I will say this, the transfer looks REALLY good.
Night Train Murders (1975)
Created By: Aldo Lado
Where to get it: Blue Underground
The Prologue
1975′s Night Train Murders, is a film that has went through many different titles since it’s release. Once being linked with Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left from a promotional standpoint only. This film would come to the US with the titles, Last House – Part II, New House on the Left, Second House on the Left, The New House on the Left, and even Last Stop on the Night Train. The film would even get more titles internationally. So, call it what you will, it was a film that landed it’s self right on the UK’s Video Nasty list and is pretty much a film heavily influenced by The Last House on the Left. So, all those titles based off that film aren’t unjustified in some ways.
The Movie
Laura and Lisa, high school friends, take the night train from Germany to Verona to spend Christmas with Lisa’s family. They flirt mildly with male passengers, including two randy delinquents in their 20s, Blackie and Curly. The four of them end up in a first-class cabin with a well-dressed woman of about 30 who has pornographic photographs in her valise. Egged on by the woman, the thugs and a male visitor to the cabin menace and then assault Laura and Lisa. Meanwhile, we also see Christmas Eve and morning scenes at Lisa’s home, where her parents are polite to each other while discussing divorce. On Christmas morning, they go to the station to meet the girls. Will they be on the train?
It’s not hard at all to tell why this movie wound up on that infamous Video Nasty list back in the day. There is a bit of graphic violence in this one. But before we really get to the violent and extreme content, we must talk about what separates this film from The Last House on the Left, that’s character development. This film may have stuff that is hard to watch in it, but before you get to that you have a good chunk of the film dedicated to making you get more familiar with the people in it. That being our foul villains and our poor girls who ends up on this train ride from hell. It’s a clever and different way to approach things when it comes to films like this, but it’s not a bad thing. A little slow in some parts, but not bad.
But it’s around the 40 minute mark when business starts to pickup here. Our two drugged up evil doers (Blackie and Curly) have found a higher class, but still sick, lady to party with. And it’s not long before they force poor Laura and Lisa to join in on this horrible party. What follows is some very hard to watch scenes. And above that, this film even finds new ways to make you cringe that is still hard to watch in 2012, so just think what it was like in 1975. This all ends up about as good as you could expect things to end up for our poor female characters, but the drama of the film and the violence isn’t over yet.
In typical “Last House” fashion, one of our girl’s parents come into play and fate causes them to cross paths with our vile trio from the train. If you’re thinking it sounds a lot like Last House on the Left you would be correct, but this film is at least creative enough to toss in some new tricks and twists that are enough to keep things very interesting. It also helps that the ending is what you might expect, based on how everything else is going. It’s not a film that anyone who flinches will take joy in seeing, but if you love those darker and more violent films from yester-year, this would be a film that is very much worth checking out.
The Conclusion
It may have been linked to The Last House on the Left due to many different reasons, but it does enough to still maintain it’s own identity. It’s a very solid and brutal horror film and it does pack enough to make you squirm. And as far as the blu-ray transfer goes, it’s one of the best transfers I have seen for a film of this age making the leap to HD. There’s only minor traces of grain in the final products and the film is about 90% awesome as far as color and detail goes. A very worthy buy if you are a fan of this type of stuff.
The Rating (7/10)
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