Norman J. Warren takes us "one step beyond horror…" with Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray/DVD combo restoration of TERROR!

When producer James Garrick (John Nolan, BATMAN BEGINS) makes a horror film about the witch who cursed his family for burning her at the stake, people connected to the production – and seemingly anyone else willing to be drenched in Kensington Gore – start dying mysteriously (and only sometimes at the hands of a black-gloved assailant). Could the killer be James' cousin Anne (Carolyn Courage) who he had just met the week before and is along with him the last of the line? She did try to kill him with a sword after being hypnotized by practical joker Gary (Michael Craze, SATAN'S SLAVE). How about James' long-suffering producer (and possible lover) Philip (James Aubrey, THE HUNGER)? Then there's Delores (Elaine Ives-Cameron, MURDER BY DECREE), the owner of the hostel where actress Anne and her thespian friends are living. She's not really connected with the production, but she swans around like a creepier Norma Desmond and may be searching for her close-up. That's about it as far as suspects, everyone else just has "victim" stamped on their foreheads. Although, come to think of it, James' whereabouts are also unclear during the killings.

Director Warren has stated that he was inspired by SUSPIRIA to do TERROR as a series of horrific set-pieces goosed with irrational color gel lighting (with an emphasis on green) and a loud soundtrack (albeit not 4-channel like the Argento film) with a hybrid score of processed electronic music, moans, and groans by Ivor Slaney (PREY). Warren and screenwriter David MacGillivray (FRIGHTMARE) were trying to get away from the Hammer horror template to which they felt their previous film SATAN'S SLAVE belonged, by embracing Argento's rule-breaking style over substance plotting. It should be said that SUSPIRIA's thin story is stronger than that of TERROR which might have been better with a more focused story that better-connected the various victims. A death by a pane of plate glass does anticipate a sequence in Argento's INFERNO although it also recalls THE OMEN. Actor Michael Craze (SATAN'S SLAVE) had an epileptic fit during the production, so he was replaced by James Aubrey playing a different character in order to preserve the footage already shot. Craze's brother Peter also has a role as the temperamental director named after the film's cinematographer and producer Les Young (who produced with his wife Moira) shooting a softcore romp called "Bathtime with Brenda" in Garrick's studio with one of Ann's roommates Viv (Tricia Walsh) who endures one of the film's false scares before her actual demise. Fellow hopeful actress Sue (Sarah Keller) has a breakdown in the middle of the woods during a storm and is stalked by hulking Peter Mayhew (STAR WARS) while Milton Reid (DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN) appears as a bouncer at the nightclub where most of the actresses work as hostesses in sequences existing only to provide more stray victims and showcase an "obscene" striptease act by whip-wielding Tanya Ferova (THE GIRL FROM STARSHIP VENUS). Nolan's and Courage's characters also disappear for extended stretches of the narrative for extended set-pieces involving barely-related characters (one of these set-pieces is just one lengthy false scare). The death of one is a bit anticlimactic, but the other features in the one of the film's effects showcases. Mary Maude (THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED) and William Russell (TV's DOCTOR WHO) appear in the period "prologue" while Glynis Barber (EDGE OF SANITY) makes her debut here.

Released theatrically in the United States by Crown International, TERROR has long been one of the Warren films easily accessible intact on home video stateside with multiple VHS editions throughout the history of VCI before their rights ran out. The film first showed upon DVD from Rhino when they had the Crown titles in a fullscreen transfer on one of their HORRIBLE HORRORS volumes that also included a panned-and-scanned but uncut transfer of SATAN'S SLAVE. In the UK, TERROR was released on DVD as part of the Anchor Bay Norman J. Warren coffin box set in a slightly shorter version that was lacking two short studio scenes and a shot a knife penetrating a foot. That version would run just over eighty-three minutes at 24fps (versus the 84+ minutes of the export version). When the Crown library went to BCI, TERROR got an anamorphic but interlaced transfer in a double bill with LAND OF THE MINOTAUR as one of their CRYPT OF TERROR double features. That transfer turned up on Mill Creek sets when they got the Crown library and then in progressive form on a double bill with THE DEVIL'S MEN (the uncut version of LAND OF THE MINOTAUR) when Scorpion Releasing sub-licensed some Crown titles from Mill Creek.

Vinegar Syndrome's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen transfer of the export version (84:32) comes from a new 2K scan of the original camera negative and is an exquisite upgrade to the transfers that came before. The resolution is such that the opening exterior sequence has the depth and crispness one would expect of the controlled conditions of a sound stage shoot, and even a wide long shot of distant torches in pitch blackness seem less flat than before. The image is slightly more colorful but also brighter without upsetting the mood and also revealing slivers more picture on the sides of the frame. The DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono track will never compete with the various surround tracks for SUSPIRIA but it does more effectively deliver the mix's use of score and sound effects – more so than the DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 upmixes on the UK disc that scattered some added wind and thunder to the surrounds – while also uncovering some offscreen post-dubbed ad-libs during the party sequence. Optional English SDH subtitles are included.

While Vinegar Syndrome has unfortunately not ported over and resynched the UK commentary with Warren and McGillivray, they have included a second audio track in the form of an extensive audio interview with Warren conducted by Diabolique Magazine's Kat Ellinger which covers the entirety of his career and paints a portrait of the difficulty of getting in film in the sixties and getting films made during the industry slump in the seventies. Warren discusses his partnerships with McGillivray as well as Les and Moira Young through their collaborations. He reveals that SATAN'S SLAVE came about in the wake of an aborted Amicus production and an American International project with Vincent Price that fell through after a year-and-a-half preparation. Ellinger and Warren chuckle over the novelties of PREY and even their relatively brief discussion of TERROR makes the track sound as if it had been recorded for the film. While it is disheartening to hear him recall how the difficulties with the producer of BLOODY NEW YEAR lead to his retirement from the motion picture industry, he does reveal some more recent developments that may have him taking advantage of the opportunities open to low budget filmmakers in the HD video age (although he is vague as if afraid to jinx it).

The Anchor Bay set had a featurette that included the participation of Warren, McGillivray, Courage, Maude, Ives-Cameron, and Aubrey that was ported over to the Scorpion edition. While Vinegar Syndrome has not included this, the disc does include some new video interviews with cast and crew. Warren (20:34) provides a more concise account that that scattered through the audio interview, recalling how he and the Youngs felt that many of the horror films released at the time were starting to all look alike until they saw SUSPIRIA independently of one another. Warren and Les Young sat down and wrote a list of every situation they liked seeing in horror films and gave it to McGillivray a script. Ending up with a script that had over twenty characters and as many locations, they decided against pursuing stars and holding open auditions for TV and theater actors which lead to the discovery of Ives-Cameron for whom they wrote in a part. They did the same for Barber who an agent friend of Warren's was hyping. He also discusses the film's in-camera effects, constructing the score with Slaney out of tape loops, and the strip act.

Screenwriter McGillivray (12:47) provides an equally interesting account drawing recollections from his diary about Warren's and Young's original concept BLOOD BATH, the protracted development of the script (in contrast to how fast he usually dashed off scripts for Warren and Pete Walker), and Young's repeated justification for added death scenes as "it's an evil force." The finished script was sixty-one pages before Warren had his own input, which McGillivray describes as the removal of the homosexual relationship between two characters and death scenes that are more obvious homages to other films. Of the "Bathtime for Brenda" scenes, he admits to drawing inspiration from his negative experience on the softcore film I'M NOT FEELING MYSELF TONIGHT. Actress Courage (5:03) recalls going in to audition for Lady Garrick before landing the secondary lead, discusses her friendships on the production, and her fears doing the sequence in which her car levitates above the trees. Walsh (8:49) recalls playing a lot of cockney and northerner characters around the time and how her refusal to do nudity made the image of her sitting in a bathtub in her underwear funnier. She also recalls her death scene and how her self-consciousness about her legs was an advantage for the production since she wore long socks (meaning she could be stabbed in the foot without the need to create a prosthetic). Actress Maude (8:33) describes the Lady Garrick role as one that she is most proud of despite its brevity, although she also recalls that co-star Russell kept telling her that she was being too subtle and she also recalls the unpleasantness of having her face cast for her severed head. Actor Craze (10:06) recalls constructing his director career around his negative experiences with directors on other films, not finding out that his brother had to leave the production due to illness until he showed up on the set, and is pleasantly surprised that the film has as much cult stamina as his DOCTOR WHO episodes at conventions.