Terror Peak

The only reason to watch this film (aside from the beautiful scenery of my home country) is for NZ actor Antony Starr, who moves on to bigger and better things with the fantastic TV Series "Outrageous Fortune". The rest of the film is terrible. I mean, 'Terror Peak' is obviously computer graphics, for there is no giant volcano that close of Auckland, and if there were, and it was erupting like in this film, they would need to evacuate more than just the local village which is what happens in this film.

Lynda Carter is painful to watch as a retired vulcanologist who has come to NZ for a honeymoon with her new husband and her daughter, who funnily enough is played by a New Zealand actress, Emily Barclay. The poor girl fails to pull off an American accent. Another NZ actor, Peter Elliot of "Shortland Street" fame plays a Scotsman. Go figure - that is if you want to waste your time.

I usually say nothing if I can't say anything good; however, in this case, I make an exception. A very poor movie; tried and tested story (i.e. unoriginal), every volcanic cliche in the book, no eruptions of brilliance, highly questionable effects and a vast range of technical inconsistencies.

New Zealand never fails to impress by its scenery: pity about some of the actors! The most notable effects were those in the latter part of the movie when memebers of the cast were running to their airlift point (that was strangely devoid of any sign of ash, darkness or other tell-tale signs of volcanic activity): the said effects were strangely reminiscent of those used by Tim the Magician in Monty Python's Holy Gail. Even more surprising was the loss of the top half of the volcano prior to any major eruption occurring.

After this, even 'Volcano' looks polished, professional and credible!

Terror Peak is a nice little volcano movie about a new family that travels to New Zealand to find and fund a possible new tourist attraction. The husband is the tourist agent and the wife is of course an ex vulcanologist with a tragic history with volcanos. The teenage daughter is a typical teenage daughter. The kids get lost inside the now active volcano and have to be rescued. Some OK special effects for a low budget film. Dialog was a little too touchy feely, but it worked pretty well. Some OK action and not to many continuity breaks. Good suspense. It is not true to the science of vulcanology, but it wasn't meant to be.

Apart from ... Peter Elliott as Patrick. At first I thought it was a bad Scottish accent. Then I thought ... 'No!' It's a bad Northern Irish accent. And by the end of the film (I watched it, on and off, for two hours) I decided I preferred it 'Off'.

Have not been able to finish this rubbish. No cliché is overlooked as Wonder Woman Lynda Carter (whining b*tch) is just as completely unconvincing but actually less irritating as Emily Barclay (spoiled b*tch) as her daughter.

This is really a waste of time, especially for those watching. And the special effects really do resemble those of Star Trek TOS, just less convincing.

Actually the story telling also resembles STTOS (especially that of the worst Season 3 episodes). The pacing is agonizingly slow, the plot twists are ridiculous and the characters are cardboard. But hey, STTOS was a sixties TV show and what's more: it was SCIENCE FICTION. The stories where supposed to be ridiculous and at least they were imaginative. "Terror peak" is not.

The title is well chosen, though. Its another kind of terror, but it surely peaks.