Or “VH1’s I Love the Horrors”

Director: Andrew J. Kuehn
Cast: Donald Pleasance, Nancy Allen
Screenplay: Margery Doppelt
84 mins. Rated R.

There’s been an uptick in the number of superdocs appearing, specifically linked to genre films, in recent years. I helped to fund a few of the In Search of Darkness films, and the folk horror Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched helped to open eyes to a lot of hidden gems. About a decade ago, franchises like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th each received superdocs about their entire series with Never Sleep Again and Crystal Lake Memories. I had initially felt like the VH1 “I Love the 80s” series to be one of the main progenitors of these commentary-laced trips down memory lane, but I’ve found that it goes back further in some ways, reaching back to films like Terror in the Aisles, a movie that you probably wouldn’t see released theatrically in present day, but this time capsule is rather interesting in how it helped to question horror’s stranglehold on the collective pop culture like few films before it, but does it hold up on its own all these years later?

There’s no real plot to Terror in the Aisles, the material shot for the film itself being presented as a couple of voice-overs and occasional on-camera monologues from Nancy Allen (Carrie) and Donald Pleasance (Halloween) sitting in theaters watching the horror with an audience. Outside of that, the documentary features numerous clips from tension-filled entries of horror and thriller films.

It’s interesting to note that Terror in the Aisles was given an X rating by the MPAA even though the entirety of its clips and segments are from R-rated features. What does that say about the MPAA? Perhaps that it is more lenient to films that don’t glamorize the horrors within? That quantity is more problematic than intensity? Or that the MPAA is wholly unnecessary?

Now, I can’t really critique the use of the footage from other films, other than to say that I wish it were noted which films the footage comes from as they played and I also noticed some notable absences that would have made the displayed scenes seem more diverse in content and tone.

As far as the narration, I quite liked what the credited screenwriter, Margery Doppelt, had written for her two “hosts” to read, but I wish there was more of it in the finished product. The script is beautifully written and showcases a real love for the genre, but it’s too sparse, relying on dialogue from other films that can’t really convey a story in such limited time.

With all of this, I’m going to give Terror in the Aisles a slight recommendation, because this is, after all, a compilation made for me. It’s the kind of celebratory clip show for made for fans of the genre that like, well, celebrating their love for it. I love horror, tension, thrills, and most of what Terror in the Aisles has to offer. I wish the narration were more plentiful and the clips were more diverse, and I’d have liked to see some talking heads from others in the horror field, but I liked it well enough. For fans of the genre only, though, as all others should just see the various films presented here first.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe