Although it was a box office success in the United Kingdom, it has received a mixed critical response for its storytelling and visual style, both of which were inspired by the Italian giallo horror film Suspiria (1977).
While making her way to the Garrick house, Ann is caught in unusually strong winds and takes refuge in a parked car; she is forced to jump out when the vehicle inexplicably rises into the air.
Terror was director Norman J. Warren's second collaboration with producers Les and Moira Young and Richard Crafter, with whom he had made Satan's Slave (1976).
[4] The characters played by Glynis Barber and Elaine Ives-Cameron did not appear in the original script; they were written in because Warren and Young were impressed by the actresses' auditions and were determined to use them.
[3] Ives-Cameron based her performance as Dolores Hamilton, the owner of the Theatre Girls' Hostel, on Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in the film Sunset Boulevard (1950).
[2] Both Warren and producer Les Young noted that due to the multiple locations, the logistics of the shoot were more complicated than those of Satan's Slave.
[4][8] Many of the outdoor scenes were shot night-for-night; this proved challenging as the decision to film during the summer meant that the nights were short, forcing the crew to keep to a tight schedule.
[4] The character Philip was a replacement for Gary, whose actor, Michael Craze, was forced to leave the production after suffering an epileptic seizure on set.
[4] The scene of Viv's murder was cut prior to the film's UK release to remove shots of a knife going through the character's feet.
He praised the "bright dialogue", "excellent camerawork" and "Hitchcockian" moments of suspense, while criticising the "statutory" plot and use of violent close-ups: "Crude and unconvincing, disrupting the atmosphere otherwise so carefully built up, these shots turn the film into something cheap and nasty.
"[16] Variety magazine wrote of the film: "Warren emphasises gore above all other elements [...] and [the] chief attribute is co-producer Les Young's artsy lensing.
Jo Botting of Screenonline is complimentary: "The effects work extremely well for a low-budget film and, where they are less skilful, expert camerawork and judicious editing hide many of their shortcomings."
[17] By contrast, the website TV Cream calls it a "rubbish Suspiria knock-off", adding: "Unless you love badly-acted, no-budget, plotless haunted house gore-fests with no style, humour or any redeeming features whatsoever, we say don't bother.
"[19] Fellow reviewer Fred Beldin regards Terror as "one of [Warren's] more watchable films [...] trotting out a laundry list of haunted house/slasher/witchcraft clichés delivered with crisp British flair and enough gore overkill to satisfy the bloodthirsty."
[20] According to Ian Jane of DVD Talk, Terror "works well if you approach it expecting nothing more than a fun ninety minutes of trashy horror [...] there's enough carnage and slickly shot mayhem in here to ensure that even if the characters are rather shallow and the premise a little hokey, the film is never dull.
"[15] Harvey Fenton, editor of Flesh and Blood magazine, writes that the film contains "moments [...] which almost seem to be homages to the world of exploitation movie production in general."
[25] Steve Green, also writing for Flesh and Blood, states that one of Terror's enduring aspects is the "joy [McGillivray's] script takes in spoofing the industry itself.
"[25] Ian Cooper, author of Frightmares: A History of British Horror Cinema, considers Terror to be Warren's best film but also his most derivative, noting the influence of Suspiria.
In Terror, the latter is undermined by the editing of scenes such as Ann's arrival at a railway station and her subsequent walk through a park: according to Locks, the sudden jump from one location to the other causes the narrative to "proceed quickly and disjointedly, as in a dream.
[8] Kim Newman argues that while the film contains "Argentoisms" such as the bizarre death of Philip, other scenes, like the false stalking of Suzy, are "hoary clichés".
[25] Fenton argues that the influence of other films is also evident, believing the woodland chase before Carol's murder to be inspired by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).
According to Mark Fraser of website Top 10 Films: "Terror's storyline was initially concocted by Les and Moira Young, its plot's logistics essentially originated from a 'grand list' of all the scenes [Warren] wanted to lift from other horror works.
[21] It is also included on a 2019 limited-edition Blu-ray box set from Powerhouse Films titled "Bloody Terror: The Shocking Cinema of Norman J. Warren, 1976–1987".
[28] Warren said that following the release of Bloody New Year in 1987 he began planning a "sort of sequel to Terror: a fast-moving film that, along with the horror, also involves music and dancers.