Terror on the Menu

Terror on the Menu

1972
Country USA

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069362/

Alternate Titles: Terror House

Club Dead

Secrets Beyond the Door

Terror at Red Wolf Inn

The Folks at Red Wolf Inn

and probably many others

Directed by Bud Townsend

Staring Linda Gillen

John Neilson

Arthur Space

Mary Jackson

Margaret Avery

Well it's time to write a little about one my favourite low-budget 70's horror films, "Horror on the Menu", or "Terror House", or "insert alternate title".

The movie opens with a young college student, Regina, going to her room after class and finding out she won "something"... she goes onto the balcony and yells a few times, “I won! I won!” No one seems to care.

After a short plane ride she gets into a car to drive out to Red Wolf Inn, where she won a small vacation. During the ride her driver, Baby John, asks her if she likes to drive fast. Then he precedes to speed down the highway, dodging the police as he goes. After a small chase he hides in a darkened yard until the police drive by unaware. He then turns to Regina and says, “your Ok you know.” Regina is quite pleased by this revelation. “Im Ok?” She smiles.

At Red Wolf Inn (A sort of Bed-and-Breakfast) she meets an elderly couple, the grandparents of Baby John. They are to take care of her and two other girls, feeding them, as if they were fattening them up.

It doesn't take a horror genius to see where this movie is going.

One interesting thing about this movie is it's focus on it's characters. The first half of the movie is purely development with some sinister undertones, for example the large freezer the girls are forbidden to enter, or the phone with it's line cut. There's even a budding romance.

It does have one of the greatest scenes in cinema history, where Baby John professes his love to Regina while he's fishing on the shore. Not to give anything away but it starts with an awkward kiss then goes starts to go downhill when he catches a shark, and it falls into complete hilarity.

This is also the sign that the real movie is about to start. With very little on screen trills by this point the foundation is set for the chase to begin, mild by today's standards sure but still effective if, like me, you've come to like the main character.

Everything hinges on how much you like Regina.

It just so happens that Regina is probably one of the most charming characters this subgenre has produced, but she is played with such innocence that it begs the question; is Regina as psychologically damaged as the villains? She sure is socially awkward, and reacts a if she's lost in a fairytale... ironically that is also how the two villains are portrayed. There is a clear difference in Regina and the elderly couple when compared to the other two girls. The two other girls are clearly concerned with things outside of the happenings of the Inn. Regina allows herself to become part of Red Wolf Inn. Her complete disconnect with the outside world becomes apparent when we learn that her own mother had no clue where she was all this time.

The lead actress only went on to play a few bit parts, which is unfortunate. Veteran B-movie/TV actors Mary Jackson and Arthur Space portray the old villainous couple and their experience will be noticeable to fans of exploitation. Future Oscar nominated actress Margret Avery (The Colour Purple) appears in one, if not her first, motion picture role as one of the other girls.

On the negative side the movie is sloppily made; scenes play themselves out twice (sometimes in reverse), the boom mike noticeably appears in one scene, everything seems overly exposed, there seems to be missing dialogue, there's a lack of lighting occasionally, the script is incoherent in some places, it's poorly paced, and it hasn't aged particularly well.

To say it is predictable though would a mischaracterization. Predictable to what? Perhaps movies that came afterwards. Yes "I" can predict where this movie is going from the second scene onward, but it's forgivable cause this form of horror movie was in it's infancy and, much like Baby John's infantile speeding down the highway, it still turns out to be a fun ride. It's far more fun then most of what will precede it.

But the biggest problem with this film is how the subgenre was miring itself down at the time. It's become a casualty of the environment which allowed it to flourish.

Although my video says it's the uncut version it is clearly the cut version made to a deceptive length with trailers. It is common for movies like this to have several cuts under several titles, also severals cuts under the same title, or even several titles for the same cut. This actually has it roots back during it's creation. Basically the film makers would be showing a version of the film in one city until they were "run out of town" and then they would have to repackage the movie and move to another city. Almost like carnies. I suspect some of that happened with this movie, though I can't be sure. Plus there is the whole mess with these movies having several cuts made specifically for the drive-in theaters.

I don't even know if the uncut version is even available right now and I wonder if the original had some good old 70's gore, something lacking in the version I watched.

The DVD era actually has been even less kind to this movie, despite it's exposure. It's become a chore to see some of these films as the directors intended them to be seen thanks to several public domain cuts masquerading as uncut versions. This is a left over of the video craze in the 80's, where the public would watch just about anything that was in focus – and some things that were not. In the spirit of the old carny grindhouse/drive-in films video companies released several cuts of the same movie under different titles, sometimes the movies were even reedited out of order.

Exploitation cinema's creativity was able to flourish out of the studio system, but in a way it was exploitation's very roots that would bog these movies down and sink them into the void.