[Train]
Plot:A group of american college students find themselves in grave danger during a train ride in Europe.

Cast:Thora Birch, Derek Magyar, Gloria Votsis, Kavan Reece, Gideon Emery.

My Thoughts:"Hostel" on a train.

Review:Before I start this review, let me just reiterate that "Train", is the first "Terror Train" remake, which stars Thora Birch. Not the second one that is currently in production. With that being said, this film is not even a remake of the original "Terror Train" persay. They could really retitle this movie something else, and still have it work really well. The movie does not have the key elements the original, which starred Jamie Lee Curtis had. It doesn't have a costume party taking place on board, the killer is not wearing a mask, there's more than one killer, and the film takes place in Russia.

The early premise of this movie had a group of basketball players from America, running afoul of a murderer while traveling in Europe. But eventually, the final product decided to turn the basketball players into a wrestling team. At any rate, an American wrestling team is traveling to Odessa to wrestle for America in a tournament. Before moving on to Odessa, they go out for a night of partying, and a fight breaks out. No one gets hurt, but the teams coach is not thrilled with their behavior the previous night. And when they arrive at the station the next morning, he scolds them for it.

The team misses their train, but a mysterious woman offers them passage to Odessa on a smaller line. So they decide to take said train. Which proves to be a fatal mistake, when it is revealed that murderers are aboard the train, and have made the team of american teens their targets. Thora Birch is definitely the star of this movie, playing Alex, a female member of the wrestling team. They also make it very obvious that she's gonna come out of this thing as the sole survivor. Which would usually be a mistake in any slasher movie.

But "Train", despite it's telegraphing of pretty much everything from the identity of the killers, to the identity of the lone survivor, still manages to keep things interesting....and pretty frikkin gory. Once the teens are aboard the train, the film breaks down into a "Hostel"-esque scenario, where a group of crazy Eastern European types snatch up, and torture the teens one by one. Using hooks, knives, and vicious beatings to subdue them. Of course we learn later on that their motives are not as much in line with torture for sadistic fun, as they are in line with human-exchanges for money. The villains are part of a mad doctor gang, where a specific type of plasma is extracted from passengers, for wealthy people who desperately need it, and have the money to acquire it.

But the film really mirrors "Hostel" because it has American teens abroad, being snatched, brutally killed, and tortured by Eastern European types who are both sociopathic, and psychotic. It's been a bad year in horror for the Russians. First "Orphan", and now "Train". These psychos and their black-market-bodily-fluid exchange game however has met it's match in the form of little Thora Birch, who we know eventually will get down and start opening up a can of whoop-ass when it's her turn to go into the "machine room", which is where each of the kidnapped teens end up, and is also where the killers do their..."work".

"Train" operates like the A-typical slasher movie though, when it comes to the process of elimination. One by one, the team members and their coach disappear, and when another team member goes to find their missing comrade, they end up disappearing as well. Which leads to another person going off to find them, only for them to then end up in a bad way. See where I'm going with this?

So we watch brutal, vicious, bloody, and physically extreme attacks being launched upon these kids, until their numbers are eventually whittled down to Thora and another dude. The film keeps the intrigue and suspense going with the killers and their motives, which we don't learn until late in the movie. But once they try to get Alex (Thora), that's when things get really good, as we see the killers end up on the receiving end of some of the violence and brutality. And of course in order to save the day, it's all left up to Alex because the people aboard the train are all either "in on it", or just don't really give a fuck about some American kids in trouble.

After all, it's Russia. The films finale is very well done, and there are many times where you think Alex is doomed, even though this movie is so by the numbers, that you know she'll manage to survive some how. The scene before the final scene of the movie is pretty cool as well, and the way it ties into one scene between Alex and her boyfriend from earlier in the film, is pretty clever. The movies final scene is also pretty comical and at the same time, inspiring on more than a few levels. "Train" is not necessarily a full-fledged remake of "Terror Train". If you go into it willing to watch it as it's own monster, and not a remake of the 80's, american horror classic, you should find it quite enjoyable.

Positives:Thora Birch gives a good performance, the level of extreme violence within the movie is simple yet effective. A suspenseful and thrilling final act. A great ending.

Negatives:Seemed to take a few cues from "Hostel" when it came to it's villains, and all of the characters outside of Thora as Alex, were poorly developed.

Overall:Three and a half out of four stars.





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