When a fraternity prank goes too far, freshman Kenny (Derek McKinnon) loses his mind. Three years later, a group of fraternity and sorority members is taking an old fashioned steam engine across country to celebrate New Years Eve with a masquerade ball. Once the train gets rolling, it becomes apparent that a killer is loose among the passengers. The target of the killer is the same group of kids who played the malicious prank on Kenny. Identifying and catching the killer turns out to be a difficult task since whoever is seeking revenge is switching costumes at every turn. It's up to the conductor (Ben Johnson) and sorority girl Alana (Jamie Lee Curtis) to catch the killer before any more bodies start piling up.

Canadian director Roger Spottiswoode manages to put together a very unique film. Unfortunately, he spends too much time (an hour!) setting up the final act. Spottiswoode doesn't seem comfortable with death scenes since most of them cut away before the blood is spilt. However, the last thirty-five minutes of the film are very well done and actually tense. The lighting in many scenes is imaginative and the cinematography is very good.

Jamie Lee Curtis is so full of charm here and lucky for us, gives her character many more dimensions than one expects to see in a film of this genre. A strange but welcome bit of casting comes in the form of Ben Johnson as Conductor Carne. Ben Johnson is mostly known for his work in every genre except horror but he manages to maintain his swagger and streetwise attitude even here.

The rest of the cast is a strange but mostly unmemorable mix of folks. David Copperfield sticks out like a soar thumb in this flick and really pushes the proceedings to the brink of insanity once his magic show starts. His magic show! One performance that jumps off the screen is Derek McKinnon as Kenny, the butt of the joke that completely snaps. His short screentime is especially disarming and I can't help but wish he'd done more horror movies.

Many of the scares in the movie are tame and at the end of every buildup, I couldn't help but wish the movie could have pushed itself just a little farther and more than a little faster. Luckily, the intensity of the killer's madness (when it is FINALLY revealed) more than makes up for the lack of proper timing.

If you can make it through the slowly paced first hour of Terror Train, you'll be in for an awesome ride. The tension explodes in the last 35 minutes of the film and doesn't let up. Obviously, the first hour of the film will be a big hurdle for most viewers but slasher fans will get what they are craving when this flawed flick comes to its final stop. Jeez, if you can make it through the freakin' magic show, you can sit through just about anything.