Review – Terror in the Aisles

If horror movies needed a clip show, this production supplies it. Overall it’s not bad, but there are some drawbacks here and there. First, the narration by Donald Pleasance and Nancy Allen can be a bit stiff. The movie also seems to assume that you’ve seen the movies being clipped. For example, the ending of Psycho is totally revealed, so if you haven’t already seen it this will ruin the experience but good. Nor is Psycho the only picture that gets “spoiled.” Further, they seem to be messing with the soundtracks of some of the clips, and of course the edited-for-TV version is missing some gore, some language and some nudity. Also, this was made in 1984, and obviously a lot of water has flowed under the horror bridge since then. But the one major problem here is inherent to the very concept: really good horror depends on a story. Isolated moments – no matter how inspired – just don’t work as well alone as they do in their proper contexts. Drawbacks aside, however, there are some real classic moments here, and reliving them is fun. Mildly amusing