It's been a while since I watched this, but when in
This was a surpringly decent rewatch. A few college freshmen pull a New Years prank on some nerd so that he thinks he's going to make it with a hot woman, but it ends up being a gutted corpse from the med lab. That's funny, right? So the guy loses his mind and is sent to the looney bin.
Three years later on yet another New Year's Eve, the same group of med students are celebrating with a late-night party train. We have some "comic relief" in an ugly mask telling jokes that shouldn't be landing, but they are. He's annoying and needs to die, and thank God, he does and it's satisfying.
So the killer takes his costume, sneaks on board, and this is your movie. It's got a decent pacing with the conventions of picking them off one by one, but the conductor finds some dead/not-dead bodies and wants to keep a low profile to avoid a panic, but that wont last long, will it?
Jamie Lee Curtis was the scream queen of the era. She does good in this, she looks good, and she a few good chase scenes throughout. This movie also has David Copperfield stealing the show, because he's a magician in real life and he's a magician in the movie. Considering there are no cutaways in this pre-cgi era, some of his magic will make you wonder, "How the fuck did he do that?!" He also eyes Jamie Lee any chance he can get, and I don't blame him.
The twist isn't unexpected, but the whole thing is pretty fun to watch. The kills are good, the characters are actually likeable, and the killer is a real creep.