AMOK TRAIN aka Beyond the Door 3

(Jeff Kwitny, 1989)



I haven't much to say about this movie. I didn't really love it, but can't say I was ever bored watching it. I've only seen it twice, so maybe a few more viewings will open some of its hidden doors!



The story is fairly simple. A group of young Americans take a class trip to Serbia to witness some of the local rituals. One of the girls (Beverley, the one with the evil birthmark) has been chosen by the villagers to bear the child of Satan. The classmates escape the villagers' failed attempt to burn them all to death by hopping aboard a passing train. Little do they know that Satan himself has possessed the train! Soon they are running-er...wandering about the train FOR THEIR LIVES!



I know, it sounds promising, right? Or am I all alone here? Amok Train features some impressively gory deaths, but they seem to make little sense. The characters are all quite drab and annoying, and the soundtrack is not very memorable. The story also borrows elements from Carpenter's far superior Prince of Darkness. Still, the film moves at a brisk pace (for a movie about a killer train) and is amusing if only for the cheese value. Buy it later, as it's more of an example of how Americanized Italian horror had become by the end of the 80's than a true representation of classic Italian horror.



Buy It

RINGS OF FEAR aka Enigma Rosso

(Alberto Negrin, 1978)



A delightfully sleazy finish to the Schoolgirls In Peril trilogy (the first two being What Have You Done To Solange? and What Have They Done To Your Daughters?) The film opens with the discovery of the nude, plastic-wrapped corpse of a teenage girl. She died, we learn, from internal injuries caused by a large blunt object. Fabio Testi is brought on to the case, and through his own charming brand of investigation discovers the girl was part of a teenage prostitution ring. Oh yeah, and someone is killing off her friends and those linked to aforementioned sex ring.



Rings of Fear doesn't possess any of the stunning imagery or inventiveness so typical of the Giallo. It relies instead on its rather gritty story and voyeuristic camerawork to keep one interested, and contains a surprising amount of humor. The main theme of the film is disturbing in itself, and is magnified by some rather agonizing abortion scenes and flashbacks to the original murder. Negrin was obviously influenced by Argento's Deep Red, and uses similar lighting and framing. The only thing that might really let someone down is the revelation of the killer's identity at the end. It really left me scratching my head!



Fabio Testi does a great job in this, keeping a tough-guy cop image even while cuddling with cats and drinking tea. The acting in general is better here than a lot of these movies, though it is, as always, brought down by some fairly lousy dialogue. The soundtrack is so-so, though not very memorable. Still recommended.

TRAGIC CEREMONY

(Riccardo Freda, 1972)

Riccardo Freda is a director one either loves or absolutely deplores; there is no grey area. I, the former, adore his wacked-out camerawork, dark compositions, and campy special effects. Tragic Ceremony, though, seems to suffer for its overly long running time and convoluted story.

Four hippies, including Camille Keaton, run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. They invite themselves into a mansion where, unbeknownst to them, a black mass is being performed by a bunch of seniors in the cellar. The black mass is interrupted when one of the hippies kills the woman leading it, which results in a complete bloodbath as the remaining disciples kill each other in an insane fit.

The hippie group escapes and tries to hide out at one's parents' house, but are turned away. They eventually find a place and, while watching television, discover that the police are looking for the murderers. While hiding out, they start to die off in various ways. If you want to sit through this, I won't give the ending away.

The story is a mishmash of horror elements, and includes a cursed necklace, a ghostly gas jockey, a black mass, Manson-style murders, Giallo scenes, and possession. This seems to have been a trend with Freda's horror output, and one that some might not like. Others may enjoy the feeling of disconnection it evokes.

As I said before, my real problem with Tragic Ceremony was its length. They could have trimmed quite a bit of footage. Despite that, it does have its charms. It features one of the BEST head-splitting scenes in the Euro-Horror pantheon (and one of the crummiest beheadings!) and a lot of red paint. The camera angles in some scenes have that 60s Batman tilt to them, and the groovy soundtrack makes this a semi-bearable Gothic experience. Camille Keaton looks her usual traumatized self, and genre regular Luigi Pistilli plays one of the satanists. See it later, unless you liked The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire or Murder Obsession.

Buy It

CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD

(Lucio Fulci, 1980)



Fulci's second zombie feature, though mostly nonsensical, is quite entertaining. There's more than enough blood, guts, and maggots for the gorehounds out there, but the visual approach Fulci took is what makes this stand out.




The story is simple: a reporter (Christopher George) and a medium (Catriona MacColl) are on a race against time to close the gates of Hell, which were opened by the suicide of a priest. Their journey takes them to Dunwich, a foggy Lovecraftian town in New England. There they meet up with a psychiatrist, one of his patients, and a recently orphaned boy, all terrified by the reanimated corpses of the recently dead (and a few other Hellish occurrences).



Fulci's knowledge of how to stretch a meager budget was employed expertly in the creation of COTLD. He managed, despite the bad dubbing, numerous plotholes, and tacked-together story, to create something otherworldly and truly creepy. The town of Dunwich is perpetually draped in fog or dust, its streetlights casting small pools of hazy light in the otherwise black street. Some of the homes are completely vacant, and we never meet more than a handful of the residents. Fright scenes are punctuated by a strange combination of noises, from babies crying to maggots squirming and birds screaming. The string and synth score by Fabio Frizzi adds tension to some already unbearable scenes.



The film's weakness (lack of coherent story or use of logic) is also its greatest strength. Only a few Italian horror movies can be seen as literal translations of nightmares, and this is one. Actions or statements that may seem ludicrous or nonsensical in your standard Hollywood film make perfect sense in Fulci's nightmare. Unexplained events (a rain of maggots, the murder of the village idiot, shards of glass piercing a wall and causing it to bleed, etc) are left unexplained as the film progresses, and are given little consideration.



Finally, I must mention the gore; it IS what Fulci did best (besides the Giallo). There are some exceptionally gruesome deaths in COTLD. We are treated to several skulls being crushed until the brains squirt out, a drill through the head (from temple to temple- pretty impressive, even for Lucio), and a girl puking ALL of her guts up. No, really- the intestines and liver and EVERYTHING come streaming out! Not a perfect movie by any means, but there's rarely a dull moment. Recommended for fans of heavy gore and Gothic horror.



Buy It