HORROR
EXPRESS (1972)Director: Eugenio Martin
Image Entertainment
HORROR
EXPRESS (1972)
Director: Eugenio Martin
Image Entertainment
Next to NIGHT
OF THE LIVING DEAD, HORROR EXPRESS has to be one of the most exploited horror
video titles due to its public domain nature. During the past two decades, company
after company released varying looking editions of this highly entertaining
gem; the best rendering being one from Prism Home Video. Several years ago during
the dawn of DVD, Simitar issued the obligatory PD HORROR EXPRESS disc, much
to everyone's dissatisfaction. Simitar's washed-out, glitch ridden, fuzzy mess
can now be tossed in the wastebasket (or as a gift to your worst enemy) since
Image has now released the ultimate incarnation of the film.
During an excavation
in Manchuria, a stuffy, pompous English professor, Alexander Saxton (Christopher
Lee) unearths a prehistoric ape-man preserved in ice in a cave in Manchuria.
Having discovered the find of the century, Saxton secures the frozen creature
in a wooden crate and boards it on a train bound back for Europe. At the Peking
station where the crate is to be loaded, a thief mysteriously dies after attempting
to pick the lock. His eyes are left completely white.
Aboard the train,
Saxton encounters an old rival, Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing) who is all too curious
to see what's in the crate. He bribes the baggage man (Victor Israel) to take
a peek inside. He obliges, and after gleefully whistling the film's theme song,
he too is killed. The ape-man is now loose and starts to wreak havoc among the
passengers before being shot by a humorless police investigator. Subsequently,
it turns out that the hapless creature was being controlled by an alien who
survives by inhabiting different bodies and obtaining their knowledge before
moving on to the next one.
Although it was
made over 25 years ago, HORROR EXPRESS stills packs a punch and its special
effects (except for the laughable microscope's view of the alien's memory via
sketches of dinosaurs) are still quite impressive. Cushing and his butchy, cigar
smoking assistant Mrs. Jones (Alice Reinheart, who displays about as much femininity
as Edward G. Robinson wearing a wig) convincingly saw open the victims' heads
to reveal wrinkle free brains ("Smooth as a baby's bottom," Mrs. Jones
proclaims), completely washed of their memory. Aside from the impressive ape
man, there's the horrifying white pupil effect (complimented by quick shots
of blood dripping from them) on each victim, as well as the great red glowing
eyes of all those that the alien embodies. A small-scale model almost always
represents the train, but it never once fails to convince.
Directed by Eugenio
Martin (a veteran of several spaghetti westerns who would later do the interesting
A CANDLE FOR THE DEVIL), the Spanish/British co-production uniquely merges the
traditional English Goth with the sexier and gorier excesses of Euro horror.
Lee and Cushing are tastefully juxtaposed with the largely European cast of
faces that are familiar to those diehard fans of Spanish and Italian genre flicks.
Helga Line (as a beautiful spy), for instance, appeared alongside Naschy many
times and made a cult item out of herself by disrobing frequently in front of
the camera (while in her forties!). Speaking of Naschy, I would love to have
seen him in the role of the film's mad monk, a part that would've suited him
perfectly. A pairing of Naschy with horror's greatest duo was considered, but
unfortunately never happened.
Telly Savalas
(who is vastly underrated as a character actor) shows up in the last half of
the film as an unorthodox Cossack. Savalas nearly steals the show as he calls
people "little papa," gargles Vodka, and physically abuses anyone
that says the wrong thing, including the monk who he gives a whipping to. As
far as Lee and Cushing films goes, this has been often called the "ultimate"
one and by far the duo's best pairing of the 70s. This is hard to dispute since
their characters work so well together, appearing to despise each other but
increasingly nurturing a mutual likeness linked by their deep devotion to science
and their proud affiliation to their homeland.
The DVD of HORROR
EXPRESS is adequately presented in it's original 1.66:1 format, though it is
not 16x9 enhanced. The film starts out with some scratches and other blemishes
attributed to the original source material, but as the film progresses these
minor defects dissolve and the overall presentation remains sharp and clean,
with blacks appearing very solid for the most part. The color saturation is
very nice, with flesh tones looking especially natural, and the Dolby Digital
Mono sound is also fine. This is the best that this film ever looked, and it
looks great!
Extras include an alternate Spanish language track, as well as another track that isolates the film's sound effects along with John Cacavas' (THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA) marvelous score (once you hear it, you'll be "whistling" it forever!). Filmographies of both Lee and Cushing are included, but they are both incomplete. There are also inclusive liner notes by Marc Walkow that embody the disc's beautiful packaging. Kudos to Image for getting this one and after countless incarnations by inferior video companies, getting it right! Jump aboard for a ride and let's hope that this leads to an onslaught of Cushing/Lee efforts on DVD! (George R. Reis)