THE THING FROM ANOTHER BOXCAR
 
It's unfortunate that such an awesome movie got relegated to having such a generic ass title. The Spanish one at least is “Panic on the Trans-Siberian”, but “Horror Express”? Sounds like a fuckin’ Halloween-themed amusement park ride—makes sense then why people forget it’s actually another adaptation of “Who Goes There?”, the novella that inspired The Thing. But, instead of Kurt Russell fighting the best practical effects of all time, here we get Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing fighting a shapeshifting Neanderthal that telekinetically absorbs brains with its glowing red eyes, resulting in trippy death scenes with rad fever dream energy. Then, instead of an isolated outpost in the arctic, we move the setting to…

I read online that because Peter Cushing suffered from panic attacks at night during the filming due to his wife's death, Christopher Lee slept in the same bed with him during the shoot. That's just so sweet.

And the movie...Holy shi... A train ride into the unknown. The raw energy of a B-movie, familiar gothic horror, and sci-fi in a way I absolutely did not see coming. This is an amazing movie and I hate that I haven't seen this before.

A hairy hand lurks just around the corner, and we're trapped in a maze, a labyrinth as a playground. It’s like a personal psychological chamber. Death meets a certain kind of absurdity, and I enjoyed it even though the…

RESEÑA EN ESPAÑOL

Julian Zimet and Arnaud d’Usseau take a familiar premise—murder on a train—and give it a fresh twist by introducing a killer who may not be of this earth.

It’s always a treat to see Cushing and Lee share the screen, even though they don’t appear together as much as I would have liked, with much of the film functioning primarily as a Lee vehicle. Nevertheless, both deliver really good performances, as does the rest of the cast. The script, paired with Eugenio Martin’s direction, skillfully crafts and builds suspense and tension, especially as the body count rises and the train becomes a moving chamber of death. Speaking of kills, I absolutely loved the creative and gruesome ways…

Hooptober 9: It’s in Space Now 

God bless Terry Savalas. Dude shows up an hour in to make an already great movie even better!

Not enough horror films take place on trains, you know? It’s a perfect setting. Vaguely claustrophobic yet spacious, full of victims, and it’s isolated with possible freedom wizzing by outside. 

So the setting’s perfect, how about the killer? It’s one for the books. See, you think you’re getting a killer caveman film only to have the rug pulled out from under you when it starts absorbing human memories through their eyes! That’s right, it’s actually some sort of ancient alien energy that only becomes smarter with every person it kills. It looks great too. The monster…

Hooptober 9.0, pt.1- All Aboard!

2/6 Countries (Spain, UK)
1/8 Decades (1970s)
1/2 Christopher Lee Films

1st Eugenio Martín

My fourth Hooptober begins with two of my role models having a hair-raising time aboard a Trans-Siberian train while battling an ancient alien circa 1908. Cushing and Lee always have such a wonderful screen presence, a kind of unflappable Englishness in the face of danger and an unfailingly courteous and charming manner to everyone, especially the women they encounter. You can't help but want to dress exceptionally well and greet everyone with a half bow after one of their outings, and this is no exception, with the duo playing rival scientists with a thorny backstory that they must overcome to deal…

Nothing like a Friday night Cushing and Lee feature! They're both wonderful and very attractive, but something about Cushing just really does it for me. I could watch him all day.

And I love train set horror movies. My own personal amount of train experience is woefully limited, but I do feel like the action that takes place on all these train horror movies is very logistically improbable and that's ok because the idea is fun and it's a nice change from your usual settings.

Telly Savalas shows up and acts like Telly Savalas and there's a pretty cool monster. The women are mostly the dramatic fainting type and I think that's what holds this back from being more than…

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are bunking up together on the Trans-Siberian Express, with an ancient Himalayan missing link ape monster causing all manner of chaos. Eugenio Martín's film plays out like a Hammer feature but with a distinctly European flavour. The plot features a backbone of Victorian science versus religious belief; both presenting arguments for the existence of the central monster. Its a real hokey affair too, with the creature every bit the thawed out ape-man promised by the premise, along with plenty of eyeballs - red for the monster, white for the victims. The best thing about this film is the way it plays out in totally unpredictable ways. Horror Express serves as an excellent precurser to The…