It’s all sex, drugs, and rock & roll for the Clowns, a band with Kiss’s make-up and Alice Cooper’s stage show. The party starts to sour when a slasher begins to thin out the female fan base. With dead groupies piling up like stacks of fire wood, the police send a woman undercover to find the killer.
Terror on Tour isn’t a typical slasher. The story focuses on horny, middle-age rockers instead of horny teens and the main cast is all male. Women are presented as good time girls which livens up the scenes between deaths, but prevents the film from developing a strong heroine. The killer’s identity isn’t terribly difficult to guess. Gee, which member of the cast doesn’t enjoy spending time with very interesting women?
Don Edmonds, best know for directing some of the Ilsa films, gives the viewer plenty of blood and boobs to go along with the rock music. Buck Flower is listed as production manager but his best contribution to Terror on Tour is the presence of daughter Verkina Flower. Shockingly, Verkina spends most of her brief screen time topless. Hard to believe this is the same little girl terrorized by her father in Drive-In Massacre.
Screenwriter Dell Lekus gives the characters plenty of funny dialogue. One groupie asks the drummer how long they have. “About eight inches,” he replies. Another character proclaims, “I wish that guy would commit suicide before I have to kill him.” A nerdy stage hand is the film’s most complex and sympathetic character. The poor guy has to dress like one of the Clowns to meet women because he doesn’t know how to talk to members of the opposite sex.
While Terror on Tour is never scary or frightening, it is entertaining in a Girls Gone Wild sort of way. Low production values may be a result of budget being used to purchase the booze and drugs the cast enjoys during party scenes. A sleazy little slasher from an age when drugs were safe and it was okay to love women for their bodies.