Terror in the Aisles

Director Andrew J. Kuehn has excerpted brief segments of terror and suspense in a wide variety of horror films and strung them together with added commentary, as well as some enacted narrative, to create a compilation of fright-inducing effects. Halloween actor Donald Pleasence and Dressed to Kill star Nancy Allen provide the commentary on topics such as "sex and terror" (Dressed to Kill, Klute, Ms. 45, The Seduction, When a Stranger Calls), loathsome villains (Dracula, Frankenstein, Friday the 13th Part 2 (although, surprisingly, not its 1980 original), Halloween I & II, Marathon Man, Nighthawks, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Vice Squad, Wait Until Dark, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), "natural terror" (Alligator, The Birds, Frogs, Jaws 1 & 2, Nightwing), the occult (An American Werewolf in London, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, The Omen, Carrie, The Fog, The Fury, The Howling, The Shining) and spoofs (Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Hold That Ghost, The Ghost Breakers, Scared Stiff, Phantom of the Paradise, Saturday the 14th). In one segment of the anthology, legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock presents his concepts of how to create suspense in a clip from Alfred Hitchcock: Men Who Made The Movies.

The film was released theatrically in the United States by Universal Pictures on October 26, 1984. The film grossed $10,004,817 at the box office.[1]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film zero stars out of four, explaining, "Scary movie scenes work best when they're set up by some expository foreplay, which is why this compilation of horrors doesn't really work."[2] Vincent Canby of The New York Times thought the commentary from the hosts was "pretty dumb" and concluded, "Because 'Terror in the Aisles' is composed entirely of climaxes, it has none of its own."[3] Variety called the film "poorly conceived and executed," adding, "Applying the rapid editing and juxtaposition techniques to a feature-length project results in simply ruining many classic film sequences rather than preserving them."[4] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times thought the film was "often fun" but criticized the "cornball, patently phony audience reaction shots."[5] Richard Combs of The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "The That's Entertainment of horror movies—in other words, its dexterity at pasting together clips from a selection of scaries, old and new, is not matched by a glimmer of the historical awareness, or even filmic appreciation, that would make the exercise worthwhile."[6]

The film was released on VHS and CED Videodiscs by MCA Home Video in 1985.[7] On September 13, 2011, the film was released to digital format as a special feature on the 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray of Halloween II (1981). On October 15, 2012, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on DVD as part of its Universal Vault Series.

The film's DVD and Blu-ray release is presented in the same 1.85:1 aspect ratio of its original theatrical release, which also cropped any segments from other films that were originally produced using the anamorphic process.

On October 13, 2020, the film received its own Blu-ray release courtesy of Scream Factory!. As with the previous releases, it was presented in its original aspect ratio; unlike the earlier releases, the Blu-ray includes all-new bonus features, including a new interview with Nancy Allen and the alternate broadcast TV edit of the film.

• Terror in the Aisles at IMDb
• Terror in the Aisles at AllMovie
• Terror in the Aisles at Rotten Tomatoes
• Terror in the Aisles at Box Office Mojo