I'm sorry, but how can you not love The Terror? It's got everything - built on a left over set for The Raven, two days shooting with Boris Karloff, a few other days chucked in, Roger Corman directing, a crew that included Francis Coppola and Monte Heller, Jack Nicholson as a Napoleon officer, a climax with a flood instead of a fire... It's great!I’m surprised how much of this has remained fresh in my mind over the years: the opening sequence of Jack Nicholson in a French uniform on a beach chasing a beautiful woman around; Nicholson waking up in a village with a raven; Nicholson telling Karloff how his father got his head chopped off the flooding at the end; the raven attacking the softly spoken guy; the shock ending.
Although this wasn’t based on a Poe story, it features elements from the Poe movie – a young man arrives at a castle inhabited by an old noble; there’s a creepy servant and a beautiful young woman who may or may not be dead, plus lots of atmosphere and walking around dark corridors, and a climax that involves a woman dying.
Nicholson is very contemporary and American but he’s got charisma, looks and that great voice – he’s far and away the best of the male juveniles in the Poe cycle films (not that big an accomplishment, admittedly, up against Mark Damon, Richard Ney and John Kerr). Sandra Knight is a gorgeous stunner, Dick Miller entertaining with his accent, and Boris Karloff good value as always.
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