Terror (1978) by Norman J. Warren

Director: Norman J. Warren

Year: 1978

Country: United Kingdom

Alternate Titles: Killing House; Delirium House

Genre: Witchcraft

Plot:

After attending a special party together, a family of Londoners finds themselves under attack by a strange series of deaths that are soon revealed to be caused by a curse unleashed by a witch their family killed centuries earlier, and they must find a way to stop the curse from killing them off.

Review:

This was quite an enjoyable and fun witchcraft effort. Among the more likable factors involved here is the fine setup that gets this one going along rather nicely. The initial flashback to the witch's execution in the past, complete with the fantastic Gothic horror ambiance of the mob of pitchfork-and-torch-bearing villagers marching through the woods looking for a victim, the cat-and-mouse chase to finally track the witch down, and the botched burning that includes her attempting several means of prolonging the execution, gives this a great start to things. Not only does this also include a fantastic stunt piece that looks visually amazing, but the expected curse and aftermath that takes place at the village head's house offers a fantastic building block into the sequence at the mansion in the present. The antics involving the weird events around the house, not just the crashing objects but the rather impressive hypnotism bit, give this a lot to like.

As well, there are also the rather enjoyable factors found here in the impressive setpieces showing the revenge coming into play. With the initial attack on the girl outside in the woods with the unseen figure shown stalking her into the shed and through the woods outside before the shocking death, a fantastic false scene with a harmless mechanic chasing another victim through a house during a pouring rainstorm and the attack on the drunken bar patron in front of his house offers quite a few highly enjoyable and over-the-top sequences. That all sets the stage for the final half as the contents of the curse are brought to bear, involving the increasing strangeness of the accidents taking out the group and finally bringing about a sense of understanding about the curse, leading into the highly enjoyable finale where the witch finally gets the last few family members in grand fashion, with several impressive showpieces with the objects in the area being used to kill rather nicely. Frankly, these are enough to hold this one up.

There aren't a lot of flaws here, but its issues do strike an impression. The main detrimental factor is the rather flimsy and underwritten storyline that doesn't really make much sense. The whole idea of the curse taking place is fine enough, but it never seems consistent, switching back and forth between a full-on figure attacking with a physical weapon or some sort of omnipresent malevolent entity that's manipulating the environment to create vicious accidents that no human person can pull off, which is quite jarring. Being supernatural in origin, regardless of how things play out, means very little here makes sense as to how it can play out, and connecting everything together is quite a useless task that happens frequently here. As well, there are also the low-budget limitations that emerge throughout here, which are rather obvious in some quite extravagant ways during the kill scenes, which are enough to hold this one down.

Overview: ***.5/5

Far better than expected, even with some issues, this one has enough going for it to like that there are only a few factors present that bring this one down due to the fun generated from the positives. This is mainly for those that appreciate this kind of high-energy genre effort or a fan of the creative crew, while most others should heed caution.