YMMV / A Night in Terror Tower

• Captain Obvious Reveal: Let's face it, once you get a few pages into A Night in Terror Tower and read that the vanished prince and princess were named Edward and Susannah, it's almost painfully obvious that they're the protagonists Eddie and Sue. The TV series subverts this by simply mentioning a prince and princess, and not revealing their names until Eddie and Sue find out they are them.
• Complete Monster (includes Return to Terror Tower): King Robert usurped control of medieval York by murdering his brother and sister-in-law, whose children, Princess Susannah and Prince Edward, he then locked away in Terror Tower, the entrance of which he then cursed so that anyone who tries to enter it without a key is turned to stone, a fate which has befallen dozens. When a family friend tried to rescue the children, Robert had the family friend killed and condemned to haunt the royal palace as a ghost until he is deposed. Using a magic amulet, Robert proceeded to brainwash every member of the royal court into serving him, rechristening one man the Lord High Executioner. Under his tyranny, York descends into poverty and squalor; hypnotized soldiers routinely terrorize and steal from the peasantry, and haul suspected dissidents and any man, woman and child who is to pay his exorbitantly high taxes off to the dungeons, where they are tortured and either beheaded or left to rot, being thrown scraps once a week. Eventually deciding to eliminate Eddie and Sue, he instructs the Executioner to smother them, and when a sympathetic wizard named Morgred uses three magic stones to send the children to the future, he sends the Executioner after them, and cows Morgred into serving him by threatening him with torture and painful death. In Return's worst possible ending, he steals Morgred's magic stones, has Eddie and Sue executed, and amuses himself by forcing their cousin to dance around the throne room while avoiding blades before having them stabbed to death.
• Ethnic Scrappy: The TV version has some incredibly unflattering portrayals of English people. Aside from Mordred, they're shown as pompous, snobby and ridiculously rude. They also play up the 'English people have bad teeth' stereotype alarmingly straight. Of course they all either speak in bad cockney accents or bad RP ones.
  • There's also an "Ugly American" Stereotype, a woman with a heavy Southern accent who gets upset at Eddie and Sue for talking to the hotel clerk for too long. Followed by a twangy instrumental rendition of "Oh say, can you see…".
• Genius Bonus: A Night in Terror Tower for buffs of English history; the story is obviously inspired by The Princes in the Tower - in which the nephews of Richard III were first imprisoned in the Tower of London after the deaths of their parents, declared illegitimate to allow Richard to ascend the throne and disappeared without a trace. It was commonly assumed Richard had them murdered to secure his reign, but there are of course theories that they may have escaped. Morgred sending them to the future with new identities would account for their disappearance from historical record. In real life, one of the princes was indeed named Edward, and they were 'of York'.
• Paranoia Fuel: You're on holiday in a strange country and suddenly your hotel room is empty, you have no money, your parents are nowhere to be found and you can't even remember your last name. If it weren't for the time travel plot, it's easily applicable to someone suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's.
  • The film Unknown (2011) is a lot like this, with Liam Neeson’s character having to figure out who he actually is (and being horrified by what he learns).
• Poor Man's Substitute: The actor who plays Mr. Starkes bears a certain resemblance to Michael York. Similarly, the host at the Balmoral Lounge looks a bit like Tim Curry.

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