Short Attention Span Review - Horror Express (1972) - With Non-Stop Service To Spoilers

Horror Express is a tasty sci-fi/horror stew. Set on the Trans-Siberian Railway a few years before the Russian Revolution, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star as scientists battling a lethal visitor from space. A frozen prehistoric corpse unearthed by Lee holds within it the life force of an extraterrestrial, left here eons ago by his inattentive fellow aliens. While these elements lend the film it's science fiction flavor, the movie owes much of it's look and story elements to gothic horror (particularly of the Hammer Films variety).

The setting is pure 19th Century gothic, with the cramped train interiors and baroque decorations a suitable stand in for crumbling castles and dark crypts. Alberto de Mendoza's Father Pujardov, a Rasputin-like mad monk, would be equally at home standing in a ghost-haunted cemetery. The monster kills by draining it's victims of life and memories by making eye contact, can leap from body to body and even raise some it's victims from the dead, powers more in keeping with some ghoulish supernatural entity.

The forces of authority are pretty much useless, standard for films of this genre. Julio Pena's Inspector Mirov is mostly interested in not "panicking" the passengers, the refrain of every cop or government official in every horror movie. When Telly Savalas and his band of trigger-happy troops show up, they mainly serve as cannon fodder and, later, a pack of shuffling zombies.

Science, however, comes to the rescue, with Lee and Cushing tag-teaming their way to defeating the menace (well, with the aid of a long drop and and a big explosion; it's action-science!). Of course, the science in question is very 19th Century. Knowledge is "engraved" on the human brain, so, when the alien performs a knowledge suck, the brain becomes smooth. Memory is stored in the fluid of the eyes. When the alien leaps from the ape-man to Inspector Mirov, he somehow sprouts a hairy, Neanderthal hand. You know....Science!

The film does have some effective chills and some interesting plot points. The ape-man costume looks pretty good (aided by the fact that it's kept in shadow) and the attacks are well done. The confined spaces of the train and the frequent use of close-ups and tight shots create a suitably claustrophobic feeling. The lead actors all do a fine job with their roles, particularly Lee and Cushing, who make believable men of action AND intellect. Mendoza has a lot of fun with the Pujardov character. He's so intense and greasy the screen almost sweats when he's spouting off about the alien being Satan or, later, groveling at the creature's feet. And it is refreshing that the goal of the alien is not conquest or destruction; it just wants to rejoin it's fellow brain suckers in space, even if that means advancing human civilization.

Is it a great movie? No. Many of the effects are pretty bad. The musical score is too bombastic for the events of the film. The alien's powers are driven more by the needs of the plot than any sense of consistency. The ending - where Moscow orders the train to be destroyed - makes no sense, since there's no indication that anything is wrong, other than a couple of murders. However, for a fun and genuinely creepy 90 minutes, get your ticket and take a ride on the Horror Express.

Check out the full movie below.