11 October 2024
Night Train Murders (1974)
94 min.
Directed by Aldo Lado.
With Flavio Bucci, Macha Méril, Gianfranco de Grassi, Enrico Maria Salerno, Marina Berti, Franco Fabrizi, Irene Miracle, Laura D'Angelo.
This stark variation on Wes Craven's 1972 The Last House on the Left comes from Italian director Aldo Lado (who also did the superb 1972 giallo Who Saw Her Die?).

Two young women board a train bound for family at Christmas time.

But a pair of drug addicted thugs on board have other plans in mind.

With the aid of cold blooded Méril (Helga the psychic from Argento's Deep Red), the trio brutally assault, rape, cut and murder the two girls.

Will their unspeakable crimes go unpunished?

Unbalanced, focusing too heavily on the exploitative catalog of horrors and not enough on the retribution to come...

Still, this is well made overall with good performances (Méril especially is strangely sinister) and a genuine sleaziness that shocks and uneases.

An effectively unnerving (ie, the knife to the virgin is horrifying), but ultimately depressing affair.

Also known as Late Night Trains.

Italian: L'ultimo treno della notte.

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