Two young girls travel by train at Christmas time, little knowing it will be a ride filled with horror.

Aldo Lado's Night Train Murders is at times very difficult to digest. As with most Italian movies of this period, the film takes a while to get started, with many fill up scenes that aren't of much interest but once it gets going the film makes a strong impact. The scene where the two girls get molested is a pretty tough viewing experience. Lado stretches the scene to almost unbearable length, displaying such inhuman and immoral tendencies you can't help but be disgusted. The final violent confrontation between the distraught father and the violators becomes not only justifiable but wholly satisfactory.

The film's intercutting between the normal goings on in the lives of the father and mother of one of the girls and what's happening to them on board the train makes a strong impact as well. Lado is purposely trying his best to make the events even more unbearable and sad and it works very well. The script is also philosophical to some extent, displaying grounded ideas about the human nature and it's incapability of letting go of some it's animal instincts and it's refusal to be controlled. An immoral and inhuman tendency cannot be distinguished easily and it's visual display here comes from the socialite who's actually the worst of the violators while the two punks are more visible just by how they look and act (not to mention the one who becomes involved but is also the most "moral" one as he contributes to the end justice).

While not an intellectual powerhouse the film does boast some very strong visuals and hugely effective scenes of the worst mankind has to offer. It makes an impact, but it's not very enjoyable to watch.

This movie is well worth at least one look:yes,it is a variation (rip-off)of Last house,but it does have a few surprises and arguably,a stronger theme than Last House;there is a definite anti fascist ,left leaning sensibility to this film,underlying its more European take on the "Us and them "idea behind Last house.

Firstly,its really well made.If you've seen Lado's Gialli ,you'll know hes no hack,but he sets scenes really well.The scenes on the train have a insular,outward looking feel,as though you are really trapped inside looking at the world flowing by the windows.

Thematically,the two films are VERY similar;two ultra middle class girls (more worldly than their square parents know)get involved with two scumbags,Blackie and er...his junkie friend (cant remember his name).Sorry,THREE scumbags,as Macha Merill,middle class but a deviant,joins in as the two girls are trapped on an overnight train,en route to a family Christmas.Rape,torment,and retribution follow,as you damn well expect.

Anyway,its not as brutal as last house.The rape and revenge stuff is strong (enough for it to be banned here,anyway)but its quite a dark film nonetheless:its very influenced by Pasolini.Hence,the middle class are twisted deviants who exploit the working class to get their fun.Its Macha Merill who is the real villain here,not Blackie,enjoying the twisted stuff to fulfill her libertinism,as the ending (no spoilers)reveals.Shes good in this film,too.

The bad?the theme song is awful.Seriously.I played this on my laptop and at first I thought the speakers had melted,the singer warbles so much.Awful.I hope Morricone had nothing to do with it.The actings so-so,I liked Blackie anyway.Cute Irene Miracle is one of the girls.The parent figures are really dull...and the Dads a doctor!How blatant is that!

I dug the humour of the film too:in one scene in the train a young priest notices that the rummy old Cardinal is slyly winking at him;he turns to another priest who says "Oh its just a nervous tic".But in the best scene,Blackie discovers a carriage full of old ex-Nazis singing a fascist marching song(the film is set in Germany and Italy).He sneaks in and shouts "Heil Hitler" to which all the old chaps jump up and shout "Heil" in response.I liked it anyway.i think it reveals a lot about the films idea that perversion is always under the surface,in the most respectable of places.

This is one of the few nasties I never tracked down on copied VHS,so its great to see it so pristine and clear.It could easily get released now in the UK;but they would probably cut the scene where Merill gets raped and enjoys it,totally taboo for the BBFC,especially in a non art-house flick (total hypocrisy of course)as they did with House on the edge of the Park.The scene with the knife would get axed as well,if you see the film you'll understand.All readers in Countries where people can make up their own mind,check it out now!

N.B has now been released with an uncut 18 certificate by shameless in the UK. What a dunce I sound like now...

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.

NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS (or any of the other half dozen titles it's been released under) is a solid, suspenseful thriller which was inspired, by the filmmakers' own admission, by Wes Craven's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

Two young girls, on the way to Italy to spend Christmas with one girl's parents, find themselves trapped in a train compartment with a sadistic upper class woman and two low-life thugs, who perform various humiliating and cruel acts on them. Meanwhile, at the younger, virginal girl's parents' villa, a Christmas party is taking place, and the parents are blissfully unaware of the girls' predicament.

