aka Don't Ride on Late Night Trains, Last House - Part II, Last Stop on the Night Train, New House on the Left, Torture Train, Xmas Massacre, L'ultimo treno della notte
L'Ultimo treno della notte aka is a complete rip-off/retelling of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (itself a rip-off/retelling of THE VIRGIN SPRING). Here's the kicker though…I feel that it's a better film than LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and I'll go one step further in saying that Wes Craven could have learned a thing or two from Night Train's director, Aldo Lado. That being said this review contains…SPOILERS! Because, just by saying it's a retelling of LAST HOUSE, I'm giving away the ending—yes it follows the story that close. NTM has some twists that make if different (and better) so I won't give away any of those things. If you haven't seen either movie, I won't be giving away anything. So read on, Freex!
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Two female students (cousins) are traveling home on Christmas Eve to visit their family. The train is packed and the girls don't even have a place to sit. Two thugs (we see them mug a guy dressed as Santa during the credits) sneak their way on to the train to get away from a cop. The train is loaded with mixture of different folks, on one of the train cars is a very proper looking middle aged woman we see drop her hand bag, and some kinky photos of naked chicks pop out. She'll be a major player in the film later on.
The two girls, Margaret and Lisa, run into the two thugs, Blackie and Curly, and at first are smitten by their bad boy demeanor and help them hide from the conductor (they have no tickets, they hopped the train-are you paying attention?). Soon the girls realize the thugs are actually a couple of assholes and distance themselves from them. The "proper" lady, with the kinky pictures, goes to use the bathroom next to where the girls are, and Blackie sneaks in behind her. Blackie's intentions start out as rape, but the kinky broad goes with it, and we witness the films first curveball.
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That night, the train is delayed due to a bomb threat. The girls do not want to get delayed and go into the station and board another train. This train has hardly anybody on it, so the girls grab their own room on the train car. After the train gets on its way, the girls hear a harmonica playing (Curly had been playing a harmonica earlier). Seeing as though they were alone on the car, and fearing it might be the thugs, they get up to move and run face to face w/Blackie and Curly who are now hanging w/the 'kinky pictures lady' from earlier. They force the girls to stay in the room, eat the girls food, and genrally creep them out, especially when Blackie, and the kinky broad (she has no name in the movie, so from here on out she's kinky broad. Mmm-k? Okay) start getting it on in front of the girls. From this point on we see the kinky broad is calling the show. The thugs and the broad pretty much start degrading the two girls, and talking about sex and soon are asked to do sexual things. Curly leaves to go shoot up (shoot up what, they never say) and comes back wasted on dope and tries getting it on one of the girls, and gets a knee to the balls. This infuriates him, and things only go downhill for the girls from there.
I would like to make a side note here about rape right about now; Rape is a horrible thing for anybody to go through (man or woman) and I wish only painful death to sexual predators. It's a degrading, disgusting and violent act that leaves mental scars on its victims for the rest of their lives. I myself, know some rape victims who are/were close to me, find scenes in movies such as I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, and this movie (among others) to be hard to watch. Seeing a person go through such things is nerve racking, that is, if you're someone with a conscience that actually cares about other human beings whether you 'know' them or not. That being said—rape does happen. Violence happens. To blind yourself to the horrors of the world by only thinking 'happy thoughts', you are setting yourself up for a fall in life, and when that cold hard reality comes and bites you on the ass—don't say Rev. Phantom didn't warn ya! On with the review.
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****SPOILERS****
Okay here's where the bulk of the LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT similarities come in. As in the Last House, yes the girls are killed (I won't say how) and yes the killers end up in the house of the parents and YES the parents (just the Dad really) get glorious revenge.
****END OF SPOILERS****
Here's why Night Train Murders is superior to Last House:
1) Better directing and film pace.
2) Better acting (w/the exception of David Hess who is awesome in Last House and whatever he's in).
3) The score by the Ennio Morricone (in my opinion the greatest score composer EVER).
4) The cinematography (The trailer does no justice, Blue Underground did a beautiful transfer).
5) Its more realistic. The way the killings happens (Blackie and Curly didn't intend to kill the girls), the parents reactions, the way the killers end up at the house, and the characters in a whole, are more believable.
6) Lastly and probably most important is the subtext--the upper-class (the girls' parents and the kinky broad) vs. the lower class (Blackie and Curly) scenario. Clearly the kinky broad dictates the actions of the thugs and during the brutal scenes on the train we see cutaways of the parents and their friends (all well-to-dos) enjoying dinner and discussing violence in society. There is an interview w/Aldo Lado about the metaphors in the film featured in the bonus material on the DVD, I'd suggest watching it after the movie.
Whether you agree NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is better than LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT or not, there's no denying that NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is a great film. If you are a fan of exploitation, I highly recommend it.
NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS trailer