La bête tue de sang-froid

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.

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.

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.

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

"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.