Ever wonder if Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson worked together? You’re in luck!

As it happens, these two icons paired twice. Both occurred in 1963 under Roger Corman’s direction, with The Terror as the second of these flicks.

Set in France circa the Napoleonic Wars, Lieutenant Andre Duvalier (Nicholson) becomes detached from his regiment. As he searches for them, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Helene (Sandra Knight) but she disappears mysteriously into the surf.

Andre chases her and gets knocked unconscious by the waves. When he wakes, he finds himself in the care of elderly local villager Katrina (Dorothy Neumann) and her assistant Gustaf (Jonathan Haze).

Still disturbed by Helene’s strange vanishing act – and pestered by a bird Katrina actually calls “Helene” – Andre seeks answers, and he winds up in a castle owned by Baron Victor Frederick von Leppe (Karloff). There he encounters creepy mysteries, especially via Helene’s eerie resemblance to the Baron’s long-dead wife.

While Terror doesn’t stand as the only Karloff/Nicholson flick, it differs from The Raven via billing. Karloff got high credit for both, but whereas Nicholson resided sixth on the Raven list, he comes second to Boris for Terror.

Nicholson made his film debut in 1958 but wouldn’t lurch toward stardom until his prominent supporting part in 1969’s Easy Rider. Of course, the low-budget horror world of Terror seems miles away from the counter-culture realm of Rider, but this makes Nicholson’s early work all the more fascinating.

At some point Nicholson developed the JACK! persona that would become his calling card. We don’t see that here, however, as Nicholson plays Andre “straight” compared to his traditional style.

Not that we don’t see some signs of “Jack” here. We just find Nicholson more invested in the character than in his standard persona.

As one too young to enjoy awareness of Nicholson before the late 1970s, I find it fascinating to see him in these earlier roles. Not that I don’t enjoy those JACK! performances, but I also take pleasure from the ability to watch him in a more formative period.

Does Terror offer much beyond an early Nicholson performance? Not really, as it delivers a pretty standard Gothic thriller.

With Terror, we get a movie that came in the midst of Corman’s “Poe period”. From 1960-1964, Corman made a bunch of films based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe.

Terror uses an original script from Jack Hill and Leo Gordon, so it doesn’t stem from a Poe offering. However, the movie sure “feels like Edgar”, as it seems clear Corman and company wanted another project in that Poe vein.

They pull off that vibe, as viewers unfamiliar with the movie’s roots would assume Terror adapted a Poe tale. Whatever else I think about the film, I do believe it achieves that “Poe vibe”.

Unfortunately, it can’t find much else to make it intriguing, partly because it sets up the mystery in too clear a matter too early. Not that the movie lacks surprises, but a better-told story would create more suspense related to its supernatural elements and leave them less obvious.

While we may not know where these domains will lead off the bat, Terror ensures that we see something clearly amiss from the start. I think the narrative would fare better if it left the audience with more questions in its first act and kept the viewers off-guard.

Even for a 79-minute movie, Terror tends to drag. Like I noted, it comes from an original script, but it feels like a short story stretched to feature length, as it just doesn’t manifest enough real meat to fill its running time in a satisfactory manner.

This leaves viewers a bit bored as we wait for the inevitable Big Reveal. We know we’ll get some “shocking” material eventually, and the movie forces us to sit through a fair amount of tedium to get there.

I did enjoy the sight of legends Karloff and Nicholson together, and I also liked the chance to see veteran character actor Dick Miller in a relatively early part, even if his Bronx accent clashes with the setting. Other than as a curiosity, though, The Terror doesn’t deliver much of interest.

The Terror appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Even when I accounted for the film’s age and origins, this seemed like a spotty image.

Sharpness became one of the iffy elements, as an awful lot of the movie appeared oddly soft and mushy. Some scenes demonstrated fine detail but many others felt less than precise.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed reasonably natural – if inconsistent – and print flaws failed to materialize.

Colors turned into another erratic aspect of the image. While some shots boasted vivid hues, others seemed flat and murky. Skin tones usually appeared a bit yellow.

Blacks plunked into the same bucket, as dark tones ranged from deep to inky. Shadows seemed decent, if not especially full. Perhaps the Blu-ray replicated the source as well as possible, but the end result seemed erratic.

As for the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural audio, it came across as adequate. I don’t expect much from mono material recorded 60 years ago, so I can’t claim the mix disappointed me.

Really, the soundtrack seemed more than acceptable given those constraints. Dialogue came across as concise and lacked edginess, although the lines sounded somewhat dull, at least partly due to lackluster looping.

Neither music nor effects demonstrated much range, but they also didn’t show prominent roughness or distortion. Though the audio seemed a bit on the flat side, it still worked fine given its era and the movie’s budgetary restrictions.

As we hit extras, we find an audio commentary from film historians C. Courtney Joyner and Dr. Steve Haberman. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific look at the project's Poe influence, cast and crew, production notes and various related domains.

Haberman and Joyner connect for a lively and informative commentary. They give us fine insights about the shoot and other efforts in this highly enjoyable track.

In addition to a “2023 recut” trailer for Terror, we get a “visual essay” called Ghosts in the Machine. It runs 44 minutes, 12 seconds and features filmmakers Howard S. Berger and Kevin Marr.

“Machine” examines the career of Roger Corman, with an emphasis on his 1960s “Poe period”, the creation of Terror, and genre domains. Some of this repeats from the commentary, but we nonetheless get a solid overview here.

The package also includes a booklet that provides two essays. Joyner’s “Boris Karloff and the Long Shadow of Poe” examines 1963’s The Terror and Mark McGee’s “Faster! Faster!” covers 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors. It completes the set well.

As a thriller in the Edgar Allan Poe mode, The Terror shows promise. However, the story tends to drag so beyond the pleasure of a Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff pairing, the movie lacks a lot to make it interesting. The Blu-ray comes with mediocre picture and audio as well as a few bonus materials. Given its place in movie history, I’m glad I saw Terror but the film itself does little for me.

Note that this Blu-ray for The Terror comes packaged with another Corman/Nicholson movie: 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors. Though this set treats Shop as a “bonus”, I think it deserves its own review so I’ll discuss it separately.