Comments | strange_complex: 5. Death Line (1972), dir. Gary Sherman

strange_complex

5. Death Line (1972), dir. Gary Sherman

Apr 22, 2011 22:46

I taped this film off of t'telly-box in my early teens, and remember thinking it was fantastic stuff at the time. Of course, not everything one likes at that age still appeals twenty years later - but I had fond enough memories of its Seventies charm and surprisingly sympathetic main 'monster' character to upgrade recently to a DVD copy. So when ms_siobhan ( Read more... )

films watched 2011, films, christopher lee, friends, reviews, horror films

Comments 7

ms_siobhan April 23 2011, 10:14:10 UTC

It's one of the best films I've seen in ages - and I don't mean that in a so bad it was good kind of way but in a *it was* really good kind of way. I especially enjoyed Donald (Un)Pleasant being drunk in the pub and it did genuinely make all 3 of us jump at one point.

Another lemon drizzle cake is in the oven as all being well my folks arrive later :-)

strange_complex April 23 2011, 10:56:15 UTC

Indeed! Turns out my early-teenage self had pretty good taste after all. Who knew? ;-)

Hope you have a lovely weekend with your family, and as I said on FB - lucky them for getting to gorge on your delicious lemon drizzle cake. :-)

peadarog April 23 2011, 12:53:17 UTC

Wow. I can't believe I never heard of this. It sounds right up my alley (or down my tunnel).

strange_complex April 23 2011, 15:45:29 UTC

It definitely isn't as widely-known as it deserves to be, but if you're a fan of the classier low-budget British horror movie you can be sure you'll enjoy it. In case of potential confusion, it was released in the US as Raw Meat - but my Region 2 copy is labelled Death Line, so that's unlikely to mislead you too badly.

peadarog April 23 2011, 16:04:22 UTC

I'm also in region two. Great! And thanks for the recommendation...

huskyteer May 2 2011, 17:07:18 UTC

I saw this at the NFT a couple of years ago and thought it was entertaining but thoroughly silly. You make a good case for it, however! (It was shown as a double bill with what's left of The Web of Fear).

strange_complex May 2 2011, 22:47:00 UTC

I guess what makes me hesitate to call this film 'silly' is that most of the humour in it is intentional (mainly springing from Donald Pleasence's dialogue), while at the same time the main horror plot is tolerably plausible and really quite moving. It certainly lifts itself above your typically inept low-budget horror flick, anyway - I think mainly by treating its monster as a tragic figure rather than a straightforward baddie.