"The most terrifying journey you will ever make...in the land of the hungry
dead!"
1973 - Color - 87 minutes - R - Director: Gary Sherman
"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."
Despite the poor marketing campaign to make you believe this movie was some zombie horde film from across the pond. It is not! THIS IS NOT A ZOMBIE MOVIE!! And thank goodness. I am not against zombie films but I'm on pop culture zombie overload right now. The premise is simple, a group of people got trapped underground and after generations began to breed and every once in awhile pop up to feed. It's a nice take on the phenomenon of feral children or in movie terms The Hills Have Eyes meets a Sherlock Holmes mystery. They are so inbred and diseased, they only resemble humans in the physical form. They are completely primal, they function off of base instincts. Feed, breed and survive. I keep saying they although, we only see one throughout the movie because he is the last. The last of a couple, which the female counterpart dies in the beginning, which I'm pretty positive they share a sister/lover relationship. I believe she is pregnant as well which makes it even worse for our character.
In a desperate attempt to revive her (blood and flesh=life), if she feeds fresh raw meat it should bring her back. The cannibal attacks a well respect civil servant and takes him for food, the police are in a fluster to catch the killer and in their sights is an American subway thief. They keep banging their heads against a wall tracking him and trying to find him slipping up to the pin the murder one him, until the last 15 or so minutes when he accidentally leads them to the the real killer, the cannibal (who by the way is no longer killing to feed but out of anger and becoming quite messy).
The film is done very well. The soundtrack is cool and the director creates atmosphere in the underground scenes without just making everything dark and shot in shadows. The make-up effects are fair, although disturbing. The goriest scenes are the props which look like cousins of unused corpses from original Texas Chainsaw Massacre set (although this movie predates TCM). The second goriest is a stabbing that's a bit more blood and guts than a hammer horror vampire slaying.
I'd highly recommend this movie for a night of cannibal themed films. Also if you're looking for a little more to your flesh eaters besides buckets of pig intestines and hordes of mindless extras, this is for you.
EXTRA POINTS: Its a treat to see the late great Donald Pleasence in something not in the Halloween family.
Despite the poor marketing campaign to make you believe this movie was some zombie horde film from across the pond. It is not! THIS IS NOT A ZOMBIE MOVIE!! And thank goodness. I am not against zombie films but I'm on pop culture zombie overload right now. The premise is simple, a group of people got trapped underground and after generations began to breed and every once in awhile pop up to feed. It's a nice take on the phenomenon of feral children or in movie terms The Hills Have Eyes meets a Sherlock Holmes mystery. They are so inbred and diseased, they only resemble humans in the physical form. They are completely primal, they function off of base instincts. Feed, breed and survive. I keep saying they although, we only see one throughout the movie because he is the last. The last of a couple, which the female counterpart dies in the beginning, which I'm pretty positive they share a sister/lover relationship. I believe she is pregnant as well which makes it even worse for our character.
In a desperate attempt to revive her (blood and flesh=life), if she feeds fresh raw meat it should bring her back. The cannibal attacks a well respect civil servant and takes him for food, the police are in a fluster to catch the killer and in their sights is an American subway thief. They keep banging their heads against a wall tracking him and trying to find him slipping up to the pin the murder one him, until the last 15 or so minutes when he accidentally leads them to the the real killer, the cannibal (who by the way is no longer killing to feed but out of anger and becoming quite messy).
The film is done very well. The soundtrack is cool and the director creates atmosphere in the underground scenes without just making everything dark and shot in shadows. The make-up effects are fair, although disturbing. The goriest scenes are the props which look like cousins of unused corpses from original Texas Chainsaw Massacre set (although this movie predates TCM). The second goriest is a stabbing that's a bit more blood and guts than a hammer horror vampire slaying.
I'd highly recommend this movie for a night of cannibal themed films. Also if you're looking for a little more to your flesh eaters besides buckets of pig intestines and hordes of mindless extras, this is for you.
EXTRA POINTS: Its a treat to see the late great Donald Pleasence in something not in the Halloween family.
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