Tagline: "The boys and girls of Sigma Phi. Some will live. Some will die."
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Release Year: 1980
Runtime: 97 min
Streaming Platforms:
Plot Summary: A masked killer targets six college kids responsible for a prank gone wrong three years earlier and who are currently throwing a large New Year's Eve costume party aboard a moving train.
Holidays:
At a university fraternity's New Year's Eve party, a reluctant Alana Maxwell is pressured into a prank: she lures the awkward, virginal pledge Kenny Hampson into a bedroom under the promise of sex. Instead, he discovers a corpse stolen from the medical school in the bed. Traumatized, Kenny is committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Three years later, members of the same fraternities and sororities hold a New Year's Eve costume party aboard a train. Attendees include Alana, her best friend Mitchy, her boyfriend Mo, class clown Ed, prank ringleader Doc, and Jackson, along with a magician and his female assistant hired to entertain the students.
Ed is murdered before boarding, and the killer dons his Groucho Marx mask to move among the students unnoticed. As the train travels into the wilderness, he continues his killings: Jackson is murdered in the sleeper bathroom, and when conductor Carne investigates, the killer conceals the body and dons Jackson’s lizard costume, fooling brakeman Charlie. Mitchy is killed in her compartment, Mo is found dead during a magic show, and two crew members are later discovered murdered. Carne sequesters the students while porters uncover yet another corpse. Pulling the emergency brake throws everyone off balance, and the porters escort the students off, many thinking it is another of Doc’s stunts.
Alana suspects Kenny and recalls visiting him at the hospital, learning of his disturbed state. Doc seals himself in a sleeper car but is decapitated, and Alana mistakes the magician for Kenny. Pursued through the train, she discovers the magician dead and finds Kenny, dressed in Charlie’s uniform, revealing that he has been posing in drag as the magician’s female assistant.
Alana apologizes for the original prank, but Kenny refuses to forgive her and forces her to kiss him. The kiss triggers a traumatic relapse, leaving him vulnerable. Carne arrives and beats Kenny with a shovel, causing him to fall from the train into an icy river as it speeds away.