The Terror (1963 film)

1963 film independent horror film

The Terror is a 1963 American independent horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The film stars Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson, the latter of whom portrays a French officer who is seduced by a woman who is also a shapeshifting devil. The film is sometimes linked to Corman's Poe cycle, a series of movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe; however, The Terror is not based on any text written by Poe. The movie has become famous because of the circumstances of its production, including that all of Boris Karloff's scenes were shot in two days, the long time it took to complete, the number of people who worked on it that became famous, and the part the film played in the financing and production of Targets (1968), directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Karloff. Corman wrote in his memoirs that The Terror "began as a challenge: to shoot most of a gothic film in two days using left over sets from The Raven. It turned into the longest production of my career – an ordeal that required five directors and nine months to complete. But like Little Shop [of Horrors], it's a classic story of how to make a film out of nothing."

In 1806, André Duvalier, a French soldier lost in the Confederation of the Rhine, is saved by Helene, a young woman who bears a resemblance to Ilsa von Leppe, the late wife of Baron von Leppe who had died 20 years earlier. André sets out to investigate Helene's true identity and learns the Baron's darkest secret: after he found Ilsa with another man, the Baron killed his wife while his servant killed her lover. Over the preceding two years, the Baron has been tormented by Ilsa's ghost, who has beseeched him to kill himself so that they can be together forever. After much hesitation, the Baron decides to do so and atone for his crimes. Unbeknownst to him, Ilsa's ghost is being commanded to haunt him by a peasant witch named Katrina. After preventing the Baron from killing himself, André and Stefan, the Baron's majordomo, capture Katrina and force her into compliance. Katrina reveals herself to be the mother of a man named Eric, whom she believes was killed by the Baron 20 years earlier. She hopes to avenge Eric's death by damning the Baron's soul to Hell. Stefan reveals that it was the Baron who had died, not Eric, and that Eric felt so guilty about it that he took the Baron's place (thus explaining why the Baron had never left the castle in 20 years). Over the years, Eric has convinced himself that he is truly Baron von Leppe. Realizing her error too late, Katrina goes with André and Stefan to stop Eric from flooding the castle crypt. Katrina's pact with the devil, however, makes her unable to walk on consecrated ground and she ends up burning to death after being struck by lightning. At the von Leppe castle, Eric floods the crypt as Ilsa's ghost attempts to kill him and Stefan struggles to stop her. By the time that André gains access to the crypt, it is already starting to cave in and he is only able to save Helene. The two share a moment outside the castle before Helene turns into a rotting corpse.

Boris Karloff as Baron von Leppe/Eric, a corrupt aristocratic man who murdered the baron and his wife and poses as the baron of an abandoned castle. Jack Nicholson as André Duvalier, a soldier of Napoleon's army who finds himself lost after fleeing his men during battle. Dick Miller as Stefan, the original Baron's trustful servant who now serves the impostor. Sandra Knight as Helene/Ilsa, the shapeshifting demon of the witch who poses as the baron's deceased wife. Dorothy Neumann as Katrina the witch, a peasant woman and the mother of Eric who was driven out of the village for heresy and witchcraft. Jonathan Haze as Gustaf, a lost village man who became the mentally ill servant of the witch.

Corman felt The Terror still required more work, so he hired Monte Hellman to shoot exteriors at the cliffs of Palos Verdes with Nicholson and Miller and scenes at Santa Barbara. Nicholson says this involved "more raven stuff, more scenes with Jackie Haze." Monte Hellman said he "found the challenge of making a movie in five days exciting, especially with no budget." Corman says Hellman's footage changed the storyline once more "but it looked alright".

More work needed to be done on the movie when Hellman was hired on another job, so Corman used Jack Hill to finish the movie. Corman says Hill was called away just before the end, so Jack Nicholson directed on the last day. It was the first time Nicholson had directed a film. This involved the twist that the Baron was not the Baron. Nicholson later reflected on the movie fondly, saying, "I had a great time. Paid the rent. They don't make movies like The Terror anymore."

The film was released on a double feature with Dementia 13 in September 1963.

The Los Angeles Times thought The Terror was "spooky" with a "slow, lazy plot" and "Excellent photography and settings it moves like a stately pavan but the authors exhibit some of that old Edgar Allan Poe touch for haunted happenings".

In May 1966, Corman told Karloff that he would not be getting his deferred $15,000 since the film never made $150,000. However, he said that he would pay the money if Karloff worked on a new undetermined future project for Corman. This turned out to be the Peter Bogdanovich film Targets (1968). Karloff was paid his deferred fee once he agreed to be in the movie.

Clips from the film appeared in Hollywood Boulevard (1976). In 2010, the film was featured in the second episode of the revived, syndicated TV series Elvira's Movie Macabre. The climax scene was shown in the 2013 film Avenged.

Today, the film is in the public domain, since there is no copyright notice in the credits for the film. In 1990, actor Dick Miller, who plays Karloff's majordomo, was hired to shoot new scenes to use as a framing sequence for an overseas version of The Terror. In this the main action of the film is presented in flashback. This was done for Corman to establish some sort of copyright in the movie. Dick Miller says the payment for these scenes was the most he had ever received from Corman.