TERROR IN THE AISLES

(October 1984, U.S.)

I'm guessing that many of you outside of my own generation reading this post have likely never heard of TERROR IN THE AISLES. This is a documentary film about many of the most popular horror films up until the year of its release. Released shortly before Halloween of 1984 and even plugged by "Mistress of the Dark" Elvira on television, I'm sure Universal Pictures expected a money-making hit. It was anything but and it was easily dismissed by audiences and critics. But someone like myself, a Gen X'er who employs fond movie memories that many others many not have, there are elements of this documentary that I've come to appreciate over the years. Hardly a perfect film, or even a great film, TERROR IN THE AISLES, hosted by actor Donald Pleasence of HALLOWEEN (1978) and Nancy Allen of CARRIE (1976) and DRESSED TO KILL (1980), the film features endless clips from popular horror films. These segments of terror and suspense, accompanied by commentary, attempts to create an effective compilation of effects designed to induce fright, as well as tap our memories of our movie theater experiences in front of the horror movie.

There's elements of terror with sex in films like KLUTE (1971), WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (1979) and DRESSED TO KILL (1980), loathsome and terrifying villains like DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN (1931), Norman Bates in PSYCHO, Michael Myers in HALLOWEEN (1978) and HALLOWEEN II (1981), Jason Vorhees in FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) and FRIDAY THE 13TH - PART II (1981) and Leatherface in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974), terror of natural elements like JAWS (1975), ALLIGATOR (1980) and Hitchcock's THE BIRDS, and even the occult as in THE EXORCIST (1973), THE OMEN (1976) and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981). For someone like myself, the documentary reminds me of a time at the very beginning of the 1980s when horror and slasher films were all the rage on the big screen.

However, more than just any typical documentary that tells you the what and the when, TERROR IN THE AISLES attempts to explain and dissect the reasons why we get scared and why we very often enjoy it. In a moment of psychological relevance, we become part of a experiment in which a movie audience reacts a certain way when they're surprised and jolted by an act of terror and when the movie audience is actually told about the same act of terror to come and then experiences the fear and the terror of knowing what shall happen soon and knowing they're powerless to do anything about it. It's a mild experiment, to be sure, but one I actually find psychologically-effective to our minds.

The film does, however, stretch its point a little to the point of invalidity when it attempts to extract the same horror elements from films like MARATHON MAN (1976) and NIGHTHAWKS (1981). Don't get me wrong - these are both great thrillers, but that's just what they are - thrillers, and to link them into the same effective genres as pure horror seems like a stretch, if not an outright cop-out. As narrators, Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen are no more effective or believable than say, Abbot and Costello. They are, at best, selections that conform to their popularity at the time of the early 1980s, and nothing more. The editing is often very rapid and its techniques of juxtaposition to create a feature length film (as opposed to a simply hour-long television feature) may be considered a cornball and damaging effort to many classic horror films that should be properly preserved instead.

In short TERROR IN THE AISLES is hardly a cinematic learning tool, even in the genre of horror films. It is, however, a film that employs a degree of worthwhile and nostalgic fun, and a writer like myself has always depended on nostalgia and its true meaning in our lives. That's why I write this blog, and that's why you're reading it right now.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Sorry, there are none (oh, the horror...the horror!).