Night Train to Terror (1985)

God and Satan are on a train discussing the fate of three individuals. The stories of the people in question are told in a trio of very strange vignettes. One involves an insane anylum with... See full summary »

Directors:

John Carr, Phillip Marshak

Writer:

Philip Yordan (screenplay)

Stars:

Barbara Wyler, Jamie Scoggin, Stacey Lyons

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Barbara Wyler	...	Woman at Window (segment "The Night Train")
Jamie Scoggin	...	Man at Window (segment "The Night Train")
Stacey Lyons	...	Dancer (segment "The Night Train")
Linda Maderas	...	Dancer (segment "The Night Train")
Melanie Montilla	...	Dancer (segment "The Night Train")
Chantel Morogeus	...	Dancer (segment "The Night Train")
Byron Yordan	...	Rock Singer / Breakdancer (segment "The Night Train")
Richard Sanford	...	Bass (segment "The Night Train")
Lori Bell	...	Drums (segment "The Night Train")
Marlie Clark	...	Guitar (segment "The Night Train")
Rick Arbuckle	...	Sax (segment "The Night Train")
Angela Nicoletti	...	Singing Girl (segment "The Night Train")
Dina Lee Russo	...	Singing Girl (segment "The Night Train")
Earl Washington	...	Night Porter (segment "The Night Train")
Gabriel Whitehouse	...	Conductor (segment "The Night Train")

Storyline

God and Satan are on a train discussing the fate of three individuals. The stories of the people in question are told in a trio of very strange vignettes. One involves an insane anylum with some very interesting treatment plans. Another involves a 'death club'. The final story shows us the adventures of a server of Satan. This is a strange movie.

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Plot Keywords:

anthology | directed by several directors | edited from unfinished film | rock band | devil | 

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Taglines:

A rock band gives their final performance on a hell bound trip into the outer reaches of horror!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

May 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Shiver

Filming Locations:

La Jolla, San Diego, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Visto International Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min 93 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ferdy Mayne sent director Jay Schlossberg-Cohen a letter admitting that he was a little embarrassed by the movie after he saw the final finished version of the film.

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Goofs

Lighting equipment visible at the top of the screen many times throughout the movie, during the sequences of the band performing in the train car.

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Quotes

[with lingerie suddenly replacing her doctor's uniform, Dr. Fargo approaches Harry's bed and injects Harry something that makes him twitch]
Dr. Fargo: [while suddenly fondling with him] I'm only trying to cure you... I'll protect you... No more pain. No more hurt. No dreams... Only healing in my arms. Susan would want you to feel again: human... fondling... alive... warm... waiting...
[starts mounting him on the bed]

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Crazy Credits

Satan is played by "Lu Cifer" and God by "Himself".

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Connections

Edited into Marilyn Alive and Behind Bars (1992)

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Soundtracks

Both Of Us
Music and Lyrics by Charlene Brown
Arrangement by Robert O'Connor
Vocals by Joe Turano
Additional vocals by Terry Wood and Beth Anderson

User Reviews

What in God's Name IS this?

I first encountered this title when researching TERROR TRAIN; quite naturally it would pop up all the time. Then when I started seeking more information on John Phillip Law, again, NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR would always pop up & just sounded interesting -- Cameron Mitchell playing God & Satan, having a debate about whether mankind is inherently good or evil, or just stupid. Charles Moll from NIGHT COURT [the big bald baliff dude] is also a contributor, if that is any kind of plug. But this is one wacked out movie: My buddy and I watched it the other night while we were tankin' up on Molson's Canadian, and ended up screening it TWICE because

