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Released by: Camera Obscura
Released on: 10/20/09
Director: Ferdinando Baldi
Cast: Zora Kerova, Werner Pochath, Silvia Dionisio, Gianluigi Chirizzi, Carlo De Mejo
Year: 1979
The Movie:
From Ferdinando Baldi, the director of Blindman and Comin' At Ya, and George Eastman of Anthropophagous fame comes Terror Express, a sleazy slice of late seventies Euro-trash that entertains enough despite a storyline as skimpy as the female cast members' wardrobe.
The film begins when a beautiful young woman named Julia (Silvia Dionisio) gets on a train after being harassed by a trio of thugs while using a payphone. As she and the other passengers board, they eventually head to the dining car where that same trio of thugs are enjoying some booze and making a game out of harassing the patrons and crew alike. What the rest of the passengers don't immediately realize, however, is that Julia is a prostitute who is on this train to make some quick and easy money. When word gets out, a few of the male passengers are more than happy to make her acquaintance for a price, all of which is being arranged by the train's porter (Gino Milli) who is acting as her pimp.
Eventually the three thugs decide to start having their way with the women on board the train - first with a grumpy but milf-tastic unhappy housewife, Anna (Zora Kerova), then with a couple's virginal daughter, and then after some coercing, with Julia herself. Unfortunately for the thugs, there's a cop on board the train, escorting a handcuffed prisoner to his next destination, and neither the cop, nor his charge, are impressed with their behavior…
While not as sadistic or violent as Last House On The Left, a film which this picture borrows quite heavily from, Terror Express makes up for that with a whole lot of sex, some of which comes perilously close to hardcore in certain shots (Zero Kerova's forced manage a trois has some analingous shots that look pretty damn real!). Baldi makes these sex scenes the centerpieces of his film, basically centering what little plot there is around them and yet somehow managing to make it all work. The film is pretty slick to look at, and the sex scenes are very well shot and all have an air of seediness to them and a certain taboo kink that makes you feel just a little bit dirty for prying in on the action.
In terms of the performances, Kerova has this nice coldness, this frigidity to her character that she begins to shed as the story moves on. This gives her, as Anna, a bit more to work with than some of the other characters have though Silvia Dionisio's Julia gets a bit of character development to play with as well. The three thugs in the film are pretty stereotypical, mugging for the camera and hamming it up, with Carlo De Mejo doing his best to channel David Hess' Krug and at least half way succeeding at it.
The picture also benefits from a claustrophobic setting that it uses quite well to build tension. When you realize that all of this is taking place in a very confined space from which there is no immediate exit the seediness is just a bit creepier than it would be otherwise.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Terror Express is presented in a strong 1.66.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. There is some print damage noticeable in some scenes and what looks like possibly some emulsion stains but aside from the grainy stock footage shots and a few dirty looking bits, the image is generally clean. The DVD is well authored, showing no mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues, resulting in a nice, film-like transfer that despite the aforementioned imperfections in the source material, does a fine job of bringing the movie to DVD.
Dolby Digital Mono tracks are offered up in Italian or German with optional subtitles provided in English and German. While the limitations of the original mono tracks are apparent, both tracks are clean and clear enough. There aren't any problems with distortion even if a bit of background hiss pops up now and then. You won't likely notice these if you're not looking for them, however. For an older mono film, Terror Express sounds just fine.
Camera Obscure has included a twenty-four minute long documentary entitled Tales From The Rails which includes interviews with George Eastman, Zora Kerova, Carlo de Mejo. Presented in anamorphic widescreen and in Italian with optional subtitles available in English or German, this piece details the history of the film, how Eastman went about writing it, what influenced the script and what it was like working with director Ferdinando Baldi, who all three participants describe as a very gentle and laidback individual. Kerova and de Mejo discuss their characters and some of the racier scenes in the film and discuss what it was like shooting them while Eastman describes how the script was written basically to take advantage of the train that was available to shoot on and how it was written about the set. There's some good clips in here as well as some cool archival photographs and this well put together documentary compliments the feature itself very nicely.
Rounding out the extras are Italian and English trailers for the film, a nice still gallery of promotional artwork, menus (in either English or German) and chapter selection. Inside the digipack housing is a booklet of liner notes (again, in English or German) from author Christian Kessler.
The Final Word:
Stylish and sleazy, Terror Express delivers some fairly intense moments and while it may not have the same impact as better Italian films from the era, it's an enjoyably trashy picture with some good performances and Camera Obscura have done an excellent job with this classy DVD presentation.