Horror Express

 

This is possibly one of the hardest reviews I have ever written.  Simply because Horror Express is one of my favourite films ever and it IS hard to be objective about it.  I remember watching it for the first time on the BBC in the early eighties.  I owned it on VHS and have various DVD's of it.  Every version of the film on DVD has been pretty poor, and believe me some of those dodgy $1 versions I bought on holiday certainly are.  I had all but given up waiting for a nice print of the film to turn up then one turns up in Mongolia of all places.  The film has now undergone remastering and looks totally amazing.

Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee) the famous scientist has discovered what could be the 'missing link' between prehistoric and modern day man.  He packs it up on the Trans-Siberian Express to take back to London.  Also on the train is Dr Wells (Peter Cushing) and his assistant Miss Jones.  Dr Wells is determined to find out whats in Saxton's crate and he pays the train guard to drill a hole in the crate to have a look.....

Oh course all hell breaks loose as the creature escapes and starts killing people.  The cast is filled out with Polish aristocracy, scary looking 'beardy' monks, a Russian policeman with handlebar 'tache, Telly Savalas playing a deranged cossack and some of the best music ever in a horror film.

I mentioned above that the film has been remastered, the picture is beautiful with realistic skin tones and considering it's a near 40 year old picture seen only in crappy pan and scanned prints, we should all in awe for what Severin have achieved.

One of the best home entertainment releases of all time, scarily I rate it up there with the Star Wars Blu-ray boxset that's how much I adore this film.

• Starring Christopher Lee  Peter Cushing  Telly Savalas  Alberto DeMendoza
• Director Eugenio Martin 
• Distributor Severin Films (on an all region Blu-ray)