SPOILERS

The finale, in which the threesome wind up at the parents' house during which time the parents discover who they are and enact bloody revenge, is lifted right out of LAST HOUSE. There are some interesting differences in the torture sequences, however.

Firstly, the threesome only kill one of the girls, and accidentally at that.

Frustrated by his inability to break the virginal girl's hymen while attempting to rape her, the heroin-addicted thug attempts to cut it open with his knife. When he hesitates, the woman shoves the knife in herself, causing the girl to hemorrhage and bleed to death. It is one of the more harrowing and disturbing acts of sexual violence I've seen depicted on film.

The other girl (played by Irene Miracle, who would go on to star in Dario Argento's INFERNO and Alan Parker's MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) quietly accepts her abuse in order to protect herself. She even allows herself to be raped by a peeping tom, who is invited into the compartment by the threesome.

Her death is quite a surprise, as she attempts to flee and is pursued by the two thugs. Eventually she locks herself in the lavatory, and climbs out the window and flings herself to her death as the duo try to break in. He death is almost a mirror image of Sandra Cassel's death in LAST HOUSE. While Cassel finally gives in to her fate and allows herself to be shot down, Miracle refuses to allow herself to be killed by her attackers, choosing to take her own life instead.

Miracle, whose first movie role this was, proves to be a real trooper, spending her final fifteen minutes of screen time with no pants or underwear on, including the scenes in which she is chased and leaps off the train. Her exposed lower half helps to hit home the level of both the violation that has been inflicted upon her, as well as her desperation in escaping, as she never even seems to notice she's nude from the waist down. In a more Hollywood-ized movie, her character would have taken the time to cover herself.

The killers' horror at having killed the one girl, as well as their shock in seeing Miracle fling herself onto the rocks by the track shows that they are by no means killers, but mischievous crooks who have taken things too far. This reflects the killers' brief disgust at their own actions in LAST HOUSE, but the difference is that in LAST HOUSE the gang are killers by nature, whereas in NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, they are not.

I felt more sympathy toward the thugs here when the father brutally kills them both, then in LAST HOUSE. The death of the heroin-addicted thug is excruciating, as he is repeatedly stabbed, slashed and beaten to a pulp. After the other has been pursued and killed like a wild animal with a shotgun, the upper class lady, who has orchestrated the whole ordeal, convinces the father she was at the mercy of the pair of thugs, and winds up getting away with her crimes.

On its own, NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is a well-paced, intense and atmospheric thriller. It has giallo overtones, but also has a gritty realism that clashes with the more surreal stylization. Recommended for fans of grindhouse and exploitation movies.

Taut thriller from director Aldo Lado.

Frequent criticism that "nothing happens" in the film's first forty-five minutes is rubbish. The film takes its time to establish what finally becomes a very nasty situation for two teenage girls (Marina Bertie and Irene Miracle). The suspense builds slowly as the villains, impeccably played by Flavio Bucci and Gianfranco De Grassi, are introduced and the predicament of the women is unfurled.

The production values are top notch and the spare Ennio Morricone score is utlized for maximum effect. A haunting but melodic Demmis Roussos song, "A Flower Is All You Need", is a perfect, ironic bookend to the film's grim developments.

Lado directs with a sure, intuitive, practised hand. He conjures a very uncomfortable atmosphere and tightens the tension with sharp cutting, ultra-moody interior lighting and excellent direction of the actors.

Macha Meril plays a female passenger who allows herself to be corrupted by the villains. Lado uses her to explore the nature of evil and the fascination of horror. Meril's performance is exemplary for she renders her highly disturbing character with great authenticity.

The centrepiece of the film is a sequence featuring the rape and killing of one of the girls. Although the scene is reasonably brutal, much of the violence is suggested. A shot of one of the women being thrown off the train into a river is strangely beautiful.

Comparisons with LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT's plot structure are to be expected. Technically, the film is much more accomplished than LAST HOUSE, but LAST HOUSE, as a work of pure terror, is more confronting on a pure gut level.

NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is a film of subtle power and horror, and it leaves one feeling uneasy (which can only be a good thing).

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.

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

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.

