1980 cult slasher flick Terror on Tour certainly isn’t the best movie in the world, but it more than deserves to finally get a DVD release. While any genre is capable of producing movies worthy of being dubbed so bad they’re good, it seems like horror is the genre most prone to doing so. In fact, there are many horror fans that enjoy watching an entertainingly bad film almost as much as they love watching a movie that’s genuinely good, if not more so.
One needs only look at the popularity of unrepentant schlock like the Sharknado movies or the Leprechaun franchise to see just how popular so bad it’s good cinema can become, with fans gobbling up sequel after sequel to both. That said, when it comes to horror movies that are awesomely bad, there’s no decade quite like the 1980s, which gave birth to some of the wackiest, sleaziest, most inexplicably odd horror films to date. After all, the very same year, 1984, gave the world both a true classic in A Nightmare on Elm Street and the laughably ridiculous The Toxic Avenger, probably the best effort ever from the schlocky B-movie maestros at Troma Entertainment.
When it comes to 1980s horror, Terror on Tour is definitely in the schlock category, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a fan following eager to enjoy it in the best possible quality. Those fans shouldn’t be stuck with VHS tape.
Terror On Tour Deserves A DVD Release - Here’s Why
Terror on Tour is one of those movies that lovers of bad cinema will probably enjoy, but everyone else will think is utter trash. The story centers on a rock band called The Clowns, who are clearly a KISS knockoff, from their theatricality onstage to their black and white face paint. There’s also a touch of Alice Cooper with the fake blood and gore used during their performances. The problem is that real murders begin occurring around the band, and while they’re suspects at first, it eventually becomes clear they aren’t responsible, as the killings occur while The Clowns are onstage.
Terror on Tour features the first ever acting role for Larry Thomas, who went on to become famous as The Soup Nazi on Seinfeld. Thomas turns in one of many terrible acting performances found in the film, and has apologized publicly to anyone who actually sat down to watch it. Like any good 1980s B-grade horror movie, there’s lots of sleaze, rampant nudity, and low-budget gore effects galore. Terror on Tour is an objectively awful product, but as discussed above, that’s why it’s fans love it.
In an age where specialized genre distributors like Scream Factory and Arrow Video are putting out countless obscure and trashy bygone horror films, there’s no reason something with a devoted cult like Terror on Tour shouldn’t finally get a real release on DVD or even Blu-Ray. For too long, fans of the film have been forced to watch it on beaten up VHS tapes, or via sketchy web streams that often look even worse than VHS. It’s time for The Clowns to play on a bigger stage.
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