Last Stop on the Night Train (1975) User Reviews

Difficult to watch

[ODDBear · 7/10 · 29 November 2005]

Two young girls travel by train at Christmas time, little knowing it will be a ride filled with horror.

Aldo Lado's Night Train Murders is at times very difficult to digest. As with most Italian movies of this period, the film takes a while to get started, with many fill up scenes that aren't of much interest but once it gets going the film makes a strong impact. The scene where the two girls get molested is a pretty tough viewing experience. Lado stretches the scene to almost unbearable length, displaying such inhuman and immoral tendencies you can't help but be disgusted. The final violent confrontation between the distraught father and the violators becomes not only justifiable but wholly satisfactory.

The film's intercutting between the normal goings on in the lives of the father and mother of one of the girls and what's happening to them on board the train makes a strong impact as well. Lado is purposely trying his best to make the events even more unbearable and sad and it works very well. The script is also philosophical to some extent, displaying grounded ideas about the human nature and it's incapability of letting go of some it's animal instincts and it's refusal to be controlled. An immoral and inhuman tendency cannot be distinguished easily and it's visual display here comes from the socialite who's actually the worst of the violators while the two punks are more visible just by how they look and act (not to mention the one who becomes involved but is also the most "moral" one as he contributes to the end justice).

While not an intellectual powerhouse the film does boast some very strong visuals and hugely effective scenes of the worst mankind has to offer. It makes an impact, but it's not very enjoyable to watch.

Decent Italian take on "Last House..."...Good flick!

[beerismyfriend · 7/10 · 23 October 2005]

This movie is well worth at least one look:yes,it is a variation (rip-off)of Last house,but it does have a few surprises and arguably,a stronger theme than Last House;there is a definite anti fascist ,left leaning sensibility to this film,underlying its more European take on the "Us and them "idea behind Last house.

Firstly,its really well made.If you've seen Lado's Gialli ,you'll know hes no hack,but he sets scenes really well.The scenes on the train have a insular,outward looking feel,as though you are really trapped inside looking at the world flowing by the windows.

Thematically,the two films are VERY similar;two ultra middle class girls (more worldly than their square parents know)get involved with two scumbags,Blackie and er...his junkie friend (cant remember his name).Sorry,THREE scumbags,as Macha Merill,middle class but a deviant,joins in as the two girls are trapped on an overnight train,en route to a family Christmas.Rape,torment,and retribution follow,as you damn well expect.

Anyway,its not as brutal as last house.The rape and revenge stuff is strong (enough for it to be banned here,anyway)but its quite a dark film nonetheless:its very influenced by Pasolini.Hence,the middle class are twisted deviants who exploit the working class to get their fun.Its Macha Merill who is the real villain here,not Blackie,enjoying the twisted stuff to fulfill her libertinism,as the ending (no spoilers)reveals.Shes good in this film,too.

The bad?the theme song is awful.Seriously.I played this on my laptop and at first I thought the speakers had melted,the singer warbles so much.Awful.I hope Morricone had nothing to do with it.The actings so-so,I liked Blackie anyway.Cute Irene Miracle is one of the girls.The parent figures are really dull...and the Dads a doctor!How blatant is that!

I dug the humour of the film too:in one scene in the train a young priest notices that the rummy old Cardinal is slyly winking at him;he turns to another priest who says "Oh its just a nervous tic".But in the best scene,Blackie discovers a carriage full of old ex-Nazis singing a fascist marching song(the film is set in Germany and Italy).He sneaks in and shouts "Heil Hitler" to which all the old chaps jump up and shout "Heil" in response.I liked it anyway.i think it reveals a lot about the films idea that perversion is always under the surface,in the most respectable of places.

This is one of the few nasties I never tracked down on copied VHS,so its great to see it so pristine and clear.It could easily get released now in the UK;but they would probably cut the scene where Merill gets raped and enjoys it,totally taboo for the BBFC,especially in a non art-house flick (total hypocrisy of course)as they did with House on the edge of the Park.The scene with the knife would get axed as well,if you see the film you'll understand.All readers in Countries where people can make up their own mind,check it out now!

N.B has now been released with an uncut 18 certificate by shameless in the UK. What a dunce I sound like now...

The Lady is the star

[analoguebubblebath · 7/10 · 19 May 2001]

Macha Meril, as "The Lady On The Train" is the star of this seasonal, fun for all ages, thriller.

Yes, it rehashes the plot from "Last House On The Left" but it's done effectively and brutally. Lisa and Margaret don't stand a chance against Blackie, Curly and beautiful, sexy Lady. I particularly like the inventive use of the phallic knife. The final third of the film, where the killers meet the victim's parents is predictably implausible but gratifying nonetheless.

Demis Rusos' epic song which accompanies the opening and closing credits is wonderfully insensitive and inappropriate.

I'd love to see this on Christmas Day television.