Of course this film is sleazy and all that, but the revealing dialogue amongst the rich forgives much of that. I've given it a "ten" somewhat out of spite and in order to raise the overall vote. I do however honor the attempt of criticizing the rich and wealthy in exploitive cinema. It's a 'smuggler' as Scorsese would put it. Worth the effort of seeing it.

"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.

Come on I am sick of people saying Last House remake. Last House on the left is not original. It is also a remake of The Virgin Spring starring Ingrid Bergmann. I love Last House. Great film David Hess sealed himself as one of cinemas great villains. But Night Train is technically better made. Aldo uses the widescreen to great effect and builds the film to a great climax. Plus the fact the middle class woman probably the most evil character in the film walks away free. Excellent no compromise. So remember Last House is not original anyway. Also the reason the villains end up in the parents home is far more believable than the Last House synopsis

Aldo Lado's "Night Train Murders" aka "The Late Night Trains" is a "Last House on the Left"(1972)rip-off.Unlike Craven's shocker this one is very serious-there is no comedy here.The film is extremely suspenseful and pessimistic.For thirty minutes Lado creates a slow burn of quiet menace,eventually uniting very sadistic Macha Meril(she played the psychic in Argento's "Deep Red"),two thugs and and the two girls(Irene Miracle and Marina Berti).When the terror begins,it's cold and unmerciful.The scenes of sexual humiliation and violence are pretty hard to stomach,even though they are often suggested off camera or hidden in the darkness of the train carriage.The knife rape scene is very disturbing.The score by Ennio Morricone is extremely beautiful and haunting.The acting is very good,particularly from Macha Meril.The film is pretty tough to find,but if you like sleazy and nasty Italian cinema give this one a look.10 out of 10.

What makes Night Train Murders so interesting is that it is highly exploitative material presented in a highly stylised manner. Its story has a couple of girls boarding a night train and then being subsequently brutalised and sexually assaulted by psychopaths. There's no getting away from it, its pure grind-house sleaze. But unlike others of its ilk it has a polish and production value that sets it apart somewhat. It's helmed by director Aldo Lado who had previously directed a couple of excellent gialli, Short Night of the Glass Dolls (1971) and Who Saw Her Die (1972). Like those two this is another well directed affair. Lado paces things well and creates a genuinely unnerving atmosphere. The middle section of the movie is where the rough stuff happens and it is highly stylised. Coloured lighting is used to make the interior of the train look a little more interesting but also to create a definitely unsettling atmosphere. In addition, the music by Ennio Morricone adds a lot to the intensity with a main theme that sounds not unlike a train. On a similar note the film also bizarrely includes a ditty by Greek crooner Demis Roussos which seems wildly inappropriate for a video nasty!

There are some good acting performances too but special mention has to go to Macha Meril as the mysterious female sociopath who provokes the two thugs into the acts of depravity. Meril is an extremely striking looking woman who also made a highly memorable turn in Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975), in this film she has more of a starring role and she is quite exceptional. The idea of the enigmatic and sadistic woman behind the attacks is a good one and gives the movie a more original feel. However, despite the stylish presentation Night Train Murders is still pretty much full of the more typical grimy sleaze you would expect. The middle section is quite brutal and the final revenge fairly violent. Ultimately, this is a nasty movie with cinematic flair.

SPOILERS AHEAD ... Aldo Lado is mostly famous for his giallos, Short Night of the Glass Dolls and Who Saw Her Die, but during a period when such thrillers were produced in abundance, Lado also made the little exploitation sleazefest, Don't Ride on Late Night Trains. Abandoning the influential style sparked by the success of Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Lado tried imitating another genre filmmaker; Wes Craven. Don't Ride on Late Night Trains duplicates The Last House in the Left (1972) almost entirely. What is incredible about this film is that it features a host of Dario Argento collaborators, including a score by the prolific Ennio Morricone.

Blacky and Curly (the former is Flavio Bucci, who played ‘Daniel' in Suspiria) rob and beat a Santa Clause before heading to the train station and escaping onto the Trans-Europe Express. There they meet a psychotic sexually repressed lady passenger (Macha Meril, who played ‘Helga Ulman' in Profondo Rosso). Then we are introduced to another two passengers on the train: Ragazza and Margaret (the latter is Irene Miracle, ‘Rose Elliot' in Inferno). These school-friends are two young but not so innocent girls, joking playfully about smoking cigarettes and boyfriends, travelling home to spend Christmas with Margaret's parents. A bomb warning causes the girls to dismount and leap onto to a different train. Unfortunately for them, in pursuit are Blacky, Curly and the repressed lady passenger, who seems to be more sadistic than her male companions. As soon as the sleazy group corner and trap the girls in a dark cabin on what seems to be an empty carriage, matters get out of hand and the violation escalates; the psycho lady forces the girls to relate their sexual experiences which excites Curly, a heroine-addict; he rapes Ragazza then angrily stabs her between the legs with a switch blade for being ‘too tight'; Margaret, fearing the same treatment, leaps from the train, her body crashing into hillside rocks…etc.

