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 asylums ... 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 asylums 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 | depiction of god | directed by several directors | edited from unfinished film | rock band | 

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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

The first part (or in some versions, the third part) of this anthology horror film, "Case Of Harry Billings" starring Richard Moll, was edited from an unfinished, unreleased horror film, "Scream Your Head Off" (although copies of it are reported to be available). That film was written by Philip Yordan and directed by John Carr (both were also credited as the writer and director of this film).

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Goofs

A crew member can be seen moving his feet out of the way, and out of view of the camera and reflection on the glass under the body Moll has just sawn into pieces.

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Quotes

Some guy: Like, I really wish our bus hadn't broken down, ya know?
Dancer: No way! I think this train is coooool!
Rock singer: From the top!
[then the band starts playing again]

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Crazy Credits

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

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Alternate Versions

The old UK video version suffered 4 minutes 17 secs of heavy cuts which removed shots of a topless woman tied to a table, a graphic decapitation scene, shots of dismembered bodies and closeups of human organs during the operation scene.

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Connections

Edited from Cataclysm (1980)

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Soundtracks

I'd Have To Be Crazy
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

Poor Movie But An Interesting Back Story

Night Train to Terror (1985)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

God and Satan are on board a train where a rock band is playing. The two talk about who is respected more and then we see three separate stories. The first story deals with a man who feels guilty over a drunk driving death that he caused. He finds himself involved in a strange experiment. The second story deals with a medical student who falls in love with a beautiful woman and gets drawn into a strange world of monsters. The final story has a detective (Cameron Mitchell) investigating a murder that leads to a Satanic playboy with special powers.

NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR is a really, really bizarre little movie with an even more bizarre behind-the-scenes story. The only new footage here are the scenes dealing with the rock band and God and Satan. Everything else is footage taken from three completely different movies. What's so strange is that all three of those movies are available to view in their complete form so it's kind of pointless watching them chopped up to fit 20-30 minute segments.

The biggest problem with this movie is that all three stories are completely confusing and they never make too much sense. THere are so many logical issues with each of the three stories and it's easy to see why because all of them are missing over a hours worth of footage. To say that this film was a complete hack job would be fair and it's also fair to say that the studio was just trying to make some cash out of the previous films that I'm guessing they already owed. Why not cut them down, add a wrap-around story and try to pass it off as something new?

Whatever their reasons were, it's funny to think that NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR has remained easy to find over the years while the three other complete films (MARILYN ALIVE AND BEHIND BARS, THE DARK SIDE TO LOVE and CATACLYSM) aren't as easy to track down, although THE DARK SIDE OF LOVE was released as a bonus feature for the Blu-ray release of NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR.

As it stands, this is a pretty hard film to judge simply because of the editing process. The end result is quite poor and it's hard to be entertained by NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR simply because the stories are so bad as they are presented here. To really judge them you'd need to see the complete films. As it stands, NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR is pretty bad but the backstory is much more interesting.