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A Movie A Day: RAW MEAT (1972)
Mind the doors… Mind the doors…
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the first 2010 A Movie A Day: Halloween edition!
I resurrect AMAD every October for 31 straight days of horror flicks I haven’t seen pulled either from my DVD shelf, DVR or Netflix Instant.
We’re kicking off the month of horror with an early ‘70s Donald Pleasence shocker called RAW MEAT (released in the UK as “Death Line”).
This is a good flick to start on. There are many reasons why this is an entertaining movie, but the MVP of the movie is, naturally, Donald Pleasence.
And that’s not just because Donald Pleasence is always awesome (he is). He’s really on fire in this movie, playing his Inspector Calhoun with an air of aloofness that was totally unexpected and stood out as a bright spot of energy in these traditionally stuffier movies.
Before I get in trouble with our British readers, I don’t mean to imply that all UK produced films are stuffy, but there is a focus on the more play-like drama in a lot of British films of this era. Not all of them, but enough to reasonably set my expectations by.
You know what would make a great double feature with this movie? An American Werewolf in London. For one, Pleasence’s character would feel totally at home in that universe and for two, the focus of the horror is in the London tube system. I swear to God some of the exact same locations used in AWIL are used here, some 12 years earlier.
RAW MEAT kicks off with an attack on a sleaze-ball dignitary in the tube system moments before two college kids get off the next train. They find the unconscious man in the stairwell and proceed to argue about what to do. The boyfriend (David Ladd, son of Alan, father of Jordan) thinks he’s a drunk and they should leave well enough alone, but the girl (the adorable Sharon Gurney) is more of a bleeding heart than her American BF, so she insists on getting a Bobby.
By the time they find one and get back down to the man the body has disappeared.
This man was one of many disappearances in the tubes, but he’s the first one of great societal import, so Pleasence is on the job investigating the case.
The monster of this story is a kind of Neanderthal man, a descendant from tunnel workers, male and female, who were trapped in a cave-in a couple generations back. Their employer apparently went bankrupt and didn’t have the funds to dig ‘em out, so they were left there to die. Resorting to cannibalism and incest they survived. At least a couple of them did.
And not only that, but after all these years the filthy children of the long dead original miners found a way out.
The make-up on the Neanderthal isn’t exactly top notch, so he’s not the creepiest villain to have in the movie, but the way they portray him is like that of a Universal Monster. He’s an animal doing what he does. He’s not evil, he’s not acting out of malice… in fact, in a similar situation we might do the same thing.
He has a pregnant Lady Neanderthal that is obviously sick and he’s trying to keep her fed… but all they know to eat are rats and people.
Also, being so close to the working lines he has picked up a single phrase of English that he uses later in the movie to try to communicate with the terrified, but still cute as a button Sharon Gurney. “Mind the doors. Mind the doors… mind the doors…”
So, because they treat “The Man” as a sympathetic monster they kind of save themselves from the unintentional cheese of the iffy make-up job.
Oh, did I mention Christopher Lee has a cameo? Oh, yeah. That, too.
Lee pops up as an MI5 agent as Pleasence is trying to uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of the well-to-do gentleman, who apparently was a very high-level man in the government and as such has some state secrets in his noggin, hence the presence of the top brass.
Lee’s there to put some pressure on Pleasence and threaten to overtake the investigation, but in all honesty that scene doesn’t add anything of real value to the plot… it’s just cool to see two Bond villains in the same scene trying to out awesome each other.
Gurney is very believable as the do-gooder young girl… David Ladd on the other hand… Well, he went on to produce THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW and I really dig that movie!
Some attention has to go to director Gary Sherman, who has a little visual spark with some interesting camera moves. There’s a great one-shot 360 around the lair of “The Man,” where we see horrors both fresh and rotting, for instance.
Sherman didn’t direct again until 1981’s DEAD & BURIED, which is also a quality movie. We’ll forget he turned in POLTERGEIST III… although, for as crappy as that movie gets there’s something about the mirror imagery and tone that gets under my skin.
So, the good of the movie: a badass central performance by Donald Pleasence, the sympathetic monster, Christopher Lee, the pixie/mod hybrid cuteness of Sharon Gurney, the sharp direction from Sherman, “Mind the doors” and the overall sense of foreboding. The not so good: David Ladd’s monotone delivery and the design and execution of the Neanderthal make-up.
