Horror Express - Board The Train For A Sci-Fi Horror Ride Like No Other
Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee Star In A Powerful Sci-Fi Horror Classic From Spain
Horror Express aka Panic On The Trans-Siberian Express, from 1972, offers many rich thematic rewards, delighting genre fans on every level. It’s a rousing, thrilling adventure. It’s sci-fi and a chilling horror romp as well, and also exists as sort of a lost Hammer Horror film, despite not being produced by the famous British film studio.
Starring Hammer horror veterans and friends, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, the fright flick boasts the same great production values in the Hammer style, and of course, Cushing and Lee collaborate wonderfully just as they did in so many legitimate Hammer productions. This is a Spanish/British co-production - a collaboration between Granada Film of Spain and Benmar Productions in the United Kingdom, and written by American screenwriter, Bernard Gordon. With all of this international flavor talent enhancing the production, fright fans will find much to savor .
The Thing is The Thing
The Thing From Another World (1951) directed by Howard Hawks is a landmark in science fiction horror films. Based on a novella, and then famously remade - with mind blowing FX by Rob Bottin - in 1982 by director John Carpenter, the tale has become a creative template for the potential chaos possible from the coming of an invading alien species.
Hawks’ original didn’t use a shapeshifter, which featured in the original print story, but kept the corrupting sense of distrust and confusion. Carpenter’s movie gave us chameleon like vampires who absorbed the genetic structure of a victim, killing its target and then morphing into an exact replica.
With aliens capable of assuming anyone’s physical form to effectively assume their identity, the central plot becomes a dread, deadly mystery - What if these ‘things’ hide from us in plain sight? What if they can cloak themselves in another’s shape to become a new person? How can you fight your own friends or even family members?
Director Eugenio Martin’s Horror Express takes on this theme and ramps up the paranoia to full, breakneck throttle. In fact, many critics and discriminating fans consider Martin’s Spanish flick to be the first remake of Hawks’ original Hollywood sci-fi thriller.
Haunting Imagery
Whatever ultimate genre category the movie ends up fitting into, seeing Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing pair up to ham it up in such a fun, effective tale remains one of the flick’s lasting treasures. Shortly before shooting the film, Cushing had just lost his wife of many years. Upon reporting to the set for work, a still grieving Cushing was on the verge of quitting before he started, and told the director as much. Lee took him aside for a day or two, comforting his old friend and reaffirming their work ethic, reminding him of their many respected collaborations. Cushing took his pal’s loving ministrations to heart and went on to ably complete his acting role.
Instead of the gore and violence punctuating other fright films, this one uses an unnerving mystery layered with unforgettable imagery to truly disturb our tenuous hold on normalcy. The alien creature - more a possessive body thief than actual shapeshifter - can literally boil a victim’s brain by merely looking into their eyes. The deadly result shocks as corpses with all white, bleeding eyes - like a boiled rainbow trout amid a bed of steamed veggies on a dinner plate. A powerful musical score orchestrating and underscoring the solid acting serves up quite an unforgettable horror classic.
Keeping things truly up to date, Creepshow, the popular TV show on Shudder, recently used the film as a kind of virtual reality experience and story backdrop for one of their episodes. Yet another clever treat for old and new Horror Express fans alike to relish.
For years, the movie languished in a kind of pubic domain hell of cinematic obscurity - where any run of the mill company could offer a cheap, often near unwatchable print. Thankfully, Horror Express has been restored to its original glory. You can now rent or buy a beautiful HD copy to properly enjoy this landmark gem of a chiller thriller.