By Erin Free
In this regular column, we drag forgotten made-for-TV movies out of the vault and into the light. This week: the 1981 psycho-thriller police procedural Terror Among Us starring Ted Shackleford, Don Meredith, Jennifer Salt and Sarah Purcell.
Through the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and right up to today, American network television has thrived even while existing under strict content guidelines, with strongly enforced rules meaning that graphic violence, nudity, sexual activity and profanity are kept to an absolute minimum. This, however, has certainly never stopped the major networks from delving into sordid and salacious territory, with the power of suggestion often becoming a small screen director’s best friend. So, even without the opportunity to really let the blood run free and get the clothes right off, the humble telemovie has still savvily dabbled in genres notorious for their lack of compromise when it comes to sex and violence.
All while playing within the network framework, there have been successful telemovies in the genres and subgenres of horror (1978’s Stranger In Our House), thriller (1978’s Someone’s Watching Me!), exploitation (1976’s Dawn: Portrait Of A Teenage Runaway) and even the grimy women-in-prison field (1976’s Nightmare In Badham County), undoubtedly one of the most lascivious of subgenres, even within the heady world of grindhouse cinema. Along with that, there is also a shocking abundance of network telemovies based on the horrific exploits of various real-life killers, from Charles Manson (1976’s Helter Skelter) and Ted Bundy (1986’s The Deliberate Stranger) through to John Wayne Gacy (1982’s To Catch A Killer) and Richard Ramirez (1989’s Manhunt: Search For The Night Stalker). Despite the extreme nature of their subject matter, all of these telemovies are highly effective, even while being kept tightly leashed in terms of their transgressive content.
A superb example of the telemovie’s ability to shock and disturb even while being denied access to the blunt but effective thematic instruments of graphic sex and violence is the excellent 1981 psycho-thriller Terror Among Us, tightly directed by episodic TV vet Paul Krasny and sharply written by ex-cop and prolific TV writer and novelist Dallas L. Barnes and his wife JoAnne Barnes. Though running at an economic 95 minutes, there is a lot going on in Terror Among Us, which is part portrait-of-a-psycho, part ethical legal think-piece, part police procedural and part personal drama. There is also a lot of salacious, potentially exploitative, and highly troubling content in Terror Among Us (which first aired on CBS on January 14, 1981) and it hits with full-force intensity thanks to director Paul Krasny’s savvy ability to leave much of what happens off-screen and in the audience’s collective head.
The film begins with the alternately curiously sympathetic and utterly abhorrent Delbert Ramsey (an impressively deranged and desperate Ted Shackleford, then enjoying great success courtesy of the popular Dallas-adjacent TV series Knots Landing), a convicted rapist out on parole who tries to clean up his act, but quickly goes back to his old ways, peeping on women and rummaging through their underwear drawers while on duty as a dry-cleaning delivery man. As Ramsey’s criminal activity becomes more heated, cop-on-the-case Sgt. Tom Stockwell (famed Dallas Cowboys QB turned sportscaster and actor Don Meredith) convinces Ramsey’s left-leaning parole officer Connie Paxton (the always interesting Jennifer Salt, who starred in the classic telemovie Gargoyles) to stop trying to rehabilitate her dangerous charge and assist him in bringing him to justice instead. The film also spends much time with a group of likeable airline stewardesses (led by the lovely Sarah Purcell), who the audience distressingly knows will eventually and likely tragically collide with the increasingly terrifying Delbert Ramsey.
Unlike many thriller antagonists, Ted Shackleford’s Delbert Ramsey is no masked cipher appearing out of the shadows to attack his victims. We see the deeply troubled sex offender in his grinding day-to-day, suffering constant demeaning verbal abuse from his disgusted and venomous girlfriend, and unable to supress his violent sexual urges. Ripping a page out of the Norman-Bates-in-Psycho playbook, screenwriters Dallas L. Barnes and JoAnne Barnes succeed in actually getting the audience to feel something for this haunted and horribly put upon man; Ted Shackleford rises to the occasion with his layered performance, delivering notes of sadness and regret in amongst the perverse savagery. The actor’s lean frame and blonde good looks act as a cogent counterpoint to his actions, constantly wrong-footing the audience. When it comes to the crunch, however, Delbert Ramsey is an opportunistic sex offender, and Terror Among Us certainly doesn’t sugarcoat his vile deeds.
Getting equal time in Terror Among Us are Sgt. Tom Stockwell and parole officer Connie Paxton, who have a Dirty-Harry-Callahan-and-Kate-Moore-in-The-Enforcer kind of chemistry, right down to Jennifer Salt’s direct-lift Tyne Daly hairstyle. Though Don Meredith is a little, well, limited as an actor, he’s very engaging and likeable, with a surprisingly sensitive edge, while Jennifer Salt makes for an intelligent and impassioned foil. While their bickering about the justice system and the rights of criminals versus victims feels somewhat stilted and forced in a real “talking points” kind of way, there is an enjoyable give-and-take here, and though philosophically opposed, watching this professional, platonic relationship develop is one of the film’s true highlights.
The third pillar of the film is formed by the stories of a group of female friends who work as airline stewardesses. This element of Terror Among Us plays out almost like the beginning sequences of a 1970s “disaster movie” where we learn about the lives of the protagonists before tragedy befalls them. These are all likeable career women, with the older, protective Jennifer (a strong turn from TV regular Sarah Purcell) the most fully developed and engaging of the group. These women really come into their own during the film’s shocking climax, which clearly takes at least some of its cues from the horrifying rampage of real-life mass murderer Richard Speck, and potentially served as partial inspiration for the final sequences of the infamous 1983 Charles Bronson shocker 10 To Midnight. Measured and restrained, director Paul Krasny elicits extraordinary levels of tension and horror here, keeping all the real nastiness off-screen while losing nothing through omission.
Thrilling and involving, Terror Among Us is also surprisingly ahead of its time with regards to its depiction of female victims of sexual assault; not only are these characters developed beyond their narrative function as “victims”, but the film has complete and utter sympathy for them, and their experiences are handled sensitively even within the framework of a semi-seamy psycho-thriller. They’re the final impressive touches to a highly accomplished and riveting telemovie that plays by the small screen rules without pulling its punches.
Availability: Previously released on DVD and Blu-Ray, Terror Among Us is currently available in a glistening, pristine High-Definition presentation via YouTube Movies for the princely sum of $4.99.
If you enjoyed this review, check out our other vintage telemovies The Hanged Man, Hardcase, Charlie’s Angels: Angels In Vegas, Vanishing Point, To Heal A Nation, Fugitive Among Us, To Kill A Cop, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Police Story: A Chance To Live, Murder On Flight 502, Moon Of The Wolf, The Secret Night Caller, Cotton Candy, And The Band Played On, Gargoyles, Death Car On The Freeway, Short Walk To Daylight, Trapped, Hotline, Killdozer, The Jericho Mile, Mongo’s Back In Town, and Tribes.
