NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS (1975)

Directed by Aldo Lado

Starring Macha Méril and Laura D'Angelo

A fairly interesting "Last House on the Left" clone, "The Night Train Murders" boasts a decent score by Ennio Morricone and some over-the-top brutality, the likes of which no one can get away producing on film today. But “Last House” is an infinitely better movie.

Laura D'Angelo and Irene Miracle are two teen students heading home via train for Christmas. 30-something Macha Méril (who played the doomed psychic in Dario Argento’s "Deep Red" the same year) is also on board. When the elder woman befriends two thugs on the trip, she uses them to victimize the two teens. Naturally, rape and murder result, with camera angles heavily reminiscent of what we saw in Wes Craven’s original.

Things start getting heavily imitative of "Last House," when Méril and her two companions wind up at the home of one of the murdered girls. Of course, the Dad discovers that the killers of his girl is staying with him, and he wants bloody revenge.

Basically, a “Last House” without as much edge, "Night Train Murders" was gloriously restored by Blue Underground and released on DVD in 2005. But don’t mistake it for a classic. It isn’t one. But it does have a mildly interesting twist at the end -- and it’s always a pleasure to watch an Argento alum like Méril in another European horror movie.

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