Terror Express  | 1980 | Italy | Ferdinando Baldi

Known much more for his bawdy comedies, adventure movies, or Westerns, director Ferdinando Baldi helmed a rape-and-revenge thriller with a very different aesthetic with Terror Express. As a train leaves for an overnight journey, three petty criminals decide to have some fun with the passengers, acquiring a gun to hold several coaches hostage. With complete control, the three fools act out their deviant sexual fantasies with the victims of their choice, eventually escalating it to assault and murder when they meet with protest. A prostitute and a convict in custody may just hold the key to ridding the train of the perverts. With some incredibly sleazy camerawork and situations, the film astonishingly is lighter in tone than most others in the genre, feeling more like a dodgy sexploitation flick. Police officers in the Metropolitan area seemed to take a massive dislike to it, seizing it constantly, presumably because they were mistaking it with Late Night Trains.