Following in the ‘Last House on the Left' tradition, the villains then unsuspectingly fall into the hands of one of the girl's parents. The plot device here is more plausible than in Wes's film: they have stolen the girl's tickets and are required to get off at the designated stop. Stepping from the train, the crazy lady injures her ankle. The countryside station is almost deserted, only a couple, Giulio and Lisa, awaiting their daughter and friend's arrival can help them. They invite the group back to their home so the lady may recuperate (the father by the way is Enrico Maria Salero, ‘Inspector Morosini' in Bird with the Crystal Plumage). In Wes Craven's classic the clue was the girl's necklace found around ‘Junior's' neck, here we have Curly wearing a turquoise tie that the mother knows was bought as a Christmas gift for Giulio. The father goes to return to the station, but is stopped by Margaret's friend (Dalila Di Lazzaro, who played the ‘headmistress' in Phenomena). She tells him she received a phone call from Margaret before her friend boarded an earlier train due to a bomb scare. The clues mount and the film ends in Last House style with parents attacking their daughter's murderers. Of course there are more similarities between this and Craven's film; the father in both films is a doctor; the parents both prepare a party, here for Christmas, in Last House for Mary's birthday; gratuitous chattering about ‘anarchy' and ‘social decline'; a composed man twisted by revenge…etc.

I've related a lot of plot details here, but if you've seen The Last House on the Left, I'm sure you wouldn't get many surprises. Don't Ride on Late Night Trains is still worth a look if you can track it down and is superior to the similar Terror Express (Ferdinando Baldi, 1980. The British VHS release featured a ‘SPECIAL NOTE: This film may contain sequences liable to cause distress to viewers with a nervous disposition', followed by ‘Voted the `Best Late Night Horror Film' 1978' on the back of its video sleeve. However who conducted this vote remains a total mystery.

(Spoilers, but irrelevant to anyone who's seen "Last House on the Left.") "Night Train Murders" has quite a bit going for it, but is ultimately undermined by its too-familiar links to "Last House on the Left" to the point where it is impossible to view it as a fresh, creative spin on that film's themes (this is like the Brian De Palma version, with an emphasis on style over character). The plot is recycled, but the setting is new: 2 girls (one a virgin) board a train to visit family for Christmas, only to be accosted by a group of thugs (including Sylvester Stallone lookalike Flavio Bucci, who played the blind pianist in "Suspiria") and an upper-class woman (Macha Meril, from "Deep Red") who is turned on by their sadistic behavior. Both girls are beaten, raped, and tossed off the train; the killers seem home free, until chance delivers them to the home of one of the girls' parents, who find out what happened and seek bloody retribution. "Night Train Murders" contains beautiful cinematography and is creatively directed by Aldo Lado, but this ultimately hinders the film--"Last House" possessed a gritty realism that made the events all the more horrifying; comparatively, this film is so meticulously lensed and deliberately choreographed that nobody will have to say "it's only a movie!" Scenes such as the switchblade deflowering and the self-conscious sexual encounters are so delicately rendered that they avoid (unfortunately) the low-grade bite of an exploitation film. Also problematic is the killers themselves, who possess little character under the surface of their brutality (save for Meril's two-dimensional socialite); the vengeful parents are direct copies of the mother and father in "Last House" (right down to the father being a doctor!), whose liberal views on crime are of course disposed of when their shell of security is shattered, blah blah blah.

If you're a revenge-film completist, give "Night Train Murders" a whirl. It's not bad, but I've seen better.

Director Aldo Lado leaps on board the LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT bandwagon with this entry. Craven's story is reprised but this time set on a train, and the nastiness is upped GREATLY. The sexual violence is presented in a far more ambiguous light in this movie, and there are several extremely morally dubious scenes of so called "porno rape"- where the female victims actually begin to ENJOY their assault half-way through. Couple this with the fact that the female criminal was politely discussing philosophy with other passengers before her rape transformed her into an evil murderess (implying that "all women need is a good f**k") and you can probably see that this film is extremely morally contentious and misogynistic. Similar to Deodato's HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, the morality on display here seems almost alien in these enlightened PC times.

