Do you fancy yourself a glass of carrot juice? Well, that's the hospitality our insurance investigator gets from the quirky and unusual Australian made-for-TV mystery "THE DEATH TRAIN". This mystery angle with supernatural hints and kooky humor is very old-school in its storytelling and this is driven by a captivating Hugh Keays-Byrne performance. Those might know him for his part as "Toecutter" a year later in "MAD MAX".
On this occasion he plays the klutzy straight-man Ted Morrow caught up in a peculiar mystery amongst a country town that lives it as normality. This would drive any sane person loopy. Each time he goes looking for answers the ghost train keeps popping out of their mouths. But he believes there's something much more shady at work. As he intends to uncover the truth of how his company's client was hit by a train in a place where there wasn't any tracks. But in doing so himself he slowly starts acting unorthodox in his attempts figure it out.
How things do pan out is like a Scooby Doo episode, but even so the supernatural currents are still left ambiguous at the end with a fitting choice of dialogue. The mystery is at times overshadowed by the always amusing irrational character interactions, but it only adds to the fun. Tone-wise it's very lighthearted and care-free, however this compliments the oddball characters and their mannerisms. The local cast featuring the likes of Ken Goodlet, Brian Wenzel, Max Meldrum and Ingrid Mason as the infatuated Hippie love interest do an excellent job bringing their characters to life.