7/10

Solid thriller inspired by LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT

[squeezebox · 13 December 2004]

NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS (or any of the other half dozen titles it's been released under) is a solid, suspenseful thriller which was inspired, by the filmmakers' own admission, by Wes Craven's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

Two young girls, on the way to Italy to spend Christmas with one girl's parents, find themselves trapped in a train compartment with a sadistic upper class woman and two low-life thugs, who perform various humiliating and cruel acts on them. Meanwhile, at the younger, virginal girl's parents' villa, a Christmas party is taking place, and the parents are blissfully unaware of the girls' predicament.

SPOILERS

The finale, in which the threesome wind up at the parents' house during which time the parents discover who they are and enact bloody revenge, is lifted right out of LAST HOUSE. There are some interesting differences in the torture sequences, however.

Firstly, the threesome only kill one of the girls, and accidentally at that.

Frustrated by his inability to break the virginal girl's hymen while attempting to rape her, the heroin-addicted thug attempts to cut it open with his knife. When he hesitates, the woman shoves the knife in herself, causing the girl to hemorrhage and bleed to death. It is one of the more harrowing and disturbing acts of sexual violence I've seen depicted on film.

The other girl (played by Irene Miracle, who would go on to star in Dario Argento's INFERNO and Alan Parker's MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) quietly accepts her abuse in order to protect herself. She even allows herself to be raped by a peeping tom, who is invited into the compartment by the threesome.

Her death is quite a surprise, as she attempts to flee and is pursued by the two thugs. Eventually she locks herself in the lavatory, and climbs out the window and flings herself to her death as the duo try to break in. He death is almost a mirror image of Sandra Cassel's death in LAST HOUSE. While Cassel finally gives in to her fate and allows herself to be shot down, Miracle refuses to allow herself to be killed by her attackers, choosing to take her own life instead.

Miracle, whose first movie role this was, proves to be a real trooper, spending her final fifteen minutes of screen time with no pants or underwear on, including the scenes in which she is chased and leaps off the train. Her exposed lower half helps to hit home the level of both the violation that has been inflicted upon her, as well as her desperation in escaping, as she never even seems to notice she's nude from the waist down. In a more Hollywood-ized movie, her character would have taken the time to cover herself.

The killers' horror at having killed the one girl, as well as their shock in seeing Miracle fling herself onto the rocks by the track shows that they are by no means killers, but mischievous crooks who have taken things too far. This reflects the killers' brief disgust at their own actions in LAST HOUSE, but the difference is that in LAST HOUSE the gang are killers by nature, whereas in NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, they are not.

I felt more sympathy toward the thugs here when the father brutally kills them both, then in LAST HOUSE. The death of the heroin-addicted thug is excruciating, as he is repeatedly stabbed, slashed and beaten to a pulp. After the other has been pursued and killed like a wild animal with a shotgun, the upper class lady, who has orchestrated the whole ordeal, convinces the father she was at the mercy of the pair of thugs, and winds up getting away with her crimes.

On its own, NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is a well-paced, intense and atmospheric thriller. It has giallo overtones, but also has a gritty realism that clashes with the more surreal stylization. Recommended for fans of grindhouse and exploitation movies.

Very good disturbing horror...

[MovieGuy01 · 6/10 · 12 October 2009]

I thought that Night Train Murders was a very good but disturbing film It was rejected for release in 1976, And banned until 2008 in Britain. Because of its strong sexual violence. It is about two street punks and a sex craved woman that manage to sexually assault two young girls on wile they are on board a late night train. They are trapped on the train by these people they make the two men sexually abuse the two girls. This was was once a video nasty in Britain. I found the film quite hard to watch at times because of the strong sexual violence in it. I feel that it might be a bit to hard for other viewers to watch it as well because of the content in the film.

Stylish and Sick

[acidburn-10 · 6/10 · 31 December 2013]

"Night Train Murders" is one of those several rape revenge flicks that came from the 1970's following "I Spit On Your Grave" and "Last House On The Left", and now this one, which is just as unsettling as the previous two, where in this one we have 2 girls terrorised by 2 men and a woman, who torture and eventually kill the young girls and then they come into contact with one of the dead girl's parents and when they find out the father wreaks revenge.

Okay I found this movie way too unsettling even for my taste, not that I'm saying that this movie is terrible, it just started off well and the torture scenes were this movie's strong point as they were filled with tension and it made me really feel for these girls, but it's the second half of this movie which was a kind of let down, It just didn't have the pay off that I was hoping for, and there could have been a bit more too it. But on a positive not I did like the distinctive use of blue light while the girls are being held captive on the train along with the films cinema photography is perfectly executed as most of the film is shot in claustrophobic spaces adding to the tension that builds as the film progresses is also another of this movie's highlights.