a] the movie makes no sense b] it is still EXTREMELY entertaining even with the annoying has-been pop/new wave Meneudo band playing between segments. The segments are also utterly bizarre, with no coherency or continuity. Not between them as a whole, but from SHOT TO SHOT in all three "segments" of what is purporting to be an anthology piece I.E. VAULT OF HORROR. The stories of all three make no sense, even now watching it sober: Part one deals with John Phillip Law's imprisonment in an Evil Sanatorium that harvests body parts. Ok great: but there are about six sub plots involving women Harry supposedly marries/has relations with, a Nurse Ratchet from hell, a lobotomized Warden, and Charles Moll menacing & groping at young actresses in various states of nudity & then hacking them up. The Lobotomized Warden made me laugh my kiester off, but what the hell did the rest of it have to do with anything? This is a rhetorical question, by the way: Read on. Segment two is about a middle aged man who becomes obsessed with an adult performer and is annoyed when she falls for a guy who falls for her after seeing her in a porno flick one day when he STOPS BY A FRATERNITY HOUSE FOR A BEER???? The guy looks like he is pushing 35: if I walked into one of the Fraternity houses on the SU hill one day, totally out of the blue "FOR A BEER" I would be beaten and arrested. The guy tracks her down, they fall in love, and the middle aged man enrolls them all in a "Death Club", consisting of a bunch of desk/chairs like you'd see in a classroom sitting in what looks like the backstage area of an actual film under production in the same building. There are six members of this Death Club, all of whom had their audio tracks seperately recorded or dubbed by other actors -- Nobody is speaking their lines naturally except for the black dude, who provides the film's second biggest laugh after the Lobotomized Warden when he is fried in an electronic game of Russian Roulette. The segment has no continuity from scene to scene, with voiceover narration from someone not in the film explaining what is happening. The final visit to the Death Club has the surviving four members is it five?] strapped down in J.C. Penny's sleeping bags while a demolition ball is twirled so that it's guide wire frays against a saw and smashes the skull of NEITHER ONE OF THE THREE in the love triangle to a pulp. It's cut, but it must have been one heck of a mess. The closing segment reminded me of the closing segment from another personal favorite Horror Anthology feature: Rod Serling's NIGHT GALLERY, with Nazi atrocities from the past being re-lived in the present by people who don't seem to have all been working from the same script for the same film. There are bizarre claymation segments involving a rampaging Golem, a Goth Rocker Nazi Satanist who reminded me of Stuart Townsend from QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, and a private eye trying to piece it all together in voiceover narration that, again, tells us the meaning of disconnected images presented onscreen as a supposed narrative construct that makes ZERO SENSE. The piece concludes with the film's favorite image: someone's brain frying & sizzling the skin right off as their head shakes back & forth like a mechanical paint can shaker. The same image is repeated three [3] times; once in each segment, with increasingly graphic violence each time.

It was after realizing this during the second viewing that I got wise and actually READ THE CREDITS at the end, and all three segments were directed by the same nobody [John Carr, "announced" by the IMDB as the director of an upcoming remake of DILLINGER] and using my overactive little brain, I think I see what is going on here: These are three feature length films, unless I am mistaken, that have been condensed & edited down into one 90 minute or so take that pretends that they are part of a different larger whole: the direction of the "linking" segments with Cameron Mitchell are credited to the film's writer: what the Hell else could be going on here? The John Phillip Law Asylum story is the grabber: it has sick asylum sleeze knee deep, a nice walk-in cooler room filled with hacked off body parts, naked boobs, and John Phillip Law playing a maniac. The last story was too complicated & I just laugh at it. The second segment has -- dare I say? -- a Jess Francoian air to it of cheapness, immediacy and deceptively tacky costumes. I honestly don't know what to make of this movie: It can be found on Brentwood Home Video's DEADTIME STORIES box set with like nine other movies you will also watch more than once, and on a $6 Platinum Disc Corp. DVD with that uncut/lbx version of THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE that everyone releases at some point. Hell I may even take a stab at it. I have shopped for old pre-record VHS and am finding references to a Prism Video release from 1985 as "uncut" and then a 1988 Star Classics version that is presumably what this was made from -- Brentwood's box has a better looking DVD version, but then again they aren't cramming three other movies into the pressing. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING??