Terrified (1962) User Reviews

Terrified

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 19 November 2009]

Lew Landers(Return of the Vampire;The Raven)directed his final film with Terrified, a rather dialogue heavy chiller regarding a weirdo wearing a black silk stocking mask and well tailored suit terrorizing a young man named Ken(Rod Lauren)in and around a western ghost town and nearby graveyard.

The nearby town drunk known as Crazy Bill has been impaled on the graveyard gate with locals David(Steve Drexel)and restaurant waitress Marge(Tracy Olsen)off to fetch the police as Ken searches for the killer, while also hoping to confront and overcome fear(..his father was hard on him for being "weak" always complaining of his supposed cowardice).

A recent escaped loony named Joey(..seen at the beginning being buried under cement by the killer who mockingly laughs at the bound and subdued kid frightened out of his gourd)is thought to be prowling the ghost town and Ken wonders if it's him who is all over the area tormenting him. The killer plays a cat-and-mouse game with Ken, sneaking around, often assaulting him from behind. When the killer finally starts to bury him alive in a grave with dirt, will David and Marge come to his rescue? Or is he doomed to be overwhelmed by the fear that permeates within?

Shot in basically four major locations(..the ghost town, restaurant, diner, and inside the cab of a car), Terrified consists of characters talking, talking, and talking some more. That and the entire middle portion with poor Ken running around the ghost town, trying to avoid the psychopath on the loose, toying with the kid. It's funny that David and Marge head off to call the sheriff and aren't in that big of hurry to get back knowing that Ken has remained where a killer lurks.

There's great emphasis on fear to the point where it gets a bit heavy-handed. One thing's for certain, Landers squeezes every bit out of the western ghost town that he can get, shooting all over this set..it's a pretty cool little set, too. I'm guessing this low budget B-movie was shot in some back lot or small studio because so much of it is set at the ghost town with characters moving about hearing noises and seeing the killer shoot across them, hiding somewhere else.

Stephen Roberts has a supporting role, as a restaurant owner, Wesley Blake, Marge's boss, and his confession of lust to her, revealing the pervert that he is, is rather amusing and warped..the dialogue is bound to provide some chuckles. It's only appropriate that the showdown between Ken and the killer would take place in this abandoned town on the outskirts of civilization.

I'm guessing Terrified will bore some into a stooper, but I rather enjoyed the ghost town set, how ratty and rundown it is, cobwebs and rotted wood. The graveyard is also a nice edition to the movie. I can see why Landers would shoot most of the film here, with other scenes basically providing exposition informing us of certain plot elements such as Marge's father, Ken's dilemma, the love triangle between the principals, Crazy Bill's reputation, and Joey's circumstances. It all gets a bit too talky for my taste, but there are inspired moments here and there..Landers has certainly made better films, but had an eye for atmospheric set pieces.

Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1977

[kevinolzak · 5/10 · 10 February 2011]

1962's "Terrified" was one of several Crown International pictures that debuted on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1976 (February 19, 1977 to be exact), paired with second feature "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte," from 1964. A production whose poverty stricken budget restricts the settings to a deserted Western ghost town and its creepy cemetery, but with a script that would have been commonplace some two decades later during the teen slasher cycle of the early 1980s. Directed by serial veteran Lew Landers, whose prior features included 1935's "The Raven" and 1943's "The Return of the Vampire" (both with Lugosi), a rather fitting conclusion to a busy career as an action specialist, although it cannot claim to be well paced. The idea of a hooded maniac stalking his victims has become quite a cliché since the early sixties, but this appears to be the first horror film that used it. We begin at the ghost town's cemetery with a helpless screaming victim lying in an open grave as his unknown tormentor pours cement over him, driving him insane. Next, we meet our tiny cast in a small coffee shop, who drive back to the deserted cemetery and discover the still warm corpse of the caretaker, obviously a victim of murder. As the young couple drive away to contact the sheriff (Denver Pyle), their friend, Ken Lewis (Rod Lauren, "The Crawling Hand"), inexplicably remains behind, stubbornly facing up to his own fears as he loses just about every scuffle with the hooded killer, who delights in terrorizing his prey, all of whom have close ties to Marge (Tracy Olsen), the sister of the first victim (who has conveniently escaped the asylum to go after his assailant). Once everyone convenes at the ghost town, the film remains just as trapped as the frightened characters, who simply don't behave in the most logical fashion, especially Ken, who seems to be under the impression that the killer is Marge's brother. There is one major subplot that is dropped halfway in, that of a crazed motorist who delights in running people off the road. This is how the sheriff first becomes involved, but nothing ever comes of it, and no explanation is offered as to who it was, except that it's not the character under the hood, an unforgivable sin. The killer's identity is hardly a major surprise, and Italian horror films quickly adopted the idea of a hooded maniac (1964's "Blood and Black Lace"), but it remains an interesting artifact ahead of its time, all but forgotten today. Chiller Theater aired this film three more times as a solo feature, on August 11 1979, July 26 1980, and October 10 1981, with much of the Crown International catalog scarcely seen on the airwaves since ("Twisted Brain" aka "Horror High" lasted the longest, long championed by Elvira).

