Terror Express

Terror Express

Genre: Exploitation

Original title: La ragazza del vagone letto

Director: Ferdinando Baldi

Year: 1979

Three thugs commandeer a couple of cars on a moving train and spread terror among the passengers.

Terror Express is a film often overlooked by Italian film fans in the Last House On The Left style of film, which for a few years almost became a genre of its own. Aldo Lado's brilliant Late Night Trains had came four years prior to this with its setting being largely on a train, though that film only used the train as a set-up for the revenge that came after. Terror Express (minus a couple of short scenes) is based completely on the train & it manages to sustain its nasty thrills by constantly moving, never taking a second to reflect & cramming in as much sleazy nastiness that it can in its short 80 minute running time. 

It's directed by Ferdinando Baldi who mostly had success with Spaghetti Westerns such as Viva, Django, he clearly understood what type of film was making with so much attention being geared towards the sex & violence that the film contains. 

The cast is one full of many faces that Italian genre fans will recognise even if they are unfamiliar with their names. Silvia Dionisio (once married to Ruggero Deodato) plays a hooker who works on the night train. The trio of well spoken thugs that take over the train contain Austrian actor Werner Pochath (The Cat o' Nine Tails, Ratman) & Carlo De Mejo (City of the Living Dead, The House by the Cemetery). Elsewhere on the train we have Venantino Venantini (Cannibal Ferox) & Czech actress Zora Kerova (The New York Ripper, Cannibal Ferox). I spent half the film thinking 'I know you from somewhere' whilst looking at various characters faces.

The film is written by a legendary figure here on Cult Italia, George Eastman. As well as acting, Eastman was a screen-writer that gave us films of such bad taste as Porno Holocaust & Bestialità so it is no surprise that Terror Express contains many ultra-sleazy scenes. First of all you have the three villains who at first appear to be more of a nuisance rather than a threat. They arrive for dinner with their loud music & are rude & obnoxious. Though things soon spiral out of control when they end up taking a gun from a police-man who is escorting a prisoner on the overnight train. From then on the characters become sadistic in their nature, taking over the train with violence and sexual abuse. 

In one scene, after Silvia Dionisio's character has been raped 3 or 4 times the prisoner is sent in to continue the rape. He turns out to be a sympathetic character and tries to fight back but is beaten by the thugs so the raped women decides to have sex with him after. There's also a man on the train with his family who sleeps with said prostitute and makes her wear his own daughters nightgown as he has incestuous feelings about his daughter. It is that kind of movie & I guess no surprise that it came from the insane mind of George Eastman!

In the UK the film was caught up in the video nasty scare of the early 80s when the Fletcher label release was seized by a number of police forces during raids. Though most probably the film was mistaken for Late Night Trains which was on their hit-list at the time.

Late Night Trains is still the go-to film if you want a exploitation film set on a train but Terror Express isn't far behind. The inevitable revenge in the final few minutes doesn't deliver the payback that these type of films perhaps should, but that aside this is sleazy, nasty, fast paced, fun & entertaining slice of exploitation cinema which deserves to be seen by more fans of this type of cinema

Rating: ★★★½

The Mad Butcher

The Mad Butcher

Genre: Horror, Black Comedy, Exploitation

Original title: Lo strangolatore di Vienna

AKA: The Strangler of Vienna 

Director: Guido Zurli

Year: 1971

 After being released from a mental hospital, Otto returns to his old job as a butcher. He tries to adjust to his new life, but after a bitter argument with his wife, he accidentally kills her. Fearing he will be sent back to the hospital, he grinds up her body and sells it as sausages. As friends and relatives start asking questions about her disappearance, they too start ending up in the butcher's display case

This Italian & German co-production is a goofy B style exploitation movie which reminded me of a sleazier version of something like Little Shop Of Horrors, with a similar plot to that of Psycho II. It played out as a dark comedy, though the use of the kind of comedic music you'd find in a circus show really didn't work with the films tone. Personally, I'd of liked a much meaner & exploitive picture along the lines of say, William Lustig's Maniac than the campy romp we get here. 

