Death Line (1972)Listed here on IMDb as Raw Meat. The Blu-ray is called Death Line. I think I prefer the title Death Line, as Raw Meat sounds like some lousy lousy B-movie. I had read about Death Line, so I had preconceived ideas of what it might be like. Made 45 years ago in 1972, the picture quality looked rather good. I won't go into story detail, as others have covered this here on IMDb already. Some reviews mention Soho, London. I really wanted to see Soho in the 1970's. What we see, are close up 'arty shots' of strip bar entrances, out of focus, heavily blurred, serving as a colourful backdrop to the long intro credit sequence, during which the music loops, and grates after a while.The film takes the viewer to Russell Square underground train station, both outside at night and inside through tunnels, on platforms, abandoned parts filled with huge arches and rubble. These locations help lift Death Line above the norm, as they are rather fascinating, assuming you are interested in architecture of this nature. Its real, no CGI.Special FX - 'The Man' hairy, with abscesses, spots, looks as grimy as you might expect someone to look, living in a place with no running water etc. There is a scene that sees someone with a rather wobbly axe buried in their head complete with bright red blood. The few other violent acts are implied rather than seen. By 2017 standards, I guess it's safe to say, Death Line is quite tame.How to rate Death Line ? It's odd ball. It's low budget. It certainly takes the view there. It's not 10/10 neither is it 1/10 (both these scores appear here on IMDb). Do you score something based on what it is, or do you also take into account the era, the budget. It's not 9/10, 8/10, and its better than 5/10 and possibly 6/10. 7/10 is about right.Cast performances: Hugh Armstrong, who plays the part of 'The Man' who lives in the London Underground lesser known areas, is rather good at playing what amounts to a caveman like creature that hasn't see light for a while. Admittedly his performance looks somewhat theatrical, like someone on stage rather than in front of a camera. Looking on the IMDb database, it appears he suffered long periods without acting. Bizarre, as he seems rather talented.Donald Pleasence, who plays the part of Inspector Calhoun, helps Death Line from feeling too dated. My experience of Pleasence, he performs in much the same way in everything I've seen him in, which isn't a bad thing.Christopher Lee, appears briefly as an MI5 agent. Wearing a bowler hat and sporting a thick black moustache, looked like the lead singer from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Anthony Kiedis, which is something I'd never picked up on in the past. Sharon Gurney, who plays the part of Patricia Wilson looks quite attractive, sporting a hairstyle from the era. I had never heard of her before, and IMDb indicates she only remained in acting for 6 years.David Ladd, who plays the part of Alex Campbell, an American student in London and Patricia's boyfriend. I wasn't sure what to make of him. He tended to over act like many actors from the 70's 80's. I thought someone else could have played the part better. Unlike the rest of the leading cast, Ladd shows the films age.

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.Very 70s, but not all that great. The problem is this is sort of a quasimodo frankenstein-ish movie and it takes itself seriously, but it's just not all that compelling.Lots of long segments with the "monster" (for lack of a better term) wallowing in the dark wet space of the London tubes. But it wears thin when nothing happened for so long.

Death Line is set in London & starts as British minster & OBE no less James Manfred (James Cossins) finds himself on the platform for Russell Square Underground train station where he is attacked, the last train from the station drops off American students Alex Campbell (David Ladd) & Patricia Wilson (Sharon Gurney) who find Manfred laying down on the floor. Patricia wants to help Manfred but her boyfriend Alex is reluctant, eventually they agree to leave him & seek help but upon their return with the police Manfred has gone. Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasence) is interested in the case because of who Manfred was & starts an investigation & discovers that other's have also mysteriously disappeared at the station, unknown to Calhoun an inbred cannibalistic man lives in the Underground tunnels of an uncompleted station & likes to take unsuspecting train passengers & kill them...More widely known as Raw Meat in the US this British production was directed by Gary Sherman & produced by Paul Maslansky who went on to produced the Police Academy series of films & subsequent television show & gets points for being the first horror film to use the dark, grime filled tunnels of the London Underground as it's main setting the likes of Creep (2004) would go on replicate. Death Line has it's fair share of positives & negatives, it's a nice claustrophobic story & has a great moody atmosphere but the story is rather fragmented with little connecting narrative & it's just too slow. Things are introduced but then go nowhere, the importance of Manfred & MI6 sniffing around is completely abandoned, the point raised about the inbred killer having a disease is mentioned a couple of times but again nothing becomes of it & the police investigation seems rather half hearted (two people are brutally murdered & they don't even close the station?). However the more defined than usual character's help carry it, the working class Inspector Calhoun played by Pleasence in particular is great to watch & listen to as he makes constant sarcastic remarks while a great intelligence & cool personality occasionally comes through. The script tries to give inbred killer a sympathetic side & tries to make us feel sorry for what he is rather than make us despise him for what he does to survive. The one main killer is the slow pace, at almost an hour & a half long virtually nothing happens, there's lots of talking & while I appreciate a good build-up as anyone else there's not much tension or suspense & it feels very laboured. Death Line certainly has it's moments, there's a few nicely humorous moments, there are some surprisingly gory moments & it tells a story competently enough but you have to sit through a lot of forgettable padding to get to the good stuff. Despite all the reviews & the US title Raw meat suggesting that the inbred killer is a cannibal he is never shown eating any human flesh, maybe the implication is that he is a cannibal but it's never shown on screen that he is. Good overall but not great.Death Line manages to really the early 70's London feel, the dirty Underground tunnels with the dripping water a constant motif are used to very good effect. Well made with one particularly impressive panning shot of the killers hideout that starts on a Rat nibbling a severed arm & continues as the camera pans round to reveal dead mutilated bodies & the killer for the first time. It's a very slow moving & long shot that set the tone & layout of the setting very nicely. There's some good gore here too, a man gets a shovel in his head, someone in impaled on a broom handle, various dead & decaying bodies are seen, there's a slit throat & a Rat's head is bitten off.Filmed in London in the UK apparently the Underground station Aldwych was used to double up for Russell Square. The acting is pretty good, this is easily one of Donald Pleasence's best roles & he gives his character a lot of life in what could have been a very one dimensional & routine part. Christopher Lee makes a small cameo appearance in one scene.Death Line, or Raw Meat, is a good early 70's British horror set on the grimy London Underground that is maybe a little slow, it has some good moments including some good gore & a great tracking shot but there's a lot of padding to sit through to get to them.

The more I watch horror movies, the more I look for old, hidden gems to watch. While I don't think this is a finely polished ruby, it certainly has some moments, and the atmosphere I felt was really good. Despite some odd pacing, I would recommend it to horror fans for certain.One thing I loved was Inspector Calhoun- Donald plays him with such a biting, cynical tone that you find yourself looking forward to the next time he'll berate someone. The supporting inspector characters are suitably amused by him, and it was nice to see Clive Swift, long before playing poor Richard on "Keeping up Appearances".The underground dwellers were also fascinating characters, with 'The Man' being an interesting mix of vicious cannibal and sympathetic victim.The characters that really seem lost and uninteresting are the young hero and his gal. Alex just comes across as annoying, while she is too wishy-washy to be genuinely interesting.But finally, a few things that stood out. One was the quality of the makeup and gore effects- for 1972, these are tremendously effective and fun to watch. The second thing I really enjoyed is the atmosphere, especially in the underground setting- creepy! And last, we get treated to a fantastic, single reveal shot in the early goings, which circles the entire room filled with corpses and pieces. That single shot, which wheels about the whole room continuously and slowly, establishes more creepiness than in entire films made these days.Again, I recommend this to anyone who loves old horror movies. Enjoy!