Underpowered suspense thriller loses in dialog what it gains in atmosphere

[lemon_magic · 5/10 · 20 October 2010]

"Terrified!" actually has a pretty effective opening setup, with a masked killer burying a young male victim alive in wet cement.(That's a pretty awful way to go). The scene is well done, builds to a climax, and packs quite a punch.

Alas, it's pretty much downhill from there.

I give the director and the photographer credit for making the most out of their sets and their budget - the "Ghost Town" is well used, and the stark black and white cinematography helps the movie look a lot better than it actually is.

What kills the movie:

1) anyone who has ever watched a mystery movie will be able to figure out who the masked killer is in the first 15 minutes. It's simply a matter of "economy of characters". So the final "revelation" of his identity doesn't pack all that much of a punch.

2) The central idea for the screenplay reads like something written by someone who has no idea what so-called "college students" actually do in their classes. Or in their spare time. Especially psychology students. I graduated with a B.S. in Psychology from an accredited state university, and I never once tried to write a paper on "terror and the human mind" as an undergraduate. Let alone a mid-term. Let me correct any mistaken impressions left by this movie: Psychology majors spend all their time fractionating rat's brains,taking statistics courses, reading books about the DSM IV, and trying to devise "double blind" experiments on students in the Psych 101 classes. They do NOT play "cat and mouse" with masked killers in abandoned "Ghost Towns".

3) The central "motor" of the movie, the running struggle between Ken and the masked figure, isn't staged with any conviction or decent fight choreography. It lacks any real sense of urgency or conviction, at least to someone who has sat through many similar movies. The director needed to either review what he learned from Hitchcock movies or else he needed better stunt people.

4) The cast isn't actually bad, especially for this kind of movie. But huge chunks of the dialog were about past events we never see (you need to "show" people key events, not just "tell" them) and I kept getting yanked out of the movie by what I tend to call the "No Human Beings Ever Talked Like This" factor. The actors just can't salvage the dialog and make the most contrived lines work.

Still, I've seen much worse. In fact I've seen much worse in the same "Gorehouse Greats" 12 movie collection this movie came in. In its favor "Terrified!" is easily the first or second best movie of the 6 I've seen in the collection. (It was 12 movies for 5 dollars. I wasn't expecting Coppola).

Has its moments

[Wizard-8 · 7 January 2012]

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.

masked killer terrorizes victims; movie doesn't quite reach terror, but has some good moments

[FieCrier · 5/10 · 12 July 2005]

Someone in a black suit, tie, gloves, and ski mask and white shirt has buried a young man up to his neck in cement in a cemetery. He taunts him, and the young man snaps. An old man seems to witness the crime.

On the roads, a mystery driver in a mask has been playing his own personal game of chicken with people. He gets off on terror, it seems. Coincidentally another young man is doing a mid-term paper on resisting terror. He'd been a friend of the guy who'd been buried in cement.

The term paper guy's girlfriend wants to talk to Crazy Bill in ghost town, near the cemetery (I guess the filmmakers had a western set they wanted to use). One of the buildings in the ghost town is the Bella Union saloon, which I thought might identify the movie the town was in, or what actual ghost town it might be. Actually, that's apparently a common name for a western saloon.

The girlfriend and her would-be boyfriend go to the ghost town. The boyfriend goes later. There are long scenes, with some suspense, in which the killer stalks his prey, catches it, toys with it, and releases it for more stalking. Unlike other masked killer in horror movies, this one's happy to use a handgun in his arsenal.

