DVD Raw Meat
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Review(s): DVD Raw Meat | |
| "Rediscovered" Film Somewhat Disappointing |
This is one of those films you've heard about for 30 years and have never been able to see, until now. It has a small cult following in England (where it was shot). It concerns a lunatic living in a London subway, preying on commuters. The movie had a lot of potential. Donald Pleasance is terrific as a sarcastic police chief, the premise is creepy and the camera work is good. Yet somehow the film falls flat. When it's over, you'll say: "That's it?" The DVD has no extras. Director Gary Sherman runs hot and cold. His "Dead and Buried" is very good, but "Poltergeist III"... need I say more? Fans of British horror will want this rarity to complete their collection, others beware.
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| "Mind the Doors!" A forgetten classic finally released. |
Here's a lost classic I never thought would see the light of day on DVD. Trapped underground in 1892 by a cave in, 8 men and 4 women survived by eating their dead. Their last decendent, a sore covered, plague infested cannibal and his pregnant dying mate have survived by picking off modern day London subway commuters. That's the premise of Raw Meat, Gary Sherman's directorial debut, which he also wrote. Sherman also went on to direct the Norman Rockwellian zombie film Dead and Buried which has greater reknown than Raw Meat. Although I never warmed up to the American lead actor, the cannibal, played by Hugh Armstrong, gives a performance regarded as both fearsome and tragic, Donald Pleasance as a police inspector is always fun and the make up effects are superb. The larder, stocked with rotting, half consumed corpses and the burial chamber where the cave in survivors have laid their dead to rest are especially impressive. I've had a terrible bootleg copy of this film for many years and it's nice to see it finally get the treatment it deserves.
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I stumbled over "Raw Meat," a.k.a "Death Line," quite by accident during a recent excursion aimed at discovering new to me horror movies. I amazingly had never heard of it before, surprising considering the film contains one of Donald Pleasence's hammier performances. I am a big fan of Pleasence in everything from his recurring role as Sam Loomis in the "Halloween" installments to hackneyed Italian cheapies like "Warrior of the Lost World." The Donald aside, none other than Gary Sherman of "Dead and Buried" fame directed this eerie little gem. While this picture is not nearly as good as "Dead and Buried," it is still worth a watch for horror fans who like something a bit different in their diet. Heck, Christopher Lee even turns up in a completely useless cameo part. How can you go wrong? You cannot, so get out there and pick this one up before it goes out of print. After you do that, go get "Dead and Buried." If you have a few misgivings about the movie because of the title-I know I did-do not worry. As far as I can tell, the moniker comes from a voiceover line in the cheesy trailer. Of course, "Death Line" as an attention grabber is not much better.After a lengthy, psychedelically tinged opening sequence showing a properly dressed British bloke wandering in and out of nightclubs, we see this guy head down into the subway. It turns out he is quite the important fellow who works for MI5. A few minutes after a young lady robs him in the subway, American economics student Alex Campbell (David Ladd) and his British girlfriend Patricia Wilson (Sharon Gurney) stumble over the recumbent form of Manfred on the stairs leading out of the subway. Alex does not want to help the guy, claiming he is probably a drunken miscreant. Patricia, a kindhearted sort, insists on stopping. After reading his name off an identification card in his wallet, and discerning that he is probably not drunk, Patricia forces her boyfriend to tell a bobby about the body. When they go back to check, the body is not there. The cop shrugs the whole thing off and turns in what should be a mundane incident report. Once Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasence) and his put upon assistant hear about what happened, they launch an investigation. Too, Manfred is an important person fully deserving of an inquiry. Besides, Calhoun despises MI5 and hopes to raise that organization's ire by poking about in the case. As he methodically investigates the case, Calhoun uncovers a weird story about the subway. Apparently, the authorities never properly investigated a cave-in back in the 1890s that killed a bunch of construction workers. Several laborers were missing after the disaster, but the company funding the venture went bankrupt and thus never answered disturbing questions about survivors possibly living in the tunnels. Oh dear. From this time on you just know what happened to Manfred. Just in case you are a bit thick in the brain department, Sherman shows us what happened to the secret service bureaucrat along with a few other unfortunate souls unlucky enough to wander off into dark subway tunnels. Miners did survive that accident and have lived in a sealed off section of the subway for nearly 100 years. The mortality rate under these conditions is high, thus meaning only two descendants of the workers now live underground. One is an ill woman carrying a child. Her husband (played by Hugh Armstrong) does not look that great either. He grunts a lot and looks like a cross between Gary Sinise's character in "Forrest Gump" and a member of Jethro Tull. In an effort to heal his sick lady, this guy goes out into the subway and preys on people. He not only dispatched Manfred in due haste, he also captures three construction workers after a gory fight. The conclusion is about what you would expect from a movie of this caliber. "Raw Meat" is Donald Pleasence's film. All of the best scenes involve Inspector Calhoun bullying his underlings and Alex, raging, insulting people, and generally making a nuisance. You have to listen carefully to his character-a problem considering the rate of his speech, his accent, and the dodgy audio quality of the disc-to hear the gems he throws out on a regular basis. His confrontation with MI5 Agent Stratton-Villiers (Christopher Lee) is amusing, as are his exchanges with the mouthy Alex. I do not watch too many foreign films, but "Raw Meat" is the only film where I actually heard a British character ask for a "cuppa." If you tire of Pleasence's ham handed performance (and if you do, why are you watching this?), you can always laugh at Patricia's resemblence to Jane Fonda's character in "Klute," admire the gruesome gore effects, enjoy the atmospheric intensity of the abandoned tunnels, or try to figure out what "mind the doors" means. Yes sir, "Raw Meat" is an experience not to be missed by anyone who likes offbeat movies. The only extra on the DVD is a trailer for the film. The picture quality looked sharp considering its age, with only a few speckles and a bit of grain interfering with the proceedings. The audio, as I already mentioned, is not the best for hearing the dialogue. You can't expect MGM to ramp this up from two channels to 5.1, but such things have happened to lesser movies in the rush to transfer everything ever filmed by man to DVD. I do not think "Raw Meat" qualifies as a cult classic even though it probably should. Donald Pleasence completists probably possess the greatest impetus to buy the disc, but admirers of the man should check it out as well.
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