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[vigilanteforce]

A brief review, copied from my blog:

Xmas time, somewhere in the mid-70s: 2 girls are riding on a train to visit their parents for the vacation. Soon they are joined by 2 sex-hungry, drug-crazed scumbags and an upper-class lady (DEEP RED's Macha Meril). The lady screws one of the guys in the toilet and later forces both of them to humiliate, rape and murder the 2 poor girls. When the train arrives at its final destination, the evil trio manage to hitch a lift back to the girls house. When their they are proven to have murdered the girls the father goes after them in true LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT fashion.

Words are cheap here. Everything in this movie reaches perfection, making it one of the ultimate exploitation cinema experiences of all times! All cast members deliver excellent performances while director Aldo Lado (MALASTRANA) handles the ultra-disturbing sleazy situations with excessive style. The screenplay is obviously borrowing a lot from Wes Craven's film but does it with creativity- the additions of the train setting and Xmas season make this more interesting and more dramatic than LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. L' ULTIMO TRENO DELLA NOTTE is a crushing viewing experience and a personal favorite!

Youtube trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96IP6VwvlJ8

[Jonny]

One of my all time sleazy favorites! Miles better than 'The Last House on the Left' as far as I'm concerned, beautifully shot, the actors are dialing up the sleaze factor to 11 (especially Macha Meril) and what's not to like about Demis Roussos warbling his way through the opening credits!?!

When I first got my Blue Underground DVD I was shocked. Shocked by how gorgeous their transfer was of this sleazy film that I'd only ever experienced via fullscreen VHS transfers from the halcyon days of my video collecting youth. It just didn't seem right that a film so morally wrong could look so good!

An essential film for every fan of the rougher side of Euro Cult.

[Stephen Grimes]

Agreed.
This is one movie i never tire of watching even though i've seen it more times than i care to remember,always remember buying a genuine Dutch ex-rental from Tony Pyschotronic's in Camden over 10 years ago and being pleased as fuck as it was so hard to find back then.It set me back £25 but sat proudly on my shelf till BU issued the ultimate edition dvd.

[vigilanteforce]

It just didn't seem right that a film so morally wrong could look so good!

I had the exact same thought when I first bought Media Blasters' edition of THE BEAST IN HEAT!

I also like this a lot more than LAST HOUSE and like Stephen, I could never get tired of it. It delivers everything I want to see in an Italian exploitation film!

[IL COMMISSARIO]

I liked this movie but I thought it was terribly overrated. I though LAST HOUSE was far more disturbing. Apart from a couple of scenes NIGHT TRAIN was fairly tame. Maybe I need to see it again as I remember very little about it. As I said this was a highly anticipated release for me and I was let down as I don't remember there being much in the way of disturbing material. In fact, I never even watched the interview with Lado adding to my disinterest with the film. I'll give it another go soon. As everyone has stated, it is beautifully shot.

[Inspector Tanzi]

I also like this a lot more than LAST HOUSE and like Stephen, I could never get tired of it. It delivers everything I want to see in an Italian exploitation film!

I prefer it to LAST HOUSE aswell, i think Enrico Maria Salerno was a great actor.

[vigilanteforce]

Commissario, you definitely have to give this another try!

[IL COMMISSARIO]

Commissario, you definitely have to give this another try!

I certainly plan to. My friend the giallo nut also thought this was overrated. BTW, how is KILLER NUN, released around the same time from BU? I picked this up on a couple of occasions. My BIG problem is I like too many kinds of movies and sometimes I'll by as many as 6 to a dozen or more DVDs at a time so sometimes I'll hang around the store for hours deciding on what to get.

[vigilanteforce]

I don't how this film is overrated, its not like it has been getting huge exposure or something. I have explained the reasons why I love it so much in my review that you can see above. We just cannot all love the same stuff, that's for sure!

