Jonny's Cult Films: Death line (A.K.A Raw Meat) 1973- Reviewed

Director: Gary Sherman.(Dead and Buried,Poltergeist III)

Writers: Ceri Jones (screenplay), Gary Sherman (original story)

Stars: Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington and David Ladd.

"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."

Hello Folks and a Happy New Year!

Jonny T here with my 1st review of 2013, the awesome 1973 absolute classic Death line (A.K.A) Raw meat, Now i haven't seen this in years, originally saw it on the Rank Video label as in the picture above which i have since learned from the DVD i got for Xmas (Thanks Bob!) was a cut version whereas the DVD above is fully uncut and it is the version you HAVE to see!

So from Director Gary Sherman who also directed the great Dead and Buried comes this in my opinion horror masterpiece from 1973, Oozing Britishness and starring the great Donald Pleasence and a cameo from Christopher Lee as the most British man you may ever see on screen complete with Bowler hat and Moustache this is a truly great great film, now it may sound like i am gushing my love for it but see and and you know what i mean by it being great.

The basic storyline is that after workers on the London underground are trapped near Russel Square station it seems that everyone just left them to rot, life was cheap in them bad old days, It then transpires that a women was down there as well and was pregnant, It appears that she gave birth and the child grew up surviving on any victim that he could get hold of and cannibalise hence the name of the USA release as "Raw Meat".

The film opens up with some great sleazy 70's music and again we see a very British business man going from one seedy peepshow to another eventually ending up at Russel Square underground station on propositioning a lady with cash who takes offence and duly kicks him in the balls steals his money and runs, he then decides to exit the station where he gets attacked by a mysterious figure and knocked unconscious,

We then see the arrival of the last train to the station where a young couple depart the train and walk up the steps to discover the business man flat out unconscious, The young man is happy to walk past and ignore the man but his girlfriend insists that he may be dying and they should help so the go to the entrance to get help from a policeman but when they go back down he has gone!

We then switch to the first scene featuring Donald Pleasence, now i have read that he was allowed to ad-lib a lot of his lines and whether this is true or not he comes out with some hilarious one liners, he and his side kick decide to go investigate the missing business man by basically breaking into his office where they find a room behind a bookcase which turns out basically to be his perving room! This is when we get the cameo fro Christopher Lee and what a great combination those two make in that scene, it goes back and forth between the young couple being suspects and eventually on one late night journey to Russel Square the girls gets off but her boyfriend gets stuck on the train and says through the window he shall see her at home leaving the girl on the lonely late night platform all alone and yes the man appears and she is taken.

Now for me this is where the film really takes off, we see her held captive in a room with loads of other dead and rotting bodies and this is a scene i can remember but not in as much graphic detail as the uncut version that this is.You get to see all the bodies piled up and hanging from the walls with some real graphic detail and brilliant make up effects as well as the mysterious subway man with his face all dripping puss and drool with his matted hair and dirty hands, gruesome!

They young man then contacts Pleasence and the team to go and investigate in the subway and this is where the true horror down there becomes a shocking reality, the greatest part and very much quoted is the fact that with the man being down in the tube station all his life he cannot speak apart from 3 words that he has constantly heard "Mind the doors!" he screams and screams again,brilliant stuff.

So in summing up i would say if you have seen this and it's been a while why not give it a re watch or if you have never seen it you really should, Subway horror at it's best.

9/10 Jonny T.

Image Gallery.