The Mad Butcher stars Victor Buono, a character actor that had appeared in successful films such as What Ever Happened to Baby Jane & Beneath the Planet of the Apes & is pretty well cast to play this kind of goofy larger than life character. To his credit, the little entertainment that the film delivers almost always comes via his performance. Also outside of his acting career he was a highly regarded gourmet chef so was definitely qualified to to play the mad butcher! 

Given the horse meat scandal in the UK right now the subject matter was pretty damn appropriate, the film however remains too dull & repetitive in places with the comedy rarely hitting the sweet spot & editing that leaves a lot to be desired. A decent idea, poorly executed. 

Rating: ★★

Victor Buono preparing tonight's meal 

Women in Fury

Women In Fury

Genre: Exploitation, Women in Prison

Original title: Femmine in fuga

AKA: Jailbreakin' Women

Director: Michele Massimo Tarantini

Year: 1985

Covering for her brother, who killed a Brazilian drug lord, Angela Duvall is sent to a women's prison. Trapped behind bars, Angela's beauty excites the passions in her fellow prisoners and the guards alike. Unfortunately, she also catches the eye of a group of inmates who work for the man her brother murdered.

Soon after filming the entertaining Cannibal Adventure picture Massacre in Dinosaur Valley director Michele Massimo Tarantini was off to Brazil to shoot this trashy Women In Prison flick, Women In Fury. He also took with him a handful of the cast from his previous picture including Brazilian beauty Suzane Carvalho.

Carvalho plays our lead girl named Angela who has covered for her brothers murder thinking she would only receive a lenient jail sentence, a big mistake, she gets 18 years & prison is no place for a good looking girl. 

This is Carvalho's final acting credit as she took the surprising career path of becoming a race-car driver! She would go on to be a champion in South America in Formula 3.

Shot on location in Brazil the film plays out for the first half as your typical Woman In Prison B-movie flick with the usual traits including sexual discrimination, beatings, gratuitous nudity & of course, lesbianism. Despite these strong themes the film never feels too sleazy or mean spirited as it's shot more for entertainment rather than shock or titillation. You get plenty of big characters that are all overacting to grab screen-time including a Pam Grier lookalike & a character I'll refer to as 'Big Momma', I think you get the picture! Here our innocent jail-bird is subjected to several types of abuse, she's hosed down (as an excuse to shot wet breasts!), whipped with wet towels & sexually abused (as an excuse to shot wet breasts) & forced into a lesbian scene with a prison guard. After 45 minutes of this I was becoming tired of the setting so thankfully the film moved into a new direction.

That's one women I wouldn't want to share a cell with.

After a Dr suspects that Angela may be innocent he puts pressure on the prison guards to do something about it, they don't take nicely to his interference & decide to have her killed off by giving another inmate a knife. When its time to attack 'Big Momma' steps in and decapitates the women! It really caught me out by surprise as I never expected it to go that far. This leads to the prisoners rioting & attacking the guards, they acquire their guns and attempt to escape. This follows with a shoot-out againt the army but eventually a handful (including Angela) break free and make a run for it in the Brazilian jungle. The girls struggle with the terrain & fight amongst themselves as the army close in on the girls.

It was a much welcomed change of scenery & nice idea to get the film out of the prison, it gave the filmmakers an excuse to have some more action orientated scenes with snakes, shoot-outs & also helped to stop the film becoming tiresome.

Women In Prison flicks usually aren't my cup of tea at all. The limited setting of the prison usually prevents there being much in the way of action & usually are just an excuse to show trashy sexual orientated stuff without much in the way of substance so it was nice to see one that took the action out of the prison to give the film a little variation. 

