Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Mr_Ectoplasma "The Night Train Murders," also known as "Last Stop on the Night Train," follows two teenage girls riding an overnight train on Christmas Eve from Munich to be home with their families for the holiday. Unfortunately, two thugs are also onboard, who happen to find an unlikely accomplice when they decide to brutalize the two girls in an empty car. Things, however, get increasingly complicated when they find themselves in the company of one of the girls' parents after de-boarding.The Italian equivalent to Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left" (or Bergman's "The Virgin Spring"), "The Night Train Murders" follows a familiar plot, so it needs to excel in other areas in order to set itself aside from its source material; and it more or less manages to do this, with some caveats. Where "Last House" took place in bucolic New England, "Night Train" sets itself within the confines of a train (a tradition dating back to Hitchcock's "Lady on the Train") running through rural Germany, and the film is extremely atmospheric for this. The Christmas Eve setting, though ultimately inconsequential to the narrative, does give the film another sinister layer.The film is really well shot and there are some fantastic overhead views and other shots of the narrow train corridors that make for claustrophobic chase sequences. There is some contrived social commentary peppered in from the doctor father in the film, who waxes poetic about contemporary violence, but what's more interesting is the involvement of an austere woman on the train who finds herself a voyeur, and ultimately, a participant, in the brutalization of the girls. The psychology behind this is truly fascinating, and Macha Méril plays the part perfectly. The violence inflicted on the girls is difficult to watch, and the anonymous woman's participation in it is riveting. The conclusion, per the source material, is expected, but is also handled with stylish flair.Overall, "The Night Train Murders" is a grim and stylish retread of a familiar story, but the material is handled well and the film boasts several disturbing scenes and a general atmosphere of foreboding and dread. Some people have tended to classify the film as an example of genre sleaze, though I didn't necessarily get that vibe from it. The violence here is more implicit than it is gratuitous, and the thematic overtones keep the film from edging into outright exploitation; it's more of a character study in the terrible things people are capable of in the most arbitrary of circumstances. 8/10.

Cinema_Fan To be fair to director Aldo Lado, he may have taken the scenario for L'ultimo treno della notte from Wes Craven's The Last House On The Left, but, Mr. Craven may not be as innocent too. The Last House On The Left idea originates from the 1960 film by Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring), so nobody here is perfect, unless you're Ingmar Bergman. Either way, the subject matter here, as with the previous films, makes for disturbing viewing. Director Aldo Lado has produced a film that gives off a sense of the human condition at its lowest, and depraved, if somewhat hedonistic, form, depending on whose viewpoint you take. While a simple format, two young, if somewhat virginal in life's ways, are travelling across Europe, and are joined, reluctantly, by three strangers, one nameless middle-class nymphomaniac woman and two brutish lower-class thugs. What makes this an interesting case is the fact that the depravities hold no bounds across the class barrier, occupying this train compartment is a mixed bag of the class system. What else counts for a plus here is not the fact that it is the two alpha-males who are in control but the petite, slim, attractive sexual deviant, the unnamed Lady On The Train, that is holding the reins, and the fate, of these two young girls. The men, from backgrounds that can only be best described as lacking in style and sophistication, seem to be controlled by the higher intelligent, manipulative worldly woman, it is only the common bond of power and lust that binds these classes together, worlds apart yet both the same in their amoral attitudes. This is a dark world that Margaret and Lisa have inadvertently stumbled upon and with chilling atmospheric lighting by cinematographer Gábor Pogány (1915 – 1999) and the added combination of composer Ennio Morricone's (b. 1928) eerie harmonica underscore, seen in the opposite vain as the character "Harmonica" from Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). This time, the sounds of the distant harmonica bring not justifiable revenge but fear and anxieties in these extreme conditions of claustrophobia, revulsion and narcissistic pleasure. It is the ironies that fill the screen here, too, giving a sense of helplessness toward the two unfortunate victims as the narrative jumps from train compartment to dinner party, and back, in which the expectant parents are holding, whilst waiting for their fledglings to arrive. This setting is a middle-class affair and it is here that we are witness to the proceedings of its surroundings and the opinions of the discussion of violence that begets violence. So much so in fact that the director's work here may consist of little violence, a large part of the film is bringing the characters together and seeing, individually, their respective lives, roles and traits before the twain meet. It is in the manner of the subject matter that on its 1976 cinema release, in the United Kingdom, the then British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) deemed fit to ban its release altogether and its legacy then cemented in stone during its video (VHS) banning during the 1980s thus forever cursed a video nasty. This, of course, does the film little justice, as the team of Lado, Pogány and Morricone etc have brought us a film that consists of character building, its not in a rush to get to the end of the line and we see who exactly is who and we learn a little more of each of them as the film, too, rides on. Then, added with this, we have a mood of lighting, music, fine edits and interesting camera work bringing a fine movie together. The turning point of L'ultimo treno Della notte is not just the despicable, indifferent manner in which the symbols of innocents are exploited but also in which the ironies of middle class principles clash in so opposing contradictions. Setting the piece well in advance we already understand the theories of the middle class, and their attitude toward violence, but it isn't until they are truly tested that we also see that even amongst the confines of bourgeois society the walls of conformity and constraint can so readily and needfully come tumbling down. Even to the point of believing, of wanting to believe, the innocent cries for her life of a desperate Lady On The Train when confronted with the vengeful, now killer, father. Violence has begot violence and is, as always, a classless and faceless entity; this is the true massage of L'ultimo treno della notte and it is done with extreme charm and style which in the end, brings the message home, at heart, the human soul is open to uncertainties and is most capable when needs be.

Woodyanders 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.

Prof-Hieronymos-Grost Laura and her friend Irene are travelling back to Italy on the overnight train from Munich for Christmas, also on board are two pickpockets Curly a heroin addict and Blackie on the run from the German police for mugging Santa Claus…HOHOHO!. All seems well on the over crowed train and the girls kick up a rapport with the boys and help them avoid the ticket collector, Macha Méril plays a seemingly respectable lady passenger content to discuss social issues with other seemingly respectable passengers until that is she meets Blackie in a toilet where he forces himself on her meeting little resistance, and after an unprovoked attack on another passenger by the two boys she seems hooked on the seedier side of life.The train is stopped in a deserted station after the police receive threats that there is a bomb on board…The two girls see this as there chance to rid themselves of the troublesome boys and as luck would have it there is a direct train leaving shortly for there home town. The girls enjoy a candlelit lunch on board the dark and cold train which is lit only with a blue light, they seem relaxed until they realize the boys have also jumped trains with their lady friend in tow. The trio force themselves into the girls compartment where they subject them to demeaning sexual acts which go a little too far resulting in one of the girls being killed in a hideous manner,the other fleeing half naked jumps from the moving train as she is chased by the two boys,she falls to her death. Laura's parents await her arrival at the train station but the only people there are the murdering trio, who seek assistance from Laura's father as he is a doctor and the lady passenger has an injured leg that requires treatment.The trio return to Laura's house where they rest up and have dinner,unaware of who's house they are in. The parents become suspicious of the boys and after they hear that two girls bodies have been found beside the railway line, Laura's father seeks revenge on the boys, whom he dispatches in a very bloody way, the respectable lady escapes scott free pleading innocence. A very gritty film that rips off Last House on the lefts idea of revenge, although Lado claims he hadn't seen it at the time. Lado's film is supposed to an indictment on violence and other social issues and to be fair he doesn't show too much gore and also doesn't resort to unneeded nudity, while I found the film interesting there wasn't enough tension for me….maybe it was down to Lado's laid back way of telling the story which was very matter of fact. Exploitation fans will probably love it.