Blu-ray debut for HORROR EXPRESS, in which two Hammer heroes meet some Spanish scares

HORROR EXPRESS was not actually a Hammer Film but it may seem like one, thanks to its stars -- Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, two stalwarts of the Hammer stable -- and subject matter, the latter of which spans space aliens, body hopping, bloody horror and zombies run amok. As written by Arnaud d'Usseau and Julian Zimet and directed by Spanish filmmaker Eugenio Martín (working here under the more American sounding name of Gene Martin), this 1972 movie is an oddball precursor to everything from The Hidden to The Walking Dead.

Senor Martín,  shown at right in his twilight years, did a workmanlike job of bringing all this together, while the decent enough acting from the leads and support, plus a very nice "period" look to the sets and costumes, combine to make the movie an enjoyable enough romp for those inclined to this genre.

The movie begins in Manchuria (or maybe points east) as Lee, playing one of his typical stern-faced scientists, discovers an ancient body encased in ice and then loads it onto the titular train (the original Spanish title of the film was Panic on the Transiberian Express).

Very soon, one train passenger after another is dying via bloody eyeballs and a very fast and thorough "brain wiping."

OK: By this point in time, we've seen it all before (or since), yet for fans of the horror/sci-fi/thriller genre, Horror Express offers enough decent delectation to pass muster. Cushing and Lee (above, left and right respectively) are solid fun, as usual, while the best supporting performance comes from Alberto de Mendoza (below) as a priest who is just as happy to serve Satan as God, so long as his master is really powerful.

The distaff side is represented by a couple of good-looking ladies -- one bad, the other good -- who get exactly the just desserts would would expect in this kind of movie. (That's Helga Liné, below, right, as the bad girl.)

In the final third, no less than Telly Savalas (below) makes his usual "bold" appearance, rather tossing a monkey wrench into things with his over-the-top style. But by then the movie itself has gone over the top, with even more soon to come.

So just settle back for a wild ride. And, for heaven's sake, don't look into that naughty monster's eyes! From Arrow Video via MVD Visual, and running 88 minutes, Horror Express leaves the station tomorrow, Tuesday, February 12, on Blu-ray -- for purchase and (one hopes) rental.

As usual with Arrow, there are bonus features aplenty. Click here to view all that you'll get in this particular package.

VODebut (and in theaters soon): Victor Garcia's creep-fest/supernatural thriller, THE DAMNED

If, when you set out to make a genre movie -- a supernatural thriller, say -- you decide to "borrow" some themes and tropes (after all, there's little these days that has not already been done), make sure you're borrowing the good ones. In their new movie, THE DAMNED, screenwriter Richard D'Ovidio and director Victor Garcia have stolen from some genre greats -- The Hidden, for one -- and come up with a surprisingly deft film that begins as a kind of atmospheric creep-fest that, once the various levers are in place, snaps shut into a suspenseful time-is-of-the-essence thriller.

Señor Garcia (shown at right), who hails from Barcelona, and his cinematographer, Alejandro Moreno, certainly know how to set us up: a creepy prologue, then a nightmare and an unsettling family situation, missing passport and flash flood -- all leading finally to that decaying hotel/mansion, a frightened old man and a captive child. The early camerawork, hand-held but not unduly jiggly, plus the color, composition and lighting, ensure that we're quickly in thrall to the super-eerie atmosphere.

For some filmmakers, this would be enough (it's usually not for us moviegoers, however), but Garcia and D'Ovidio give us plenty more, including characters whose rather interesting back stories come to the surface in a manner that provides one of the cleverer twists in this tale of possession by a centuries-old evil.

The characters -- father, daughter, new wife-to-be, news reporter/sister-in-law and her hunky video/sound man -- are also smarter than the usual forget-to-turn-on-the-light variety. They argue and bond and then, of course (some of them, anyway) must die.

The always sexy and usually proactive Peter Facinelli (two photos up and below, right) plays Dad, while Sophia Myles (above, and below, center) essays his upcoming bride, while Nathalia Ramos (shown at bottom) plays the generally angry daughter.

Most of the cast, Spanish or Hispanic all, appear to hail from either Spain or maybe Colombia, where this movie was filmed. Each of them is on the mark, character-wise, and some -- Carolina Guerra as the sister-in-law -- are unusually attractive. Look for a staple of Mexican/Colombian telenovelas, Juan Pablo Gamboa, as the local cop who gets involved with our crew.

