Can you make a full horror anthology using only US public domain movies? In this episode, my husband and I talk about 1985’s cult classic Night Train to Terror and discuss how its Frankenmovie setup gives us the blueprint to build our own horror compilation.

Listen below on YouTube, or scroll down to read the transcript.

Erin: Okay, Night Train to Terror, what’s your favorite segment?

Danny: I got to say the middle segment. They call it “The Case of Julia” or something like that, but it’s a film that’s cut down that was not released until later called Death Wish Club.

Erin: That was my favorite one, too. Why did you like it best?

Danny: Because you got to see a stop-motion claymation beetle fly around the room and have little fangs and everything, even though it’s supposed to sting you. I don’t know what the fangs were for, but then some dude gets electrocuted, too, so that’s always fun to see.

Erin: I have a far more mundane reason. I just like movies that have carnivals in them. I like seeing the lights, and I like knowing that they only filmed at a carnival because it was free and they could walk around a carnival.

Danny: Oh yeah, of course, that’s without question. But you know what would have made this movie even better?

Erin: What’s that?

Danny: Richard Moll.

Erin: Okay, the most surprising thing about this movie is there aren’t more movies like this. The world is full of unfinished movies and public domain movies, and people that look like Urbano Barbarini who can breakdance and are just looking for their one big break to get their song out there. Anybody could make one of these movies with some public domain movies. So if you could make an anthology out of public domain movies, what would you put in it?

Danny: I got to pull up a list of public domain movies because I can’t name them right off the top of my head. I guess one, since it’s technically public domain, I would do Seven Doors of Death, which is The Beyond. But Seven Doors of Death is the one that is considered public domain here in the United States for some reason.

Erin: Oh well, by that logic, you could put Tenebrae on there because it has a public domain version in the United States called Unsane.

Danny: Also Deep Red

Erin: —oh, it’s a trifecta! What we named just reminds me of the other surprising thing about this movie, Night Train to Terror: none of the segments were made in Italy. Can you believe that?

Danny: I could, except for the train thing. That’s obviously…Was that Italy? I don’t know, that guy was dressed like he was Italian.

Erin: What it really reminds me of—and I know we figured out that there was a movie it was ripping off, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors…

Danny: Yeah, I think it’s Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, yes.

Erin: Okay, but more than that, it seems less like an anthology and more like one of those movies they used to put out in the ’80s that were all just clips of other movies just to sell the movies.

Danny : I think it was, yeah, yeah. There was a bunch of them. I know Wizard had done one that had Elvira hosting it. There was one—I don’t even remember what the name of it is now, my brain is fried at the moment—but it had Cameron Mitchell, who’s also in this movie in one of the segments. He was running a video store, and I think Michelle Bauer, B-movie legend, was in it as well. It was a bunch of different clips and such. Is it Zombiethon? Wait, what’s the one with Jamie Lee Curtis?

Erin: There was one with Nancy Allen that was called Terror in the Aisles.

Danny: That’s it! My bad, yes, that one was also a compilation of different movies. But I think my favorite was Mad Ron’s Previews. That one was one of my favorites.

Erin: Okay, so the God and the Devil thing, did they take that from another movie?

Danny: Probably some Ingmar Bergman film or whatever. I don’t know, like the eternal train ride with the Devil. You’re God, but you’re stuck in a car with the Devil just chitchatting away instead of doing God things.

Erin: I guess I would have misremembered it before we watched it tonight as them sitting at a table playing a game, but really they were just watching the clips on a window that was a screen. There were two guys playing checkers in the movie with John Phillip Law, so maybe I had that mashed up.

Danny: That’s possible. Now…I will admit the John Phillip Law movie, which was the first segment, was an unreleased movie. I forget what it’s called at the moment because I don’t have that info with me, but…

Erin: Scream Your Head Off.

Danny: Yes, Scream Your Head Off, thank you! That was an unreleased movie, an unfinished movie. I really like John Phillip Law during that early ’80s period. He was just really doing just about anything and hamming it up.

Erin: He was in a good Italian movie called A Whisper in the Dark that we probably should watch and discuss as a palate cleanser sometime instead of crap like this.

Danny: I was going to suggest Space Mutiny, but I guess that probably wouldn’t quite work.

Erin: Okay, I guess that’s all we have for tonight. Thanks for joining me here on Erin Strolls Through Films. Good night, Danny.

Danny: Good night, Erin.