Death Line

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Death Line
US release
Directed by	Gary Sherman
Produced by	Paul Maslansky
Written by	Gary Sherman
Starring	Donald Pleasence, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney
Release date(s)	1972
Running time	87 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

Death Line is a 1972 British horror film, distributed as Raw Meat in the United States. The film stars Donald Pleasence as Inspector Calhoun, and was directed by the American filmmaker, Gary Sherman.

The plot is based around a family who live underground and are descended from diggers who were trapped in a cave-in at the turn of the century. From their home in the uncompleted "Museum" London Underground station (supposedly between British Museum and Holborn, although on a separate uncompleted line), the father of the family visits the neighbouring Russell Square and Holborn stations to pick off passengers for food. When the cannibal kidnaps and kills an important politician, he is hunted by a detective as well as an American student and his English girlfriend who were the last to see the victim in the tube station.

The movie was directly inspired by the popular legend of Scottish cannibal Sawney Beane.

Some aspects of the film have caused it to enjoy a favorable critical reputation over the years. Sherman directs the film with a documentarian's sense of detachment, for example, panning slowly across the cannibal's "larder" filled with human cadavers in various stages of decay; the effect is gory but lacking in the sensationalism common to most low-budget horror productions. The portrayal of Detective Calhoun by the late Donald Pleasence has also been praised for the actor's making a three-dimensional character out of a stereotype, and actor Hugh Armstrong gives the revolting figure of the cannibal some Frankenstein-like pathos (a powerful but ailing giant, the only words he knows are "Mind the doors", overheard from train guards). Christopher Lee has an entertaining cameo as a sinister "spook" of the espionage rather than blood drinking kind. Like in near contemporary The Wicker Man, he gets to play a more interesting character than usual, albeit a minor one. Pleasance's Calhoun is in the tradition of working class coppers such as Jack Regan from The Sweeney and Jack Frost from A Touch of Frost.

There was no legitimate home video release of the film in the United States until September 2003, when it was released on DVD. A UK Region 2 release from Network followed in April 2006.