The Damned was originally titled Gallows Hill -- a perhaps more unusual name -- yet the generic "Damned," given how you'll feel by the end of the film, works even better. The movie is also plotted in tighter, more-interesting-than-usual fashion for this genre, with its prologue and conclusion firmly connected. This makes the whole of what we've just witnessed sadly satisfying -- if on a very dark level.

From IFC Midnight, The Damned, running a sleek 88 minutes, will be available this coming Friday, July 25, via VOD, and will open in a limited release in theaters on August 29.

Now on VOD, soon on DVD: Italian supernatural thriller, NEVERLAKE, from Riccardo Paoletti

An odd duck in many ways, NEVERLAKE is an Italian movie filmed in English with what looks like a somewhat international cast of actors. It can best be described as a kind of supernatural thriller that is also part of the horror/slasher genre -- except that none of the slashing occurs on-screen. And yet, at its core, the movie is very dark indeed (in theme, really one of the darkest I've seen) except that its darkness is couched in quiet dread and the beauty of the Tuscan landscape and architecture.

Written by Manuela Cacciamani and Carlo Longo and directed by Riccardo Paoletti, shown at left (according to the IMDB, this is the first try for all three, though Ms Cacciamani has had over a decade's background as crew member, on production, in special effects and even as producer on various projects), the movie is clearly a fledgling effort and yet it is good enough in many ways to keep genre fans watching. By film's end, though there have been a number of slow points along the way, the tale itself is so full of the darkest kind of horror that it will stick with you, post end-credit roll.

Why? Because what Neverlake is actually about is a theme few filmmakers go near, and when they do , they're more likely to gussy it up with lots of blood and gore. What is actually going on here and who is in charge of it is the mystery of the movie, and once we learn the answer, very close to the film's end, what has happened is supremely troubling.

The story is that of a young and pretty high school girl named Jenny, from America (played by British actress Daisy Keeping, above and below), whose Brit parents first met and then conceived her in Italy. Now she returns to her birthplace to spend some time with her father (a stoic -- or maybe he's playing hard-to-read -- David Brandon, below, right) from whom, for whatever reason we never learn, she has been somehow estranged.

From the first Dad behaves in ways that do not scream "good parent," and poor Jenny is left to her own devices for entertainment and companionship. While Dad goes to town to conduct some nefarious stuff with an antiques dealer (a red herring that goes nowhere), Jenny hooks up with some odd kids from a nearby -- orphanage? hospital? whatever -- the oldest and hunkiest of whom is played by Martin Kashirokov (below, and at bottom).

None of this make much sense in any strict, by-the-book mystery sense, but the cinematography and acting is good enough, and the location pretty and exotic enough to keep you watching. There's a lake nearby said to have magical powers that date from the Etruscan age, and some missing Etruscan artifacts also come into play.

Once you try to piece this all together after the fact, nothing much sticks in any logical way, yet the movie manages to build a surprising head of steam (and dread), as Jenny gets further involved with those kids, her dad and his "assistant," Olga (a good job by Joy Tanner, above), her favorite poets (below), and finally those "spirits of the lake."

While the supernatural element eventually raises its head(s) to fair effect, it's the parent/child relationship (or lack of it) that matters most. That's what's likely to stay with you longest. Yikes -- to think of what we humans can sometimes be capable!

Neverlake -- from the relatively new distributor, Uncork'd Entertainment, and running 86 minutes -- is available now via VOD and will hit the street on DVD come Tuesday, July 29.

Streaming: Stephen Sommers' very odd ODD THOMAS proves funny, scary and finally moving

TrustMovies prefers Stephen Sommers in anything but his "blockbuster" mode (The Mummy, G.I. Joe, Van Helsing), so the arrival of his adaptation of Dean Koontz's novel, ODD THOMAS, is pretty much a pleasure to see. When Sommers, shown below, works on a smaller scale (The Adventures of Huck Finn, Deep Rising and now this one), even if the movie's full of special effects, it seems easier for the guy to manage character and event so that those effects don't cancel out the rest.

