The film in question is the third part of the unspoken trilogy, in the plot is in no way connected together, except for the presence of mysticism. The first part was called “Beyond the Door” (Italian: “Chi sei?”), the second was directed by Mario Bava – “Schock / Beyond the Door II”. Here the director noticeably lacks the skills of the Italian classic. And it is not even in the cheapness of the picture that the main shortcomings manifest themselves, but in the fact that the narrative sags terribly: there are no exciting actions or meaningful dialogues covering the voids. Often, absolutely silent characters are simply filmed with a camera, diluted with panoramic shots of remote terrain.
The root of the plot is concentrated from the genre’s frequent “pain point”, with a group of American students coming to mysterious Eastern Europe, where they will be exposed to some evil. The screen fate of the personification of Evil fell to the lot of the local Yugoslav population, mainly of old people and old women living in squalid huts. They do not even have to portray anything - the appearance of the village makes a depressing frightening impression on young alien guys, including the actors themselves, not only their characters. One of the girls with a special birthmark on her stomach has long been elected the Prince of Darkness to conceive him an heir among the people, so quickly realizing that there is a mysticism in the area that encroaches on their American lives, guests in foreign jeans flee, having managed to jump on a passing train. But for witchcraft, distance does not play any role, so terrible deaths gradually overtake everyone even on the road.
With such an easy fleeting feed, the main part of the story is locked purely in a train, with small branches. The Invisible Evil deals with the guys and guides, using strange inexplicable manifestations of dark forces: who will be dragged into the oven, then a person will fall under the wheels, or look at the girl’s mouth larvae will start! All this is presented in an imbalance: sometimes not bad, and sometimes things with props do not matter. Large-scale scenes with an obsessed train turned out not more beautiful, both visually, where we clearly notice exploding plastic toy compounds, and with the imagination of the writer, everything is not smooth. The fact is that the train does not need rails, he goes directly on the ground wherever he wants, and what there – on the water floats! It is clear that he is enchanted, but if computer special effects were used, there were no complaints, and when before us frankly the toy effect is the most unfavorable for the perception of the eyes.
In fact, the complete absence of logic is a basic stumbling block when viewing. The characters involved, realizing that they are traveling on an uncontrolled magical train, do not particularly rush into the leading lineup, they do not even try to jump banally. They decided to build a bomb (!?) to blow up the train. And then such delusional plot twists are extremely much.
The ending is as absurd as the film itself, which is obviously lost from the director’s presentation in a mixture of genres not brought to mind: a disaster film with inexpressive visual effects, a meager thriller with magical weaves, and a religious base with a satanic village necessarily in Eastern Europe, about which Americans have not heard, seeing it in their imagination inhabited by almost ghosts or zombies in national dirty clothes. Yes, everything is delayed (sagging is frequent), predictable, and full of clichés.
In an attempt to find something positive in the work, you can identify the very initial stage of the narrative, where we, together with the characters of the picture, get to an unknown country, to a sullen archaic settlement, with broadcasting predictions in an incomprehensible language by a witch, and then run through the autumn forest. This uncertainty can produce a slight attractive impression, but the mentioned train quickly comes into play and any logic loses its landmarks.
Therefore, summarizing the overall impression, I would hardly recommend watching this horror film. Stories about trains out of human control are much more rhythmic and visually filled with spectacle. Thrillers with alternate screen mortification of characters are also brighter in expressiveness. And the mystical foundations in other opuses are presented much more ghostly and frightening than here. I think, rather than seeing the combination of all three directions is not the best way, it is worth choosing them separately.
4 out of 10