Final thoughts: If nothing else worked in the movie I’d recommend it just for Donald Pleasence. He doesn’t play Dr. Loomis, he’s not a heavy, burdened figure here. His character is a smart-ass, but a likeable one. The writing and performance of this character was a delight to behold. Since the rest of the movie around him isn’t half bad those two combine to make a damn good, under-seen movie.
Currently in print on DVD: YES
On Netflix Instant: YES
Here are the next week’s worth of AMAD titles:
Saturday, October 2nd: GHOST STORY (1981)
Sunday, October 3rd: TWO ON A GUILLOTINE (1965)
Monday, October 4th: TENTACLES (1977)
Tuesday, October 5th: BAD RONALD (1974)
Wednesday, October 6th: THE ENTITY (1983)
Thursday, October 7th: DOCTOR X (1932)
Friday, October 8th: THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X (1939)
I’ll be back tomorrow for my thoughts on Ghost Story, starring Hollywood legends John Houseman, Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Melvin Douglas… oh, and young Alice Krige’s boobs! See ya’ then!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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Click here for the full 215 movie run of A Movie A Day!
Readers Talkback
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but you need to include a link to the 2nd run you did last year for AWAW. I am a completist lol
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Got a lot of good ideas from this feature last year. Good stuff
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Fucking brillant.
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Donald & Christopher's Meeting In This Film Is A Horror Version Of Sylvester,Arnie & Bruce In A Church.I Like Watching England In The 1970's On Film,I Can Feel The Atmosphere Of 3 Channels,Everything Shutting At 6PM & Nothing To Do On A Sunday.I Enjoyed This Film,It Did Make Me Think Of What Could Be Down In The Tube System,Though The Lead Actor Wasn't Very Good It's Still Worth Watching.Good Work,I'm Looking Forward To seeing What Bad Ronald Is All About.If I Was A Kid I Would've Rented It On The Cover Alone :>
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And since I complimented you Quint, tell somebody to make a sequel to Rolling Thunder. You are close to the industry they won't listen to my crazy fan mail! Tell Harry to drop a hint to Robert Rodriguez. He needs a dark serious toned movie now and Devane's getting old! If Tommy Lee isn't interested we could have Devane avenging his death. Tell me I'm not crazy.
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Puma Man should fall under horror
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Always loved AMAD! Even if I had no idea how to find or rent some of the movies, I got to at least get an idea of what to look for! I remember "Bad Ronald" from TV WAY back in the day. Looking forward to hearing how you liked it.
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Thanks Quint.
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I love that fuckin movie! Scott Jacoby in the hooouuuse!
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Some good stuff. I remember catching movies as a child like Orca, Tentacles, or Tentacles. I still recall the baby scene at the beginning... Is that correct?
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The most glorious month of the year! Remember when MGM was the shit for putting out great movies on DVD, especially their Midnite Movie releases? Now, they fuckin' suck!<P> Raw Meat is one of the more fun cannibal movies, if you can have fun with that sorta thing. There's just something inherently creepy about subway tunnels to begin with plus Mr. Pleasance. <P> I do love October so.
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It's not a very good movie, at all, but its cast is amazing. <P> Peter Straub's book, however, is a goddamn masterpiece.
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i am curious to see the Entity review though. thats a movie my mom kept telling me about throughout my life since i was a little kid. i finally saw it a few years back and it was pretty cool. not something i wanna own but definately didnt regret it.
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Pumaman is f-ing priceless.
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He has Speilberg "Jaws" hair :)
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i do remember a movie with a bunch of miners who became cannibals after they were trapped and left to be dead in a mine.but i think that movie was from Italy.anyway.
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Oct. 1, 2010, 9:14 p.m. CST
Back in the 70s every now and then there'd be a TV Movie that re
by SnootyBoots
Brian's Song, Duel, The Night Stalker, Trilogy Of Terror, and... BAD RONALD. It's been a long time since I've seen it, and I was just a kid then, but , if it stands up to what I remember, it'll really make your hair stand on end.
