Horror Express
Eugenio Martin
Initial release: January 10, 1973 (Spain)
Alternate title:
 |
| images c/o movie-screencaps.com |
John W. Campbell’s novella Who Goes There? is a major landmark in sci-fi. It's been adapted numerous times in a variety of ways, with its most well-known take being John Carpenter’s 1982 classic body horror extravaganza The Thing, itself a semi-remake of the 1951 flick The Thing From Another World. You can see elements in the concept from everything to board games to comic books. But then there's Horror Express, a weird little flick by Spanish filmmaker Eugenio Martin; while not a straight adaptation of the novella, it certainly borrows some elements. Starring Hammer Horror veterans Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, plus Telly Savalas of all people as a villainous train robber, it certainly has that classic Hammer vibe, which goes a long way towards making this film something of a secret classic, if not particularly brilliant.
In
1906, anthropologist Alexander Saxton is returning to Europe following
an expedition in Manchuria where he discovered what may be the fabled
evolutionary “missing link.” However, things start to go wrong when a
thief at the station dies after breaking into the fossil’s crate. Not
long after the train sets off for Moscow, more people start turning up
dead, and the fossil Saxton found, very much alive after two million
years, is stalking the passengers of the train. The rest of the film is
Saxton trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. The
monster itself is hardly anything to write home about — it resembles
the plant monster from the Howard Hawks film, but with less of a
threatening presence even though its whole schtick is stealing the
memories of its victims (leaving the brain completely smooth, which has
its own memetic value.) The special effects of glowing eyes are kinda
cool, though. But what really sets this movie apart is the acting. Lee
and Cushing are veterans at this and they bring their A game to a movie
that probably doesn’t deserve it, but much of the rest of the cast also
does a good job. Savalas’ character as a Cossack captain is especially
amazing, more’s the pity that he doesn’t last long. While
it’s not Shakespearean or anything, the script is brisk with moments of
dry wit to help smooth things along in the scenes between the monster
bits, which is always appreciated but really helps elevate this movie
beyond a boilerplate monster matinee.
The
soundtrack is mostly pedestrian, but there are some really good
moments, and a tune whistled by a character early in the film turning
into an eerie refrain during the closing credits is effectively creepy. Sharply
edited and fast-paced, this is a film that always threatens to go off
the rails but always manages to stay on track. It’s not going to scare
anyone , but it’s a good ride nonetheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment