Death Line [Raw Meat] *** (1972, Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Christopher Lee) – Classic Movie Review 8945

Story-writer/ director Gary Sherman’s 1972 British horror movie Death Line [Raw Meat] stars Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney and Christopher Lee. It is classic Seventies guilty pleasure horror.

It seems that a gang of Victorian workers building the London Underground were trapped by falling masonry during construction of the Tube, but have survived deep down below for more than a century by breeding among themselves and cannibalising the dead.

Hugh Armstrong plays The ‘Man’, a plague-ridden cannibal, who emerges from deep down below up into London’s Russell Square Tube station looking for unwary passengers to eat. When he snatches Patricia Wilson (Sharon Gurney) to replace his dead wife, The ‘Woman’ (June Turner), Patricia’s boyfriend Alex Campbell (David Ladd) chases him back into his cannibal tribe’s lair.

This gruesome British shocker is a bad advert for London’s Underground system but an imaginative début for director Sherman, who writes the gripping story too, with the screenplay written by Ceri Jones,. Surprisingly, the film’s sympathies are with the very sick-looking Armstrong, and Death Line effectively mixes gruesome horror with poignant moments. Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington and Clive Swift enjoy themselves as the investigating Scotland Yard police, Inspector Calhoun, Detective Sergeant Rogers and Inspector Richardson. In a a brief cameo appearance, Christopher Lee plays Stratton-Villiers of MI5. The art direction and cinematography are of high quality, and the abandoned Aldwych Underground Station location is well used as Russell Square Underground Station.

Also in the cast are James Cossins, Heather Stoney, Hugh Dickson, Jack Woolgar, Ron Pember, Colin McCormack, Gary Winkler, James Culliford, Terence Plummer, Suzanne Winkler, and Gerry Crampton.

Death Line [Raw Meat] is directed by Gary Sherman, runs 87 minutes, is made by Harbor Ventures, K L Productions, is distributed by Rank Film Distributors (1972) (UK) and American International Pictures (AIP) (1973) (US), is written by Ceri Jones, based on an original story by Gary Sherman, is shot in Technicolor and widescreen by Alex Thomson, is produced by Paul Malansky and is scored by Wil Malone and Jeremy Rose, with art direction by Denis Gordon-Orr.

The original UK cinema and video versions were heavily cut by the BBFC but they finally passed it uncut for the DVD release in March 2006.

Gary Sherman directed Poltergeist III and Lisa.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8945

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