20 Essential Euro Horror Films That Kick Ass

By Clare Simpson /

12. Night Train Murders (1975)

Basically Last House on the Left set on a Euro horror train. Margaret and Lisa are two young girls taking the train from Munich to Italy to stay with Lisa's parents over Christmas. Two thugs called Curly and Blackie board the train at the same time. Blackie goes to rape a posh woman only to find out she is an aggressive, kinky seductress. Curly, Blackie and the posh woman (who is never named) set about torturing and humiliating the young girls. Curly takes heroin in the loo and whilst attempting to escape, Margaret knees him in the balls. Humiliated and enraged, Curly beats Margaret and makes her give him a handjob. The posh woman encourages Curly to rape Lisa, but he is hampered by her hymen. Curly and the posh woman force a knife into Lisa's vagina and she bleeds to death. Margaret makes a break for it and accidentally dies whilst trying to jump off the train to escape her tormentors. The typical revenge part happens now. The three criminals end up in Lisa's house and news of what happened to the girls reaches the parents. Lisa's mother spots the tie that Lisa had described to her on Curly's neck. The posh woman is choked by Lisa's father but she wrangles her way out of trouble by blaming Blackie and Curly for what happened to their daughter. Gulio, Lisa's father, kills Curly with an overdose of heroin. He kills Blackie with a shotgun. As the police arrive, the posh woman's fate is not certain. Definitely one of the Video Nasties worth watching, Late Night Trains comes across as a more polished version of Last House on the Left. It is a shameless rip off but it does have its charms. The train setting is suspenseful and claustrophobic, there is no way Lisa and Margaret can escape these degenerates - to try and escape means death in Margaret's case. I think that there is more characterisation than LHOTL which works in building up extreme antipathy towards the villains in the film. The posh, degenerate, nympho woman is a great character. Snooty as hell but underneath all her manners a sex crazed deviant. It is hardly intellectual fare for the brain, but it is a capable thriller, directed by Aldo Lado.