KILLER NUN came along with NIGHT TRAIN from BU and the disc is excellent as you can expect. The movie itself is good, competently directed and has some very nasty and WTF moments! Don't know why some categorize it as a giallo though.

[IL COMMISSARIO]

I meant overrated from various genre sites before and after it came out stating how nasty and vile the movie was and I don't remember it being all that bad. In fact, at the time I found it quite tame compared to LAST HOUSE which is a film that makes me want to take a shower afterwards. A strong movie weakened only by the silly antics of the police. Done to give you a release from the rough stuff, but still unnecessary shenanigans.

I never said I didn't like NIGHT TRAIN...just that at the time I saw it I was disappointed that it wasn't this sleazy little movie people had made it out to be. Beautifully shot, yes but as I said, I'll check it out again maybe I missed something the first time around.

[IL COMMISSARIO]

In fact, I may have to see this again quite soon. I didn't even remember this taking place at Christmas.

[vigilanteforce]

Well, the good thing about NIGHT TRAIN is the fact it is missing these pointless comic relief scenes that involved the cops that LAST HOUSE had. Don't get me wrong, I like LAST HOUSE, its a classic but NIGHT TRAIN just works better for me. It has that Italian look and feel that you can't help but love and it is very nasty... Remember that scene where they deflower that girl using a knife? In my opinion that was stronger and more disturbing than the whole LAST HOUSE experience. Actually that scene could have influenced a certain extreme metal band to write the famous "Fucked With A Knife" song 

NIGHT TRAIN was definitely a LAST HOUSE imitation but I think it added some very interesting elements such as the train setting, the Christmas setting, the way the father discovers the identity of the killers... these things made the film very powerful and dramatic in my opinion. I just believe it has a nastier edge than LAST HOUSE. The music score helps a lot of course. There are absolutely no happy music themes in this one, unlike in LAST HOUSE. The dramatic score gives this a downbeat feel that I love.

[IL COMMISSARIO]

What happy themes in LAST HOUSE? You mean the goofy DUKES OF HAZZARD music for the cop bits? Hess' song 'The Road Leads To Nowhere' is certainly not happy. BTW, some versions have the police bits excised. Craven did these to give the audience a release from the violence. Speaking of the violence, there will never be a completely uncut version of this movie since projectionists all over the US cut and trimmed the movie to their liking.

The scene where the gut the girl, play with her entrails followed by their stunned looks of disbelief then washing their hands in the river as if they are washing away the crime itself is more powerful than anything I remember in NIGHT TRAIN. As I said I remember very little.

The cinematography is excellent in NIGHT TRAIN but regarding LAST HOUSE, the documentary look and feel was what Craven was going for. LAST HOUSE is still not available "completely uncut" in britain even after all these years. NIGHT TRAIN plays like a movie while LAST HOUSE seems like it is really happening.

Again, I like NIGHT TRAIN...but until I see it again LAST HOUSE is the better movie for me.

[Mart85]

Excellent film.  Not much to add to what you've all said.  Though I thought that Fabrizi's slimey turn as the passenger who watches then rapes one of the girls, only to go home to his family was a pretty unsettling touch.  Thinking of viglianteforce's thread, that's not something I've seen in American films in the same vein.  Though I ain't seen LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

[Peter Neal]

Now, as much as I adore the BU release, THIS is a prime example of an Euro horror gem crying out loud to be released in a suitably tasty R2 SE, since it deserves to be much wider known than it is here in the EU.

On the "Last House" VS "Night Train Murders" issue: If it wasn't for being there first, Craven's classic would loose out in my book because of the odd "comedy cops", but what I find more interesting about discussing "Night Train Murders" is its slightly different take on the "class conflict" compared to Craven's film. Strangely enough, I find "Night Train" in its depiction of the "decadent middle classes" more unsettling than Craven's rather standard "low life thugs threaten middle class family" take. Both films have actually something to say, but I wonder if your standard censor would be open to such arguments....