Night Terror (film)

Housewife Carol Turner accompanies her husband, Walter, on a business trip to Phoenix, which the two plan to conclude by driving back to their home in Denver. When Walter's business obligation requires an extended stay, Carol arranges to drive back home herself, where her sister Vera is caring for the couple's two children, Nancy and Buddy. Alone in her hotel that night, Carol receives a call from Vera notifying her that Buddy has been hospitalized. Unable to reach Walter, Carol unsuccessfully attempts to book a flight, and instead rents a station wagon to drive back to Denver.

Just before midnight, Carol attempts to get gasoline at a service station, but is turned away by two young men who have closed the station early to party with their girlfriends. Carol begins driving on Interstate 17, hoping to find another service station. When a police officer pulls over a speeding car, Carol momentarily stops to ask the officer where the nearest gas station is. Before the officer can respond, the driver of the vehicle shoots him to death with a shotgun, and shines a floodlight in Carol's face, momentarily blinding her.

The assailant—a serial killer with an electrolarynx—pursues Carol, but she manages to evade him by pulling off the interstate, where her station wagon finally dies on a remote country road. She manages to roll the vehicle down a hill to a shuttered gas station and convenience store. Carol breaks into the station and manages to locate the pump keys in the register before being confronted by a vagrant who initially frightens her, but ultimately helps her retrieve gasoline.

The killer again manages to locate Carol, chasing her up a winding two-lane road as a rainstorm begins. Carol stumbles across a drunken man in his car who has parked to wait out the rainstorm. The two have a momentary conversation, but, as Carol attempts to warn the man, the killer shoots him to death. Carol backs the car into that of the killer, before speeding away in the dead man's car. Meanwhile, the killer hot-wires Carol's station wagon, but she evades him as she travels through the mountains.

At dawn, Carol again runs out of gas, and is directed by the elderly residents of a nearby home to a neighboring house several miles down the road, as the couple do not have a telephone, and their son, who is working on an irrigation ditch, has the keys to their truck. As Carol departs on foot, the killer passes by her abandoned car on the side of the road. He manages to steal the truck from the elderly couple, and approaches Carol down the road. Believing he is the elderly couple's son, Carol agrees when he offers her a ride. Carol soon notices that the truck has no key in the ignition, and realizes the man is her attacker. She attempts to leap from the truck, before the two struggle, causing the man to crash the truck off the road. Carol manages to take control of the truck and crashes into the man, severely injuring him. Carol observes a helicopter flying overhead. In an attempt to get its attention, she forces a scarf into the gas tank before lighting it on fire, causing the truck to explode.

Carol is ultimately saved, and arrives at the hospital in Denver. Shortly after, Walter arrives from Denver. Unaware of what has transpired, Walter asks Carol how she sustained the injuries on her hand, to which she begins laughing.

• Deal, David (2015). Television Fright Films of the 1970s. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-45514-0.
• Sykes, Brad (2018). Terror in the Desert: Dark Cinema of the American Southwest. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-476-63132-5.

• Night Terror at IMDb