Having said that, the action scenes are poorly shot and lack the excitement which perhaps they should of had. Also, with it's hour and forty minute running time it could of done with 10-15 minutes trimmed off to keep it a much tighter picture. Still Women In Fury is a mildly entertaining flick, if you love yourself a WIP movie then I'd imagine you'd be satisfied with  this. Though for me it's the kind of flick I'll find an easy watch & be kind of enjoying at the time but will have forgotten about by the next day.

Rating: ★★½

I think you can figure out where that stick is going to end up.

The New York Ripper

The New York Ripper

Genre: Horror, Exploitation

Original title: Lo squartatore di New York

Director: Lucio Fulci

Year: 1982

A burned-out New York police detective teams up with a college psychoanalyst to track down a vicious serial killer randomly stalking and killing various young women around the city.

By the early 80's the Giallo as most people remember it wasn't really being made anymore, they had with time, grown new influences and morphed into other genres. The New York Ripper is one of those kind of films. Mixing the slasher with the Euro-crime thriller with a huge amount of exploitation with a handful of Gialli elements. 

Now first of all let me come out straight, I'm not the worlds biggest fan of Lucio Fulci. His films tend to not sit well with me & this, for the most part, this is no exception. You have some really sleazy scenes, mostly of a sexual manor including a women being toe-raped whilst in a bar! Looking back it comes as little surprise that this was one of the films put into the video nasty list by the BPI. Infact the UK censor ordered all prints to be escorted to the airport and deported from the country, so you could say this film was somewhat controversial!

Somewhere in here there's a pretty nasty & mean spirited serial killer film, but then the baffling choice to have the killer talk like Donald Duck (even during the kills!) really becomes irritating and completely removed me from the picture. Also there is too much time spent on police procedure instead of delivering the goods.

This is one of the big infamous films of Italian cinema & one which many people love, it doesn't get anywhere near that level for me. I find it nothing more than a slightly better than average sleazy romp then there's nothing wrong with that.

★★½

Patrick Still Lives

Patrick Still Lives

Genre: Exploitation, Horror

Original title: Patrick vive ancora

AKA: Patrick Is Still Alive

Director: Mario Landi

Year: 1980

A bedridden psycho is able to receive evil "vibrations" from hardened criminals and use them for his telekinetic powers.

An unofficial sequel to the 1978 Ozploitation classic Patrick. Patrick had moderate on its release but I find it kind of laughable that the Italians would stoop so low to rip off such a little known film with a phony sequel. 

The picture begins with someone driving past Patrick and throwing something out the window (a tin can I think!) which hits him & puts him in a coma. Next we see that his father owns some sort of hotel/therapy home & has invited criminals that he thinks may of been the ones which put Patrick in his coma, this way Patrick can seek revenge using his telekinetic powers. 

It's a ridiculous plot, with a ridiculous script with plenty of crazy characters yet despite all this Patrick Still Lives is actually very sleazy & entertaining flick. There literally isn't a minute that passes where you don't see a bottle of J&B being drunk, or a women stripping off for no reason at all, or a women being slapped by one of the male characters. It is that kind of movie. They copy some of Patrick's traits from the original such as him operating a typewriter with his mind or making doors close but for the first half of the movie Patrick is rarely seen. 

As the film progresses it really amps up the sensational aspects. There's a receptionist who Patrick gets to strip naked, dry hump his bed post and then masturbate in the corner of the room, all by using his mind! Then, a couple of gory deaths via dogs, drowning & a women being killed with a spike through the vagina which is WAY to graphic than it needed to be. 

I expected the low budget to really show on this type of film & whilst some of the special effects leave a lot to be desired the direction, editing & most of the performances are surprisingly serviceable. Also there is a really cool funky, bass heavy, prog-rock soundtrack that accompanies much of the first half of the film which I'd love to get my hands on. 

It's a bizarre film in many respects & Its whole look feels much older than its 1980 release date, yet Patrick Still Lives holds up as a sleazy & cheesy slice of exploitation horror which is much better than perhaps it has any right to be.

Rating: ★★★

Patrick doesn't even have to move an eyelid to get the chicks flocking towards him