Along with "The Creeping Flesh," "Horror Express" is a movie that has all the hallmarks of a Hammer film (the teaming of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, a period setting, convincing costume work, and a relentless monster), but was done outside of that studio's jurisdiction. In any case, it's still a rip-roaringly good horror flick, in many ways stronger than the Hammer teamings of Lee and Cushing. A stuffy anthropologist (Lee, in an excellently conceited performance) uncovers a fossil buried in the ice, loads it onto a train to return it to civilization for study, thinking he has the proof of evolution itself. In the meantime, a rival (Peter Cushing) expends some curiosity that allows the creature to break loose, and things grow increasingly complicated when the hairy, red-eyed beast, who absorbs the knowledge contained in the minds of its victims, begins to manifest inside human hosts. Director Gene Martin builds admirable suspense; combine a brisk pace, a genuinely interesting story, and the efforts of a fine cast, and you have one of the finer gems of the genre.
Review of Horror Express