The acting was also strong and convincing especially from the two unlucky girls who were both outstanding. Enrico Maria Saleno who plays the father was also great as he goes from mild mannered doctor and then pushed to his very limits of sanity. But it's Macha Meril who plays the woman of the trio of sickos who steals the show as the ice cold queen who quickly goes from early victim to taking charge of the other two thugs.

All in all "Night Train Murders" is a decent enough horror movie and not just a clone of "Last House On The Left" and definitely a must see for fans of 70's Italian horror movies.

A Truly Disturbing Psychological Thriller

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 7/10 · 27 March 2017]

This is Italy's version of Wes Craven's The Last House On The Left, though I have to say I prefer this film. For the main reason is there's no annoying music on this film. Also, it's more throughout and deeper in psychological content. The principles are the same, here you have two girls on their way out to the country for the Christmas holidays. While on the train they meet the two thugs, who have previously mugged a street Santa. Their attack is unbeknown to the girls so they are friendly with the two men. Though as the train travels further they become more wary of the pair and the blonde woman the men have met. When the train is stopped for a bomb search the girls hop off the train to board another. It's not until they're on the move that the girls realise the trio had hopped trains too. From here on in things get nasty, violent, and cruel.

It's these scenes that are the hardest to watch as they lead to the girl's deaths. However, this isn't where the movie stops It's the second half which treads on the unbelievable. The evil trio is picked up by the girl's parents. Who, when they realise what's happened, take their revenge. It's the coincidence of the group meeting that stretches the boundaries of reality.

That said, that incident is the only issue I have with the film.

It's Macha Meril as the lady on the train that gives this film a nasty and depraved edge. In the beginning, she appears to be a reserved nymphomaniac. Though when they start to torture and rape the girls she's the one who's controlling the thugs, even though she's only known them for a matter of hours. She is definitely twisted and coldly calculating. She stole the show.

Even though you know what's going to happen and you probably know how the film will end, the director Aldo Lado does a fantastic job of weaving a subtle and disturbing story into a watchable film with believable characters. It's nice that he doesn't go the exploitation route, especially in the torture sequences. The reality of the scenes really strengthens the film.

I cannot say I really enjoyed this film as some of the scenes are disturbing, both visually and psychologically. It is, however, truly watchable and does emote emotions. It is a film that I may watch again... though not for some time.

A Nasty Movie For A Nasty Audience

[boblipton · 4/10 · 13 July 2021]

Two psychopathic men and their nymphomaniac associate get on the night train running from somewhere in Germany to Italy. They rape one girl, drive another to jump off the train, then go spend some time with the latter girl's parents.

It's always difficult to figure out performances in a movie that's been dubbed, even when the dubbing is good, as it is here. I thought this one might have inspired Michael Haneke's FUNY GAMES but concluded that there's very little sense of drama or black humor in it. Instead, it wound up about horrid people doing horrid things for no clear reason -- I don't believe "They're psychopaths!" to be sufficient motivation absent other items of interest, and there weren't any here. This was rejected for a theatrical license in Great Britain when it first was released. I do not approve of censorship, but can certainly understand why. I cannot recommend this movie except to those who enjoy blood sport solely for the gore.

Atmospheric and psychologically nuanced

[drownsoda90 · 8/10 · 16 April 2017]

"The Night Train Murders," also known as "Last Stop on the Night Train," follows two teenage girls riding an overnight train on Christmas Eve from Munich to be home with their families for the holiday. Unfortunately, two thugs are also onboard, who happen to find an unlikely accomplice when they decide to brutalize the two girls in an empty car. Things, however, get increasingly complicated when they find themselves in the company of one of the girls' parents after de-boarding.

The Italian equivalent to Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left" (or Bergman's "The Virgin Spring"), "The Night Train Murders" follows a familiar plot, so it needs to excel in other areas in order to set itself aside from its source material; and it more or less manages to do this, with some caveats. Where "Last House" took place in bucolic New England, "Night Train" sets itself within the confines of a train (a tradition dating back to Hitchcock's "Lady on the Train") running through rural Germany, and the film is extremely atmospheric for this. The Christmas Eve setting, though ultimately inconsequential to the narrative, does give the film another sinister layer.

The film is really well shot and there are some fantastic overhead views and other shots of the narrow train corridors that make for claustrophobic chase sequences. There is some contrived social commentary peppered in from the doctor father in the film, who waxes poetic about contemporary violence, but what's more interesting is the involvement of an austere woman on the train who finds herself a voyeur, and ultimately, a participant, in the brutalization of the girls. The psychology behind this is truly fascinating, and Macha Méril plays the part perfectly. The violence inflicted on the girls is difficult to watch, and the anonymous woman's participation in it is riveting. The conclusion, per the source material, is expected, but is also handled with stylish flair.

