Awaiting the 4K release of Night Train Murders, I thought I would head off into similar territory and have a look at another train based Italian Giallo from that period. Terror Express seemed a perfect option.
Coming 5 years after Night Train Murders I would frequently confuse the two films (as did the police in the early 80’s during the Video Nasty debacle) prior to seeming a ropey VHS of Night Train Murders. The Italian’s like to give films differing names on release and then depending on the region you find the film there might be another title attached to it altogether. The copy I picked up boasts Horror-Sex Im Nachtexpress and using my incredible powers of translation I believe this is Horror-Sex on the Night Express.
One of the words in that title is not fully representative of this film and this is where my disappointment begins. Terror Express is not a horror film, as I had expected, it is a rather un-erotic roughie that is filled with somewhat non consensual intercourse that is poorly shot and designed to make headlines. Giallo movies are not necessarily horror, however, they toe the line. Terror Express doesn’t have enough of the elements to make it as a Giallo. Instead it’s really a pretty perverse erotic thriller.
Three vagrants board an overnight train to Switzerland and abuse the staff and other passengers on the journey. Initially, the train appears to be quite crowded with all manner of faces peering out of the windows of the carriages, however, as the plot continues we are reduced to a collection of 15 characters. Most of which are truly wretched.
There is a decent level of character work going on with the passengers. The three thugs are typically crazed, but far from as ruthless as we see in Italian movies. In fact one of the thugs is visibly disturbed by an accidental killing. The thugs do have a plan to interfere and abuse passenger’s on the journey. The passengers seem to be on an increasing scale of a bit messed up to seriously fucked up.
With that in mind, it makes sense that our heroes are a prostitute called Julia and a prisoner called Peter, who is being transported by a police officer. Julia is as close as we are going to get as a fully rounded character with a backstory and some growth. Perhaps I yawned at the wrong point, but I’m not entirely sure of the reasons Peter was in handcuffs as there is only a brief exchange … over dinner… the cop as to why they are there.
Having been along for the journey I was a little annoyed as the end credits rolled. There were a lot of abandoned story elements and unanswered questions. Having witnessed the torment the passengers endured I wanted closure in the characters. The script seemed to enjoy rolling out some sordid scenarios, but then ignored the characters thereafter.
The film must have been filmed on a long journey and utilises an overnight carriage and a dining car quite well. There were fights, romps and dialogue sequences that didn’t feel claustrophobic or reused. If parts of the scenes were filmed on sets at different times then these are fluidly incorporated. Some gripes I would make is that the fistfight on the side of the tracks, around some train machinery, was not blocked or orchestrated well. The intimate moments between characters are overlong and somewhat boring.
Director Ferdinando Baldi is a dependable genre director known for Nine Guests for a Crime (1977) which coincidentally was released on the same blu ray label as Night Train Murders and at the same time. He is perhaps best known for Franco Nero’s Texas, Adios (1966) and Sicilian Connection starring the mighty Ben Gazzara. I’m not sure he was 100% committed to making as much of this as he could, if there were heavy deadlines and not enough footage. Either way there is about 5 minutes missing from the finale and that ultimately affects the movie negatively.
The cast is pretty good with the two leading ladies Silvia Dionisio and Zora Kerova doing most of the work. The three tugs, lead by a wild eyed Werner Pochath are passable, however Gianluigi Chirizzi doesn’t quite cut it as the heroic prisoner. Interestingly this was written by George Eastman who is responsible for classics like Antropophagus and Keoma. I can see Eastman as one of the three antagonists, but also the lead role of Peter which might have been a more interesting casting.
I don’t want to hate on Terror Express too much, however, it was not what I had wanted. The emphasis is on sex, more so than the terror. If you are looking for House on the Edge of the Park on a train then you will be disappointed as Terror Express feels more like one of the latter Emanuelle knock offs.
There is only one real piece of actual poster art. Other’s seem to comprise of screenshots… oddly a very rude issue features a scene that was not in the version I have.
At the time of writing a blu ray has been announced for release in July 2025, there exists a very out of print release from Dark Force Entertainment and Code Red, however, you will need your bank manager present to finance a purchase. This contains a couple of extra ported over an earlier DVD release.
The lovely Rachael Nisbet shall be providing a commentary on the upcoming release making it the most enticing version.
