Moldy Thursday Double Feature

Horror Express (1973)

So Horror Express is a Spanish/UK co-production set in 1906 and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, with a special appearance by Telly Savalas as a crazy Cossack. It features a Rasputin-like Russian monk, a frozen (then de-thawed) missing link, a space parasite that's lived on earth since life began developing in the ooze, and, eventually, some zombies.

It sounds like a lot more fun than it is, although it does have it's moments. There are quite a few goofy-ass moments as well. Especially one involving the zombie Yeti's eye. You see, Cushing and Lee discover that by drawing out drops of eye juice (after the creature has been "killed") and putting them on a microscope slide, they can see the images that the creature has seen; this includes his last few moments alive, a brontosaurus and a pterodactyl, and finally, earth from outer space. This is how they figure out that they're dealing with an alien organism.

Oh, and it all takes place on a train bound from somewhere in China to Moscow.

It's not great, or even all that good, but is worth at least a viewing. My favorite part has to be Telly Savalas ranting some nonsense that I'm sure sounded good to him at the time, and then Christopher Lee's character saying "What is this nonsense?" Was he in character or critiquing Telly's performance? We may never know.

Blue Sunshine (1976)

Well, there really aren't any zombies in this at all. There are, on the other hand, a bunch of bald psychopaths who are suffering from chromosomal damage and anger management issues thanks to a batch of acid they all took back in 67 or so. This was a cool little film by the director of the recent Satan's Little Helper (which is really more entertaining and which I would recommend over this one), Jeff Lieberman. This wasn't bad, but there were no zombies. But after years of hearing about his film, it was nice to actually see it.

If only there had been some zombies. Or even one walking corpse. It wouldn't have had to eat anyone or anything. Oh well. What it does have is a starring performance by Zalman King, the future maestro of erotic pay TV.