Overall, "The Night Train Murders" is a grim and stylish retread of a familiar story, but the material is handled well and the film boasts several disturbing scenes and a general atmosphere of foreboding and dread. Some people have tended to classify the film as an example of genre sleaze, though I didn't necessarily get that vibe from it. The violence here is more implicit than it is gratuitous, and the thematic overtones keep the film from edging into outright exploitation; it's more of a character study in the terrible things people are capable of in the most arbitrary of circumstances. 8/10.

Fierce and uncompromising film making

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 8 July 2020]

Director, Aldo Lado made the impressive Short Night of the Glass Dolls (1971) and Who Saw Her Die? (1972) before this and Flavio Bucci, the leading thug here would make many Italian films including Suspiria the next year. Renowned actress, Macha Meril, who has such a pivotal role as instigator of most of the violations on the infamous train, featured in numerous films and worked with Godard, Bunuel and Argento as well as many others. Nevertheless this was one of the films included on the infamous and notorious UK 'Video Nasties' list. The reason for this is partly because it is so very nasty, not particularly explicit with regard to sex or gore but difficult to watch due to the apparent glee of the perpetrators and the inherent nastiness of the actions. All this is exasperated by the fact that it is so well done, the direction and cinematography, particularly the extended set-up and within the cramped railway carriage. The performances too are not amateurish enough to dismiss, we actually believe this nastiness might be possible. The terrible actions that could follow, some flirting, some bravado and the wicked intent of the 'Lady on the train' as the veiled Meril is listed in the cast. Fierce and uncompromising film making.

Last Train to the House on the Edge of the Park on a Dead-End Street

[Jonny_Numb · 5/10 · 2 July 2005]

(Spoilers, but irrelevant to anyone who's seen "Last House on the Left.") "Night Train Murders" has quite a bit going for it, but is ultimately undermined by its too-familiar links to "Last House on the Left" to the point where it is impossible to view it as a fresh, creative spin on that film's themes (this is like the Brian De Palma version, with an emphasis on style over character). The plot is recycled, but the setting is new: 2 girls (one a virgin) board a train to visit family for Christmas, only to be accosted by a group of thugs (including Sylvester Stallone lookalike Flavio Bucci, who played the blind pianist in "Suspiria") and an upper-class woman (Macha Meril, from "Deep Red") who is turned on by their sadistic behavior. Both girls are beaten, raped, and tossed off the train; the killers seem home free, until chance delivers them to the home of one of the girls' parents, who find out what happened and seek bloody retribution. "Night Train Murders" contains beautiful cinematography and is creatively directed by Aldo Lado, but this ultimately hinders the film--"Last House" possessed a gritty realism that made the events all the more horrifying; comparatively, this film is so meticulously lensed and deliberately choreographed that nobody will have to say "it's only a movie!" Scenes such as the switchblade deflowering and the self-conscious sexual encounters are so delicately rendered that they avoid (unfortunately) the low-grade bite of an exploitation film. Also problematic is the killers themselves, who possess little character under the surface of their brutality (save for Meril's two-dimensional socialite); the vengeful parents are direct copies of the mother and father in "Last House" (right down to the father being a doctor!), whose liberal views on crime are of course disposed of when their shell of security is shattered, blah blah blah.

If you're a revenge-film completist, give "Night Train Murders" a whirl. It's not bad, but I've seen better.

Interesting film to watch on Christmas.....

[MikeK-7 · 8/10 · 25 December 2003]

I couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to dig up something to watch. Being in the holiday spirit, I wanted to watch something I haven't seen on Christmas. I got sick from the 24 hour marathon of A CHRISTMAS STORY, so I found this little doozy of a picture in my vaults. Bottom line - I liked it. It blatantly rips-off THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, but this film took more time in getting to know the characters, and the German-Austrian-Italian locations are gorgeous. Blackie (the guy from SUSPIRIA), and his pal hop a train bound to Italy for Christmas and violate two young girls with a psychopathic woman (creepily played by Macha Meril from Argento's PROFONDO ROSSO). Afterwards the trio unknowingly run into the parents of one of the girls ala finale LAST HOUSE. I had an extremely difficult time finding this movie, I don't think it was ever released in the United States; the copy I had was Dutch subtitled. If you can obtain this film, I recommend it.

Hard one to watch but nonetheless, a decent direction

[axile007 · 7/10 · 24 August 2010]

Night train murders registers itself in the category of most disturbing movies of all times. It is inspired by Wes Craven's Last house on left,which was released couple of years earlier but it appears more brutal because the story looks more realistic and believable. Two girls travelling by train on Christmas Eve are humiliated and tortured sadistically by two men and a woman. Its amazing what wonder, a good direction does to a pretty tame storyline. Firstly we are introduced to two super pretty and innocent characters and when we start liking them, the movie get switched to its darker phase showing ruthless violence & extreme brutality towards the most affectionate characters in the movie. Some may categorize it as 'torture porn'though I have seen hell lot of gore movies which are meant to affect you visually, but this one is supposed to hunt your mind, it tracks you mentally and makes you feel sick and disturbed

a "Last House" wannabe that falls short

[matoolz2 · 5/10 · 12 December 2002]

