The Terror
About The Terror
In 1806 the French officer André Duvalier, lost on a coast, is pulled out of danger by Helene. She looks like the dead wife of Baron von Leppe. André goes to the castle and finds that the baron killed his wife when he found her with another man. The haunting is run by the witch Katrina, who wants revenge for her son Eric. The baron is already dead. Eric has been living as him. André and the servant Stefan stop Katrina, who dies in a lightning strike. Eric floods the crypt. Helene attacks, and when André saves her she collapses into a skeleton.
Cast & crew
More about The Terror
Roger Corman produced it and shot Boris Karloff's scenes in two days on sets left over from The Raven. He later wrote that the plan was most of a gothic film in two days, and that the job took five directors and nine months. Francis Ford Coppola shot beach exteriors at Big Sur for eleven days and went over budget. Dennis Jakob filmed water at Hoover Dam for three days. Monte Hellman shot at Palos Verdes and Santa Barbara for five days. Jack Hill finished the picture. Leo Gordon and Jack Hill were among the writers who kept rewriting. American International Pictures released it on June 17, 1963, and put it out again in September with Dementia 13.
Themes
Making
Karloff worked two days on sets left from The Raven. Coppola, Jakob, Hellman, and Hill shot the rest over the following months. Corman later used the film in the financing of Targets (1968), directed by Peter Bogdanovich and also starring Karloff.
Look
John M. Nickolaus Jr. is the main camera credit. Floyd Crosby and Conrad Hall also shot material, including exteriors at Big Sur, Point Lobos, Palos Verdes, and Santa Barbara, and water footage at Hoover Dam.
Music
Ronald Stein and Les Baxter are credited with the music.
Preservation
The film is in the public domain because the credits carry no copyright notice. Many copies circulate, and the quality varies. Film Chest released a restored 35mm version in 2011.
Notes
- Jack Nicholson plays André. Sandra Knight plays Helene. Dick Miller plays Stefan. Dorothy Neumann plays Katrina. Jonathan Haze is also in the cast.
- A 91-minute cut went out overseas in 1990 as The Haunting.
- John M. Nickolaus Jr., Floyd Crosby, and Conrad Hall are all credited as cinematographers. Ronald Stein and Les Baxter are credited for music.
- Film Chest and HD Cinema Classics put a restored 35mm print into release on April 26, 2011.
Scenes
- Helene appears to André on the shore and then vanishes.
- Katrina is killed by lightning.
- Helene, pulled from the flooded crypt, rots into a skeleton in André's arms.
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheTerror)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Terror (1963).webm)
