‘Horror Express’ or — John Carpenter’s Murder on The Orient Express?
At first glance Eugenio Martin’s ‘Horror Express’ (1972) seems like a straight forward Hammer Horror knock-off as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee team up to battle a mysterious creature on a turn of the century steam-powered locomotive. Yet, in truth, this is one of the most eclectic, genre-jumping, narratively inventive movies of the early 70’s that’s a mash-up of everything from, and here goes — horror movies, ‘Murder on The Orient Express’, prehistoric creature feature, possession, science-fiction, comedy, political satire, ‘The Cassandra Crossing’, Rasputin, Fulci’s ‘The Beyond’, ‘E.T’, ‘The Terminator’ (single, glowing red eye), theological horror, even ‘Runaway Train’ and oh, why not throw in some zombies for good measure.
Although the one film that comes to mind with the force of the screamingly obvious is John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’. Sure, ‘Horror Express’ takes inspiration from Hawk’s original movie but the idea of not knowing who is whom (or is it whom is who?) is an aspect of the short story missing from Hawks but that’s very much active here as well as in Carpenter’s remake. But what makes me think Carpenter was influenced by ‘Horror Express’ isn’t just the paranoia but, specifically, the “scientific” test to discover who the creature is (watching ‘The Thing’ and ‘Horror Express’ back to back would be quite revealing as beat for beat these films are very similar and ‘Horror Express’ easily holds its own against Carpenter’s classic).
The biggest surprise though isn’t simply the number of different aspects and styles at play here but just how effectively and effortlessly Martin pulls them all together. This film could, and possibly should, be a mess but instead it’s completely cohesive and everything that’s pulled out of the Eugenio’s hat keeps with the film’s verisimilitude. It’s a deft piece of story-telling and you can feel the obvious delight in being able to gleefully dabble with so many fantastical elements which is why I won’t describe the story as part of the fun is simply in seeing, or not seeing, where this movie is going although, essentially, it is 1906 and Professor Saxton (Christopher Lee) is transporting a prehistoric artifact across the Russian wastes on the Trans-Siberian Express, an express filled with sundry eccentric characters.
‘Horror Express’ is only 87 minutes long and brimming with incident meaning it barrels along like a… well… like a speeding locomotive and what with so many twists and turns there’s hardly time to catch your breath as, like a mutating alien life-form, this movie keeps evolving and changing. The film feels like it’s over in the blink of a heavily bleeding eye.
Talking of which, even though the movie is light on gore what there is is highly effective and rather skin-crawling. If you’re not a fan of skulks being sawn open, brains revealed and prodded or eyeballs pierced then this will give you the willies. There’s also a climax that’s suitably chilling in nature with a nice apocalyptic feel.
Martin’s handles the directing with a light and energetic touch, Cushing and Lee give great performances making me wish they’d teamed up on the same side more and even though he doesn’t have much screen time Telly Savalas brings his usual presence and menace, along with a little dose of political digs and jabs at religion. Although the real star is the train itself feeling like an existential bullet on a one-way ticket straight to oblivion; some of the shots of it blasting through the snow-covered wastes are gorgeous and mysteriously evocative.
‘Horror Express’ is a huge amount of fun. It’s a film that keeps changing its form with ease and panache allowing for maximum entertainment value. It’s also very funny with just enough tongue in the right amount of cheek. Oh, it also boasts some great costumes, smoking jackets and dressing gowns (I particularly adored Count Petrovski’s outfits). If you love horror, science-fiction, comedy and imaginative story-telling then, like steam erupting from a speeding train’s whistle, you’ll have an absolute blast with ‘Horror Express’.
