Review of Horror Express (1972) by Joe A — 07 Oct 2012

10 years before John Carpenter's 'The Thing', this Spanish horror flick had horror film legends, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing battling an alien life form found frozen in the ice with the ability to hide within it's prey on a train in 1906. Eugenio Martin directs a story that has more then a passing resemblance to John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" as Professor Alexander Saxon (Lee) discovers an ancient anthropoid frozen in the ice in Manchuria and plans to take it's remains back to Europe on the Trans-Siberian Express. Unknown to Saxon, his fossil is possessed by an alien who was stranded here millenia ago and has the ability to not only absorb the minds of it's victims but to jump from person to person and reanimate it's victims as well. Once the creature thaws, it's up to Saxon and rival scientist, Wells(Cushing) to save the remaining passengers trapped on the speeding train from this alien life form and it's zombie army.

'Horror Express' is a fun horror that, like Carpenter's classic and Campbell's story has it's share of paranoia and autopsies. Unlike 'The Thing' this alien being can talk and does so often giving it a personality and giving the audience some much needed background exposition that Carpenter's creature never did. There is some decent bloodshed and some nice suspense, a creepy score, as well as, a crazy monk (Alberto de Mendoza) and an equally crazy Cossack Commander (A scenery chewing Telly Savalas) thrown in for good measure. Lee and Cushing are great together as always and there is some fun dialog especially from Savalas and Cushing ("Monsters? We're British you know!"). Wrap it up with a really creepy and effective climax and you've got a recipe for an entertaining little classic sci-fi/ horror on a Saturday night.