Sunday, October 24, 2010

Raw Meat (1972)

Snore, snore.....zzzzzzzzz.  I really, really tried to like this movie, but it was just really hard to do so.  I was excited to see a pre-Halloween Donald Pleasance, but the movie was mostly him talking and not much else.  I wish this movie was more about cannibalism and less about two London detectives wandering around, interrogating people over and over, and rudely demanding tea. 

Raw Meat follows a young couple, Patricia and Alex, who, when leaving the subway late at night, see a man collapsed on the stairs.  Although Alex wishes to ignore the man and go about with their evening, Patricia fears he may be hurt or dying.

They involve police, who return to the spot and find the man missing.  Detectives soon discern that not only is the man a prominent civil servant, but also that there have been several other strange disappearances from this particular subway station.  A little digging reveals that 100 years prior, men and women working on the subway were trapped alive when a tunnel collapsed.  But little did they know that these individuals lived for decades, reproducing and feasting on human flesh.

However, now only one man remains, after the death of his pregnant companion.  The man appears to by dying himself, having contracted a disease after living amongst filth and vermin.  The man eventually becomes desperate for food and companionship, and takes more severe measures.

You would think that this would make for quite the salacious story but it was just SO slow and boring.  The action (or lack thereof) just plodded along at a glacial pace until it got all Hills Have Eyes during the last few scenes.  I see that this has gotten a lot of good reviews and has been considered to have achieved cult status, but I just wasn't feeling it.  Sorry, Brits.

4 comments:

Andy said...

I dunno, SQ. I agree some scenes seem interminably long. But the entire movie is so veddy, veddy British that part of it's charm is it's slow approach. The lingering shots of the cannibal's den are so deliciously creepy though. And Donald Pleasance is rather understated in his role. I enjoyed seeing him play it down a bit.

Wouldn't it make a great double feature with Midnight Meat Train?

Chris Regan said...

I liked this one, but agree that the pace is slow. Pleasance is awesome in it though and I like the idea. Creep is a better London Underground horror film.

The Scream Queen said...

I liked Creep as well! I never got around to writing a review of it.

Maynard Morrissey said...

ah, I just love it. The acting (Donald Pleasence! Christopher Lee! Norman Rossington!), the dialogue, the gore, the settings, the soundtrack... a terrific 70s gem!