I am in the process of collecting all the "video nasties" and I picked this one up a week or so ago. I watched it today and was disappointed overall. When it was released in the US it was called "Last House on the Left 2" and is in fact the Italian version of "Last House" but is not nearly as visually brutal. It takes place on a train going from Germany to Italy during Christmas and other then that it tries to follow the "Last House" script almost to the letter. When I say that it is not visually as brutal as "Last House" I mean that there is more innuendo then actual gore. In fact there is virtually no gore in this film and unlike "Last House" there is no nudity. The two thugs are no where near as sadistic as David Hess and his gang were in "Last House" and even display remorse when they kill the first girl. It is definitely worth a watch but don`t expect much if you`re looking for something brutal and gory.

last train on the left!

[dsb-6 · 5 August 2000]

basically a remake of last house but set on a train. it starts out with an ear bending demis roussos song 'a flower is all you need' which is worryingly catchy. we see 2 girls going home for christmas on a train but they didn't count on there being a depraved macha merrill and 2 psycho guys sharing the train. inevitably after doing their dirty business the bad guys end up at the home of the 2 girls as guests of their parents. this film has a nasty line in violence and is actually well worth checking out.

The Darkest Christmas Movie Ever Made

[ferbs54 · 7/10 · 22 December 2010]

Since watching Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left" (1972) more than 30 years ago, I have abided by my promise to never see this film again, it being truly one of the most repugnant that I've ever sat through. And yet, I didn't as much mind Aldo Lado's homage/remake/pastiche of three years later, "Night Train Murders." As in the original, the film deals with the brutal rape and murder (inadvertent, in the Italian picture) of a pair of college girls by a trio of brutish thugs (in the latter film, one of the trio is an upper-class woman with sexually depraved tendencies) and the retribution taken on them by the father of one of the girls. Lado's film starts out with a lighthearted, almost comical tone, which shades gradually into one of unease and finally sickening horror. His picture is a lot more polished and technically proficient than Craven's, featuring some beautiful exterior shots (Munich at Christmastime looks particularly stunning), handsome production values and attractive actors (Macha Meril, who many will remember from Dario Argento's "Deep Red," and who here plays the depraved Lady on the Train, is particularly easy to look at). That surface gloss makes the film go down easier than Craven's, but that scummy original is probably still the more powerful of the two. The most notorious scene in Lado's film, the deflowering of one of the schoolgirls not at knifepoint, but VIA knifepoint, is mercifully staged in a darkened cabin but retains its power to shock today, 35 years after the film was banned in the U.K.; the excellent reference book "DVD Delirium 3" calls this scene, which is reminiscent of the genital violence in the 1972 giallo "What Have You Done To Solange?," "among the most disturbing depictions of sexualised violence ever committed to film." Far from being just an exploitation film, however, Lado seems to be trying to deliver some serious messages here, both about violence in society and how the upper classes (personified by the Lady on the Train) manipulate the lower classes to do their dirty work. In a grippingly well-made exercise in suspense, maestro Ennio Morricone's score once again adds immeasurably, especially his theme for harmonica (which many will find reminiscent of the one he did for Sergio Leone's 1968 masterpiece "Once Upon a Time in the West"). The picture's opening theme song, however, "A Flower's All You Need," would have been infinitely better without the absolutely dreadful singing provided by then-popular Greek warbler Demis Roussos. Referring to "The Last House on the Left" in one of the numerous extras on Blue Underground's great-looking DVD, Lado says that it was "not intentional to reproduce that story." Whether we can believe him or not, haters of the Craven film just might find Lado's a bit easier to bear. And forget about "Black Christmas"; THIS might very well be the darkest Christmas movie ever made!

Last Train on the left Murders

[Prof-Hieronymos-Grost · 7/10 · 14 November 2005]

Laura and her friend Irene are travelling back to Italy on the overnight train from Munich for Christmas, also on board are two pickpockets Curly a heroin addict and Blackie on the run from the German police for mugging Santa Claus…HOHOHO!. All seems well on the over crowed train and the girls kick up a rapport with the boys and help them avoid the ticket collector, Macha Méril plays a seemingly respectable lady passenger content to discuss social issues with other seemingly respectable passengers until that is she meets Blackie in a toilet where he forces himself on her meeting little resistance, and after an unprovoked attack on another passenger by the two boys she seems hooked on the seedier side of life.The train is stopped in a deserted station after the police receive threats that there is a bomb on board…The two girls see this as there chance to rid themselves of the troublesome boys and as luck would have it there is a direct train leaving shortly for there home town. The girls enjoy a candlelit lunch on board the dark and cold train which is lit only with a blue light, they seem relaxed until they realize the boys have also jumped trains with their lady friend in tow. The trio force themselves into the girls compartment where they subject them to demeaning sexual acts which go a little too far resulting in one of the girls being killed in a hideous manner,the other fleeing half naked jumps from the moving train as she is chased by the two boys,she falls to her death. Laura's parents await her arrival at the train station but the only people there are the murdering trio, who seek assistance from Laura's father as he is a doctor and the lady passenger has an injured leg that requires treatment.The trio return to Laura's house where they rest up and have dinner,unaware of who's house they are in. The parents become suspicious of the boys and after they hear that two girls bodies have been found beside the railway line, Laura's father seeks revenge on the boys, whom he dispatches in a very bloody way, the respectable lady escapes scott free pleading innocence.

