Rating: NR
Genre: Horror
Release Date: 08/26/2003
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 88 min
Flags: Not For Children
Distributor/Studio: MGM

Gary Sherman's Death Line is one of those little-seen, long-forgotten 1970s horror films that's still championed by its core of fans. When the film was shown as part of a horror series at Lincoln Center in 2002, director Guillermo Del Toro (The Devil's Backbone) pronounced it one of his all-time favorites. In the film, Patricia (Sharon Gurney) and her American boyfriend, Alex (David Ladd, son of actor/producer Alan Ladd), find an important government official apparently unconscious on the stairs of a London Underground station. By the time they locate a cop to investigate, the body is gone. The sarcastically cynical Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasence) and his right-hand man, Rogers (Norman Rossington), take on the case. The culprit turns out to be a deranged man (Hugh Armstrong), the descendent of tunnel workers who were trapped in a cave-in and abandoned by the government at the turn of the century. "The Man" lives in the abandoned tunnel with his mate, "the Woman" (June Turner), and ventures into the Underground proper only to find hapless human victims and bring them back to their decrepit lair for food. When his mate dies, the Man goes in search of another. Put-off by Alex's lack of compassion, Patricia splits up with him, venturing into a train station alone, and before long, she finds herself in the underground hellhole. Christopher Lee makes a cameo appearance as an officious, meddlesome MI5. Much to Sherman's chagrin, his film was re-edited by the producers and released to American grind houses under the title Raw Meat. It was shown in Britain in its original form, under its original title.

~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Death Line is an effectively creepy low-budget horror film made with heart and wit. While the film suffers from uneven performances (David Ladd, in particular, is a bit of a stiff), director Gary Sherman gets a great darkly comic performance from horror stalwart Donald Pleasence. Pleasence bites into his role as an acerbic, class-conscious Cockney police inspector with tremendous gusto. He invigorates what would otherwise be a somewhat dour film. Hugh Armstrong generates surprising pathos as "the Man," a scabby, slimy denizen of an abandoned subway tunnel. Having been birthed and raised in the Underground, the only words that the pathetic, but dangerous creature knows are, "Mind the doors!" Sure, he's dirty and brutal, and he kills and eats human flesh, but the film cannily suggests that his life is much more honorable than that led by many of his victims. Much of the film was shot in an actual abandoned train tunnel, and one can practically smell his dark, dank underground lair, littered with body parts. At one point, Sherman and director of photography Alex Thomson deliver a bravura eight-minute tracking shot of the creepy lodgings. Thomson would go on to shoot films for John Boorman, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Nicolas Roeg, and David Fincher, and he demonstrates tremendous talent here, as does Sherman, who did not have much commercial success after this promising feature debut.

~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

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Cast:
Christopher Lee|Clive Swift|Colin McCormack|David Ladd|Donald Pleasence|Hugh Armstrong|Jack Woolgar|James Cossins|Norman Rossington|Ron Pember|Sharon Gurney