Amicus Productions and
Hammer Films were the kings of the horror films that reigned supreme in the
1960s and 1970s. These delights
included Amicus’ anthology series of films — The House That Dripped Blood,
Tales
from the Crypt and Asylum
(among others) — while Hammer served-up a seemingly endless stream of
Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy delights, often teaming Christopher Lee with
Peter Cushing.
It was during this period
that director Eugenio Martin’s Horror Express was released (around
Christmas of 1973 by indie Scotia International), which is often confused as
being one of the Amicus and/or Hammer theatrical releases from the period. That’s an easy mistake since the film stars
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
Regardless of its
origins, Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided
by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 2K restoration from the film’s original
elements planned for Blu-ray on Feb. 12.
At the turn of last
century, a Professor Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee), an anthropologist,
makes an earth-shaking discovey in remote Manchuria. An ape-like creature that he estimates to be
some 2,000,000 years old!
He must get his find back
to England, and thus books passage on the famed Trans-Siberian Express, which
will more or less become a haunted house on wheels. To complicate matters, Alexander’s chief
academic rival, Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing) just happens to be in the same place
with his assistant, Miss Jones (Alice Reinheart).
They are not even out of
the station when a mysterious murder occurs.
And, as the train rumbles along in the remote reaches of Siberia, more
killings … the creature is alive and on the prowl!
Horror Express, mixes in everything … from a body-jumping alien
life form to zombies, to a murder mystery on a rolling train, with a crazed
priest and even throws in a chew-the-scenery performance from Telly Savalas as
a Cossack officer dispatched to find out what is going on aboard the Trans-Siberian
Express (Savalas was in Spain, where the film was shot, and would work on both Horror
Express and Pancho Villa for producer Bernard Gordon … the train was even
used in both films).
As to bonus goodies, there
is a newly prepared commentary featuring Stephen Jones and Kim Newman
(co-authors of “Horror: The 100 Best Books” and “Horror: Another 100 Best Books”),
a introduction to film by writer Chris Alexander, a video session with director
Eugenio Martin and a pair of featurettes — “Murder on the Trans-Siberian
Express” and “Telly and Me.”
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