A group of students gets this supposedly great opportunity to witness ancient rituals in Europe, only to learn that they've been targeted for death. They head for the hills, and hop a train that starts barreling through the countryside once the crew has been decimated.
Re-christened "Beyond the Door III" to capitalize on the otherwise unrelated Italian horror films, "Death Train", or "Amok Train", is a generally good time. The viewer WILL have to put up with the expected cheesy acting and goofy plotting, but director Jeff Kwitny does manage to make up for this with a respectable amount of menace & atmosphere. The setting is the most unusual aspect, making this a sort of genre spin on the earlier critical favorite "Runaway Train".
People looking for great European horror nonsense will find a fair bit to enjoy here, as there is some absolutely great gore coupled with some memorable murder set pieces. The film does get off to a rough start, but improves once the assorted expendable victims get on the train; the final half hour is the best part.
The acting may not be quality acting, but most of it is sincere enough. Mary Kohnert ('Star Trek: The Next Generation', "Big Man on Campus") is appealing in the lead, and token name actor Bo Svenson ("Special Delivery", "The Delta Force") does an amusing job of hamming it up a bit as a dubious professor.
Overall, decent entertainment for fans of this kind of thing.
Six out of 10.