LATE NIGHT TRAINS works both positively and negatively. The positives are that by choosing a train to set this tale upon, Lado has allowed a deep-rooted claustrophobia to become a main feature of the film. In the context of a story like this, it should work well, but in many cases the cinematography just doesn't make the best use of the situation. The darkness and grimeyness works well but could have been played on to a much greater extent. Also, the plot is extremely contrived and relies on ridiculous coincidence (the girls changing trains half way through their journey, the old man who walks in on the assault accidently breaking off the door handle to the next carriage, etc) and the characters are left undeveloped, as pointed out earlier. In the latter case this almost ADDS to the atmosphere of the film, though. The tone is one of absolute inevitability and nihilism. Unfortunately, the acting throughout is very poor, especially from the male protagonists- their lethargic performances pale in comparison to those by David Hess in his "psycho" roles. There is a Morricone score too, but not a particularly fitting or good one in my opinion.

This is certainly an interesting film. Despite there being good points and bad points, the sleaziness certainly keeps you watching. Once again it is a case of the outrageous misogyny having to be overlooked in order to enjoy this. LATE NIGHT TRAINS remains banned in the UK and this certainly won't change any time soon. There is little gore but the themes themselves are explicit enough to upset the BBFC.

Lisa and Margaret are two sweet, if less than innocent teenagers taking a train ride across the European countryside on Christmas Eve. The unlucky pair run afoul of a couple of vicious sleazy thugs and an icy cold wealthy woman on board the train who proceed to rape, torment, debase and eventually murder poor Lisa and Margaret. Director/co-writer Aldo Lado wrings plenty of gut-wrenching claustrophobic tension from the edgy, unsettling story, adroitly creates a gritty, threatening atmosphere rife with sadism and perversion, addresses the troubling issue of random everyday gratuitous violence with truly jolting results, and delivers a few savagely powerful moments of startling brutality (the sequence where the virginal Lisa gets gruesomely violated with a knife is especially ugly and upsetting). The performances are uniformly excellent: Irene Miracle and Laura D'Angelo make for very attractive and appealing fair damsels in distress while Flavio Bucci and Gianfranco De Grassi are frightfully credible and disgusting as the greasy low-life criminal villains who are memorably first seen in the picture beating up a sidewalk Santa for his money. But top acting honors clearly go to the strikingly lovely blonde Macha Meril, who gives a positively chilling portrayal of the cruel, haughty rich bitch who gladly joins in on the hoodlum's ferocious degradation of Lisa and Margaret. Gabor Pogany's slick, handsome cinematography works wonders with the tightly confined setting while the great Ennio Morricone supplies a typically haunting, throbbing and melodic score. Demis Roussos' beautiful ballad "A Flower Is All You Need" is used as an achingly ironic bookend for all the harsh barbarism. A nice'n'nasty Euroslime exploitation thriller.

Laura and her friend Irene are travelling back to Italy on the overnight train from Munich for Christmas, also on board are two pickpockets Curly a heroin addict and Blackie on the run from the German police for mugging Santa Claus…HOHOHO!. All seems well on the over crowed train and the girls kick up a rapport with the boys and help them avoid the ticket collector, Macha Méril plays a seemingly respectable lady passenger content to discuss social issues with other seemingly respectable passengers until that is she meets Blackie in a toilet where he forces himself on her meeting little resistance, and after an unprovoked attack on another passenger by the two boys she seems hooked on the seedier side of life.The train is stopped in a deserted station after the police receive threats that there is a bomb on board…The two girls see this as there chance to rid themselves of the troublesome boys and as luck would have it there is a direct train leaving shortly for there home town. The girls enjoy a candlelit lunch on board the dark and cold train which is lit only with a blue light, they seem relaxed until they realize the boys have also jumped trains with their lady friend in tow. The trio force themselves into the girls compartment where they subject them to demeaning sexual acts which go a little too far resulting in one of the girls being killed in a hideous manner,the other fleeing half naked jumps from the moving train as she is chased by the two boys,she falls to her death. Laura's parents await her arrival at the train station but the only people there are the murdering trio, who seek assistance from Laura's father as he is a doctor and the lady passenger has an injured leg that requires treatment.The trio return to Laura's house where they rest up and have dinner,unaware of who's house they are in. The parents become suspicious of the boys and after they hear that two girls bodies have been found beside the railway line, Laura's father seeks revenge on the boys, whom he dispatches in a very bloody way, the respectable lady escapes scott free pleading innocence.

