Horror Express review

As creature features go, Horror Express is certainly not the smartest of but when you consider the other movies that were being made at the time then it is definitely more technologically advanced. The movie was made in an era, the 1950s and 60s, when many movies had a political element and Horror Express does not have this which means that while a fun film it is one that is easy to forget. The movie has recently been released on Blu-ray and the quality is much better than any previous digital release.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee star in the movie as anthropologists who are transporting a sample acrossRussiaon the Trans-Siberian Railway. On the journey the creature defrosts and comes back to life to wreak havoc on the train. The victims of the creature are mostly the passengers of the train which are turned into zombies. The movie follows how our two heroes try to deal with the creature and the zombies before they can escape from the train.

The movie is directed by Eugenio Martin and there are many extra features included on this new release. These reveal a bit of a back story to the movie including why it was first made; the producer of the film had already purchased a train to using another film they were making and in order to get the most value from the purchase he decided to make a horror film set on it as well.

The movie might not be smart but it is definitely fun and there is even some old-fashioned gore in the movie as autopsies of the victims are conducted. The movie is relatively short at less than an hour and a half and moves at a quick pace. Christopher Lee is definitely the main character in most of the film and Cushing’s performance is rather subdued. When Telly Savalas board the train, some attention is taken off Lee as Savalas proceeds to dominate the movie.

This is the first time that the movie has been released on a higher quality and many of the rereleases that have taken place over the years didn’t really add anything to the production. This is the first high-definition transfer that has occurred in the original film and it is still not perfect. There is print damage that can be seen in the opening sequence and throughout there are often white specks shown on the screen. The audio is also not fantastic and is certainly not lossless, most viewers will not have too much a problem with this though as a lossless audio track wouldn’t really add anything to the production.

The extras are definitely the highlight of the disc and there is a lot of bonus material from the archives included. There is also an interview with the director of the movie as well as the producer. John Cacavas makes the score for the movie and an interview with him is also included. There is also a theatrical trailer included as an extra.