Do you remember the first time you fell in love? Those butterflies filling up the bell, the beat beating faster when you know you’re gonna meet the love of your life. I’ve experienced it a couple of times, so I can’t complain – and the last time it happen was yesterday, when I saw Night Train to Terror for the first time! Recently released by Vinegar Syndrome on Blu-ray, this movie shines like few other movies. It’s hardly a perfect movie, far from actually. Most people would say it’s a bad movie, but according to me the only bad movies are the boring ones… and this one is so far from boring it can get. And I’ve always had a soft spot for anthology movies…
In HARRY we meet Harry, played by John Phillip Law (who looks like a less depressed Chris Mitchum), a man hired by a morgue/hospital/thingy to deliver fresh bodies to their very special business. But he’s starting to change his mind, somehow – for no reason really – and the whole shit hits the fan. Kinda. This was edited together from an unfinished movie, Scream Your Head Off. This is visible because this is the most confusing and fast-moving story ever in this anthology!
The second story is GRETTA, edited from Death Wish Club (aka The Dark Side to Love) and… I have a hard time understanding how this could have been a whole movie from the beginning. It’s a (again) confusing tale of a young woman who wants to be a star, becomes a porn star, is saved by a young hunk and then involved – in a very advanced revenge story – in bizarre forms of Russian roulette together with the hunk, her ex-husband (who got her into porn) and a gang of super-rich, bored people who wants to do something “fun” with their lives.
Last out is CLAIRE, based on the movie Cataclysm – which is one cool mother**ker of a movie. It begins with an old Jewish man discovering his old enemy, a nazi, is still alive and hasn’t aged at all. Then the story glides over to tough cop Cameron Mitchell trying to investigate the whole thing… but soon the story is about a powerful atheist who’s written a book with the theme “god is dead”… until his wife takes over the leading part instead! Confusing, spectacular and extremely fun!
I’m not kidding you when I say that this is the most fun I’ve had in a long time watching a movie. The three stories is also connected together with some very bizarre song- and dance-routines on a train where god and Satan sits and tries to decides who’s souls gonna go where, to heaven or hell! I mean, I never seen anything like this. The short stories go super-fast and they’ve obviously just used the fun stuff from each one, which means gore (they use that really RED blood, and with silly but quite effective physical effects), cheap and spectacular special effects, nudity (especially in Harry) and outrageous scenes of extreme silliness. Everything is narrated by someone who sounds like Criswell in the films of Ed Wood, which just adds to the insanity.
What’s even cooler is that they’ve used stop-motion in two of the episodes, far from realistic, but with cool concepts (mostly insects and demons) and fitting into the rest of this colorful mess of a movie. I seriously doubt the longer version of the movies is better; this is the essence of them, which probably is the best way to see ‘em.
The Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome looks excellent, with the normal amount of wear and tear. Theirs is some good bonus material also (including the full-length version of Gretta), but I haven’t had time to check it yet. I’m happy I can own and pet this disc every day now, one of those movies I always will turn to when life is dark and happiness is far away.
"And I’ve always had a soft spot for anthology movies…"
You are not alone.
"The three stories is also connected together with some very bizarre song- and dance-routines on a train where god and Satan sits and tries to decides who’s souls gonna go where, to heaven or hell!"
What...????
Horror musical...?
hahahahhahah....now this I have to see....
"What’s even cooler is that they’ve used stop-motion in two of the episodes, far from realistic, but with cool concepts (mostly insects and demons) and fitting into the rest of this colorful mess of a movie."
Yeah, stop motion can be so awesome.
"I’m happy I can own and pet this disc every day now, one of those movies I always will turn to when life is dark and happiness is far away."
It does sound like a lot of fun....good review and thanks Fred.
Posted by: Megatron | November 21, 2013 at 17:10