Picture a frozen ape man discovered by a British archeologist and scientist at the turn of the century, and being placed aboard a Trans-Siberian railway from China to Russia..and you have the beginning of Horror Express. Christopher Lee plays the man who finds this fossil, as he calls it, which turns out to be so much more. The film itself is beautiful as we see this elegant train traveling across snow-covered terrain(actually filmed in Spain). The cast of characters aboard are of equal interest. Peter Cushing plays a scientist named Dr. Wells. For Cushing, this is a fine performance of a scientist less hypnotized by the ethic of science and more worldly. He bribes officials to get train tickets, has a baggage man drill holes in Professor Saxton's(Lee's) discovery, flirts with both his manly lady assistant and a beautiful stow-a-way, and in general seems less serious than many of his former roles. Nice to see him occasionally smile. Lee's professor is quite typical of Lee, burly, officious, obnoxious, and willful. Both Cushing and Lee are extraordinary and sights to behold as they waltz through the script of finding the creature which is wiping the minds of various peoples. The rest of the cast is also very good with a Rasputin-like monk stealing scene after scene. Horror Express is fast-paced action, inventive science fiction, gory thrills, and chilling horror. Indeed it is worth a look!

On IMDb, the score of 10 has become so bastardized that mediocre and silly films like HORROR EXPRESS receive gobs of 10s. Folks, get a grip. This is not GONE WITH THE WIND or DR. STRANGELOVE! Classic this film ain't! Sure, it's okay if you like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing together in a film. Great. Enjoy. But don't be ludicrous and give movies like this a 10! There are just too many flaws and silly plot twists to merit such a score. Horror films that deserve 10s are rare and should be reserved for such films as Dracula (1931),FRANKENSTEIN (1931),NOSFERATU (1922) and perhaps a handful of others--not low budget Spanish films with overacting like you see by Telly Savalas and a super-strange idea for a horror flick.

Christopher Lee thinks he's solved the puzzle of the missing link when he finds some frozen primordial creature. However, unexpectedly, when the think begins to thaw on board a train, it comes alive and goes on a killing spree. Once killed, you'd think the movie would be over but somehow the creature transferred its consciousness into another and another killing rampage begins. It turns out that the creature is an astronaut from another galaxy! Despite having survived for so long living inside other creatures, it's apparently very easy to kill and the movie ends on a very anti-climactic note.

Pluses for the film were seeing Lee and Cushing, though Lee did seem a tad illogical and nasty--too much really. And as for Telly Savalas, he did a walk-on that frankly didn't fit the film and he seemed about as Russian as Flip Wilson. Where was his accent? What was his motivation? What was his role in the film? Beats me, actually. Minuses, aside from Savalas, were the silly plot, the character of the monk (who made no sense whatsoever--none) and the terrible conclusion. Not a bad film, but certainly NOT a classic to anyone but the Kool-Aid drinkers who would think to score this film a 10!

That crowning jewel of internal improvement in czarist Russia, the Trans-Siberian Railroad is the scene of a really good horror film from that team of classic horror film actors, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. And the film was not even done for Hammer Studios, it's a Spanish production.

The plains of Spain stand in for steppes of Russia in Horror Express. Anthropologist Christopher Lee has unearthed in the tundra the frozen body of a creature he thinks is the missing link. But the link thaws out and he starts running amuck on the train.

Then it turns out that this thing is not some link between man and ape, but some alien that landed here in our Cenezoic age and grafted with one of those apes. It absorbs intelligence from those around when killing them, but there wasn't much to absorb from the link between simian and sapien. Now it's got some good subjects to feast on for knowledge.

Horror Express is a very good science fiction/horror mix with a couple of the best in the genre starring. We also get Telly Savalas playing a Cossack leader who stops the train, but of course has no idea what he's dealing with. The film holds up very well from 1972 and is a must for horror film fans.