Very low budget, but still fairly entertaining. I saw it on DVD in Rhino's Horrible Horrors Vol. 2 box set.

Not Another Ski Mask!

[BaronBl00d · 4/10 · 8 November 2005]

I was in no way as impressed with this little film as others seem to be. It is definitely a cheap "shocker" about some bizarre plan to eliminate all the loved ones surrounding some dull young teen. Tracy Olsen plays the girl with little depth. Surrounding her are two male suitors - Rod Lauren as a young college student trying to realize what real fear is and the nature of terror and Steve Drexel as the uneducated but loaded with common sense guy. Both do adequate jobs, but this film is just so cheap. Most of the movie takes place in a deserted ghost town with a guy in a mask running around laughing and panting. These scenes are relatively effective and the killer does have an ability to appear menacing, but there are also some ludicrous scenes thrown in and some weird, unexplained stuff, and fantastic leaps of logic needed when the end is revealed. Threading its way throughout the entire story is Tracy's brother may or may not be the killer because he escaped from prison. There is also some guy in a mask running people off of the road. How was that possible when we finally do discover who the killer is? The script wanders and meanders quite a bit and again, the budget is low. But there are some things going for this film. Director Lew Landers does have some tension created in some scenes. I did like the opening scene, and I did think the use of setting was utilized as well as might be expected given the apparent budget. The acting is mediocre at best and poor in general.Do look for a young Denver Pyle as the sheriff, however.

Terrified at first, mostly bored after that

[Coventry · 4/10 · 30 May 2017]

Even though I daresay of myself that I know quite a lot about horror, I had never heard or read anything about "Terrified" before. When I accidentally stumbled on it via YouTube, I immediately wanted to see it solely based on its juicy one-phrase plot description: "A masked lunatic kills off people in an abandoned ghost town". That's a fairly straightforward and unusual premise for an early sixties horror film, and I also read in the user-comments around here that many fans still have fond memories of watching the film on late- night television and remembering that they were, well… terrified! I must admit that the first 15-20 minutes exist of astounding and genuinely macabre horror footage. It's almost amazing how darkly atmospheric and unsettling "Terrified" is during its opening sequences, with a grisly on-screen murder (someone is buried alive in a grave with wet cement) and the discovery of a body impaled on a fence. The set-pieces are also uniquely eerie (old cemetery, ghost town), there are lots of traditionally spooky touches (big hairy spiders, cobwebs, hanging noose dangling in front of the window…), subtle music and the masked murderer still comes across as relentless. The only thing missing, in fact, is a semi-decent explanation of what is going on. It must have something to do with a beautiful girl, Marge, whose heart every guy in town – including the killer - wants to conquer. But then, sadly enough, the whole promising set-up falls apart like an unstable house of cards. The identity of the killer can be guessed within the first few sequences, the pivot characters start doing and saying things that make absolutely no sense, the masked psycho makes the dreadful mistake of talking too much and everything starts to become dull, dull, dull! To get an idea of how boring "Terrified" gets, just count the number of times that Marge and her lead admirer sit in their car (driving very calmly and serene even though they know their pal is in lethal danger) and talk irrelevant nonsense to each other! Towards the final act the boredom was quite unendurable and I hardly paid attention anymore to the denouement, which wasn't too much of a problem since we all knew already who the killer was and what his motivations were.

Pretty dull horror flick and the predictable plot twist sinks it completely *Spoilers*

[callanvass · 1/10 · 18 December 2004]

Pretty dull horror flick and the predictable plot twist sinks it. This is a very rare horror film that i got on a 8 horror disc set) And i must say it certainly is awful. the 2 main leads are terrible and don't have any chemistry what so ever. This did manage to have a creepy moment or two and the buried alive scene was great it's just it's TOO DULL!!!! and the performances are terrible. No gore except an impaling. The acting for the most part is wooden and unconvincing. Steve Drexel is terrible in the lead role and annoyed the hell out of me and had no chemistry with Tracy Olsen at all. Tracy Olsen was pretty but that's about it she was pretty terrible. Rod Lauren is the only decent actor here he was likable and came out of this looking decent. Stephen Roberts is wooden and bland as the killer. Overall skip this one at all costs! * out of 5

'Scooby Doo' was Scarier

[richardchatten · 1/10 · 18 May 2017]

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.

