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