A very gritty film that rips off Last House on the lefts idea of revenge, although Lado claims he hadn't seen it at the time. Lado's film is supposed to an indictment on violence and other social issues and to be fair he doesn't show too much gore and also doesn't resort to unneeded nudity, while I found the film interesting there wasn't enough tension for me….maybe it was down to Lado's laid back way of telling the story which was very matter of fact. Exploitation fans will probably love it.

Mediocre Rape/Revenge Sleaze

[EVOL666 · 7/10 · 2 December 2005]

NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, like many have already noted is a very thinly veiled homage (or a straight-up ripoff, depending on how you look at it...)of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT - only this this one is set on a train.

Two girls are heading home for the holidays on a train in Europe when they are accosted by two creepy guys and an equally creepy woman who begin tormenting the two young travelers. The taunting starts off pretty tame but quickly escalates. Without spoiling too much of the "fun stuff"...one of the girls is killed "accidentally" and the other jumps out of the moving train in terror and dies. Through an unlikely chance meeting, the girls parents unsuspectingly meet up with the killers and invite them to their house (a la LAST HOUSE...). When a newscast tips off the mother and father as to the fate of the girls, the father decides to take revenge in typical 70's exploitation fashion...

Overall NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is a decent film. A little slow going especially in the beginning, but the story is relatively tight - if also very derivative. The rape and revenge scenes are relatively tame by today's standards - I was hoping for something a little rougher, but - I have a soft spot for these 70's exploit "classics", so my rating may be a little higher than some. Not a masterpiece by any means, but worth a look for the genre enthusiast. Stick with LAST HOUSE, THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE for stronger, more original takes on this genre of film. 6/10

Skip it

[Groverdox · 4/10 · 17 November 2019]

"Night Train Murders" is known as a "Last House on the Left" rip-off, set mostly on rails. But it's more than that: it's also boring and pointless.

The pacing is hopelessly out of wack so that you barely pay attention for at least half way into the proceedings. Then the movie finally gives you the train rape/murder sequence, which is unpleasant but nowhere near graphic enough for those into these things, and then the revenge.

Rape/revenge was never my favourite exploitation sub-genre. The movies of this genre that are so offensive are really just bad: take "I Spit on Your Grave" for an example, where they couldn't even make the rape look realistic.

"Night Train Murders" isn't badly shot or directed; the filmmaker, Aldo Lado, made "Short Night of the Glass Dolls", which is a classic. This one is just hopelessly derivative and boring.

Subtlle, powerful horror

[fertilecelluloid · 8/10 · 15 March 2005]

Taut thriller from director Aldo Lado.

Frequent criticism that "nothing happens" in the film's first forty-five minutes is rubbish. The film takes its time to establish what finally becomes a very nasty situation for two teenage girls (Marina Bertie and Irene Miracle). The suspense builds slowly as the villains, impeccably played by Flavio Bucci and Gianfranco De Grassi, are introduced and the predicament of the women is unfurled.

The production values are top notch and the spare Ennio Morricone score is utlized for maximum effect. A haunting but melodic Demmis Roussos song, "A Flower Is All You Need", is a perfect, ironic bookend to the film's grim developments.

Lado directs with a sure, intuitive, practised hand. He conjures a very uncomfortable atmosphere and tightens the tension with sharp cutting, ultra-moody interior lighting and excellent direction of the actors.

Macha Meril plays a female passenger who allows herself to be corrupted by the villains. Lado uses her to explore the nature of evil and the fascination of horror. Meril's performance is exemplary for she renders her highly disturbing character with great authenticity.

The centrepiece of the film is a sequence featuring the rape and killing of one of the girls. Although the scene is reasonably brutal, much of the violence is suggested. A shot of one of the women being thrown off the train into a river is strangely beautiful.

Comparisons with LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT's plot structure are to be expected. Technically, the film is much more accomplished than LAST HOUSE, but LAST HOUSE, as a work of pure terror, is more confronting on a pure gut level.

NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is a film of subtle power and horror, and it leaves one feeling uneasy (which can only be a good thing).

