The Sleeping Car

THE SLEEPING CAR opens with a couple having sex aboard a train as it rolls down the tracks. Clickity clack! Too bad for them that it crashes and explodes. Boom!

Next, we're introduced to Jason McCree (David Naughton) who moves into his new apartment, which is a renovated train car. It's a nice place, except for the ghost. He's called "The Mister" and he's one unhappy spook!

Death and alleged "hilarity" commence.

Anyone remembering Naughton from his role in AN AMERICAM WEREWOLF IN LONDON might expect this movie to be equally enjoyable. It's not. At all.

This is a ridiculous horror-comedy containing more cheeeze than a Super Bowl party! As far as the "humor" goes, there are more groaners here than in any packed Emergency Room!

ONE REASON TO WATCH THIS: If you've ever wanted to see a college professor folded into a sofa bed. Now, that's funny!...

A new tenant Jason moves into the apartment-a railroad car converted into a house-he finds the place possessed by the ghost of the Mister,a conductor who blamed himself for a horrible train crash in the past.As the Mister comes back for revenge and starts killing the car's visitors and neighbors,Jason and his roommate try to exorcise the demons for good."The Sleeping Car" by Douglas Curtis is a mildly enjoyable horror comedy that has its share of gruesome moments.The makeup effects are pretty good and the death scenes are suitably gory.Unfortunately the film relies too much on juvenile humour.There is also a nice amount of nudity provided by Judie Aronson and Sandra Margot.So if you are into 80's horror give this one a chance.7 out of 10.

Perhaps I am being generous with this one, considering I just watched Suspiria, but I found this to be a very colourful, interesting looking movie, with a lot of atmospheric blue lighting contrasted against deep reds , bright yellows, and it has a couple of clever moments (including death by fold-up sofa, probably the most memorable) and it has a good look to it, overall, but.....

So much of the dialogue is poorly written, unfunny one-liners, the characters become annoying, and even at a brief 80-minutes, this tale of a man living in a converted train car, haunted by the spirit of John Karl Beuchler, seems padded, with its especially drawn out ending taking up nearly fifteen minutes of the run time.

Still, it isn't *terrible*, and might be worth a single watch, for fans of cheeseball 1980s horror, but anything more than that is asking too much from this one.

Mature student Jason (David Naughton) rents an old train carriage that has been converted for accommodation, only it is haunted by its former owner, The Mister. The start of the film takes place 10 years previously, The Mister is an engineer onboard a train that crashes with another train because one of his colleagues is busy having sex and the explosive accident is a result. "I like to joke" says Jason and indeed he does - to the point where it becomes a little tiresome. Naughton's character is very similar to the one he played in "An American Werewolf in London", his one liners, he meets a girl, falls in love, etc. The film also has a dream within a dream sequence, something else that was done far better in that classic werewolf movie. A couple of men are killed by the sofa in the sleeping car, these deaths are quite good though there is not much in the way of gore. Could have done with a higher body count too. The are two welcome sex scenes featuring topless females. The first half of the plot is quite slow, the finale is alright but too little too late to save this from mediocrity. I used to a have a VHS poster for this back in the day, a classic case of great artwork, average movie. Although released in 1990 it is very much an '80's horror movie and that's no bad thing.

Still no proper release so far for this horror made in a time when horror was a not done and was almost death. Some big names from the genre in it, David Naughton of An American Werewolf In London (1981) and Kevin McCarthy and special effects man John Carl Buechler as The Mister.

It take a while before the horror comes in, Jason (Naughton) is just divorced and is searching for a new place to stay, one he finds in an abandoned train car. But from the start we know something happened with the freight train and let this be a car from that accident. Jason awakes the ghost of the landlady's husband. A thing he better did not.

The first half hour we go a bit into the characters with some comedy elements, especially at school. Jason got befriended with Kim (Judie Aronson) which he falls in love with but he still has nightmares of his ex Joanna (Dani Minnick).

There's a bit of nudity here and there with the typical saxophone music. Judie Aronson shows her breasts while having sex with Jason. There's a bit of red stuff and at the end we do see the real Mister but by then it's all too late. Kevin wasn't convincing at all and even looked ridiculous. This is as I said it a thousand times before a perfect example why horror was on a low base around the time being made.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5