A Lost Lew Landers Gem?

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 24 October 2010]

A college psychology student, intent on writing a term paper on how much terror the human mind can endure, learns his answers first-hand as he finds himself the target of a mysterious, hooded killer.

The film opens with the Fallen Angel Saloon, and the masked killer burying someone alive in a graveyard. The killer's eyes are bright and furious -- absolutely terrifying. And then cut to some nice title credits.

Director Lew Landers is many years past his prime here (1935-1944). This film claims to be released in 1963... when Landers would already have been dead, possibly suggesting it was finished without him. And horror reference books seem to know nothing of this one, unfortunately. (This was, as it turns out, Landers' final film.)

The sound on the Mill Creek disc is fuzzy, but the picture seems okay for the most part. This could be cleaned up, hopefully, if anyone ever wanted to give this a proper release. I also love that there is a character referred to only as "Crazy Bill".

How much terror can one endure?

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 3 July 2012]

College student Ken Lewis(Rod Lauren)is writing a paper on terror and how much the human brain can take before snapping. He will get the opportunity to find out first hand. Someone is terrorizing motorist on the highway. But is this masked maniac involved with citizens being buried alive in a ghost town's cemetery? The story line is interesting for a low budget horror flick. The main set being the ghost town is atmospheric, but the cemetery scenes are pretty lame and unrealistic. TERRIFIED has its tense moments and is not a total waste. Acting leaves something to be desired. Players also include: Tracy Olsen, Steve Drexel, Stephen Roberts and Denver Pyle as Sheriff Dixon.

Extreme creepiness on a very low budget

[ginbelt · 10/10 · 1 November 2005]

I first saw this film, like others have, on TV late at night years ago -- I think I was maybe 13 or 14 and had been sick in bed all day, watching TV. The film made such a strong impression on me that I thought of it many times over the years and all through the following decade, I would scan the TV listings in vain hoping for a rerun. I never did see it on TV ever again, but was able, back in the early 90's, to buy up a VHS copy from somebody who'd similarly taped it off a TV station.

I gave Terrified a "10" not because I think it is on a par technically with, say, "Citizen Kane", or "Vertigo", but because it is, I feel, about as an effective film I can imagine being done on the nickels and dimes budget this film must have had. When I say "effective" I mean, this is a horror film (albeit a b&W, early 60's low budget horror film), and the film is ~scary~. Scary in a creepy, eerie vibe kind of way. I think evilskip's review of 6/15/2001 really says it best, correctly describing the sense of isolation in the film and the weird sounds (I like the use of piano too here). This film proves that "low-budget" doesn't have to mean "low quality". I'm glad I have it on tape and do play it now and again. I've played it for friends too and they agree with me that it has a genuinely creepy aura about it. Fans of William Castle films from the same era would like this.

A really creepy villain!

[josebut8 · 7/10 · 2 September 2005]

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!

More Crown horror!

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 16 February 2021]

I'm echoing what nearly every article about this movie says, if only because it's true. The first two minutes of this movie are better than anything that will follow.

We start in a ghost town, where a laughing hooded figure buries a young boy alive. When the kid asks, "Who are you?" the reply is chilling: "You know me, Joey!" and then laughter, as the boy's shocked face is shown and we see gigantic eyes fill the screen.

Seriously, if that's all Terrified! was, people would still be talking about it and not just maniacs like me.

The titles are so classy - just check out the whole opening at Art of the Title - that even the Crown International Pictures title card comes up as part of the animation and not just thrown out at the start of the movie.

Lew Landers' last movie - he made The Raven at Universal before a long career that went from film to television - Terrified! is all about a college psychology student studying just how much terror a man can take. Once a killer starts hunting him, he gets first-hand knowledge.

Denver Pyle - years before he was Uncle Jessie - is in this as a lawman. Speaking of lawmen, Ben Frank, who was Inspector Lt. Mankiewicz in Death Wish 2, is in this. So is Barbara Luddy, who was one of the Disney players from 1955 to 1973, with her voice showing up as Lady in Lady and the Tramp, Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty and Rover in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. And oh wow - Robert Towers is here too, someday to be in Masters of the Universe as the strange-looking Skeletor minion Karg!

