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CREEPY CLASSICS presents... |
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Creepy Classics Reader Reviews and Comments Saturday April 14, 2012 MOVIE - Thriller "HORROR EXPRESS" (1972) A really cool movie with a prehistoric demonic beast. The beast is being shipped via a train with cargo in a giant coffin sized box. It escapes doing very nasty things to people. Part raging monster movie, part "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," part "Murder on the Orient Express!" With Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Telly Savalas. Suggested by Scott Goettel, Radcliff, KY.
Solid acting and a great, great concept....a train with a monster aboard. Sub-plots and gratuitous gruesome scenes (needle in eye, brain sawing, etc.), made it a little less fun for me. It has all the makings of being a great one for me, but just a few things hold it back....multiple subplots, etc. The acting and atmosphere...and general plot keep it going though. -Ron Adams, Ligonier, PA
This past weekend, I watched my Blu-Ray copy of "Horror Express". Let me start things by saying WOW...what an incredibly vivid and beautiful print of this film, the color is rich, and the images look crisp and brand new. And this particular print is the Italian release, with the opening credits in Italian, but in its original Englisgh language. Plus, a few seconds of extra train footage at the start, and the ends credits show what actor played which role. Most previous prints of this film never show 'rolling' credits at the end...those prints usually concluded with a dark screen for a few seconds, simply followed by 'THE END".
From Mike's memories:
-Mike Adams, Cartaret, NJ
Hi Ron, Add your comments, review or thoughts on HORROR EXPRESS.
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A Saturday, late afternoon, mid 1970's. I imagine the weather must have been rather unfit for a young boy to be out in. That must be why I was inside on this particular Saturday afternoon. I, no doubt, was harassing my mother with the usual " I'm bored, what's there to do?" and other litanies that an energetic boy is apt to spit out when he's cooped up for to long. I can remember her turning on the TV and saying "let's see if there's anything good on." Silly woman, this was NY TV on a Saturday, in the mid 1970's ....of course there was something good on! She only needed to turn the dial two clicks, from channel 7, to channel 9, and there it was! A man with weird red eyes was wrestling some poor little lady. He was making her eyes turn white......and bleed! My mother actually let out some ghoulish laugh and asked...."what's he doing to her?" I for one did not wish to find out. The sight was too much for a child of my delicate condition.( Yeah... I was about as delicate as Haystacks Calhoun.) I asked her calmly to change the channel and find something else. I never forgot that horrific sight. I didn't even want to know what the movie was.
Flash ahead to another Saturday in 1979. I just got home from church. I was an altar server and had just finished serving a funeral. We were paid $2 each by the funeral home. Only, the other server (probably my brother) was a no show and I got his 2 bucks as well.......that made $4! After mass I of course stopped off at Klein's 5&10 to browse the comics. There on the rack was Fantastic Four Annual #14! I had no idea it was coming, or what it was even about! A quick browse through told me that it had Franklin Richards and Agatha Harkness taking on the Salem's Seven! Best of all there was a Rogues gallery in the back with a file on my favorite Marvel villain, Quasimodo! This was fast becoming a great Saturday! I blew my $4, and some, on comics and candy and sped off to get home for a little Saturday magic! When I got home I was happy to see that the surprises just kept coming.....no one was home! I grew up in an ant colony. If you weren't capable of lifting something a hundred times your own body weight you were cast out! On Saturday there were chores to be done, and no fun was to be had until them chores were finished. With no one home to enforce the law the chores got swept under the rug. I had some serious comics to read. I put the tv on for a little extra fun and sat down with the goods. A movie called Horror Express was coming on in a few minutes and I wanted to see what it was about. My attention went back and forth between the Fantastic Four, and the Terrific Two ...Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing! Eventually I gave all my attention to the movie and saved the comic for the commercials. 
This movie would go on to become a favorite of mine. Sometimes I wonder if it's because of the memories I associate with it, or that it's just a really fun and gruesome movie. I imagine a little of both. This film can't really decide what it wants to be. It's a big part horror, a part mystery and a part sci-fi. The train makes for a great set! There's really no place to run, and it puts all our characters in such close quarters that they are forced to interact with each other. It's such an eclectic band of characters too. We have distinguished scientists, a gruff police inspector, a gorgeous and loveable countess, and a monk who looks about as stable as middle eastern government. Anyone who trusts their spiritual welfare with this guy is asking for trouble. The minor characters round things out well and make for some good victims. Most of the characters are pretty well developed, and you actually do feel threatened for them. And then there are the legends. Lee and Cushing are so well pitted against, and then alongside each other here. I truly feel it ranks right up there with anything they did for Hammer. Let's not forget Telly Savalas in a role that he, no doubt, did not take very seriously. At one point he exclaims " who are the troublemakers!" Only he says it as if he were from Jersey City, NJ, not Siberia. The script is pretty clever throughout the movie as well. When the monk asks the ( alien controlled) police inspector if he's going to kill him, the reply is " fool....there's nothing of any use ...in there. Telly's reply to Cushing about shooting at the monk is great too " ahh...we got lots of innocent monks!". And of course everyone's favorite. The inspector asks Cushing and Lee.." but what if one of you is the monster?" to which Cushing replies..." Monster? We're British you know". 
