Director: Jeff Kwitney
Year: 1989
Country: Italy/Yugoslavia
Alternate Titles: Amok Train
Country: Possessed Object
Plot:
Traveling to Yugoslavia for their studies, classmates learn about a pagan ritual and are taken to a performance but when they discover foul play, they manage to escape onto a train where they realize the train is to deliver one of the students back to a congregation of devil worshipers and race to get off the train to safety.
Review:
This is a wonderfully fun and entertaining film. A lot of the film’s positives are due to how cheesy the film is. That is mostly from the overall setup of how they’re lured over to the village and seeing the preparations of the ceremony that takes place which allows for this one to let it be known early on that they’re shifty and shady. The resulting trap in the fire-filled huts the next morning is no surprise and features some thrilling moments as they escape their trapped rooms. Their eventual escape from the village has some fun moments as well so even though the film is about the preparations of a demonic cult to get at them, most of the film is set on a train. That makes for some really cheesy action to be had.
That itself is the best feature of the film with a huge slew of action scenes that really get the film going along. From the numerous scenes of the train jumping the tracks but still going to the carnage inside the train and the various supernatural antics depicting the influence over the train, these are all great and have a nice atmosphere to the film. The continuous amount of time that it jumps the tracks are quite fun and cheesy as there's a sense of joy to be had when watching a train jumping the tracks and going through a wooded area or a soggy marshland and keep on going. These are just good cheesy fun, and the film is packed with them.
This even gets better with all the different attempts to stop it come up with different action moments in here. From the military blockade that fails spectacularly to the attempts at blowing it up and all the outside forces' attempts, this really racks up those moments and does it well. The finale, where the cult gets a hold of the patient and it all goes up in smoke, does have some really good action moments as the clacking rocks and visuals during the abrupt ceremony are creepy and chilling which has a lot to like. Aside from that, there’s also the high amount of kills around the train which is great and are also really bloody ones to be had. These here really make up the film.
This one had very little wrong with it. The main flaw is that the cult has very little screen-time. After the opening, they aren't brought up again, and that is slightly strange due to the film taking up so much time on the train, which takes away from the cult. They have the possibility to be creepy, but there's no time spent with them to get that way. The film's cheesiness is also something to deal with, especially when it's so obvious that models are used for the scenes where a stunt-train is needed to show it plowing through the countryside when not using tracks or crashing through barriers. Those really keep the film down.
Overview: ****/5
A thoroughly fun and entertaining cheese-filled film with enough to really get interesting and only a few mild flaws, there’s not a whole lot to strike this one down. Really recommended to those who enjoy these cheesy action-packed films without fail, or are just in the mood for some fun, while not a whole lot will really find this one to be lacking.
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