It's not horrible, but man, that opening makes you hope for so much more.

Good

[Michael_Elliott · 14 March 2008]

Terrified (1963)

*** (out of 4)

As one character explains, fear is the ultimate weapon that will force countries to fight one another and force one person to kill another. If someone has fear then they can be destroyed or destroy anyone in their way. A small town is being stalked by a maniac wearing a mask and this maniac likes to use fear as his weapon. One way of gaining fear is by playing chicken on the road forcing people to make up their mind on which way to turn the wheel. Another way to gain fear is by burying the victims alive so they can slowly count their final seconds before their air supply is gone.

Terrified is a wonderfully entertaining picture that goes on the same tactics used by director William Castle. In this film, the director tries every way possible to make the viewer feel uneasy and the entire film is about making the viewer go into a state of fear. The film certainly isn't horrifying but it does contain some wonderful atmosphere and some incredibly well directed scenes that do add a bit of eeriness, which makes this a perfect little sleeper that not too many have seen.

There's a wonderful sequence in the middle of the film where the maniac is stalking a victim inside a house. As the victim tries to make an escape, the maniac slowly walks behind him closing any door he goes through so that the victim can't go back but instead he must continue going forward where he will eventually be out of places to run. This scene lasts a good ten minutes and the thing gets more nail biting as every new door is closed. The one problem with the film is that there are way too many dialogue scenes where characters are trying to predict who the killer is. This here really takes away some of the tension and it would have played better without the characters guessing at who the maniac is. There's a shorter version of this movie available that is missing this dialogue so perhaps that version would be even better. This DVD contains the uncut, 79-minute version of the film.

A Minor Thriller - It's Not Terrifying

[Rainey-Dawn · 4/10 · 25 January 2017]

Another minor thriller that has it's ups and downs. Some scenes are really good, others are just long and boring. They could have cut off the extra 21 minutes and made an hour long film out of this one easily and made a film that more people would be apt to watch or like better.

It's not a haunted house as the plot summary suggests, it's a place that looks like it could be in a haunted house film. So the plot summary is misleading in that way but it is true a masked "someone" is killing people (and I won't say who that someone is).

It's far from an awful 'B' film but it's not one you would call really good either, it's so-so at best. If you happen upon this film it is worth a watch but don't expect a lot out of it. The poster and the film's summary is a bit better than the film really is.

Best parts of the film are the opening and the scene with the spiders.

4/10

Solid B horror film

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 1 September 2009]

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.

Being buried in wet cement can make you...Terrified!

[evilskip · 6/10 · 15 June 2001]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** After searching high and low for this obscure movie I was able to finally locate a copy.This was made in 1962 but not released by Crown International until late 1963 or early 1964.A lot of exposition comes from the dialogue.A shorter version (66 minutes) used to be in general release.The 81 minute version adds a little more depth to the hows and whys of the main characters.

The film has a very spooky opening scene.A black masked maniac is torturing a young man in a graveyard.He's doing this by burying him alive in wet cement.While this is going on there are some very spooky and weird background noises.

We then meet some of the leads.Marge works at a bar as a hostess for Wesley Blake.Marge is with Dave (called Steve in all of the credits I've seen until here at imdb;maybe because he is played by Steve Drexel?). Ken (Rod Lauren)comes in.He is a college student (& one of Marge's boyfriends)and is writing a mid term paper on terror.We also find out that the young man who was buried in cement is not dead,just comatose from shock.But he is Marge's brother Joey.

Marge wants to go out to the ghost town and talk to Wild Bill, the local drunk.Since the graveyard where Joey was assaulted is there she feels that maybe he may know something about it.Dave agrees to go but Ken prefers not to.

When Steve and Marge get out to the very creepy ghost town they feel that they are not alone.And it isn't wild Bill.They do find Bill.But old Bill has been brutally murdered.Ken arrives as the other two are about to head back into town for the sheriff.Ken stubbornly decides to stay.

Ken is menaced by the hooded maniac.He's locked in a room full of

spiders.Then he is tortured by a drowning attempt.The maniac sadistically toys with Ken.Rather than give away too much I'll stop with the plot here.

On the downside admittedly this is one of those early to mid 1960's Psycho wannabes.Some of the lines are pretty stupid but most of the quibbles are minor.

There are a few unconventional things about this movie.The burial in wet cement is pretty brutal.So is another scene of another person being buried alive.The ghost town sets are pretty effective.There are some weird sounds going on in the background to set you on edge.The maniac is pretty twisted and there is a real sense of isolation about this film.

The night photography seems to actually have been shot at night instead of the cheesy day for night method often employed in low budget films.This gives it an added unsettling edge of desolation and helplessness.It moves pretty well and is better than average.

As a side note it is the last film directed by Lew Landers.He also directed pictures from the silent era to the 60's.He directed the 1935 The Raven with Bela Lugosi & Boris Karloff.

Yes this is a minor film.While it is no classic I'm glad to have been able to see it.It is best viewed late at night with the lights low or

off.But it probably won't show upon tv or dvd at all.

Better than most B movie horror

[roger_nt · 7/10 · 6 September 2004]

I saw this movie in it's theatrical release, and was very impressed with the way it maintained the level of real tension throughout. I wasn't inclined, as I was with most horror B flicks, to just blow off the attempts at making the audience shiver. This film was made with some intelligence and sensitivity to the characters and to making the audience care about them. It was on TV once in the 70s, that I know of, on CBC, where their reviewers gave it *** out of four.

I have searched for references to this movie, and it is very difficult to find. Maltin doesn't review it. I'd like to see it again. 7/10

Horror fans should see this

[amosduncan_2000 · 6/10 · 23 April 2010]

A bad film, to be sure, but "Terrified!" is an interesting relative of low budget classics like "Carnival Of Souls" and "Dementia". Like "Carnival" it is all set around a spooky location the film makers had access to. This is also a central absurdity of the plot: the town has an abandoned ghost town by a graveyard, but for some reason it seems to be a place where people hang out at night.

Denver Pyle seems to be still learning to act but the actors

do there best with what they are given. Some interesting, if pretentious ideas dance around the script or maybe just pad it out. The sicko killer suggests the darker areas horror would continue to explore in the sixties.

LATER Viewing: I think I really underrated this. It is a strange minimalist horror movie, and it's effect is eerie. Probably made for late night horror show and never shown at the theater (yes, there were such films) Terrified gets under your skin if you give it the chance.

This movie scared me to death when I was five!

[TheMikeJustice · 13 November 2003]

I remember seeing this film on Saturday afternoon TV when I was a kid. One minute I'm watching cartoons, the next some hooded freak is burying a guy in wet cement. I thought it was very spooky with some creepy scenes of the phantom killer creeping around the desolate ghost town. Of course, I was five, so I suppose anyone's attempt at horror would have been considered "creepy" at that age. I've always wondered about this film because, aside from a few random TV viewings as a kid, I've never heard of or seen it again.

It lingers in my mind

[drmality-1 · 7/10 · 10 June 2005]

Saw it once about 20 years ago and it made quite an impression. As others have remarked, the opening sequence is outstanding. I wish most horror films could start with a bang like this one! The guy who is impaled on a fencepost was also pretty shocking.

The acting and dialogue was better than usual in this one. When the hooded fiend's identity is revealed, it wasn't the biggest surprise in the world, but what was surprising is how sympathetic he suddenly became and how the female subject of his obsession related to him.

There's something inherently eerie about these super-cheap B$W spookers that were made outside the Hollywood system. "Terrified" must have something going for it for me to recall it all these years later. I'd like to grab a DVD or tape of it...

Lost?

[rvoyttbots · 4 May 2004]

I saw this on a Los Angeles TV station one weeknight back in the mid-to-late 70`s. I have never seen it listed anywhere since and I always wondered why. Is it a lost film? Maybe there is some legal snafu concerning the rights. It has an unknown cast and a $1.98 budget. Can`t imagine what kind of legal problems it could generate. Seems like the perfect film for Alpha DVD to release. The thing that sticks in my memory was how the maniac would drive around in a station wagon spouting maniacal laughter & insane dialogue. It was always in long shot and you heard him talking over the scene. These scenes were probably recorded without sound and everything was added later. Makes me laugh to this day. I wish it would come out on DVD. I`d order a copy thru Creepy Classics as soon as it was listed.