Terror in the Aisles

Director Andrew J. Kuehn builds a cinematic tapestry of fear by weaving together brief clips from a wide spectrum of horror films, then threading them with his own commentary and moments of enacted narrative to form a cohesive, suspenseful collage. The result is a thoughtful, methodical journey through fright, where mood and texture shift from one fragment to the next, inviting viewers to notice how editing, sound design, and atmosphere can carry the fear even when the on-screen action is brief.

Two familiar voices anchor the experience, providing a steady through-line as the clips flicker by: Donald Pleasence, the Halloween standout, and Nancy Allen, renowned for Dressed to Kill, who offer commentary that traverses topics both playful and grave. Their discussions roam across a deliberately wide terrain of fear, highlighting categories such as sex and terror, loathsome villains, natural terror, the occult, cosmic terror, and the art of spoof in the realm of fright. The conversations are thoughtful and accessible, inviting casual viewers and devoted fans alike to consider how different fear mechanisms—psychological, supernatural, and practical—operate within a single frame of film.

In one notable segment, the legacy of suspense is foregrounded by the presence of a legendary filmmaker: Alfred Hitchcock presents his concepts of how to craft suspense, delivered through a clip from Alfred Hitchcock: Men Who Made The Movies. This moment anchors the compilation in a tradition of masterful storytelling, offering a meta-commentary on how tension is engineered behind the camera as much as on the screen.

The presentation makes a clear distinction in its advertising, labeling the clips as terror films rather than horror films. This choice frames the collection as a survey of fear across different stylistic approaches, not a single genre, and it influences how viewers approach each segment—the eerie mood of a quiet moment can be just as unsettling as a loud scare. Not every included piece is a textbook horror entry; some, like Marathon Man and Nighthawks, are included precisely because their antagonists pose genuine, human threats that feel chilling in a different way—demonstrating that fear can be rooted in real-world peril as well as in supernatural dread.

The compilation culminates in a high-water mark from the early 1980s: Videodrome (1983) by Cronenberg, a film whose edgy, provocative vision represents the era’s appetite for danger and boundary-pushing storytelling. The process of assembling and licensing a broad array of clips was extensive, and it determined the scope of the project for the 1984 release. After that point, the curators chose not to extend the collection with additional post-1983 material, preserving a specific snapshot of how fear was curated and presented at that time.

Through its mosaic structure, the piece invites viewers to reflect on how fear is built—piece by piece, clip by clip—while remaining faithful to the idea that suspense can be as powerful as explicit spectacle. The result is a nuanced, long-form meditation on fear in cinema, anchored by the voices of its host performers and the enduring craft of its legendary contributors.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 14:21