Death Line

1972 Directed by Gary Sherman

Halloween Marathon Day 4 Film 7

Death Line doesn't have much to it- a plague ridden cannibal stalks the London Underground looking for fresh flesh. The intro theme by Wil Malone does wonders to help set the jazzy off-kilter beat of the 70s in warm fuzz. Donald Pleasence plays a gumshoe on the case- though the film spends a lot of time on following the death of a man designated with the Order of the British Empire- not much comes out of it than an oddly fun scene with Christopher Lee that seems to be more about the class struggle around the gumshoe vs MI6. Sadly Lee's part of the story isn't really followed up. The class struggle theme is mostly reinforced by the myth of the railway caved-in with the company going through bankruptcy so they didn't bother to save the workers.

There's also wonderful dread going to the caverns of the abandoned lines. Once students find that the killer is within the Underground the blood starts to spray. A macabre scene of decayed corpses line the lair of the killer- but there's also great feeling of loss portrayed by Hugh Armstrong's cannibal as it's shown that his pregnant partner has died. Most of the film relies on this great performance. Being a wild pus filled cannibal with some heart really is a visual horror- especially being only able to say "Mind the Door" in various ways to elicit different meanings. There isn't much else outside of that though- as other films create more tension and fright to uncover.