The Sleeping Car (1990)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The Age of Commercialism

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

While this isn't the greatest comedy horror film it is pretty good one with some chilling scenes. Some of the comedy is kinda lame but other parts of it is pretty damned funny. While I liked some of the comedy in the film, I wish they would have dropped the comedy part and made this one a straight horror film because this could have been super scary if done as out right horror movie.The story and special effects are so-so, not awful but not the best. The killing scenes are kinda funny sometimes.The film isn't anything special in the comedy-horror genre but I found it worth watching nonetheless. Mildly entertaining. Just something different to watch in the horror category.6/10

This movie is a nice little lost gem of an 80s horror comedy. The guy from An American Werewolf in London moves into a railroad sleeping car that has been converted into a small duplex house. He starts dating the girl from Friday the 13th part 4 while goes to college and is taught journalism by a hyper active, smart ass college professor who looks younger than him. The sleeping car he lives in is haunted by the evil ghost of a guy involved in a train wreck. The spirit kills people using telekinesis in some creative and gory ways. Its' favorite method is to have the bed springs come out of the mattress and mutilate the victim. Basically this a well paced, light-hearted haunted house (haunted sleeping car converted into a house, actually) movie with some gore and nudity thrown in for good measure, and it's actually pretty funny. I really liked this movie and it's a shame it is so hard to find and has never been released on DVD.

~Spoiler~ The tagline for The Sleeping Car reads "Forget Freddy, Forget Jason, here comes The Mister!" What are execs thinking? Don't compare your cheesy little movie to icons. It's never true. The Sleeping Car is a movie that could have worked. David Naughton plays a man getting over a hellish marriage and trying to go back to school. He rents a railway passenger car that used to belong to The Mister. The Mister (played by effects man John Carl Beuchler) is a deceased railroad worker with a shady past who doesn't like sex, drugs, or rock and roll. As you probably guessed, he haunts the "sleeping car." Judi Aronson also stars as a saucy, young co-ed and Kevin McCarthy plays Vincent Tuttle, Naughton's bizarre neighbor. The plot is a bit clichéd but when has that ever stopped a horror movie from being good? The main thing holding it back, as others have pointed out, is the humor. There are way too many wisecracks during tense moments in the film. The Naughton character is cracking jokes during the final showdown with the ghost. If he's not scared, how am I supposed to scared for him? It just doesn't work. The special effects, which Beuchler also had a hand in, are really good (I also spied Wayne Toth's name in the credits). One death by couch springs is particularly cool. The Mister himself is also sporting a really creepy and badass look. But he's no Freddy and certainly no Jason. The Sleeping Car is the type of movie that could benefit from a remake.

This one would be just an average horror B-movie, reasonably well done from what I could judge from a pan&scanned video, but the characters makes up for the ludicrous premise : they are lively and fun. There are illogisms, as usual, but the overall fun atmosphere makes it worth viewing for genre fans. And there is a first : death by couch springs !