Like a good mystery? How about amazing writing and stellar acting? If you said yes, you’ve got the wrong train. Now if you said, “no, I like horrible acting and nice boobies”, hop aboard, cause I got the right ticket for you…
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: Jason (David Naughton) moves into an abandoned train car where he
resurrects the vicious ghost of his landlady’s dead husband… The
Mister. After some near-fatal encounters with the violent specter he
seeks local exorcist Vincent Tuttle (Kevin McCarthy).
I remember seeing this movie when I was younger and liking it, I just couldn’t remember the name of the film. I knew who was in it, David Naughton of An American Werewolf in London fame, but I could be arsed to look it up. One lazy and boring night searching Netflix however, brings me to this review, a review of THE SLEEPING CAR!!
I won’t pretend to think this movie is any good. The acting borders on physically abusing you. David’s character, Jason, tries his hardest to be funny and makes wisecracks left and right. Did I laugh? No, no I didn’t. Judie Aronson (Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter) plays Kim, the horny college girl, who for some strange reason decides to immediately go after the late 30’s college student David. You see, David is going back to school after breaking up with his wife, who by the way was a highlight in this movie, with her snooty accent (think cardigan, cigarette holder and swirling wine) and Kim just falls deeply in love with him. This story setup leads to us seeing her boobies, so you know what, I’m okay with it.
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| An American Werewolf in London to this: THE SLEEPING CAR!!! |
The rest of the story is laughable. The killer ghost, named Mister, appears randomly as an apparition and proceeds to murder people with a pull out couch bed. Only one really impressive kill can be seen in this movie (never fall asleep while the bed is being put away). You may be asking, what’s his motive for turning evil? Well, ten years ago, he was blamed for a train crash that killed several people and he lost his job over it. His wife kicks him out and he lives in THE SLEEPING CAR!!! Eventually, after murdering a few college girls, he kicks the bucket. David moves in shortly after and due to his hate for his ex, he awakens’ the ghost of Mister (I’m going by the poster here, I didn’t get any of that while watching it). David’s next door neighbor Vincent Tuttle, also happens to be a local crack pot hippie exorcist. Although, I have to say he’s pretty crappy at his job. He’s 5 feet away on the other side of a door, where a few people are murdered, possessed and harassed. He doesn’t do a thing to stop them. How does he not hear all the screaming? I think he needs a new job.
One positive in this film (not counting the nudity) was the special effects of our local ghost resident, Mister. He looked pretty gnarly, with his final appearance being damn cool looking and I think the film would’ve been wise to use him more, instead of having him appear as a transparent blue floating ghost thingy. As for the end, it’s hilarious. Their method on how to defeat the monster is… interesting (i.e. lame). Also, check out the direct homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street death scene.
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| Awesome effects for how cheap the rest of the movie looked. |
Conclusion time! If you couldn’t tell by my nonsensical review of this movie, I had a fun time. It’s a horrible film, with a shoe string budget, but it has one interesting kill, boobies from some lovely ladies and a completely awesome soundtrack during a random sex scene. If what I just said doesn’t make you want to see this film, you better check your pulse, cause you might be dead aboard, THE SLEEPING CAR!!!!
Rating:
