seated with his head resting in his hands. She tells him the magician is dead, and lays her head on the table, when he grabs her by her wrists. Alana realizes it is Kenny, who is indeed the killer, dressed in Charlie's uniform. Kenny removes the uniform cap to reveal a blonde wig, and Alana realizes he has been posing in drag as the magician's female assistant. Alana apologizes to Kenny about the prank, but he refuses to accept her apology about the prank and forces her to kiss him. However, the kiss causes Kenny to relive his memories from the prank and suffer a mental breakdown, unwittingly leaving himself vulnerable to an arriving Carne, who beats Kenny with a shovel, causing him to fall out the open door of the baggage car to his death. His body lands in a nearly frozen river and floats away as the train roars off. Cast Themes The motivation for the villain in Terror Train, similarly to other slasher films, is based on revenge; however, as film scholar John Kenneth Muir notes, the film's central organizing principle is "magic, or the often undetectable gulf between reality and illusion.... In other words, characters live and die in Terror Train based, in large part, on how they perceive the reality or non-reality around them". Muir adds: "If the would-be victims can see through the illusion, they tend to survive. If they can't do so, they die. It's as simple that, but this approach makes Terror Train a more complex and layered film than the average slasher picture". Production Conception Producer Daniel Grodnik had the idea for the film's central narrative, which he had wanted to be "like Halloween on a train". Grodnik had been a friend of Halloween director John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill, both of whom gave him their blessing when he told them of his idea. Grodnik pitched the film to American producer Sandy Howard, who was impressed by the concept. The film was the first motion picture directed by Roger Spottiswoode (a former editor for Sam Peckinpah), who would go on to make such films as Turner & Hooch (1989), Air America (1990), and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Spottiswoode was hired to direct the film by Sandy Howard on the condition that he also edit the film (though Anne Henderson was later brought in to edit). Because it was made under