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Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: January 31, 2012.
Director: Aldo Lado
Cast: Irene Miracle, Laura D'Angelo, Gianfranco De Grassi, Flavio Bucci
Year: 1975
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The Movie:
Directed by Aldo Lado in 1975, Night Train Murders follows a pair of skuzzy criminals named Blackie (Flavio Bucci) and Curly (Gianfranco De Grassi) who wind up on a train with the intent to do some damage. Also on this train are Lisa Stradi (Laura D'Angelo) and her cousin Margaret (Irene Miracle), two pretty young women travelling home to see their families for the holidays. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens next, and the girls soon find themselves essentially being held hostage on a train by a pair of oversexed psychopaths. Blackie and Curly were on the run from the cops though ,that's the very reason that they got on the train in the first place - will the law catch up to them before they go too far or are Lisa and Margaret basically screwed? And what's up with the older woman on the train (Macha Meril), the one who seems to be enjoying all of this far more than she should?
Very heavily influenced by Wes Craven's Last House On The Left, Lado's picture isn't nearly as slick as some of the Giallo's he is better known for but it deliver some sleazy thrills. Setting the action on the train gives the story some added tension, as you just can't run out the door and escape the way you can from a building. The train is moving at a good pace and any escape attempt would be dangerous. As such, you very definitely get the feeling that our two victims are very much in danger very early on in the storyline.
Performance wise, D'Angelo and Miracle both look right for their respective parts, offering up some decent work here and playing things both sweet and sexy at the same time. Their characters contrast with those played by Bucci and De Grassi, the latter of whom does his best David Hess impersonation in the film but can't quite reach the same levels of intensity that the late Hess brought to Last House's Krug. Throwing Meril's character into the mix also spices things up a bit, as she shows some interesting development here. Her initial rejection of the thugs' abrasive tactics soon turns into something far more accepting and so the antagonistic side of the script winds up with an unexpected third element.
Lado and his team shoot the film with plenty of style. Like the best Italian horror movies the film always looks great, making excellent use of the train's closed quarters and high speed to build tension and atmosphere. The film makes no qualms about rubbing the viewers' faces into the seedy side of humanity, made readily apparent in a scene where the two girls are being raped and a fellow passenger first peers at them and then winds up joining in. Ennio Morricone's score for the film is a good one, heightening the mood that helps bring everything to a suitably dark and grisly conclusion. It may be derivative, or a flat out rip off of Craven's film, but Night Train Murders is done well enough that you probably won't mind so much - it's simultaneously effective, sleazy, slick and disturbing.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Blue Underground's new 1.85.1 widescreen transfer looks good, encoded in AVC and presented in 1080p high definition. Detail is improved over standard definition offerings of the past while color reproduction looks great. Close up shots show a lot of facial detail while texture is also considerably better than what we've seen in the past. Flesh tones look good, print damage is minimal (you'll spot a few specks here and there but otherwise things look very clean) and there aren't any heavy edge enhancement problems to complain about (you might spot some minor instances here and there but it's never overpowering). Compression artifacts are a non-issue as well and overall, the movie looks very good here. Those put off by some of the odd noise that's appeared in previous Blue Underground transfers, however, may note some of the same issues appearing here as well but the good very definitely outweighs the bad but a very substantial margin.
The only audio option offered up for this disc is an English language DTS-HD Mono track, though optional subtitles are provided in English, French and Spanish. Again, we notice an improvement over the DVD as the lossless track provides a bit more power behind the score and noticeably clearer dialogue. Hiss and distortion are never a problem, the levels are set right and all in the all the movie sounds fine.
Blue Underground has carried over the extras from the previous DVD edition, starting with the fifteen minute Riding the Night Train featurette which is essentially an interview with Aldo Lado who speaks about making the film, the cast he worked with, shooting on the train and more. Rounding out the extras is the US trailer, the international trailer, two radio spots and a still gallery. All of the extras are in standard definition except for the international trailer.
The Final Word:
Some new extras would have been nice but this is otherwise a very solid presentation of Aldo Lado's Night Train Murders, a sufficiently sleazy slice of Italian horror that offers up some memorably twisted set pieces, great location work and a cool score made even cooler in high definition.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
