Death Line. 1972 (?) Gary Sherman.
A young couple find a man collapsed in the tube station, they report the man to a police officer but on returning down to the platform the man is gone. Turns out a few people have disappeared in this particular part of the underground but because this lastest man happens to be an important civil servant things start getting taken seriously. As events unfold it turns out a cannibal descended from workers trapped during a roof collapse a century earlier is living in the abandoned tunnels.
First time for me this grisly early 70's Brit horror. Donald Pleasance stars as the investigating inspector and is great as ever with an odd quirky performance. The cannibal himself only referred to as 'The Man' in the credits is played by relatively unknown Hugh Armstrong and gives an interesting turn as a somewhat sympathetic creation, prowling the tube at night for victims/food in the only way he's ever known. Given his ancestors were abandoned by a government that didn't want to spend the money and resources digging them out it could be argued that 'The Man' is actually yet another man made monster. The London Underground is also a great setting and I'm fascinated by the reality that there apparently miles of abandoned tunnels and stations down there. So all in all a very good film and while Network's dvd isn't awful a decent blu or even a remastered dvd with some nice extras would be welcomed.
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