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.
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.