Runtime: 87 minutes
Directed by: Gary Sherman
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Hugh Armstrong
From: Harbor Ventures/K-L Productions
Mind the doors!
Whether you call it Death Line or Raw Meat (Shudder actually uses both titles), this played on one of Shudder’s three streaming channels yesterday; it was a Gary Sherman double feature as this was right after Dead & Buried. I didn’t like this as much as Dead & Buried or Vice Squad, yet Death Line was still fine.
Raw Meat is sort of a spoiler title as to what the Big Bad is; the setting is London and people start disappearing from the London Underground at Russell Square Station. No, Russell Square wasn’t named after one of my ancestors. A young couple get mixed up in that mess but the lead is Donald Pleasance as an Inspector who is on the gruff and abrupt side. In fact, I’d say he acts like a jerk… albeit an amusing one. His character was definitely the highlight. A surprising amount of time is spent with the Big Bad; that leads to some chilling moments. To give a hint, there was an 1892 cave-in which trapped people while the subway lines were being dug out.
The movie wasn’t as epic as it could have been with such a premise. There are some LONG takes which at times were well-done. Yet, they could also cause the film to d-r-a-g and feel long for something less than 90 minutes in length. That duly noted, the score was fine, although it never reaches the heights of the epic opening credits where a distinguished gentleman is in the seedy areas of London as an awesome synth and drums song is played. Christopher Lee is in this… for one scene. He really wanted to work w/ Pleasence, but those two men are quite different in height and I guess people didn’t want that to be obvious so the one scene had to be shot a certain way. A shame, as more Lee likely would have benefited the plot with the character he played.
Death Line is a mixed bag yet there are moments and Pleasence nailing an atypical role for him made me not regret my viewing choices yesterday. There’s some gore and funny period clothing, after all.
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