The Sleeping Car (1990)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Instant Favorite.

Crappy film

Absolutely the worst movie.

Strange, outlandish mix of horror and comedy feature heavy in this very forgotten 90s midnight b-grade genre film starring David Naughton ("American Werewolf in London"), Jeff Conaway and Kevin McCarthy. Familiar ideas are presented in this supernatural piece, but a unique choice of setting by using a rail car as its haunted house get-up gives it a bit of character, atmosphere and creativity. Too bad the story, while having some bite doesn't play out the same suit. The visual effects are competent and gruesomely twisted with some cheesy deaths. Even the demonic ghost mister is a vivid creation. Director Douglas Curtis keeps an up-tempo style and this allows him to keep the story moving then focusing on its limited scope. But what I found hurt it, was the humour and delivery of it. The dark tone had its moments, but the lame dialogue could have been toned down. It just felt forced and artificial with a script wanting to make a joke with every nearly every line. It kind of got overbearing, even the knowing performances felt off. Naughton's nervous energy just irritates and the lovely Judie Aronson is witless. While a bug-eyed McCarthy looks at a lost. Conaway simply hams it up, but I definitely found the most amusing. Also making a minor appearance is John Carl Buechler. For most part an enjoyable, if not always funny oddball horror-comedy.

Mostly, "The Sleeping Car" is just another dead-guy-comes-back-to-life story. But it gets helped - if only minimally - by the fact that the cast members probably know that they're in a B-movie and don't take it too seriously to be stupid. David Naughton (happy birthday, David!) sort of plays off of his "American Werewolf in London" role as a man on a train who awakens the ghost of his landlady's husband. From there, most of the movie consists of...well, you know what sorts of things to expect in a horror flick. A slight disappointment for hardcore horror fans is the lesser amount of gore than we usually find in horror movies.But anyway, it's fun in a pinch. Also starring Kevin McCarthy, who pretty much channels his roles in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and various Joe Dante movies.All in all, we can add this movie to the pantheon of movies with "sleep" in the title: "Sleeping Beauty", "Sleeper", "Sleepaway Camp", "Brother of Sleep" and "Sleepers".

Jason McCree (David Naughton) has just divorced from his wife and although being over-aged, he decides to study journalism. He rents an old sleeping car of a train for living. However, the car is possessed by the spirit of the husband of his landlady, called "The Mister", who was responsible for the collision of two trains in an horrible accident ten years ago. "The Sleeping Car" is a confused B-movie with a non-sense screenplay full of flaws and bad acting of the lead actor, David Naughton. There are some few good lines, but the story is a complete mess, without explanation for most of the situation. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "O Expresso Macabro" ("The Macabre Express")

''The Sleeping Car' is by no means a good film. It's slow moving, lacks any atmosphere, and gets rather tedious at times, but it still manages to deliver the goods, or at least some of them. The production values are passable, but far from bad, and the script works to a degree, but for some reason the pieces don't fall into place as they should. The body count is only four, making it too tame to be a slasher movie (though it does hint at that, especially during the overlong climax), but too juvenile to be a psychological thriller/horror film.The acting isn't bad, but it sure isn't all that great. It seems like the actors were booked for three or four days for filming, and just wanted to get it over with, so they didn't seem to put a lot of effort into it. No one in particular stands out, and the characters don't make the movie any more interesting. On top of that, none of the characters are very well developed, with the exception of the professor, so that does little to help the cause.Still the movie does have several things working for it, not the least of which is some pretty impressive special effects for a movie of this caliber. Another is the creative and very gruesome death scenes, which may be the best part of this 'not quite there, but close' horror flick6/10