La bête tue de sang-froid

"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.

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.

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

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.

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.