O Metrô da Morte

DEATH LINE

(USA: Raw Meat)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Mono

Trapped by falling masonry during construction of the London Underground, a group of Victorian workers survive in the bowels of the earth for more than a century, breeding amongst themselves and cannibalizing the dead. A hundred years after their ordeal began, the last remaining descendant (Hugh Armstrong) finds his way back to the surface and begins to abduct people from station platforms in a desperate bid for food and companionship...

With its unique premise and uncompromising attention to grisly detail, Gary Sherman's directorial feature debut has gained something of a cult reputation over the years, and not without good reason. Dominated by Donald Pleasence's central performance as a cynical copper who treats everyone - innocent and guilty alike - with equal contempt, the film strikes a precarious balance between eccentricity and horror, reaching its emotional highpoint during scenes depicting Armstrong's ghoulish underground 'home', strewn with rotting corpses. Art direction (by Denis Gordon-Orr) and cinematography (by veteran Alex Thomson) are uniformly excellent, generating a vivid illusion of ancient decay, and the production benefits from atmospheric location work in abandoned train stations dating back to the Victorian era.

Juvenile leads David Ladd and Sharon Gurney are a dreary pair, and they're completely overshadowed by Pleasence's crowd-pleasing theatrics, but the film survives by virtue of its distinctive plot line and extraordinary setting, and there's at least ONE good scare that will lift viewers right out of their seats! Casual observers may find the opening scenes a little heavy-going, but Ceri Jones' admirable screenplay describes a fascinating narrative arc, and horror fans will be gripped throughout. Christopher Lee exchanges fruity insults with Pleasence during a brief cameo appearance, shot in a couple of hours and intended solely for marquee value.

There's something pretty grisly going on under London in the Tube tunnels between Holborn and Russell Square.

When a top civil servant becomes the latest to disappear down there Scotland Yard start to take the matter seriously.

Helping them are a young couple who get nearer to the horrors underground than they would wish.

Very 70s, but not all that great. The problem is this is sort of a quasimodo frankenstein-ish movie and it takes itself seriously, but it's just not all that compelling.

Lots of long segments with the "monster" (for lack of a better term) wallowing in the dark wet space of the London tubes. But it wears thin when nothing happened for so long.

One every so often you come across a real, unclassifiable gem - one of those low-budget cult movies you see, late at night on TV, then spend years thereafter raving about to your puzzled, disbelieving friends. "See, there's this disused Tube tunnel, with a tribe of degenerate Victorian plague cannibals down there, and they pull people off the platform and eat them, only sometimes they try to mate with them... and Donald Pleasance gives possibly the most monumentally weird performance of his LIFE... and there's this really cheesy proto-electronic score... and... and... and..." As folks wander away from you, shaking their heads sadly, you do not mind. You smile. For you have seen Death Line.

I saw this film (very likely the cut version which BBC aired) in my very early teens, and all I remember was that it was foul, dark, gritty and... rather slow. But it did leave an impression that stayed with me all these years. Couldn't even pinpoint it, really...

...up until now. After my re-watch, I can say that it's still those four things, but it's also a well-accomplished, genuine '70's shocker. And if you don't mind me saying so, Donald Pleasance does steal the show as the straight-forward, "be annoyed then if you don't like me - I don't care", obnoxiously funny, tea-devouring police inspector Calhoun. I had quite some chuckles with the way he delivered his lines. It's all rather subtle, mind you, as this movie is anything but a comedy.

If this film would have been made these days, it undoubtedly would be up there with the works of Christopher Smith, Michael J. Bassett and Neil Marshall. At least, that's how I feel about it.

For those days - and even up until this day, in my humble opinion - DEATH LINE is pretty damn good & solid. Straightforward story. Vintage shock-feel to it. Capable cast. A good ending that proves sometimes a movie doesn't even have to have a drum-rollin' climax to end it on the right note. And the most surprising thing was that the screenplay has a few moments where it takes the time to learn us a bit about the psychology and emotions of our cannibalistic brute. It tricks you into feeling sorry for him, but witnessing his brutal acts conflict severely with this emotion. A nice touch, that didn't even take up that much of the movie's running time. And the screenplay doesn't even forget that it did that (making you feel something for the villain), as near the end Sharon Gurney's character says one little thing that reminds you of all this. She understood it too.

Speaking of Ms. Gurney: For some reason I really liked her on the screen. What happened to her? As an actress, you cannot fail to notice that she's got what it takes. And then she stopped acting in 1974? Anybody have any info on that, perhaps?

I'm trying hard to look for things that I didn't like, possible big flaws or something, but I just can't find any... I agree that DEATH LINE isn't the world's greatest horror film ever made, but it sure must have hit the mark back in '72. One jump-scare still even worked on me! And the gory make-up effects were pretty darn excellent for that time. But there's only just enough of them in this movie, so don't expect a splatter-fest or anything. Christopher Lee has a fun cameo in it and Donald Pleasance just seems to love pulling his leg in that scene.

Thankfully, DEATH LINE has been restored and fully uncut released on DVD (as RAW MEAT in the US). It deserves a wider recognition, and I'm happy to see it's finally getting it.

This movie's story: in the bowels of the Earth below the streets of London, there exists an area that had been buried in the late 19th century by a cave-in. One might not think it possible, but the people who were sealed off managed to survive. Now, 80 years later, their last living descendant (Hugh Armstrong) is about to make his existence known to the outside world. People start disappearing, but the ball only really gets rolling when a prominent public servant (top character actor James Cossins) vanishes. The chief police inspector on the case, Calhoun (Donald Pleasence), realizes that he has his hands full, but vows to stick it out, despite the matter now being more in the domain of MI5.

This marked the debut fictional theatrical feature for the young American director Gary Sherman, who also came up with the story; he went on to direct such nifty 1980s pictures as "Dead & Buried" and "Vice Squad". He and his crew make excellent use of some *extremely* atmospheric locations. They're dark, they're filthy, and they're dripping with water. "Death Line" (a.k.a. "Raw Meat") can take credit for bringing horror to the London tubes almost a decade before "An American Werewolf in London". The makeup effects and gore are very well done, and this is additionally blessed with a highly offbeat music score composed by Wil Malone and Jeremy Rose. The camera-work is utterly fantastic - wait for the approximately 10 minute sequence from about 23 minutes in to 33 minutes in for a memorable tracking shot showcasing the monsters' lair.

It's well worth noting that our hideous killer is far from being malicious. He's really more pitiable than anything else, especially as he goes into mourning at one point, and tries to make a connection with lovely young Patricia Wilson (Sharon Gurney), uttering the only English words that he's ever managed to learn. You really feel his despair and sadness when it comes to his companion, the Woman (June Turner).

Donald Pleasence is an absolute delight in our lead role, playing the material with a heavy dose of humour. His Inspector Calhoun is hilariously surly, and witty. David Ladd (one of Alan Ladds' sons) does okay as American student Alex Campbell, but the character is pretty insensitive and hostile for a while, only earning our sympathy towards the end. Gurney is highly appealing as his girlfriend. Top notch supporting players include Norman Rossington, Clive Swift, Heather Stoney, Hugh Dickson, and Ron Pember. Sir Christopher Lee is great fun to watch, albeit kind of wasted in a cameo role as MI5 agent Stratton-Villiers.

Horror fans need to add this one to their watch list, if they haven't seen it already. It's too good to pass up.

Eight out of 10.