Death Train (2005)

Dir: Kazuyuki Sakamoto

Surreal Hideshi Hino story about three schoolgirls who catch a train to the local amusement park. The train crashes but the girls survive, only to find that little parts of their surroundings seem to be coming apart at the seams. Strangers live in their houses, pretending to be family. Mother sneaks into the bedroom at night with no head. Armies of zombies prowl the streets. Dismembered corpses come to life. 50-foot ghost girls stomp around behind the buildings. That sort of thing. The girls must (naturally) use their wits to escape this hallucinatory Hell-world but, sadly, this is done so slowly and aimlessly that any strange or interesting ideas the film has get left behind to drown in a big puddle of pointlessness. The sort-of 'twist' in the tale is apparent from about ten minutes in. It's all well-directed and acted, the gore is nicely done and I appreciate the characteristic weirdness of Hino's imagination but ultimately, "Death Train" is an atrociously-paced movie that left me feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. *1/2