88 Films Italian Collection No. 1: Night Train Murders (1975)

For their inaugural release on the Italian Collection, 88 Films chose the classic chiller 'Night Train Murders'. This movie has been known under a variety of titles since its release, from 'Last Stop on the Night Train', 'The New House on The Left', and its 'Video Nasty' title, 'Don't Ride on Late Night Trains'. While it may seem like nothing more than a blatant rehash of 'The Last House on the Left' - itself borrowing heavily from 'The Virgin Spring' - the movie does offer its own unique and sadistic delights.

I hadn't seen this movie before buying the Blu-ray, I was aware it was on the 'Video Nasties' list, and fully expected a turgid, slog into depravity (Cannibal Holocaust). What I got instead was a beautifully shot film, bathed in haunting colours, that smartly dissected the savagery of man. The score by Ennio Morricone is also superb, his heavy use of eerie harmonica solos really give the scenes on the train, an unbearably tense atmosphere. The direction by Aldo Lado is very assured too, he has made some fine contributions to Italian cult cinema, with my favourite being his wonderfully macabre giallo, 'I Saw What You Did'. Set in Venice this sees a depraved child murder being pursued by former James Bond actor George Lazenby, it's an excellent flick and well worth seeking out. Another film of his worth seeing by giallo fans is, 'Short Night of the Glass Dolls', which sees a reporter in a comatose state being brought to a morgue. While he lays on the slab, he narrates the circumstances that led to his current predicament, as the doctors discuss his autopsy, it's a wonderful movie, which I have reviewed here.

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, this Blu-ray is very similar to the Blue Underground edition released in the US a couple of years ago. The picture on the UK edition does appear marginally better, thanks to a higher bit-rate, but as noted on Blu-ray.com it still suffers from light scanner noise. This seems to be an issue with a lot of classic movies being scanned in Italy recently, as I have heard this problem mentioned with a number of releases. It also mentions that the sharpness is not as good as it could be, but stability is very strong, and the image is clean, with very little dirt or debris.

Unlike the US edition this comes with the English audio track, as well as the Italian, with the English track having been substantially improved over the previous release. I tried out both tracks, but for some reason the subtitles on the disc are for the hearing impaired, so along with the dialogue you also get a description of sounds. I personally found this very distracting so switched to the English track, with it being remastered, it really is the best way to hear the movie anyway.

The extras are about even on this release, compared to the US, while you get a new video interview with actress Irene Miracle (Margaret), who discuses her career, the Alan Lado interview from the previous release is missing. Lastly, there are two trailers, a reversible sleeve, and with some pressings a collectible 300gsm postcard with the film's poster imprinted on it.

I had always been interested in Italian horror cinema, but I wasn't aware of the rich genre classics that came out of the '60s, '70s. There are just so many Italian sub-genres like Poliziotteschi, spaghetti Westerns, gialli, post-nuke. Thanks to the fine folks at 88 Films many of these fantastic movies are now getting definitive releases, after languishing in obscurity. So far I have managed to work my way through their first line-up, with this title being one of my favourites.

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