Point of Terror huh? I don't think so. Maybe Point of No Return or Pointlessness, or even Point Blank - but Terror - NO WAY! This is one of those cheesy, sleazy seventies offerings that are known for real bad acting, virtually little plot, and lots of skin. Point of Terror has all that, and it has so much more. I knew what this film was going to be like right from the beginning when Pete Carpenter, the male lead, dances in the foreground of a ridiculous bright red background ala a poor man's Tom Jones in red attire from head to toe. Things then move to Carpenter, perhaps having one of the biggest self-inflated egos I have seen in any film, play with a girl who loves him but can not offer him any career advancement. Carpenter then lies on a beach, finds an older but beautiful woman(the lovely, buxom Dyanne Thorne), realizes she happens to be married to the man in charge of a recording company that could give him his big break, and you can imagine where things go from there. The story is not overly inventive at all, the acting is quite pedestrian with Carpenter doing a less than workmanlike job parading shirtless and wearing pants made for adolescents. Carpenter, who is credited with writing this as well, even feels compelled to show his backside and then act - with his "skill" and the script - like he is doing all of womanhood a huge favour. One big Yikes! and Yawn. Despite all of this film's problems - and they are legion, Point of Terror is easily very watchable, laughable, and fun in a so bad its good way. And as an extra bonus, there is a scene, probably the best in the film, where Ms. Thorne disrobes and show us why she was in so much demand during those years. Her attributes easily overshadow her unconvincing yet somewhat credible acting style. As for the rest of the thespians, everyone does an OK job. None of the actors are real good nor real bad. The story, although obvious from the beginning, is also at least handled with some flair from the director Alex Nichol. Terror surely was misused in the title as there is virtually no horror at all in this film - a couple of rather tame deaths, though one is with a man in a wheelchair being goaded like a bull with "Ole" into a pool. You will only find something like that in the seventies for sure!

This starts with man with "jazz hands," a red fringe jacket, and tight red pants. I'm scared already! Intercut with his song and dance is what appears to be a woman's death (we'll see the actual scene towards the end of the movie). He wakes up screaming. He meets a woman who's a record producer's wife.

Though this is in a box set called "Horrible Horrors," it's barely a horror movie. We see a flashback to the death of the record producer's first wife. We see a death by drowning, and another by falling, and another by gunshot. Essentially, this is more the story of a small-time lounge singer who's willing to do anything to rise to the top.

The last scene of the movie involves someone waking up screaming. Was everything we watched a dream, or a premonition? Easier just to call it bad writing, a "horrible horror," and a waste of time.

Lounge singer Tony Trelos (Peter Carpenter) thinks he has hit the big time when he hooks up with Andrea (Dyanne Thorne), wife and talent scout for wheelchair bound music producer Martin. What Tony doesn't count on is Andrea having more interest in flings and offing her husband than having Tony shatter the Billboard top 10. Throw in her bizarre past (Martin's wife was murdered mysteriously & his daughter hates Andrea) and it looks like Andrea is one tough femme fatale.

Pushed as a horror flick (check out the poster), this is actually a pretty bland thriller-sexploitation melodrama. The film's only fantasy type element is that Trelos wakes up at the end and discovers it was all a dream...right before meeting Andrea for the first time. Cue ominous music. Lead Carpenter sure seems to like himself as he produced and co-wrote the screenplay in which he sings and shows of his muscles a lot. He also co-wrote and starred in BLOOD MANIA the year previous to this. Future ILSA star Thorne is good as the manipulative Andrea though.