Raw Meat

My experiences with British horror has, so far, been pretty good. Usually, if I see some combination of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasance, Denholm Elliott, Joss Acklund, and an older Doctor Who actor, I know I'm gonna be in for a good watch. With Death Line, that streak comes to an end. First, the positives, like the way this movie creates atmosphere. The way the camera captures the darkness of an abandoned London Underground tube station is excellent. It is haunting, desolate, and gross, with something terrifying around every corner and in every shadow (and that's before you get to the antagonist, "The Man"). That extends to things like sound editing, where the slow, constant tap-tapping of dripping water coming from leaky pipes. I also like how the movie doesn't treat the antagonist as a villain. The station became inaccessible after a cave-in in 1892, trapping 12 miners (8 men, 4 women) in there. "The Man" is the last descendant of those miners, completely feral, only able to repeat three words it hears from the nearby operating station ("mind the doors") without knowing what they mean. He's managed to find a way out, and kidnaps people to kill and eat, but there's nothing malicious about his actions. It's strictly survival. He's not evil, he's pathetic, a human being that has never known the sun or tenderness. All he's known is survival at any cost, even cannibalism of his own kind. It's sort of a one-man Hills Have Eyes, only without the malicious glee of the mutant hill family that movie features. Unfortunately, the movie is far too slow and, well, weird to effectively build up to its final confrontation, or maintain any sense of tension. One scene does explode, as a trio of workers corner "The Man", resulting in a gory sequence, but it's just an oasis in an otherwise steady and dull affair. Christopher Lee literally has maybe 90 seconds of screen time, and it could be easily cut out of the movie with no loss. Donald Pleasance doesn't seem to know what kind of scene he's in, as his acting choices are all over the map from moment to moment. And for all the time spent with the police investigating the disappearances at this subway terminal, their role in the climax amounts to showing up when it's all done, which renders the focus on them for the rest of the movie pointless, Apparently, I'm against the grain on this one; RT has it scored at a 91. Roger Ebert gave it a nearly perfect score. I don't get it. The story of a feral cannibal man hunting people in a London tube should be high-octane, not a slow burn. Visually, it knows what it's doing, but when it comes to the moment-to-moment acting and storytelling aspects, it can't get out of its own way.