters are either stock tropes or just completely unmemorable and the lines they’re given are just painfully bland. The film honestly takes way too long getting its characters to realize that a killer is after them and the reveals feels so obvious and basic that it’s super unsatisfying. When the film isn’t showing its killer storyline, you’re left with these unremarkable story moments with the group talking about toxic frat behavior, social culture, and the bad prank they pulled. It’s not to say that some of it isn’t interesting and touches on the call to change the culture of frats in interesting ways, but it doesn’t have enough depth to hold up the viewing experience or make its runtime feel less like an eternity.
Tubi’s Terror Train isn’t a bad remake since it shows why the concept and idea behind the original is really cool and deserves a modern take, but what it offers won’t leave much of an impact on most and will likely fade into obscurity like the original did.
