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This early gore-horror picture has a remarkable emphasis on human values, believe it or not, with a ‘monster’ that nevertheless is a paragon of loving gentleness. Add Donald Pleasance as a surly, posh-hating police inspector, and the shock value makes the Hammer films of the early ’70s taste like weak tea.

Death Line

Blu-ray + DVD

Blue Underground

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 87 min. / aka Raw Meat / Street Date June 27, 2017 / 39.98

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Hugh Armstrong, June Turner, Christopher Lee.

Cinematography: Alex Thomson

Art Direction: Dennis Gordon-Orr

Film Editor: Geoffrey Foot

Original Music: Jeremy Rose, Malone Wil

Written by Ceri Jones from a story by Gary Sherman

Produced by Paul Maslansky

Directed by Gary Sherman

In 1972, making a horror film was a safe way to start a career: almost anything screen-able could get a release, and if your show had enough shock value, it might even get positive critical attention.

A few years ago, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the death of influential film critic Pauline Kael, I wrote the following:

“I think (Kael) did a lot to expose the truth… that directors, writers and actors who often work awfully close to the surface may still have subterranean levels of achievement or purpose or commentary that they themselves may be least qualified to articulate. It’s what’s behind her disdain for Antonioni’s pontificating at the Cannes film festival; it’s what behind the high percentage of uselessness of proliferating DVD commentaries in which we get to hear every dull anecdote, redundant explication of plot development and any other inanity that strikes the director of the latest Jennifer Aniston rom-com to blurt out breathlessly; and it is what’s behind a director like Eli Roth, who tailors the subtext of something like Hostel Part II almost as...

This morning, 20th Century Fox finally released the first trailer for what is shaping up to be one of next year's biggest summer movies, X-Men: Apocalypse. If you've been poring over the new footage all day, you may be wondering about the identity of one mysterious character, who was only seen briefly during a scene with Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). Empire has a new breakdown of this footage, where director Bryan Singer confirms that this bald character is in fact Caliban.

"Caliban's bald and has funky eyes. He's a great character. Really cool."

Back in May, Bryan Singer all but confirmed this mutant's presence, when he posted a photo from the Montreal set and revealed that this particular set is "Caliban's place of business." In the Marvel Comics, Caliban has the power to locate other mutants anywhere within a 25-mile radius, essentially making him a mutant version of Professor X's Cerebro machine,...

Rod Taylor dead at 84: Actor best known for 'The Time Machine' and 'The Birds' Rod Taylor, best remembered for the early 1960s movies The Time Machine and The Birds, and for his supporting role as Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino's international hit Inglourious Basterds, has died. Taylor suffered a heart attack at his Los Angeles home earlier this morning (January 8, 2015). Born on January 11, 1930, in Sydney, he would have turned 85 on Sunday. Based on H.G. Wells' classic 1895 sci-fi novel, The Time Machine stars Rod Taylor as a H. George Wells, an inventor who comes up with an intricate chair that allows him to travel across time. (In the novel, the Victorian protagonist is referred to simply as the "Time Traveller.") After experiencing World War I and World War II, Wells decides to fast forward to the distant future, ultimately arriving at a place where humankind has been split...

Later this week (or is it earlier next week?) you'll be able to catch the Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Bruce Willis time travel adventure "Looper." I, on the other hand, have already seen it. Not because I've journeyed to the future, but because I've been to Canada (which is really, really not the same) and saw its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

As I wrote in my review for NextMovie's Mirror Universe site Film.com (and we'll be talking about parallel dimensions another day) "in an age where filmmakers are more likely to shrug and suggest you simply embrace mystery, writer-director Rian Johnson draws a line in the sand and says 'no.'" There's a great moment when Bruce Willis says to his younger self that he doesn't want to start discussing the nitty gritty of time travel lest they start making diagrams on the table with straws. However, "Looper...

This Saturday night’s Syfy original movie Morlocks puts a new spin on the subterranean subhumanoids from the dark future of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. Even after watching these snippets I’m still not sure what exactly they are, but they sure don’t look like the albino apemen we’re accustomed to.

“Stargate: Atlantis” co-star David Hewlett, last seen as the douchebag neighbor in Rise of the Planet of the Apes has to contend with an uprising of future mutants after an experimental time machine opens a window in the future allowing the mutated Morlocks into our world to wreak havoc.

Christina Cole (“Chaos”), and Robert Picardo (47% of all Syfy original movies) also star in this UFO Films production directed by Matt Codd (Super Eruption).

Morlocks premieres this Saturday night on Syfy at 9/8 Central.

The first clip is the 30 second TV spot. The second clip appears to show...