Evil Train

Let's see what's beyond door number three. Surprise! It's a truckload of Italian-produced 80's horror cheese! The "official" title Beyond the Door III is completely irrelevant and probably just chosen because the film remotely involves some itty-bitty parts of satanic possession and because the infamous Ovidio G. Assonitis – director of the original Beyond the Door (a nitwit "Exorcist" rip-off) pumped extra money into this as an executive producer. Speaking of him, usually you should beware of any horror production that proudly depicts Assonitis' name during the opening credits. Remember "Tentacles", "Ator the Iron Warrior" and "Piranha II"? But "Amok Train", the much more apt title, is actually a vastly entertaining movie as long as you keep your expectations really low. During the first five minutes already, we're treated to eerie images of black-cloaked Satanists performing a weird ritual; a randomly gratuitous boobs shot and someone losing her head in a tragic car accident when a steel bar crushes through the front window. Well then, how bad can an 80's horror movie possibly be? Even after the promising opening minutes, "Amok Train" remains a fast-paced and hugely amusing little flick, albeit one that makes absolutely no sense and contains more crazy twists and absurd situations than you could ever imagine. A group of Californian high school students has the privilege of traveling to Yugoslavia, to study the local history with the eminent Professor Andromolek. The whole trip turns out to be a giant lie, as the Professor is part of a satanic sect and they're exclusively interested in young Beverly because she's the "chosen" virgin to wed Satan himself. Beverly and her classmates manage to escape and jump on an old train hoping to escape. From then on, the movie literally turns into a derailed – in every possible meaning of the term – adventure with nonsensical twists, extreme cheese and spontaneously random death scenes. Dark powers turn the train into an unstoppable instrument of the devil driving through water and over land without rails. The opening scenes in the little Yugoslavian villages are atmospheric and actually evoke a handful of real scares. Nearly two decades prior to Eli Roth, the creators of this little flick already realized that the population in East European countries look uncanny and that it's a terribly dangerous place for American teenagers to travel to. The middle section, however, is just sheer cheesy nonsense with a handful of awesome gore moments, hysterically screaming co-eds and stupid dialogs.

Everyone who gave this movie a bad review is fired from EVER reviewing a b-horror movie again. There are two kinds of horror movies...There are the ones such as THE EXORCIST and HALLOWEEN which, for whatever reason, have mass appeal. And then there're the ones like BEYOND THE DOOR 3, obscure low budget oddities which suddenly appear on video store new release walls with a no-name cast and crew and really nothing to recommend them other than a really neat cover box. They're usually made on a shoestring budget with plots recycled from other movies. But they have only one goal and that is to entertain. And BEYOND THE DOOR 3 certainly succeeds in that area. I've seen this little gem of a flick more than a dozen times and I'm thoroughly entertained each time. To hell with characterizations and plodding plot devices, this little flick wants to entertain and scare you, and it does! When you rent a movie like BEYOND THE DOOR 3 you should have some idea of what's in store for you. Especially since it's a part 3 so you're renting it having probably seen the first two installments. So you shouldn't be disappointed because it's too cheesy or flatly directed, etc. That's what fans of these types of movies want. So shame on everyone who watched this movie and was disappointed. Go watch MATLOCK with Grandma, you sissies.

Forget about the unrelated title "Beyond the Door III", as its better represented under "Death Train" or "Amok Train". What starts off as an optimistically ominous Italian supernatural occult feature eventually falls into cheesy and senseless absurdness, but even so it manages to stay reasonably diverting. The premise's opening build up is atmospheric, spooky and alienating, but when the staged action hit's the train it becomes ludicrously brainless. Forget about making any sense of it (yep it's strange and baffling), and just go along for the unpredictable, but farcical train ride of 'doom'. Director Jeff Kwitny uses the creepy, louring, out-cast East European environment to great effect, and ups the tatty, macabre gore effects when it counted. He plasters it with cheap shocks, but the outrageously graphic deaths are amusingly inventive and impulsive. There are some memorable ones too. An inane script and wishy-washy story is made up of frantic ideas, and novelties that never really seem to come together, but at least it stays in character by keeping the story moving like a speeding train. Some sequences involving the run-away train (that's ritually controlled by Satanists) are balefully destructive, but other times you get a good laugh when the miniature train model comes into play. Adolfo Bartou's sweepingly agile and large scale cinematography is very well-implemented, and at times looked to good for such a production. Telegraphing nearly everything is the pounding, dread-induced music score of generically leering and terrible cues. The performances are pretty wretched, but Bo Svenson's little screen time makes an impression.

A group of students from Los Angeles take a trip to Serbia to learn about their culture and an ancient ceremony. After a strange turn of events, some of them hop a train to escape. Big mistake.

"Beyond the Door III" (1989) has the same set-up as the future "Subspecies" (1991), but don't look for any vampirism as it mixes bits of "The Wicker Man" (1973) with a lot of "Runaway Train" (1985) and a dash of devilry.

It was released on video as "Amok Train" in the USA and as "Death Train" in the UK, both of which are better titles since this is a stand-alone flick with zero to do with the first two "Beyond the Door" movies from 1974 and 1977. It's an Italian/Yugoslavian production and when Epic Productions acquired the distribution rights, they simply changed its working title, "The Train," to "Beyond the Gates III" in the hopes of better sales.

Don't look for any humor. This is deadly serious horror-adventure with increasing supernatural happenings. It has a darkly artistic bent like "Runaway Train," although it's not exceptional like that powerful film (not to mention being a different genre). There are no less than four quality women in the flick, but their presence is never really capitalized on (and I'm not talking 'bout nudity or sleaze).

The biggest problem is the puzzling things that happen with little logic. I'd give examples but I don't want to give anything away. Can everything in the story be logically explained or did the supernatural angle simply give the screenwriter license to include several 'cool' aspects with little rhyme or reason?

The film runs 1 hour, 34 minutes, and was shot in Serbia.

GRADE: B-

A group of students gets this supposedly great opportunity to witness ancient rituals in Europe, only to learn that they've been targeted for death. They head for the hills, and hop a train that starts barreling through the countryside once the crew has been decimated.

Re-christened "Beyond the Door III" to capitalize on the otherwise unrelated Italian horror films, "Death Train", or "Amok Train", is a generally good time. The viewer WILL have to put up with the expected cheesy acting and goofy plotting, but director Jeff Kwitny does manage to make up for this with a respectable amount of menace & atmosphere. The setting is the most unusual aspect, making this a sort of genre spin on the earlier critical favorite "Runaway Train".

People looking for great European horror nonsense will find a fair bit to enjoy here, as there is some absolutely great gore coupled with some memorable murder set pieces. The film does get off to a rough start, but improves once the assorted expendable victims get on the train; the final half hour is the best part.

The acting may not be quality acting, but most of it is sincere enough. Mary Kohnert ('Star Trek: The Next Generation', "Big Man on Campus") is appealing in the lead, and token name actor Bo Svenson ("Special Delivery", "The Delta Force") does an amusing job of hamming it up a bit as a dubious professor.

Overall, decent entertainment for fans of this kind of thing.

Six out of 10.