A very gritty film that rips off Last House on the lefts idea of revenge, although Lado claims he hadn't seen it at the time. Lado's film is supposed to an indictment on violence and other social issues and to be fair he doesn't show too much gore and also doesn't resort to unneeded nudity, while I found the film interesting there wasn't enough tension for me….maybe it was down to Lado's laid back way of telling the story which was very matter of fact. Exploitation fans will probably love it.

Lisa and Margeret (Laura D'Angelo and Irene Miracle, respectively) are two college students on their way home ,via train, for Christmas. But they didn't plan to run into two psychopaths and the woman who fell in love with them after being raped. This is a blatant rip-off of "Last House on the Left", but it's played very straight and can stand on it's own. Sheer exploitation fans might be a bit let down as the film has a long suspenseful build-up before getting to the meat & potatoes, but just stick with it. Of course it's far from a perfect film, yet it does have a certain air about it& is worth a watch. Irene Miracle would later go on to two great movies: Dario Argento's "Inferno and Charles Band's "Puppet Master", and yes before some of you faint dead away, that's the LAST time I'll use Argento and Band in the same sentence, i promise. Furthermore, I know I'm sounding like a broken record, vis a vie, Blue Underground, but once again they have done an immaculate job on the transfer.

Eye Candy: Irene Miracle as Margeret runs around bottomless while trying to get away, showing much bum as well as hairpie

My Grade: B-

Blue Underground DVD Extras: Interview with Director Aldo Lado; 2 radio spots; poster & stills gallery; and 2 theatrical trailers (USA and international)

Anyone who has seen Last House on the Left doesn't need to bother with this film. LHOTL was taken (admittedly) from Ingmar Bergman's film Virgin Spring.

The plot in that film was an old Swedish folk legend about a girl who is raped and killed by three highwaymen. The highwaymen then end up having to stay at the girl's parents' place. The parents notice that one of the murderers has a personal effect of their daughter's, and the father enacts his revenge on them for the murder.

Night Train Murders was taken from LHOTL (so they're both really ripping off the Swedes). LHOTL does it much better and keeps it relatively artistic. I didn't like this film that much. Here, they keep the two girl formula used in Last House, but has them traveling on a night train from Munich to Italy to visit one girl's parents for Christmas. The killers are two street thugs and a sadistic woman that they hook up with on the train. The girls switch trains in Austria and so do these folks. If you've seen Virgin Spring or Last House, you know what will happen.

It seems to try to keep the shock value up, but doesn't deliver highly on the watchability. The first half is rather boring (it tries to set up what is going on, but is really more trouble than it's worth). Granted, there is some sadism, sex and violence, but it's not that shocking or really necessary. Last House was considered to be very shocking when it came out. This film seemed to be playing off of that success and throw in some more shocking things. This formula didn't make it good, or even enjoyable. It seems like they were just shocking to be shocking.

Don't waste your time.

NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, like many have already noted is a very thinly veiled homage (or a straight-up ripoff, depending on how you look at it...)of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT - only this this one is set on a train.

Two girls are heading home for the holidays on a train in Europe when they are accosted by two creepy guys and an equally creepy woman who begin tormenting the two young travelers. The taunting starts off pretty tame but quickly escalates. Without spoiling too much of the "fun stuff"...one of the girls is killed "accidentally" and the other jumps out of the moving train in terror and dies. Through an unlikely chance meeting, the girls parents unsuspectingly meet up with the killers and invite them to their house (a la LAST HOUSE...). When a newscast tips off the mother and father as to the fate of the girls, the father decides to take revenge in typical 70's exploitation fashion...

