Two things separate Horror Express from the usual '70s horror b-movie slop. The first is the cast. Somehow this Spanish production managed to snag the reigning kings of b-horror, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. This was toward the end of their decades-long run of Hammer films (Horror of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein, about a billion others), and one of the only times the pair played compatriots rather than adversaries. The second is the production and writing team, much of which had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era.
The product is a suprisingly original low-budget horror. The plot is an odd mix of Murder on the Orient Express and The Thing (the Howard Hawks original as well as anticipating the John Carpenter remake). Lee is Professor Sir Alexander Saxton (a fine British name if I've ever heard one), a fossil hunter who uncovers a two-million-year-old humanoid specimen in Siberia. Saxton isn't a trusting fellow, so he locks the fossil in a chained box and arranges to ship the fossil on the Trans-Siberian express in Shanghai. On the train he meets fellow Englishman Dr. Wells (Cushing, understated and rather funny), who is both a companion and somewhat of a rival.
Of course, this is no simple fossil, as anyone who peers into it ends up having their brains boiled and their eyeballs turned to fried eggs. But just when the movie seems like it's going to turn into a simple monster-in-a-closed-space story, it makes some surprising turns. Saxton and Wells spend many turn-of-the-century CSI moments using brain saws and microscopes trying to figure out just what has been let loose on the train, which turns out to be less ooga-booga than nanoo-nanoo. Meanwhile a Rasputin-looking priest goes crazy, several women are led to their deaths, and Telly Savalas shows up as a sadistic, Cossack version of Kolchak. Also, zombies.
At times it feels like the plot is being written on the spot, which, in this most formulaic of genres, is actually a good thing. The narrow set and confined characters lends a tone of menace to the whole production, even as some of the sillier special effects attempt to derail it (no pun intended).
Of course it's not particularly scary (were any of the Hammer Horrors ever really scary?). It is, however, intriguing. This is one of those few movies that feels like it would make a good short story. This might not sound like particularly high praise, but in a world where most films can be explained on one side of a postcard, it really is.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
For such a small movie there are a good number of special features, confirming that this is indeed a cult classic (even if I've never heard of it.) There are a number of interviews, from director Eugenio Martín to composer John Cavacas to a long and heartbreaking audio interview with the late Peter Cushing, which plays instead of an audio commentary. Producer Bernard Gordon also talks about his blacklisting and the McCarthy era, which gives an interesting background to this international production.
"Horror Express" is on sale November 29, 2011 and is rated PG. Foreign, Horror. Directed by Eugenio Martin. Written by Arnaud d'Usseau, Julian Zimet. Starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas.
