Movie Review: Horror Express (1972)
Synopsis: After discovering the frozen remains of what he believes to be the missing link, Sir Alexander Saxton transports his discovery onboard the Trans-Siberian Express, drawing curiosity from his rival and fellow passenger Doctor Wells. The men soon learn Saxton's find is both not dead and able to use its glowing eyes to kill people by stealing their memories, forcing them to team up to stop it.
Who's in it? The movie stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, Silvia Tortosa, Alberto de Mendoza and Julio Peña.
Review: My wife and I had talked about going out last night, but we (mostly her) decided it was too cold and ended up staying home and watching a movie instead. Sticking with the train-based horror theme I started the night before with Terror Train, we ended up watching Horror Express. Unfortunately, while I had relatively high hopes for this movie because of the Lee/Cushing pairing, it was a bit of a disappointment.
The movie's premise wasn't the worst I've seen. After all, a prehistoric (or so it seems) creature ( Juan Olaguivel) with the ability to wipe people's minds without even touching them had some real potential. Plus, there was a bit of a surprise as far as what the creature really was and its full abilities, including the ability to switch bodies. The latter made it easy to question just how the protagonists were going to defeat the creature.
The movie also had some intriguing supporting characters. This included a seductive countess (Tortosa), a priest (de Mendoza) who was, at times, as creepy as the creature itself and a brazen Kozak captain (Savalas) who both provided muscle but also was a bit unpredictable.
My main problem with this movie was, despite all of the above, it was surprisingly dull. Basically, they were on a train with a killer creature but there was almost no sense of urgency throughout the film. Let's put it this way, Dr. Wells (Cushing) had plenty of time to conduct multiple autopsies to learn more about the beast without interruption and there wasn't a single train delay until the very end.
Plus, as I told my wife, what this movie needed was a significant plot twist, such as the missing link being nothing more than a red herring being blamed for murders committed by one of the passengers. In other words, had this been a straight-up slasher movie posing as a monster movie, it might have been a lot more interesting. Or, at very least, had it been a monster movie that kept the passengers in constant fear of their lives, it might have been a lot less dull.
Final Opinion: It wasn't a bad movie, but it was a film that could have used a little more oomph and a lot more urgency. We didn't regret watching it (other than maybe the Siberian scenes making us feel colder than we already were) but it is clearly not one of our favorites.
My Grade: C
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Here are some reviews of other movies with Christopher Lee, including a couple with Peter Cushing as well:
Movie Review: Alias John Preston (1955)
Movie Review: The Mummy (1959)
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