Overall NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is a decent film. A little slow going especially in the beginning, but the story is relatively tight - if also very derivative. The rape and revenge scenes are relatively tame by today's standards - I was hoping for something a little rougher, but - I have a soft spot for these 70's exploit "classics", so my rating may be a little higher than some. Not a masterpiece by any means, but worth a look for the genre enthusiast. Stick with LAST HOUSE, THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE for stronger, more original takes on this genre of film. 6/10

Two teen aged girls, one German (Irene Miracle) and one Italian (Laura D'Angelo) are travelling across Europe by train when they encounter two thieves, Blackie (Flavio Bucci) and Curly (Gianfranco De Grassi). The two thieves initially have a rascally charm about them, but later, spurred on by an alluring and extremely twisted mystery lady (Macha Meril), as well as a little heroin shooting, the trio proceed to torture these poor girls psychologically and sexually, with an unhappy ending for both of them. Eventually, they find shelter with the parents, and the dad becomes filled with homicidal rage when he realizes what has happened. If all of this sounds like Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left", you'd be dead on. In fact, two of the alternate titles for this Italian spin on the tale are "Second House on the Left" and "New House on the Left". (Craven himself, of course, having been inspired by the Bergman classic "The Virgin Spring".) But whatever this movie lacks in originality, it makes up for with its own unrelentingly seedy and disturbing mood. For its first half, it maintains a fairly light approach (some viewers may find their patience tested a bit), and takes its utterly dramatic turn after the Meril character has had her way, which gives "Night Train Murders" a particularly twisted touch with the primary instigator being a female. For as long as poor Miracle and D'Angelo are victimized, the atmosphere and sense of danger are thick and heavy, and the lighting extremely moody. The actors all do a fine job, especially the luscious Meril in the central, most potent role. Unlike "The Last House on the Left", the makers of this movie refuse to give us a cut and dried type of ending, daring to prevent their viewers from a feeling of real satisfaction. Overall, their movie is genuinely uncomfortable, compelling stuff that can't be ignored. With its striking cinematography by Gabor Pogany and the haunting music by the always dependable Ennio Morricone, "Night Train Murders" is the kind of thing where one may likely want to look away, as it shows some of the darkest aspects of human nature, demonstrating that they can exist inside the supposedly more "respectable" members of society who in the end can be no better than the dregs, and doesn't cut away. Seven out of 10.

Oh yeah baby, another terrible and overrated Italian exploitation film that deserves cult status about as much as "Elmo: The Movie." This one is an almost exact clone of Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left," which itself copied Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring." So what's to say about a copy of a copy? It turns out, not much. Two young women (one played by Irene Miracle from Argento's "Infero") are heading home for the holidays on a late night train. Two obnoxious punks (one played by Flavio Bucci from Argento's "Suspiria") and an equally sick upper class female (played by Macha Meril of Argento's "Deep Red") harass, humiliate, rape and ultimately murder both. The female goes back to her normal everyday life, while the punks end up at the home of one of the murdered girls. The parents find out what happened and get their revenge. After a painfully boring, terribly written first third, this has a brutal and tasteless middle, and caps it all off with an ineffective "revenge" finale that has absolutely no impact whatever and only succeed at being boring and insignificant. This film completely lacks suspense and really is just a third-rate knock-off of material done far better elsewhere. And what strikes me as funny is the number of people claiming this movie is "subtle." If you consider a girl being stabbed in the vagina and then a camera shot of the knife sticking out of her crotch to be "subtle," then you need to pick up a dictionary and look up what "subtle" means.

There are a ton of Dario Argento movie vets are the cast. Other then the three I already mentioned, there's also Gianfranco De Grassi (who appeared in the Argento-produced "The Church"), Enrico Maria Salerno ("Bird With the Crystal Plumage"), Giovanni Di Benedetto ("Four Flies on Grey Velvet" and others) and Dalila Di Lazzaro ("Phenomena").

My advice: Skip this trash!

The sole purpose of this miserable exercise in sadism can be readily understood once you know that one of its alternate titles was Second House On The Left. However, while the entire structure of this woeful misfire was blatantly lifted from Wes Craven's infamous grindhouse offering, Night Train Murders features none of Last House's menace or nihilistic potency.

The familiar plot follows two young girls taking a train ride home for the holidays. Unbeknownst to them, they are sharing their vessel with a pair of volatile cretins, one of whom makes the acquaintance of a kinky cougar whose turn-ons apparently include being sexually assaulted while she's using the restroom. After this encounter with her rapist Romeo, the smitten kitten accompanies her two new besties as they corner and abuse the unsuspecting young ladies in their on-board compartment. Both girls are eventually killed, and our treacherous trio disembarks the train undetected, at which point they receive assistance from a kindly doctor who takes them back to his house. Of course, the doctor is actually the father of one of the girls, and when he learns about the crimes his house-guests have committed, he metes out a brief serving of unspectacular vengeance. The end.

