Horror Express (1972)

Horror Express is a 1972 science fiction-horror film, produced by Bernard Gordon and Gregorio Sacristan. It stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Alberto de Mendoza.

Plot
In 1906, Saxton, a renowned British anthropologist, finds in Manchuria a crate containing the frozen remains of a primitive humanoid creature that is 2.000.000 years old. He hopes it is a missing link in human evolution and returns to Europe with it by the Trans-Siberian Express from China to Moscow. Doctor Wells, Saxton's friendly rival and Royal Geological Society colleague, is also on board but travelling separately.

Before the train departs Shanghai, a thief is found dead on the platform. His eyes are completely white, without irises or pupils. The Polish Count Marion Petrovski and Countess Irina Petrovski are also waiting to board the train with their spiritual advisor, an Eastern Orthodox monk named Father Pujardov, who sees the dead thief and then proclaims the contents of the crate he saw nearby to be evil. Saxton furiously dismisses this as superstition. Saxton's eagerness to keep his scientific discovery secret arouses the suspicion of Wells, who bribes a porter to investigate the crate. The porter is killed by the defrosted humanoid within. It then escapes the crate by picking the lock.

The humanoid finds more victims as it roams the moving train. Each is found with the same opaque, white eyes. Aware that it is loose, Saxton, Wells and the authorities in the train hunt for him. Autopsies suggest that the brains of the victims have been drained of memories and knowledge. When the humanoid is gunned down by police inspector Mirov, the threat seems to have been eliminated. In the meantime Saxton and Wells discover that external images are retained by a liquid found inside the corpses' eyeballs, which reveal a prehistoric Earth and a planetary view as seen from space. They deduce that the real threat is somehow a formless extraterrestrial that inhabited the body of the humanoid and now resides inside the inspector. Pujardov, sensing the greater presence within the inspector and believing it to be that of Satan, he renounces his faith, pledging allegiance to the entity.

News of the murders is wired to the Russian authorities. An intimidating Cossack officer, Captain Kazan, boards with a handful of his men. Kazan believes the train is transporting rebels; he is only convinced of the alien's existence when Saxton switches off the lights and Mirov's eyes glow, revealing him to be the alien's host. It has additionally absorbed the memories of Wells' assistant, the train driver, and others aboard, and now seeks the Polish count's metallurgical knowledge in order to build a vessel to escape Earth. Kazan shoots and kills Mirov. However, the alien then transfers itself to the deranged Pujardov.

After that he returns and the passengers flee to the caboose, while Pujardov murders Kazan, his men, and the count, by putting the lights of the trian out and draining later all of their memories. Saxton rescues the countess and holds Pujardov at gunpoint. Saxton, having discovered that bright light prevents the alien from draining minds or transferring to another body, forces Pujardov into a brightly lit area. The alien Pujardov then explains that it is a collective form of energy from another galaxy. Trapped on Earth in the distant past by accident, after being left behind in an accident, it survived for millions of years in the bodies of protozoa, fish, and other animals. It cannot live outside a living being longer than a few moments. The alien begs to be spared, tempting Saxton with its advanced knowledge of technology and cures for diseases. While Saxton is distracted by the offer, the alien resurrects the count's corpse and attacks him with it.

Saxton and the countess flee, but the alien resurrects all of its victims as zombies. Battling their way through the train, Saxton and the countess eventually reach the guard's van where the other survivors have taken refuge. Saxton and Wells work desperately to uncouple the caboose from the rest of the train. Kazan's superiors sends a telegram to a dispatch station ahead, instructing them to destroy the train by sending it down a dead-end spur. Speculating that war has broken out, the station staff switch the track points.

The alien takes control of the train as it enters the spur. Saxton and Wells finally manage to separate the caboose. The alien tries to find the brakes but fails to slow down the train. It rams through the end of spur barrier and plunges down the deep cliff and is destroyed after it hits bottom. The caboose rolls precariously to the end of the track before stopping, inches away from the cliff. The survivors quickly leave, while Saxton, Wells, and the countess gaze over the ravine and witness an inferno engulfing the train and its unearthly inhabitant, or not?

Cast

 * Christopher Lee as Professor Sir Alexander Saxton
 * Peter Cushing as Dr. Wells
 * Silvia Tortosa as Countess Irina Petrovski
 * Telly Savalas as Captain Kazan
 * Alberto de Mendoza as Father Pujardov
 * Helga Liné as Natasha
 * Alice Reinheart as Miss Jones
 * Julio Peña as Inspector Mirov
 * Ángel del Pozo as Yevtushenko
 * José Jaspe as Conductor Konev

Production
The movie was filmed in Madrid between 1971 and 1972. It was produced on a low budget of $300,000, with the luxury of having three familiar genre actors in the lead roles. The filming began in December 1971.

Securing Lee and Cushing was a coup for Gordon, since it lent an atmosphere reminiscent of Hammer Films, many of which starred both of the actors. When Cushing arrived in Madrid to begin work on the picture, however, he was still distraught over the recent death of his wife, and announced to Gordon that he could not do the film. With Gordon desperate over the idea of losing one of his important stars, Lee stepped in and put Cushing at ease simply by talking to his old friend about some of their previous work together. Cushing then changed his mind and stayed on.

The train's departure scene was filmed in Madrid's Delicias railway station. Like all Italian and Spanish films of the period, Horror Express was filmed mostly without sound, with effects and voices dubbed into the film later. Lee, Cushing and Savalas all provided their own voices for the English market.

Reception
The film generally received mixed reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 57% approval rating with an average rating of 6.6 out of 10, based on seven reviews.

At first the film was titled Pánico en el Transiberiano and released as an officially selected film of the 1972 Sitges Film Festival on 30 September. Director Eugenio Martín won the Critic's Award Best Script for this film. According to Martín, his native country of Spain was where the film fared worst, both critically and in terms of box office revenue. However, the film was received more positively in other markets where the audience was more familiar with low-budget horror films, such as Great Britain, the United States, and Australia.