Beyond the Door III (1989)

User Rating:

3.6/10   

Director:

Jeff Kwitny

Writer:

Sheila Goldberg (writer)

Release Date:

21 April 1990 (Japan)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Some doors are best left closed!

Plot:

Another non-related sequel to the Beyond the Door series, this one rarely has anything to do with Chi...

Plot Keywords:

Satan | Virgin | Virginity | Europe | Ritual

Cast

Mary Kohnert	...	Beverly Putnic
Bo Svenson	...	Professor Andromolek
Victoria Zinny	...	Beverly's Mother
Savina Gersak	...	Sava
Sarah Conway Ciminera	...	Christie
William Geiger	...	Kevin
Alex Vitale	...	Angel
Ron Williams	...	Larry
Renee Rancourt	...	Melanie
Jeremy Sanchez	...	Richard
Igor Pervic	...	Marius
Susan Zelouf	...	Miss Chase
Tania Alexander	...	Air hostess
Mario Novelli	...	Engineer
Ratko Tankosic	...	Coal Stoker

Also Known As:

Amok Train (video title)
Death Train (UK) (video title)
The Train (Italy) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:94 min

Country:

Italy | Yugoslavia | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

West Germany:18 (cut) | Australia:R | South Korea:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | Iceland:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Belgrade, Serbia

Company:

Avala Film

Trivia:

Despite the title, this film has nothing to do with Beyond the Door or Beyond the Door II. Distributors titled it Beyond the Door III to capitalize on the success of the previous films.

Movie Connections:

Follows Chi sei? (1974)

And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the Train…

Let's see what's beyond door number three. Surprise! It's a truckload of Italian-produced 80's horror cheese! The "official" title Beyond the Door III is completely irrelevant and probably just chosen because the film remotely involves some itty-bitty parts of satanic possession and because the infamous Ovidio G. Assonitis – director of the original Beyond the Door (a nitwit "Exorcist" rip-off) pumped extra money into this as an executive producer. Speaking of him, usually you should beware of any horror production that proudly depicts Assonitis' name during the opening credits. Remember "Tentacles", "Ator the Iron Warrior" and "Piranha II"? But "Amok Train", the much more apt title, is actually a vastly entertaining movie as long as you keep your expectations really low. During the first five minutes already, we're treated to eerie images of black-cloaked Satanists performing a weird ritual; a randomly gratuitous boobs shot and someone losing her head in a tragic car accident when a steel bar crushes through the front window. Well then, how bad can an 80's horror movie possibly be? Even after the promising opening minutes, "Amok Train" remains a fast-paced and hugely amusing little flick, albeit one that makes absolutely no sense and contains more crazy twists and absurd situations than you could ever imagine. A group of Californian high school students has the privilege of traveling to Yugoslavia, to study the local history with the eminent Professor Andromolek. The whole trip turns out to be a giant lie, as the Professor is part of a satanic sect and they're exclusively interested in young Beverly because she's the "chosen" virgin to wed Satan himself. Beverly and her classmates manage to escape and jump on an old train hoping to escape. From then on, the movie literally turns into a derailed – in every possible meaning of the term – adventure with nonsensical twists, extreme cheese and spontaneously random death scenes. Dark powers turn the train into an unstoppable instrument of the devil driving through water and over land without rails. The opening scenes in the little Yugoslavian villages are atmospheric and actually evoke a handful of real scares. Nearly two decades prior to Eli Roth, the creators of this little flick already realized that the population in East European countries look uncanny and that it's a terribly dangerous place for American teenagers to travel to. The middle section, however, is just sheer cheesy nonsense with a handful of awesome gore moments, hysterically screaming co-eds and stupid dialogs.