TERROR TRAIN (1980) was a major studio, 20th Century Fox, attempt to get a slice of the slasher movie pie by picking up this independently produced Canadian film. Notably, it was Jamie Lee Curtis’ fourth fright flick in quick succession after HALLOWEEN (1978), PROM NIGHT and THE FOG (both also 1980). Perhaps surprisingly, after the critics mauled Sean S. Cunningham’s FRIDAY THE 13TH the same year, they were relatively less vicious about TERROR TRAIN. The film attracted some good notices mixed in with the perhaps expected (but still quite shocking, looked through today’s lens) poison-pen maulings. Here are attributed quotes from newspaper reviews of the film from its year of release …

“Yep, pretty scary. I wouldn't want to be Jamie Lee Curtis in this film for anything. No siree, they'll never catch me getting chased through a train by a man with an axe wearing a Groucho Marx mask who wants revenge for a little stunt they pulled on him in college where they found him having sex with a corpse. It's not my style, you know, but if this sort of life looks interesting to you, you might check Terror Train out.” Michael Dare, LA Weekly

“Jamie Lee Curtis can't seem to do anything without murder and mayhem lurking in the shadows. ... As a babysitter in "Halloween." she's stalked by a knife-wielding killer; as a hitchhiker in "The Fog. ' she's pursued by cutlass-carrying ghost pirates: as a high school girl in "Prom Night," she's chased by an axe-swinging madman; and as a college coed in"'Terror Train." her newest gore galore epic she's hunted by a sword-stabbing deviate. Talk about living in fear.” Lou Gaul, Daily Intelligencer

“STYLISH, SCARY FUN ON 'TERROR TRAIN’ … a real jolter of a horror film.” Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times

“"Terror Train" is the latest example of new-style soft-core porno: Lots of little girls, lots of skin, lots of tease and suggested decadence, lots of blood. I seriously doubt if something like this would appeal to even the most depraved 12-year-old, as the studios contend. And I saw no 12year-olds at Friday's first show at the Duchess. Only young men. … Beneath all the skin and blood, the movie is just a fancy, teenybopper version of "Murder on the Orient Express," but with the atmosphere of "Saturday Night Fever.”” Joe Baltake, Philadelphia Daily News

“It's no wonder passenger trains lost their popularity, what with poor service, bumpy roadbeds, psychopathic killers roaming the cars slaughtering people ... well, maybe not on Amtrak, but you get the picture. That's the basis for "Terror Train," a suspenseful, fairly gory, and satisfyingly scary movie that's the best entry yet in this year's chop-and-slash sweepstakes.” Mike Deupree, Cedar Rapids Gazette

“It has a few jolts for audiences, but how does a critic rate such films? "Terror Train" is better than "Don't Go in the House," "Schizoid" and "Prom Night," but no better than "The Fog," "When a Stranger Calls" and "He Knows You're Alone." And not as good as "Halloween,' "Dressed to Kill" and “Carrie." … If all of that means something to you, you're in worse shape than I am.” George Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Pretty soon the genre will be known as the "Jamie Lee Curtis" movie. It was once known as the horror flick. "Sado-horror" or "porno-horror" would serve just as well, but I think saying that a director has pulled a "Jamie Lee Curtis" has a nice ring to it.” Marc Zakem, The Courier Journal

“"Terror Train" is yet another "Halloween" clone featuring youths stalked by a faceless killer. ... While the body count mounts, the film lurches along like a poor man's "Murder on the Orient Express” almost as if "Halloween's" director, John Carpenter, had run amok on Amtrak.” Bruce Westbrook, The Daily Oklahoma

“The classic horror films of the 1930s appealed to the intelligence of their audiences, to their sense of humor and irony. Movies like "Terror Train," and all of its sordid predecessors and its ripoffs still to come, just don't care. They're a series of sensations, strung together on a plot. Any plot will do. Just don't forget the knife, and the girl, and the blood.” Roger Ebert (syndicated)

“Jamie Lee Curtis, the heroine of "Halloween," appears in "Terror Train" as the main object of the killer's knife. Curtis is very good at this sort of picture, which means that she can run down a hall screaming as well as anyone.” Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune

“"Terror Train," is a semi-classy, semi-dumb horror film that chugs through the first hour, picks up steam in the final 30 minutes and actually manages to come up with a surprise twist at the conclusion.” Marshall Fine, Argus Leader

“This no-way-out sensibility is pretty powerful in "Terror Train" and given an even finer edge by the generally fine performances on the part of a number of actors.” Jacqi Tully, The Arizona Daily Star

“It's this month's entry in the low-budget horror movie sweepstakes, and because of the presence of Jamie Lee Curtis (who has seen more murder and mayhem in her short career than any homicide detective in the South Bronx), Ben Johnson, some clever story twists and an element of whodunit mystery, it ranks as one of the best of the group.” Jimmy Summer, Box Office Magazine

“The only fault of the movie is one common to films of this type — there's not enough time for any of the performers to really develop a rounded character, so it's hard to care very much about the people who die at the hands of the killer. But that's only a quibble. For horror movie fans, "Terror Tain" will be a terrifying treat.” Henry Edgar, Daily Press

“Whatever the case, 1980 is certainly a banner year for gore in Hollywood, where 3-D (decapitation, disembowelment and dismemberment) is now about as chic as open shirts. If someone says heads are going to roll at a certain studio, you don't know whether they're talking about people losing their jobs or the studio's next movie. … Chances are you'll figure it all out in time for the grand finale between Curtis and the madman. And if you're willing to put up with some pretty silly dialogue, some uninspired acting (particularly by Johnson, who must have lost a bet to end up in this thing) and a trainload of victims you're not given much reason to care for, the scares will come.” Jack Matthews, Detroit Free Press

“Just when most of us movie reviewers were predicting - or maybe hoping - that the new teen-killer trend started by pictures like Halloween and continued through such garbage as Prom Night and Friday the 13th had finally ended. … Terror Train is not only heir to this dubious lineage, but it also contains the same blood, so to speak. Nobody screams and bleeds like Jamie Lee Curtis, the wholesome-looking coed-type who must fight off psychopathic killers in almost all films of this genre.” John Dodd, Edmonton Journal

“While the other women are dressed as hags or harem girls, Alana comes as a buccaneer, and as the party gets increasingly out of control, she is the only one who keeps her wits about her.” Florida Today (no name given)

“Say this for Terror Train. Although the dialogue is generally terrible, and the performances perfunctory (including Johnson's), the film is well paced (director Roger Spottiswoode is a former editor) and boasts some striking cinematography (credited to John Alcott, perhaps the same John Alcott who filmed Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon?). ... Best of all, the movie does not dwell lovingly on a catalog of graphic mayhem. The murders, while gory and sometimes startling, are brief. Terror Train is a respectable (if that's the word) exploitation movie.” Bill Kelley, Fort Lauderdale News

“"Terror Train" features a similar misfit traveling incognito in what is recognizably Psycho's Old Dark House on wheels.” Alexander Walker (syndicated)

“"I'm scared to death of terror movies," confesses Jamie Lee Curtis, whose starring role in 20th CenturyFox's "Terror Train" marks her fourth consecutive film in the terror-suspense genre. ... But I've seen 'Halloween' about 30 times because my friends are even bigger babies than I am, so I usually go along to hold their hands. ... Making Alana that strong was a conscious decision," she points out. "The director, Roger Spottiswoode, and I went over the character, and we came up with certain attributes that make her special. … Let’s face it. There are certain things a heroine has to be. She has to be vulnerable so that the audience identifies with her and is rooting for her, but she also has to have an enormous inner strength to overcome the evil, or terror, pursuing her.” Jamie Lee Curtis talks to Holly Levine, News Pilot

“There's nothing new about "Terror Train," the latest thriller to hit area theaters. It's a scare-‘em-by-the-numbers picture that borrows freely from the genre, most notably “Halloween.” … Jamie Lee Curtis stars in her fourth such thriller, and again is the heroine who has to battle a psychotic killer to the finish. And like "Halloween," a film in which she played much the same role, this killer is hard to put down, no matter how often he's stabbed, poked or pushed off a train.” Joseph Bensoua, News Pilot

“Maybe it's just a personal quirk, but I've never really like beheadings. … I’ve always considered them to be mean and messy and, well, generally un-nice. … Obviously, though, I'm in the minority. Beheadings have become Hollywood's 1980 fad. … We’ve seen them in "Friday the 13th" and "Prom Night" and "He Knows You're Alone" and even "The Mountain Man.” … And now there's "Terror Train.”” Mike Hughes, Gannett News Service