Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

What makes Night Train Murders so interesting is that it is highly exploitative material presented in a highly stylised manner. Its story has a couple of girls boarding a night train and then being subsequently brutalised and sexually assaulted by psychopaths. There's no getting away from it, its pure grind-house sleaze. But unlike others of its ilk it has a polish and production value that sets it apart somewhat. It's helmed by director Aldo Lado who had previously directed a couple of excellent gialli, Short Night of the Glass Dolls (1971) and Who Saw Her Die (1972). Like those two this is another well directed affair. Lado paces things well and creates a genuinely unnerving atmosphere. The middle section of the movie is where the rough stuff happens and it is highly stylised. Coloured lighting is used to make the interior of the train look a little more interesting but also to create a definitely unsettling atmosphere. In addition, the music by Ennio Morricone adds a lot to the intensity with a main theme that sounds not unlike a train. On a similar note the film also bizarrely includes a ditty by Greek crooner Demis Roussos which seems wildly inappropriate for a video nasty!There are some good acting performances too but special mention has to go to Macha Meril as the mysterious female sociopath who provokes the two thugs into the acts of depravity. Meril is an extremely striking looking woman who also made a highly memorable turn in Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975), in this film she has more of a starring role and she is quite exceptional. The idea of the enigmatic and sadistic woman behind the attacks is a good one and gives the movie a more original feel. However, despite the stylish presentation Night Train Murders is still pretty much full of the more typical grimy sleaze you would expect. The middle section is quite brutal and the final revenge fairly violent. Ultimately, this is a nasty movie with cinematic flair.

Two teen aged girls, one German (Irene Miracle) and one Italian (Laura D'Angelo) are travelling across Europe by train when they encounter two thieves, Blackie (Flavio Bucci) and Curly (Gianfranco De Grassi). The two thieves initially have a rascally charm about them, but later, spurred on by an alluring and extremely twisted mystery lady (Macha Meril), as well as a little heroin shooting, the trio proceed to torture these poor girls psychologically and sexually, with an unhappy ending for both of them. Eventually, they find shelter with the parents, and the dad becomes filled with homicidal rage when he realizes what has happened. If all of this sounds like Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left", you'd be dead on. In fact, two of the alternate titles for this Italian spin on the tale are "Second House on the Left" and "New House on the Left". (Craven himself, of course, having been inspired by the Bergman classic "The Virgin Spring".) But whatever this movie lacks in originality, it makes up for with its own unrelentingly seedy and disturbing mood. For its first half, it maintains a fairly light approach (some viewers may find their patience tested a bit), and takes its utterly dramatic turn after the Meril character has had her way, which gives "Night Train Murders" a particularly twisted touch with the primary instigator being a female. For as long as poor Miracle and D'Angelo are victimized, the atmosphere and sense of danger are thick and heavy, and the lighting extremely moody. The actors all do a fine job, especially the luscious Meril in the central, most potent role. Unlike "The Last House on the Left", the makers of this movie refuse to give us a cut and dried type of ending, daring to prevent their viewers from a feeling of real satisfaction. Overall, their movie is genuinely uncomfortable, compelling stuff that can't be ignored. With its striking cinematography by Gabor Pogany and the haunting music by the always dependable Ennio Morricone, "Night Train Murders" is the kind of thing where one may likely want to look away, as it shows some of the darkest aspects of human nature, demonstrating that they can exist inside the supposedly more "respectable" members of society who in the end can be no better than the dregs, and doesn't cut away. Seven out of 10.

Night train murders registers itself in the category of most disturbing movies of all times. It is inspired by Wes Craven's Last house on left,which was released couple of years earlier but it appears more brutal because the story looks more realistic and believable. Two girls travelling by train on Christmas Eve are humiliated and tortured sadistically by two men and a woman. Its amazing what wonder, a good direction does to a pretty tame storyline. Firstly we are introduced to two super pretty and innocent characters and when we start liking them, the movie get switched to its darker phase showing ruthless violence & extreme brutality towards the most affectionate characters in the movie. Some may categorize it as 'torture porn'though I have seen hell lot of gore movies which are meant to affect you visually, but this one is supposed to hunt your mind, it tracks you mentally and makes you feel sick and disturbed

Lisa and Margaret are two sweet, if less than innocent teenagers taking a train ride across the European countryside on Christmas Eve. The unlucky pair run afoul of a couple of vicious sleazy thugs and an icy cold wealthy woman on board the train who proceed to rape, torment, debase and eventually murder poor Lisa and Margaret. Director/co-writer Aldo Lado wrings plenty of gut-wrenching claustrophobic tension from the edgy, unsettling story, adroitly creates a gritty, threatening atmosphere rife with sadism and perversion, addresses the troubling issue of random everyday gratuitous violence with truly jolting results, and delivers a few savagely powerful moments of startling brutality (the sequence where the virginal Lisa gets gruesomely violated with a knife is especially ugly and upsetting). The performances are uniformly excellent: Irene Miracle and Laura D'Angelo make for very attractive and appealing fair damsels in distress while Flavio Bucci and Gianfranco De Grassi are frightfully credible and disgusting as the greasy low-life criminal villains who are memorably first seen in the picture beating up a sidewalk Santa for his money. But top acting honors clearly go to the strikingly lovely blonde Macha Meril, who gives a positively chilling portrayal of the cruel, haughty rich bitch who gladly joins in on the hoodlum's ferocious degradation of Lisa and Margaret. Gabor Pogany's slick, handsome cinematography works wonders with the tightly confined setting while the great Ennio Morricone supplies a typically haunting, throbbing and melodic score. Demis Roussos' beautiful ballad "A Flower Is All You Need" is used as an achingly ironic bookend for all the harsh barbarism. A nice'n'nasty Euroslime exploitation thriller.