On a beach, a French soldier named Andre is rescued from the water bye a beautiful woman named Helene. As quickly as she finds him, she disappears into the ocean and he passes out. He finds himself at the home of an old woman and a demented Baron who has been crazy for about 20 years since he murdered his wife.
THE TERROR is directed by Roger Corman…and Francis Copolla, Jack Hill, Monte Hellman, and Jack Nicholson. This is another one of the Corman films that he cared to spread the work around like some of the previous reviews I’ve done. In this case to save some cash, he used sets that were being torn down at American International and kind of wedge them into the film while writing the story around the sets.
The film itself is the typical type of B movie that Corman was used to making with that late night movie feel. The movie has a minimal cast with only the characters important to the plot. I’ll admit, I’m not incredibly versed in the career of Boris Karloff but I enjoyed seeing him in a role that isn’t a classic movie monster. He kept that creepiness that was practically his signature in horror. Jack Nicholson did the movie in the earlier part of his career and he does and excellent job. You can tell he is working on finding that film to jumpstart his career but that isn’t until 1969 in EASY RIDER.
Cast
Boris Karloff – Baron Victor Frederick Von Leppe / Eric
Jack Nicholson – Lt. Andre Duvalier
Sandra Knight – Helene / Ghost of Ilsa The Baroness Von Leppe
Dick Miller – Stefan
Dorothy Neumann – Katrina, Witch / Eric’s Mother
Jonathan Haze – Gustaf
The release has a 1080p AVC transfer.
For this new transfer of the movie, The Film Detective has created a clean transfer but there are some issues. On the positive side, the coloring settles on the realistic side as far as skin tones and some of the settings used in the film. Also, there are some elements that have decent detail from frame to frame. The contrasting does well with keeping the lines separated but in the darker scenes, there is some considerable crushing that can be seen. The movie in its entirety has been over-processed to the point of having next to no film grain. The picture is sharp but the speckling and dirt is more prominent from the EE.
The audio is an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix.
The mono track is the original mix with the film’s theatrical release but split in a 2.0 to use both front speakers. There are a lot of errors in the mix including noticeable crackling and pops that I think is from the source materials.
There are no bonus features included with the release.
Disc Details
1 Blu-ray Disc
Running Time
79 mins
Edition Ratings
Not Rated
Region Coding
Region A
Video Resolution
1080p AVC MPEG-4
Aspect ratio: 1.83:1
Audio Mixes
English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Subtitles
English SDH
THE TERROR is a horror film reminiscent of the Vincent Price films that are cult classics. The release is probably the best version out there with the HD picture and audio. Unfortunately, there aren’t any bonus features on the release. I really would’ve like to know more about the film having 5 directors and using whatever sets that Corman could get his hands on before they were destroyed. Overall, if you’re a fan of this genre, this is one to pick up.
