Train (2008)

The last time I saw "Train" was when it first hit DVD and I remember not really digging it all that much. Recently I gave it a spin just on a whim and I must say I actually ended up liking it a little more. I think it's mainly due to the whole "torture-porn" thing having since run its course, hence I've had some time to get over how burned-out I was getting on this type of 'over-played' shit back in the mid-to-late 2000s.

An American college wrestling team is competing in a European tournament where they end up boarding a train to their next match. Turns out, this particular train is a 'front' for a black market surgical business where unknowing American passengers' organs and other various bodily appendages are hacked off and sold to buyers. Needless to say, the Westerners are systematically harvested for their usable parts...

So, yeah, "Train" is a total and complete "Hostel" knock-off - right down to the 'tone'/greenish-brownish color-scheme, brutal torture scenes and, of course, the bald, sadistic Ruskies in aprons. Gotta have those. These movies were definitely not shy about painting Eastern Europeans as torture-happy mother fuckers. At least it took the stigma off the American south (another  region that's been branded "deadly" by the horror genre...) for a little while. Anyways, "Train" is a watchable enough flick with a healthy amount of gore - involving eyeball extraction, eviscerations, castrations and even some necrophilia. Again, expect "Hostel" on a train, but it's I still found it mostly enjoyable in a mindless, familiar sense, overall.