Night Train to Terror is a 1985 anthology horror film directed by Jay Schlossberg-Cohen, with segments directed by John Carr, Phillip Marshak, Tom Mc Gowan and Gregg C. Tallas, and written by Philip Yordan.
On a mysterious night train, God and Satan discuss the fates of three mortals, as to who will go to Heaven and who will go to Hell. All while a rock band sings an admitabbly catchy song. The three tales are:
- The Case of Harry Billings tells the story of Harry Billings (John Phillip Law), a man who accidentally caused the death of his wife and is taken care of by two doctors in an asylum. Said doctors use Harry to kidnap women so that they can cut their body parts and sell them to medical schools. At the end of the story, Harry decides to fight back.
- The Case of Greta Connors tells the story of Greta Connors, a young aspiring piano player who works in a carnival. One day she gets paid by a man named Youngmayer to become a film star, only for him to turn her into a porn star. When Glenn, a young medical student sees Greta in one of her movies, he falls in love with her. He meets her and she decides to leave Youngmayer in favor of Glenn, but Youngmayer doesn’t like it. He decides to send the pair into a Death Wish Club, whose members participate in dangerous Russian Roulette-style games, hoping that Glenn will die and that Greta will be his again.
- The Case of Claire Hansen tells the story of Claire Hansen (Faith Clift), a surgeon and a devout Catholic. She is plagued by nightmares involving demons, after which she becomes a target of Olivier (Robert Bristol), playboy millionaire who is actually a demon. Olivier also sets an eye for Claire's husband, Nobel Prize-winning author and atheist James Hansen (Richard Moll), who just published his book titled God Is Dead. A monk named Papini (Maurice Grandmaison) tries to warn both of them of the danger that is incoming in their lives. Meanwhile, Lt. Sterne (Cameron Mitchell) tries to solve Olivier's case, as he notices that Olivier doesn't age.
The movie is famous for being edited from three other horror movies; The Nightmare Never Ends (also released as Cataclysm, Satan's Supper and Shiver), The Dark Side to Love (also known as Greta, Death Wish Club or Carnival of Fools) and Scream Your Head Off (which was unfinished but later edited in 1992 as Marilyn Alive and Behind Bars), all of which were also written by Yordan. Do to cutting much of the context for those three movies, the plot becomes quite confusing and hard to follow, even with a voice-over added over the stories and if the viewer watched the original films. Still, it remains somewhat entertaining as a So Bad, It's Good kind of film.
Come on and trope with me, trope with me!
- All There in the Script: In the first segment, the guard's name is Otto, but his name is not said anywhere in segment. Somewhat downplayed, as Satan does say his name after the segment is over, but it's easy to miss. In the second segment, there's a black man named Prince Flubutu and a white russian (?) guy named Federico Schmidt, and in the third one, the young blonde guy with a gun is named Jim, but their names aren't dropped anywhere in the segments.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Regarding the Claire Hansen segment:
- Mr. Weiss was originally attacked and mauled by a snake-looking monster. In this version, he dies when a different looking monster shoots him through the stomach.
- Jim was originally squashed by a giant statue/monster, but it was offscreen. In this version, a stop-motion demon stomps on him, on-screen.
- Papini was originally dragged off by Ishtar's power and presumably drown in the sea. In this version, a giant spider-like monster grabs him by legs and drags him down below (though Lt. Sterne still says he was drown).
- James was originally killed by Olivier's psychic powers. In this version, Olivier turns into a demon and propels James unto a cross, where he burns to death.
- Subverted with Lt. Sterne and Dieter, who die the same way as the original; Olivier fills the car Dieter's in with smoke, possibly suffocating him, and when Lt. Sterne opens the door, it blows up.
- Fake Shemp: New scenes have been added to already existing movies, except they couldn't get back the original actors for those. As such, in the reshoots, some of the scenes are shot in such way that the characters faces are unseen.
- Frankenslation: The film's three segments were edited from three other movies; the unfinished Scream Your Head Off, The Death Wish Club and The Nightmare Never Ends. The only thing the three films, as well Night Train have in common is the screenwriter Philip Yordan.
- No Ending: The second segment just stops abruptly after The Contessa dies, and the Night Porter just tells us that Gretta and Glenn 'lived happily ever after'.
- Off with His Head!: How Otto dies.
