So after what seems like forever and not a single horror movie review, i've decided to return to the land of gore and sleaze to bring you a review of a film i'd never seen, the film in question is 1975's Last House On The Left clone NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS.
To start off let me just say that I despise the film Last House On The Left, I think it's badly made, acted and edited and i find no redeeming features to the film apart from it's revenge plot...I do however like Night Train Murders, it is a very well made film, it's well acted and incredibly well directed by Aldo Lado and it follows the same plot as Last House.
The Film opens with two young street punks as they cause trouble in an open Christmas market in Munich, Germany. Then we see two young female students as they get ready to leave for Italy on their Christmas vacation. The two pairs end up on the same train. Also on the train is a woman, travelling alone and quite suspicious. The two punks attack a man on the train and then Train is stopped due to a bomb scare at the first stop and the boys embark. The two girls also embark the train and find another train and hope they've escaped the punks, they're wrong and along with the boys is the suspicious woman. What happens then is a series of brutal, sexually abusive acts of Violence on the two girls, all orchestrated by the suspicious woman. After Accidentally killing one of the girls and the other one jumping to her death from the window of the train, the three sadist embark at the final stop. Waiting for his daughter and her friend is the father and mother. Worried about their daughter they decided to go home and wait for her. They end up picking up the three attackers as the woman has a nasty cut on her leg, the father is a doctor. Back at their home, the parents hear that the body of a girl is found and they find out it is their daughter and the father the realises that their three guests are the ones responsible so Dad starts to take them out in a violent rage of vengeance...
Aldo Lado's direction is very good, the lighting and use of colour is spot on, scenes with the lights out are shown in a blue light which doesn't really highlight anything significant but really adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the scene as there are 5 people crammed into this little compartment. The camera acts as a sort of spectator as it weaves in and out of the train cars giving us a strange first person perspective on the hustle and bustle of a Christmas train journey, and having the camera up close and personal in the train compartment during the assaults is not as sleazy as the film may suggest but give you a disturbing insight into the fear and desperation of the girls and the unrelenting power of the thugs.
The acting in the film is also quite good, although not shown in its original language but in an english dubbed format, the performances still come across as powerful, especially those of the two young girls, who go through hell on the train ride.
The music is by none other than Ennio Morricone and it is given a haunting atmospheric score that is accompanied by an equally haunting theme song from Demis Rousos. The Score adds atmosphere to scenes of Claustrophobic situations and really elevates the film above the actual film it is supposedly riffing on.
My Final Verdict:
Coming into Night Train Murders I completely expected to loath the film as I really do dislike Last house on the left that find not only disturbing but loathsome and vile, where as with this film, although the film is brutal it's nowhere near as vile as LHOTL, unlike that film, NTM is a well crafted and put together film accompanied by a great atmospheric score and some good performances. It's a shame this isn't as popular as it's predecessor as this is in my opinion a better film.
The DVD:
The version of this I have is the UK uncut release from Shameless Screen Entertainment and it looks fantastic, the picture quality is clear and so is the audio. This is a recommended purchase for fans of Italian exploitation and horror cinema.
MY SCORE:
FILM: 8/10
DVD: 7/10
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