A chilling Italian take on a familiar story.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 25 January 2012]

Two teen aged girls, one German (Irene Miracle) and one Italian (Laura D'Angelo) are travelling across Europe by train when they encounter two thieves, Blackie (Flavio Bucci) and Curly (Gianfranco De Grassi). The two thieves initially have a rascally charm about them, but later, spurred on by an alluring and extremely twisted mystery lady (Macha Meril), as well as a little heroin shooting, the trio proceed to torture these poor girls psychologically and sexually, with an unhappy ending for both of them. Eventually, they find shelter with the parents, and the dad becomes filled with homicidal rage when he realizes what has happened. If all of this sounds like Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left", you'd be dead on. In fact, two of the alternate titles for this Italian spin on the tale are "Second House on the Left" and "New House on the Left". (Craven himself, of course, having been inspired by the Bergman classic "The Virgin Spring".) But whatever this movie lacks in originality, it makes up for with its own unrelentingly seedy and disturbing mood. For its first half, it maintains a fairly light approach (some viewers may find their patience tested a bit), and takes its utterly dramatic turn after the Meril character has had her way, which gives "Night Train Murders" a particularly twisted touch with the primary instigator being a female. For as long as poor Miracle and D'Angelo are victimized, the atmosphere and sense of danger are thick and heavy, and the lighting extremely moody. The actors all do a fine job, especially the luscious Meril in the central, most potent role. Unlike "The Last House on the Left", the makers of this movie refuse to give us a cut and dried type of ending, daring to prevent their viewers from a feeling of real satisfaction. Overall, their movie is genuinely uncomfortable, compelling stuff that can't be ignored. With its striking cinematography by Gabor Pogany and the haunting music by the always dependable Ennio Morricone, "Night Train Murders" is the kind of thing where one may likely want to look away, as it shows some of the darkest aspects of human nature, demonstrating that they can exist inside the supposedly more "respectable" members of society who in the end can be no better than the dregs, and doesn't cut away. Seven out of 10.

Starts strong, but ultimately boring and disappointing

[geneticblizzard · 3/10 · 18 September 2017]

Bought the DVD from the shameless collection, and I thought it was going to be terrible, as many others in that series are (but funny terrible.) I was initially pleasantly surprised, as the film got off to a good start, and was solidly paced and interesting.

It was the part where they change trains, maybe about 30 minutes in, where it absolutely tanks.

So there's these two girls taking a sleeper train home for Christmas, and these two psycho ruffians board, and cause some shenanigans. Then one of them starts raping a woman, only for the woman to change her mind halfway through and get way into it. In fact, she gets so far into it, she just randomly up and decides to become the ruffian's ringleader. Okay, that part was a little weird, but whatever.

Then the train stops for some reason or other I can't remember, a bomb threat or something, and the girls, creeped the hell out by the ruffians, persuade the staff at the train station to allow them to board another train which gets in sooner.

They enter a quiet compartment, only to be quickly surprised by the two whackjobs and this completely random woman who just decided to join them, and who they're now taking orders from for some reason.

From here on out, the movie becomes unbearably boring. A bad movie I can forgive, a boring movie is, however, unforgivable.

The next 40ish minutes of the movie is basically the girls running back and forth the compartment, screaming, while the boys make weak and non-committal attempts at sexual assault. While this is happening, the female leader of the boys keeps going on and on "Come on! Don't you want to? What's wrong with you? Get drunk! Have sex! Come on! Come on! Why won't you? What's wrong with you?" over and over and over and over and over again, seriously, she doesn't shut up, and becomes completely obsessed with getting these girls to party for some reason. She could just kick them out and have a private threesome with these two dudes, but no, for some reason the girls need to be there? No realistic motive or explanation is given for why any of this is happening. Okay, they're all nuts, but the characters are so shallow it doesn't seem like an authentic action, and the whole thing comes across as quite forced.

Even the guys aren't that into it. They keep grabbing the girls and letting them go, occasionally kissing them, but they seem to get bored, until the woman starts ordering them to grab them again. It's just bizarre. Eventually, someone decides it would be fun to have sex with a knife or something for some reason, and surprise, surprise, they kill one of the girls. It's not even clear that their intent was to murder, it was like they were going to use the knife as a frigging sex toy or something.

After the first girl is dead, the three basically have an "oh crap" moment, and half freak out, the other girl dies when she jumps out the train, and they dump the second body out as well.

The train pulls in, and the final part of the movie begins. Honestly, I was so done with the movie at this point, I was struggling to keep my eyes on the screen.

Basically, the parents come to pick up the girls, they're obviously not there, there's some confusion, but then they decide they might be on a later train. Somehow, at some point - I really can't remember how because I was struggling that bad - the trio get invited into the parents house, and it just seems to drag on and on and on. Long story short, dad finds out who killed the girls, and kills both the guys.

