Jack Nicholson plays a french officer in Napoleon’s army who ends up at the castle of Baron Von Leppe (Boris Karloff), after wandering around lost for seven months. He’s met a mysterious girl who just might be a ghost! Von Leppe is pretty mysterious too! He’s been in the castle for 20 years after murdering his adulterous wife, Ilsa.
Is Ilsa the same girl that Jack ran into? And what about the strange witch who lives near the castle? And the hawk that seems to possess human intelligence?
THE TERROR is one of Roger Corman’s better films, leaving his infamous rubber monsters behind, in order to get under our skin with creeping undercurrents of fear and dread. Nicholson is great, actually showing some of the snearing stuff that would one day make him a megastar. Karloff is himself, in one of his better latter-day performances.
Also watch for Jonathan Haze (Little Shop Of Horrors) as Gustav, and Dick Miller (Bucket Of Blood) as Von Leppe’s faithful servant.