It must have been quite a job to distill the long novel (which I have not read) down to 100 minutes. That said, thanks to some beginning heavy-duty narration -- which is actually rather fun, as voiced by Anton Yelchin, on poster, above, and below, who plays the title character -- we're thrust into this bizarre narrative that combines very weird (but quite visually effective) wraiths/ghouls and a group of extremely nasty villains with one of those picture-book-perfect communities that movies love to show us. Certain filmmakers (like Joe Dante, David Lynch and now, evidently, Mr. Sommers) seem to enjoy taking these darling little communities -- with their model families, bustling malls and kindly cops -- and turning them inside out.

While Lynch is a master at this, and Dante awfully good at it, Sommers is more of a beginner. You can tell by the movie's tone. It keeps changing from dark to light, humorous to scary and never quite finds its sweet spot. The film is still lots of fun, particularly for those of us who love the fantasy genre and enjoy seeing new ideas tried out on it.

Sommers has rounded up a crack cast -- from Willem Dafoe (below, center) to Shuler Hensley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, (the current Belle), Nico Trotorella (The Following) and, as Odd's sweet girlfriend, Addison Timlin (above and below). Everyone's just fine, which helps carry us through some of those tonal variations, to end up with a few moments that are actually quite moving and surprising. (And might have indicated a sequel, had this film been more successful at the box-office.)

There was evidently some legal matters to settle re the release of the move, which only saw limited theaters despite what looks like a relatively big budget and Mr Koontz's well-known name. Whatever: You can watch it now on Netflix streaming and elsewhere, then weigh in with your own pros and cons. For those who appreciate this particular genre, I'd say it's quite worth your time.

Maxi chills with minimum special effects: Adrián García Bogliano's scary HERE COMES THE DEVIL

What is most surprising about HERE COMES THE DEVIL (Ahí va el diablo), the Mexican horror-thriller from writer/director Adrián García Bogliano, is how many strong, off-handed chills it can deliver using nary a special effect. (It's when the filmmaker starts using these that the movie begins to lose steam, but that's another story.) Bogliano's tale is full of religion, along with old-fashioned, Catholic right-and-wrong, and it carries a mile-wide moralistic streak down its back. Yet none of this is hammered home. Rather, it is presented in increments in which characters carry on doing the wrong stuff, after which they pay dearly for it. And we begin to see... maybe a connection?

The film opens with some hot girl-on-girl action, for which -- yep -- retribu-tion is soon demanded in spades. Then a married couple uses the opportu-nity of being child-free for an hour to enjoy a bout of in-the-car sex, along with some dirty talk regarding their former promiscuous couplings. Ooooops: There go the kids. Turns out there are some very nasty demonic "spirits" residing in the hills around the area where all this takes place, and those spirits really do want to join the general populace. You might think of Boglianao's movie (the director is shown above) as a zombie film, but one whose living dead are remarkably staid and not particularly hungry creatures.

From the outset, the movie offers a terrific sense of unease that carries it along quite well for more than half of its slightly overlong, 98-minute running time.

The one hugely violent and bloody scene in the movie manages to work on  two levels -- moving the plot along, as well as making us concerned about what has happened (and why) to our two adults, as well as to their two children.

Performances by the actors who play mom and dad -- they are the movie's real stars: those initial lesbian ladies simply act as jerk-you-to-attention filler --  Laura Caro and Francisco Barreiro (here seen showering after some very nasty business has taken place) are low-key and surprisingly believable, at least until the weird stuff starts happening.

Even then the film doesn't go crazy for effects: lights go on and off, noises sound, and this works just fine. Which does make me question why Bogliano felt he needed to toss in levitation (above) and those phony-looking Diabolique white eyes (below) to spice things up. These are so cliched by now -- and the filmmaker had so nicely avoided this kind of thing -- that they bring the movie down rather than goose it up.

Still, Bogliano keeps some good stuff for his finale and its dark denouement, which has a smart sense of humor, even as it leaves you thoroughly chilled. And then -- my goodness! -- it is suddenly clear that these demons must have missed their course in Driver's Training.

Here Comes the Devil, coming to us via Magnet Releasing, opens this Friday, December 13, in New York City at the Cinema Village and in L.A. at the Sundance Sunset Cinemas, after which it opens in four more cities over the next few weeks. You can see all currently scheduled playdates by clicking here. Note, too, that the film will simultaneously be available on VOD and iTunes, so folk all around the U.S. can take a look and shiver accordingly.