What bugs me so much about this is that the film portrays the ruffians as these innocent, impressionable rapscallions, who just wanted to play some harmless pranks, and the terrible things they did were all the woman's fault, they didn't understand what they were doing! Of course, this is rubbish. All the woman did was sit in the corner and be really annoying, and tell them to do random crap. Honestly, it makes the guys out to be these little two year old boys who don't understand, but they're really young adult men, who are more than capable of not taking orders from some random 30-something year old woman they were just trying to rape like 45 minutes ago. And the woman is made out to be this evil genius, who masterminded this whole thing, when really, she's just a nutjob.

In the end, the father kills both the guys, the woman seems to get away. The end.

Overall, really boring movie. Solid avoid.

Taking the night train to Sadism City

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 28 December 2006]

Lisa and Margaret are two sweet, if less than innocent teenagers taking a train ride across the European countryside on Christmas Eve. The unlucky pair run afoul of a couple of vicious sleazy thugs and an icy cold wealthy woman on board the train who proceed to rape, torment, debase and eventually murder poor Lisa and Margaret. Director/co-writer Aldo Lado wrings plenty of gut-wrenching claustrophobic tension from the edgy, unsettling story, adroitly creates a gritty, threatening atmosphere rife with sadism and perversion, addresses the troubling issue of random everyday gratuitous violence with truly jolting results, and delivers a few savagely powerful moments of startling brutality (the sequence where the virginal Lisa gets gruesomely violated with a knife is especially ugly and upsetting). The performances are uniformly excellent: Irene Miracle and Laura D'Angelo make for very attractive and appealing fair damsels in distress while Flavio Bucci and Gianfranco De Grassi are frightfully credible and disgusting as the greasy low-life criminal villains who are memorably first seen in the picture beating up a sidewalk Santa for his money. But top acting honors clearly go to the strikingly lovely blonde Macha Meril, who gives a positively chilling portrayal of the cruel, haughty rich bitch who gladly joins in on the hoodlum's ferocious degradation of Lisa and Margaret. Gabor Pogany's slick, handsome cinematography works wonders with the tightly confined setting while the great Ennio Morricone supplies a typically haunting, throbbing and melodic score. Demis Roussos' beautiful ballad "A Flower Is All You Need" is used as an achingly ironic bookend for all the harsh barbarism. A nice'n'nasty Euroslime exploitation thriller.

High impact Italian splatter horror with social criticism.

[ernesti · 6/10 · 25 March 2013]

Old Italian movies have always been interesting to watch as they have much more substance in them than the movies of today. Today everything is so commercial that this kind of films that also have some form of criticism towards our society might just find their funding cut completely. More importantly violence that is not enjoyable enough is also not tolerated in today's movies. Isn't that just sick? Why should it ever be enjoyable? The movie itself isn't entirely intact as it falls apart in the very beginning. Its theme song is absolutely horrible and out of place but actually after watching the film it becomes clear why it was chosen. After about 40 minutes things start to happen. I have to admit that the film was a lot better than i had thought if you think of the criticism it holds. The criticism is portrayed in a very clever way and it's not subtle at all and it becomes very clear to the viewer what the movie is trying to say.

All in all after watching the film i thought it's actually very well made but the first segments kind of makes the experience less interesting that i almost quit watching it. That's why the film just makes it a little above the average.

It's sort of notable in some other Lado's films that he didn't quite have all the strings in his hands but the message is always there. It's not a surprise that this kind of film gets whole lot of bashing from the film critics. Well it's only obvious and sane that the content is not liked but what about the actual meaning of the film. Maybe life itself is too cruel to be portrayed in films.

Last House on the Left was a better rip-off of Virgin Spring

[[e-mail] · 2/10 · 4 April 2006]

Anyone who has seen Last House on the Left doesn't need to bother with this film. LHOTL was taken (admittedly) from Ingmar Bergman's film Virgin Spring.

The plot in that film was an old Swedish folk legend about a girl who is raped and killed by three highwaymen. The highwaymen then end up having to stay at the girl's parents' place. The parents notice that one of the murderers has a personal effect of their daughter's, and the father enacts his revenge on them for the murder.

Night Train Murders was taken from LHOTL (so they're both really ripping off the Swedes). LHOTL does it much better and keeps it relatively artistic. I didn't like this film that much. Here, they keep the two girl formula used in Last House, but has them traveling on a night train from Munich to Italy to visit one girl's parents for Christmas. The killers are two street thugs and a sadistic woman that they hook up with on the train. The girls switch trains in Austria and so do these folks. If you've seen Virgin Spring or Last House, you know what will happen.

It seems to try to keep the shock value up, but doesn't deliver highly on the watchability. The first half is rather boring (it tries to set up what is going on, but is really more trouble than it's worth). Granted, there is some sadism, sex and violence, but it's not that shocking or really necessary. Last House was considered to be very shocking when it came out. This film seemed to be playing off of that success and throw in some more shocking things. This formula didn't make it good, or even enjoyable. It seems like they were just shocking to be shocking.

Don't waste your time.