{"id":2501,"date":"2015-12-30T14:09:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T19:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2026-03-18T15:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:06:00","slug":"horror-express-1974","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2501","title":{"rendered":"Horror Express-1974"},"content":{"rendered":"

Horror Express-1974<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Eugenio Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #311<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed December 30, 2015<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

Horror Express (1974) is a fun 1970s Spanish\/British horror film starring legendary horror actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.<\/p>\n

A horror version of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, with a bit of camp thrown in, it is an entertaining late-night experience on a low budget.<\/p>\n

It is the early 1900’s, and while traveling from Shanghai to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Express, a British anthropologist named Professor Alexander Saxton (Lee) brings an enormous, mysterious crate on board containing a creature he discovered in a cave.<\/p>\n

What we know is that it has something to do with human evolution.<\/p>\n

A fellow passenger, Doctor Wells (Cushing), and other passengers become suspicious of the crate and demand that it be opened.<\/p>\n

Things go awry, and victims begin to be murdered by the creature (an ape-like monster) and left with eyes completely white with missing pupils and irises.<\/p>\n

The best part of Horror Express is the setting. The cozy train is a perfect backdrop for the events, and it makes the film exciting as the different cars are nicely set-decorated.<\/p>\n

This lends itself to a sense of entrapment and being unable to escape the creature as it roams freely from car to car.<\/p>\n

For a low-budget film, the train sets are quite believable, as are the train sounds. It feels like the actors are on a real train as the tooting horns and the sounds of the tracks are authentic.<\/p>\n

Having actors as big as Lee and Cushing lends the film respect in horror circles, and both deliver believable performances.<\/p>\n

This film would not have been as good without the talents (and name recognition) of both.<\/p>\n

There are also interesting supporting characters, and I didn’t find the acting to be too over-the-top, as is common in similar horror films.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the countess’s role and Telly Savalas’s appearance as a Cossack officer investigating the events are interesting.<\/p>\n

Fans of this genre of horror will understand that suspension of disbelief is necessary as the plot gets a bit goofy- something about the creature taking the information from the victim’s brain and the victims subsequently turning into zombies- it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.<\/p>\n

Especially towards the end, as some drunken Russians and some weird resurrections happen, but that is somehow okay.<\/p>\n

For a late-night viewing with some spirits, you can’t ask too many questions, and Horror Express (1974) is a decent flick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Horror Express-1974 Director Eugenio Martin Starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas Scott’s Review #311 Reviewed December 30, 2015 Grade: B Horror Express (1974) is a fun 1970s Spanish\/British horror film starring legendary horror actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. A horror version of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, with a bit of … Continue reading Horror Express-1974<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,9806,440,434,645,9804,13,235,9808,646,103,9807,850],"tags":[97,9809,441,435,647,9805,248,236,9811,648,105,9810,854],"class_list":["post-2501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1974-films","category-alberto-de-mendoza","category-british-films","category-british-horror-films","category-christopher-lee","category-eugenio-martin","category-horror-films","category-campy-horror","category-julio-pena","category-peter-cushing","category-scifi","category-silvia-tortosa","category-telly-savalas","tag-1974-movie-reviews","tag-alberto-de-mendoza","tag-british-films","tag-british-horror-films","tag-christopher-lee","tag-eugenio-martin","tag-horror-films","tag-campy-horror","tag-julio-pena","tag-peter-cushing","tag-sci-fi-films","tag-silvia-tortosa","tag-telly-savalas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2501"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22755,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions\/22755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}