Did you people see the same film I saw?

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Personally I found the soundtrack was very disappointing and at times detracted from the film. However, it is used sparingly and the long periods without music are used to great effect. The strange acoustics of the London underground instead provide chilling loneliness and atmospherics. There are, in my opinion, close links with Tobe Hooper's original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in the use of limited speech and dark, indistinct sets. For those readers/ viewers not from the UK the "Man" is saying "Mind the doors" (you'll know at which point) - I say this not as a spoiler as any London resident would be able to interpret his speech very quickly but because on reading other reviews there seems to have been a great deal of uncertainty about it. What he says is unimportant which is why I am telling you. It is the way he says it that is the key. The film also gives Donald Pleasance a rare opportunity to speak with a cutting working-class accent and features a remarkably accurate portrayal of the difficulties a pub-landlord often faces at closing time. A ridiculous cameo from Christopher Lee does at least give the viewer some wonderfully under-hand and quintessentially British insults. Mr.Lee's performance is great, just sadly unnecessary and far too brief. Watch it through to the end and you will feel you have had a taste of classic 70's British film- making. Not the greatest film ever by any means but in no way the worst. Although it is hard to like David Ladd as he went on to marry Cheryl. Lucky swine!

American International Pictures. Directed by someone you never heard of. One recognizable name in the cast. Minuscule budget. Title: "Raw Meat." Sounds pretty bad.And it is, in some ways, which is too bad because it's quite entertaining in other ways.Getting the weaknesses out of the way, in 1892 an isolated portion of the London underground collapsed, trapping a couple of men and women who survived in air pockets and became cannibals to survive. Now they kidnap and eat the occasional passenger from the adjoining Russell Square station. Ho hum. Usually the monsters aren't human but rather some kind of insect. There are verrry sloowww pans across the half-eaten bodies slung from meat hooks. Lots of blood and raw meat. Skeletons litter the filthy floor. It's enough to keep you out of subways. But the population of cannibals has been reduced over the years to one couple, a disheveled man whose wife dies in childbirth.A young couple -- David Ladd (Alan's son) and the attractive Sharon Gurney -- discover an unconscious man at the deserted station. By the time they get a cop on the scene, the body is gone. Ladd and Gurney make their report at the police station.This is where the movie takes on some life. The Inspector is Donald Pleasance in one of his best roles. He's like Inspector Moss on speed, and he has his Sergeant Lewis, whom he is always chewing out. Pleasance is always so snotty and irritable. Every time he tells his desk sergeant to bring him a cup of tea he must now cope with "tea bags" that are now standard issue, instead of the old-fashioned tea leaves that he's accustomed to. The tea bags disgust him. For the rest of the movie, he's constantly probing around in his cup, trying to extract the hated pouch, throwing it over his shoulder with careless abandon. He and his subordinate have some sparkling conversational exchanges too. And Pleasance is warned off the case by Christopher Lee, in a brief appearance, who tells him, "Your delicate footsteps are being heard in places where cautious people tread lightly." But the movie spends too much time down in the chill, black, dripping tunnels of the underground and not enough with the police. Pleasance is told by the medical examiner that the blood found at the scene contained Pasturella pestis, the black plague, Pleasance replies, "He sounds poorly." And much later, out of nowhere, he inquires, "Sergeant, have you ever had a case of Pastorina pelvis?" It's funnier in context than in print.Alas, the story is drawn -- presumably by commercial necessity -- back into the world of monsters and slashers. And there are loopholes in the plot that you could drive a Lincoln Navigator through. For instance, the plague plays no part in the story.I enjoyed the cops. I read a magazine during the monster intervals.

When an important government agent goes missing at Russell Square Tube Station in London, Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasence) and Detective Rogers (Norman Rossington) are assigned to the case. They discover previous disappearances in the same area, and also bring in American student Alex (David Ladd), who along with his girlfriend Patricia (Sharon Gurney), were the last people to see him alive. Lurking in a caved-in and disused tunnel near to the Tube Station is a plague-ravaged cannibal who has remained there since the cave-in years before.Known as Death Line in the UK, this film had completely eluded me until it turned up in the Grindhouse Project. It is shocking that this is so little-known, as it is an astoundingly accomplished and wittily scripted little British horror film, complete with a genuinely unsettling atmosphere, gruesome violence, and that quintessential Britishness. The first time I realised I was watching a gem is when I witnessed the technically impressive tracking shot that occurs around twenty minutes in. It is a magnificent introduction to the monster, as we move around half-decomposed bodies, dripping taps, and rats. The set design department should be proud, as everything looks real; the dampness, the stench and the squalor.The horror is not the only factor that makes this a very good film; the script, by Ceri Jones, is full of wit and great subtle touches. The two policemen are constantly taking the p**s out of each other and have great chemistry, and it all plays out so naturally. Pleasence looks like he's having a ball, whether it be the scene in which he steals whisky from a dead man's house, or when he's getting p****d in the pub and refusing to leave. And Rossington makes for a great straight-man. Even Christopher Lee pops up in an inspired cameo as MI5 agent Stratton- Villiers. A true underrated gem, then, and here's to a mass re-discovery and a cult following.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

"Death Line" is a horror movie that hits all kinds of unexpected notes on the horror scale. The film strikes deep into urban myth territory with its tale of something alive deep in an abandoned section of the London underground, snatching hapless victims from a nearby subway station. It preys on our deepest fears regarding our vulnerability in such places. In one extraordinary tracking shot the film takes us alone into the lair of the beast. There we find a scene of incredible rot and decay, including the man/beast himself, himself decaying, mourning the death of his only companion, a pregnant woman. He emits a primal scream that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. This is classic horror, reminiscent of films as diverse as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and Cronenberg's version of "The Fly", as well as tales of Appalachian inbreds. The monster that invokes both pity and dread. And yes, there's a beauty involved. There is such pathos here that it actually augments the horror of the story. The lair itself is simply indescribable. I'm used to superior art direction in British horror films, but this is a rare achievement. The other elements of the story, the police procedural plot, for example, are relatively mundane, though efficient, and Christopher Lee makes a cameo appearance that stops the show. There's a genuine scare, done without shock SFX, but by using timing, silence and suspense. Films like "Death Line", and Cronenberg's early low-budget horror films are unique and ought to be cherished. You'd be hard-pressed to do it the same way, today. You'd want CGI creatures, faster editing and more violence. The director of this film achieves a lot with little, and all that's required of the viewer is to sit back and allow oneself to be drawn in. This movie is a real find.