Ciaran Foy's foolish/fine CITADEL is alter-nately atmospheric/creepy and silly/dumb

TrustMovies would be quite surprised if filmmaker Ciaran Foy has even a nodding acquaintance with the human species known as babies. Yet a baby acts as the sort-of lynch-pin of this writer/director's new sci-fi/horror/
thriller CITADEL. Consequently, as good -- dark, decaying, ugly, ghastly, gory -- as much of his movie is, one of those unsightly and offending red flags arises almost as soon as that baby comes upon the scene. Given over to the care of her only remaining parent, Dad, who -- from what we can tell by scene two of the film -- is a basket case, this poor baby could barely have survived up to now, let alone what she is soon to be put through.

Babywise, Mr. Foy (shown at right) simply strains the movie to its breaking point and then bashes to smither-eens all remaining credibility. What do babies ingest for nourishment? From this film, it looks to be all bottle, all the time -- except for one attempt at cereal. Further, whenever she is being fed, it seems that she and dad are about to be attacked, so the formula preparation is a tad hasty and half-assed, with baby remaining unfed. Further, although the movie's tag line is "They see your fear" (They referring to the movie's very odd villains), instead, it's that poor baby who's most likely to see and feel the fear.

That's because her father, our would-be hero, Tommy (played by the very beautiful Aneurin Barnard, above and below), maintains a near-constant, bug-eyed state of terror, grabbing the poor little tyke, crushing her to him, then running around screaming like a nut-case and dragging his kid with him. If baby isn't totally fucked up already, she soon will be -- and probably for the rest of her life.

So what is it that has Tommy so terrified? It's the event that begins the film -- indeed, one for the books -- handled by Mr. Foy in fine, scary fashion. But when Tommy gets out of hospital, nearly a year later, and moves back home, it turns out that home is a very weird place indeed.

Granted this is a low-budget movie, but an entire housing project -- hell, the whole town -- seems to be deserted, except for Tommy, baby, social worker, a crazy local priest, and a couple of other figures, added as extras no doubt, to give the movie some sense of "scale." The film exists in a kind of literal no man's land between a believably run-down/failing housing project and some loony-tunes hell-on-earth.

Decay stalks this movie. It's all over the place: on the walls, doors, windows, stairs, ceilings and especially in the people we see. Citadel is like a nightmare come to life, which might be a good thing, except that we're never given any remotely real sense that a place like this could exist.  Consequently, our minds wander to the usual scenarios: Is this guy nuts? Is the whole thing a dream? And so forth. Ditto the characters here.

Let's take that priest (James Cosmo, above, left): He's one of those movie characters who becomes whatever the filmmaker needs him to be at the moment -- nutcase, helper, hero, explainer of the movie's entire back-story (wait until you get a load of the humongous exposition on display!) -- and then suddenly he's simply expendable.

Likewise (spoiler ahead) his bizarre little helper, Danny (Jake Wilson, shown above, with Tommy), who goes from being unafraid (and thus unseen by the evil ones) to suddenly absolutely afraid. Tommy, on the other hand goes from constantly terror-stricken to absolutely cured of fear. Ah, well: the magic of movies.

And that social worker or hospital employee (Wunmi Mosaku, above, right) seems equally out of place. Does she really think everything is OK, as she tries to convince Tommy, or is either she or he nuts? The movie often feels as if the filmmaker is making this whole story up as he goes along.

The ending? It is as unbelievable -- though even more ridiculous -- than what has preceded it. And yet...  Citadel is wonderfully atmospheric, and as shot (by Tim Fleming) and edited (by Tony Kearns and Jake Roberts) to a fare-thee-well, it keeps you hooked by virtue of its swift pacing and terrible ugliness.

So it's a draw, I guess. Mr. Foy and crew are as technically adept as this kind of film ever manages, but as a writer, the filmmaker needs to put some more thought into things. And either use that baby believably -- or ditch the idea. (Or play the film only to young audiences who've never come near responsibility for a kid.)

Citadel, from Cinedigm & Flatiron Film Co., and running just 84 minutes, opens this Friday, November 9. In New York City, it's playing at the Angelika Film Center. Elsewhere around the country, who knows?  And the film's web site is no help here.

Photos above are from the film itself, 

except for that of Mr. Foy, which is by Tim Whitby 

and comes courtesy of Getty Images Europe.