By Todd Garbarini
My love of horror films didn’t start
until I was twelve, but as a child in 1974 I recall seeing scenes from a film
that featured a white poodle and a monster with eerie, red eyes. I didn’t know the name of it until my
grandmother bought a VHS copy of Horror
Express in September 1985 from K-mart for the then unheard of amount of
eleven dollars. I immediately recognized
the images and was delighted to finally know the film that had unnerved me
years earlier.
Horror
Express takes place at
the turn of the 20th Century. Sir
Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee), a British anthropologist, discovers frozen fossils
during an archeological dig and takes them aboard the Tran-Siberian Express en
route to England. Accompanying him are
his colleague Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing) and his assistant Mrs. Jones (Alice
Reinheart). Almost immediately, people begin
to turn up dead if they approach or look into the crate which harbors a
defrosted two million year-old creature which possesses a strong red eye that
sucks the brain power out of anyone who confronts it. The creature’s stare causes the eyes of its
victims to bleed and turn opaque white, and it possesses some ability to remove
memories from its victims, the evidence of which appears in the form of
removing the victim’s skull cap and exposing the brain which is smooth and free
of lines and impressions. What starts
out as a run-of-the-mill monster film becomes a much more interesting fright
fest, particularly as a loose adaptation of the novella “Who Goes There?†by
John W. Campbell, Jr. (which itself provided the basis for The Thing from Another World (1951) and John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)). Telly Savalas, of all people, shows up as an aggressive Cossack determined
to find out why people are dying on the train. There is a neat explanation regarding the origin of the monster: when
the creature’s eye is removed and studied under a microscope, images of
dinosaurs can be seen, in addition to the earth from outer space, indicating
that it has been frozen for millions of years and that it is not of this earth.
After many different public domain releases
on VHS and several DVD incarnations, Horror
Express has finally been given the respect that it deserves from the fine
folks at Severin Films. In their new
Blu-ray and DVD combo pack, Severin has provided a wonderful assortment of
extras:
• Introduction by Fangoria editor Chris Alexander
• Murder on the Trans-Siberian
Express: Interview with director Eugenio Martin
• Notes from the Blacklist:
Producer Bernard Gordon discusses the McCarthy Era
• 1973 Audio Interview with Peter Cushing
• Telly and Me: Interview with
composer John Cacavas
• Theatrical Trailer
• Trailers for Psychomania, The House That Dripped Blood, and Nightmare Castle
• Easter Egg: visit to the train station location
To see Horror Express look this good is a rare treat indeed. There are some scratches on the film and some
splices here and there, but nothing to carp about. The introduction by Chris Alexander is
spirited and informative, and the interview with composer John Cacavas is a joy
to watch as he talks about how he got the project, and his long-standing
professional relationship with Telly Savalas. His score for this film is very eerie, memorable, and fits the movie
like a glove.
Highly recommended!
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