Terrified (1963)

Touches You

The Age of Commercialism

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This 'Z' budget quickie, probably taking it's cue from William Castle minus the gimmicks, is of mild historical interest for two reasons. It's one of the very first (if not the first) psycho-thrillers depicting a middle-aged killer in a mask preying on youngsters in a deserted location at night - with childhood traumas and adult hang-ups thrown in for good measure, both of which later became staples of the slasher films of the seventies and eighties.And it's the last film directed by the prolific Lew Landers (and his first feature film in four years), who died of a heart attack a few months before it was released. (Easily his best film was one of his first, 'The Raven' in 1935.) Landers had been working mainly in TV for most of the past ten years and, Boy, does it show! Most of 'Terrified' looks and sounds like a long and dour TV episode, complete with interminable verbal expositions, tiresomely ubiquitous music and overlit recycled sets around which characters supposedly in mortal peril aimlessly wander back and forth instead of just getting the hell out; while unnecessarily waving flashlights about on sets obviously already brightly lit by arc lamps. Of interest to the social historian might be the blatant product placement in the diner, the walls of which seems to be covered with advertisements for Coca Cola which keep positioning themselves in shot.

For a low budget Crown-International movie, it may come as a surprise that while this movie can't be considered "great" or "good", it does have a fair number of effective moments. The ghost town makes a nice creepy location, especially with the night-time shooting. The middle of the movie, when the character of Ken suffers one terrifying moment after another while pursuing (or being pursued by) the hooded figure is a tense sequence.But the movie doesn't quite work overall. The first third of the movie is somewhat slow for the most part. There are some stupid decisions by the characters, like with Ken having several opportunities to escape the area but staying. And as it's been pointed by other people in this user comments section, it's pretty easy to figure out who the masked figure is before the "surprise" revelation. Still, while the movie isn't overall successful, it can't really be considered a "BAD" movie. If it's a slow night, and you want to see how low budget filmmakers can overcome their limited funds with creativity, you might find this movie entertaining enough.

Cheap drive-in shocker about a ski masked maniac running around a small town, the adjoining ghost town and and cemetery scaring people to the extreme before killing them.Good small scale horror film is genuinely creepy with a nice feeling of tension running all through it. The film's one weakness is its sets which look very much like sets, the ghost town looks like the frontage of a western street scene at night and the cemetery is in no way realistic. If you can go with it and give the film's sets a pass the story and the performances will carry you along pleasantly to the end.Worth a look.

I just saw "Terrified" for the first time on Rhino's "Horrible Horrors" collection. It was really quite good. Sure, it was super low budget and kind of stupid, but the villain gave me the willies. He runs around this ghost town in a suit and cape (I think) and he wears a hood (or is it a ski mask?) that only shows his eyes. The thing about it that truly creeped me out was that he ran in and out of scenes really fast and for some reason this was actually scary...I don't know why that is. Maybe it made him completely unpredictable. He didn't do any of the usual things these guys do when they stalk someone. He kept letting people go and then would recapture them and so on...all with this creepy whisper voice and super disturbing giggle. He was also a real kick-*** fighter! There's this one fight in a cave that looks almost like it's a real fight. You can tell this one actor is really trying to get away (or he's just an excellent actor...kind of a poor man's James Dean). It's sort of a re-working of "Phantom of the Opera" and there's a touching denouement on the part of the guy playing the villain. But I have to say, if I'm ever in a ghost town after sundown, I just may be looking over my shoulder, and I just may be...Terrified!