The pace of the film is maddeningly slow, and the first 50 minutes are largely devoted to needless exposition meant, ostensibly, to show us that these girls' parents love them (because we couldn't figure this out without numerous scenes reinforcing this, apparently). We also spend an inordinate amount of time meeting the other passengers on the train, which ultimately serves no purpose since they are all utterly inconsequential in the events that follow. I suppose this extended intro is meant to generate suspense, but since we already know exactly what's going to happen, these dead-end set-ups and lingering shots of empty corridors and occupied compartments will only be of interest to viewers who are curious what the interiors of passenger trains looked like in the 1970's. While all this tedium is unfolding, the two most critical characters in the piece are barely sketched out, and all we really learn about the young travelers before they get tortured and maimed is that one of them is a virgin and they like smoking cigarettes.

While the catalog of atrocities in Last House On The Left was wholly believable because that film's victims were taken to a stretch of secluded wilderness where they were stranded and helpless, the ability of these thugs to commit their depraved acts on a moving train loaded with passengers defies all reason. Making the notion even sillier is the fact that the compartment in which the rape and murder games take place is equipped with glass doors which offer a clear view inside for anyone who would happen to walking by. Despite our seeing a fairly extensive roster of riders and staff patrolling the transport throughout the film, only one other passenger stumbles across the scene during the cycle of extended torment; the bizarre and sickening result is that this voyeuristic witness chooses to eschew helping the poor girls in favor of simply enjoying the show, and when he is discovered and dragged into the room, he takes initiative and eagerly participates in the happenings, raping one of the girls himself before exiting the compartment and going about his business like nothing occurred. Further stretching the bounds of credibility is how little effort the victims make to try to escape or call for help, and how easy it is for the killers to throw a dead body out the window of a moving locomotive without anyone else on the train noticing.

I don't intend to suggest that a film like this should show sexual violence in unflinching detail, but what occurs here is so clumsily staged that it isn't even particularly shocking, it's mostly just silly. The film does make one obvious attempt to one-up the cavalcade of carnage in Last House, and the method of execution one of the girls endures is a truly vile and tasteless bit of cruelty that is destined to be the one thing you'll remember about this movie. Yet, even the film's lone sequence of of truly effective horror is portrayed as a graceless farce, so as awful as the moment is to view, it still doesn't pack the emotional and visceral punch a revenge narrative like this depends on.

The acting here is uniformly abysmal, and the psychotic tormentors come across like generic caricatures. Worse, their diminutive statures and stagnant personae strip them of their ability to be intimidating and make it even more difficult to accept that the girls don't really fight back during their ordeal. Even the parents, who obviously occupy a vital role in the climax, respond to their dark discovery with melodramatic hysterics, and the comeuppance the film is building toward from the first frame on is so terse and hurried that it offers very little payoff for the deeds we've been forced to sit through.

A special WTF prize goes to whoever chose the syrupy song that plays over the opening and closing credits, which is most assuredly the least appropriate accompaniment to a film about rape and murder that I've ever heard (sample lyrics: "Find a way to live your dreams, you can make it if you try").

Since this movie was clearly intended to conjure up the same frenetic intensity that made Last House On The Left such a haunting and unforgettable journey, the fact that it's more dull than disturbing surely qualifies it as an utter failure. In the end, Night Train Murders is certainly an unpleasant film to watch, but for all the wrong reasons.

That's what those who made this film apparently set out to do, and fairly successfully, too. For one thing, it does have a better rating here than LHOTL, though only by 0.2! Here's the thing about this nice version of the family revenge murder spree tale, it's as if the filmmakers actually said to each other that they wanted to remake LHOTH without the sophomoric comedy, without the inept technical aspects, and do it as a giallo-styled terror film. They were fairly successful. There are nice plot elements here that are not in LHOTL, and the silliness has been left out, making this film version one that fans who like horror without over-the-top humor can enjoy. Ignore those who complain about this being slow, if you know the giallo style of film, that is a pretty standard method. It's called plot and character development. The one thing that is lesser here from LHOTL is that the killers do not show momentary remorse the way they do in LHOTL. but that's only one thing out of dozens done better.