HORROR EXPRESS (1972)

Director: Eugenio Martín

Writers: Arnaud d’Usseau, Julian Halevy

Producer: Bernard Gordon

Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, Alberto de Mendoza, Sylvia Tortosa, Julio Peña, Helga Liné, Alice Reinheart, Ángel del Pozo, George Rigaud, Victor Israel, José Jaspe, Faith Clift, Juan Olaguibel, Barta Barri, Peter Beckman, Hiroshi Kitatawa, Vicente Roca, José Canalejas, Allen Russell, José Marco 

In 1906, British anthropologist Professor Sir Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee) discovers the frozen remains of a prehistoric ancestor of man in China. He packs his find in a crate and hauls it back to Shanghai. There he loads it aboard the Trans-Siberian Express to return to Europe. However, Saxton’s “fossil” is alive, and its encounters with people leave them dead with blank, white eyes. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Horror Express is a quirky Spanish production that takes you on a strange ride. Just when you think you know where it is going, it veers off in another direction keeping it lively and unpredictable. Its mix of mystery, science fiction, and horror aboard a passenger train traversing the frozen expanse of Siberia provides a unique tale in an interesting and isolated setting.

This film’s story is supposed to be inspired by the classic John W. Campbell 1938 science fiction horror tale “Who Goes There?” That was the source for one of the greatest sci-fi fright flicks of all-time, The Thing from Another World (1951), and John Carpenter’s 1982 remake The Thing. There was even a 2011 prequel to the Carpenter film that was also called The Thing. Although Horror Express shares some basic ideas with the original novella, it also contributes plenty of other novel touches making it a very satisfying and offbeat film. 

The film boasts stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas. As Professor Saxton, Lee manages to do that British stiff upper lip, upper class arrogance better than anyone, yet somehow still manages to be heroic. Peter Cushing is Lee’s genial counterpoint as Dr. Wells. He also gets the funniest line of the film. As the ranting and brutal Cossack officer Captain Kazan, Savalas steals every scene he is in. 

Another standout in the cast is Alberto de Mendoza. He plays the monk Father Pujardov. His character demonstrates how easily the spiritually devout can lapse into evil fanaticism. 

There are two beauties in the cast that would both go on to co-star in another Spanish fright flick The Loreley’s Grasp (1973). Silvia Tortosa plays Irina Petrovski, the wife of an elderly Polish count. Apparently with her husband’s blessing, Irina seems to be openly enjoying the chance to flirt and flaunt herself before Professor Saxton, especially to rouse the ire of the Petrovskis’ spiritual advisor Father Pujardov. Frequent Euro-horror siren Helga Liné briefly appears as the stowaway Natasha. I first encountered Liné in this film, which plays no small part in it becoming a favorite Euro-horror of mine. With her graceful figure, auburn hair, and green eyes, her beauty is so striking and her demeanor so smoldering, that I have to believe that anything she appears in is worth watching. Before drool shorts out my keyboard, I had better move on… 

I want to refrain from discussing too many particulars about the menace in this movie and how it functions. The fun in this story is discovering those strange turns along with the characters. It could be argued that in a microscope examination by Professor Saxton and Dr. Wells that they all too quickly find exactly the needed images to tell them the origin of the threat they are dealing with. In the interests of keeping the story moving, it is excusable. We don’t want to watch hours of slide preparations before they arrive at the same conclusion, do we? Of course not, there would be less time for an already too limited amount of Helga Liné footage! Oops! Got to wipe off my keyboard again… 

John Cacavas provides a nice score that is melancholy and haunting, but can provide some horror stings when needed. An interesting idea is that the main theme of the movie is also a tune whistled by the baggage man (Victor Israel) that is learned and repeated by the movie’s menace. 

Director Eugenio Martín provides some eerie images throughout the film, and he makes fine use of the train car set and miniatures from his earlier film Pancho Villa (1972) that also starred Telly Savalas. I wish Martín had directed many more horror films. He did return to the genre the following year with A Candle for the Devil, aka It Happened at Nightmare Inn (1973). 

For the well-traveled horror buff, speeding through the frigid wastes of Siberia aboard Horror Express is a trip that can’t be missed. Horror heroes Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing sharing a compartment with Helga Liné in her slinky green dress is such fine company that being menaced by an unpredictable monster seems to be a perfectly reasonable risk. Need I say it again? Helga Liné! My keyboard can’t take much more…