Story: It’s the 70’s and a creepy, inbred mutant is stalking victims in the London underground looking to purge his hunger of human flesh, and perhaps find himself a new mate!

The Film Itself: Wow. Director Gary Sherman’s debut (titled ‘Death Line’ in the UK, Sherman’s preferred title) is a lost, often imitated gem of a horror movie! Thankfully, MGM has released it unrated and uncut on DVD! For generations, a group of cannibals have been trapped and living in the underground tunnel’s of London’s subway station ever since the famous tunnel cave-in of the 19 th century. Now, there’s only one survivor left, and with his spouse recently deceased, he comes up to the surface in search of a suitable replacement, and maybe a bit of human flesh along the way. Looking at this movie, dated back to 1973, you can see a slew of movie that have since borrowed elements from ‘Raw Meat’. ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ followed a few years later with a very similar backstory (just replace the London underground with the hills). And there are even traces of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ during the infamous 8 minute reveal of the victims in the tunnels. Even the recent UK horror hit ‘CREEP’ seems like an homage to ‘Death Line’. Guillermo Del Toro credits his career to ‘Death Line’ after developing an interest in filmmaking after seeing it as a kid. Genre fans should recognize (and love) Donald Pleasence, who delivers a unique performance as Scotland Yard investigator Calhoun. He also gets to share a scene with the legendary Chistropher Lee! All these elements combined, on top of Gary Sherman’s strong visual directing, make this movie simply a horror classic. Go add it to your DVD collection now.

Special Features: Sadly, there’s only a theatrical trailer on this disc. But I know director Gary Sherman has expressed interest in putting together a new special edition DVD under the film’s original title ‘Death Line’. Start sending those letters to Sony, folks! –robg.