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German poster.
Hey you!
Me?
Yeah, you! Would you like to board a train which celebrates New Year's Eve all through the night while it is reaching it's destination? It has plenty of cool costumes, food, mind-altering substances and loose women! You could say it is the very definition of Cool Train!
Oh, I don't really know....
It also has David Copperfield performing magic acts.
Oh cool!
Now that you're onboard, you should also know that there's also a disgruntled killer, who was a victim of a nasty prank couple of years ago, among the guests. Have fun!
Aw man....
And that's how the plot goes for this 1980 Slasher Flick directed by Roger Spottiswoode[1] and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson and the aforementioned David Copperfield.
A remake was in development, but it eventually evolved into the Hostel-esque Train (which retains the Terror Train title in Japan).
- Axe Before Entering: And quite literally too.
- An Axe to Grind
- Cassandra Truth: When Doc finds Mo dead, nobody believes him due to his practical joker nature.
- ~Chekhov's Gunman~: Stage magician's assistant.
- Closed Circle
- Covers Always Lie: Out of the 5 costumes in the german poster above, the killer wears only three of them.
- Deadly Prank: The Prank Date.
- Death by Mocking
- Disney Villain Death: The killer is struck from the train with a shovel and drops into the icy river below.
- Everyone Is a Suspect
- Fan Service
- Final Girl: Alana.
- Flashback Echo: How the killer is done in.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Opening scene's Prank Date does this to Kenny, though according to Alana he was mentally unstable even before that.
- Holy Backlight: Used in the magician's card act.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday
- Jerkass: Doc.
- Jerkass Victim: How many didn't feel regret when Doc was killed?
- Masquerade Ball
- New Year Has Come
- Not Quite Dead
- Off with His Head
- Offscreen Teleportation: The magician does it at one point.
- Once Is Not Enough
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse
- Red Herring: The Magician.
- Revenge by Proxy
- Shaming the Mob: When the agitated partiers think that the magician is behind the killings and are preparing for an attack, Carne talks them down.
- Shovel Strike
- Stage Magician: Did we mention David Copperfield? I'm sure we did.
- Stuffed In A Trunk: David Copperfield, again.
- Thriller on the Express
- Villainous Crossdresser
- ↑ (who also did Tomorrow Never Dies and The 6th Day)