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and i dont mean as a parody,but as a serious horror movie. <p>i only remember the ending where a blond fully naked chick with big boobs,was raped by some cheesy light effects,then the light leaves the house,the terrified chick gets out in the balcony,watches the light on the sky and then the movie ends. <p>i suppose the trade of making porn versions of popular movies had been at least since the 80s,because i also remember a softcore porn comedy version of the Police Academy.it was exactly the same concept but with a lot of nudity.i remember the movie ended with one of the cops thrown in the air when he crashed his bike and landing in the bedroom of a yacht,where there were 2 hot nude blond chicks who immediately started to make love with him.then the movie ends. <p>i am not kidding,both movies were from the 80s,obviously for the vhs market.now we get more big-budget films from Hustler. ;)
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Oct. 1, 2010, 9:46 p.m. CST
Is that a young Steven Spielberg on the Bad Ronald DVD cover?
by Nasty In The Pasty
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That Bad Ronald dvd cover is fucking kooky. Looks like my yearbook picture.
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Raw Meat is not really a horror movie, it's more like a sociological SF flick. Great atmosphere--I often think of that long, wordless scene of the camera (Alex Thompson pre-Excalibur and esp. pre-Alien 3) wandering into the lair of the killer. I've never been a huge Pleasance fan but this movie showed he should have gotten better, more substantial roles--I really ENJOYED this character and wanted to spend more time in his company. Lee's role should have been expanded to allow these two to interact extensively. The posters are wonderful but also criminally misleading, btw. Looking forward to your take on Bad Ronald--it was one of those movies I saw as a kid on the ABC Friday late night show, which I was allowed to stay up to see. I always remember the guy who did the ABC voiceovers saying 'BAAAAD RONALD!' When I see the kid in the Social Network ads, he reminds me of Ronald.
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It was an amazing piece of work. I had to stop my DVR and watch it again, and again and again. The first time I saw it, I remember thinking, 'What the...Nah, he didn't do that." Oh, and welcome back Quint and AMAD. You have been sorely missed.
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Can't wait for this. Raw Meat is fantastic, and much better than The Hills Have Eyes.
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Quint. Please, for the love of God, start A Movie a Day again. Or hire some intern to do it. We need some real original content that isn't the same shit I read on CHUD, Cinematical and /film. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the excellent interviews and whatnot, but I need a obscure fucking movie reviews. Thanks.
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Oct. 1, 2010, 11:02 p.m. CST
Any chance you'll get around to reviewing Devil Doll again, Quin
by Ronald Raygun
I remember you almost reviewed it a year ago, and were told by so many readers how awful it was that you skipped it. I was looking foward to that review, cause that movie was goofy as shit.
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Second time today my headline was cut off!
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Anyways I'm seeing this hot piece of ass tomorrow and I'm really interested in talking to her about this Raw Meat movie.. Ahem. No really I do have a date tomorrow. Ya see my point is it's ok for me to be chastising you for being such nerds that you are sitting at home watching Raw Meat right now on a Friday night because at least I'm getting laid tomorrow. To put even more fine a point on it- you are using up all of netflix instant bandwidth for raw meat right now and it won't play on the iPad from my hammock!
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watch it now. Stop!
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...but.
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...mind the doors!
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like Bwwommp, Bwwommp, Bwwommmpp!!
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getting boyfriend involved with cops. She just won't fucking listen will she?
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she's in. Over a bum on the stairs. Please tell me she gets eaten. I mean the guy told the cops. And let me tell you cops are the most inept, obtuse, inbred and just fucked beyond all reason, always taking it up the ass and drinking brown shit-cum from each other's cop anuses, shit holes of the universe. But the cops as depicted in this film are even more inept than that and need a private citizen to hold their hand and go show them where the stairs are.
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Straub's "Ghost Story" is excellent. There are so many of his books that I want to see on screen including 'Blue Rose', 'Koko' & 'Throat' kick-ass mini-series. Not to mention a three & a half film based on "Shadowlands".
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...which is title we always use when referencing it. The bit in the pub where Donald Pleasance's character wasn't really acting - he was genuinely pissed when shooting that scene...
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lol, somebody here banned my joke talkback name D_Vaders_Ban_Ghost!!!! sweet jesus people I thought that liberals had a sense of humor.........
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Oct. 2, 2010, 7:13 a.m. CST
Read about this film years ago always wanted to see it
by judge dredds fresh undies
Must grab a copy.
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Always one of my absolute favorite things on this site. Can't wait to hear your take on THE ENTITY, Quint! Keep up the good work!
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Yes, not so much as a horror movie, it's more Quatermass in tone than a true monster movie, no?
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This feature rocks!!!!
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Let us never forget that Gary Sherman also directed the great "Vice Squad."
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...is what will bring me back to AICN for at least a month. AICN has gone to pot for a long time now. This is one of the best recurring articles there is and always enjoyable to read. Glad to see it's back albeit only on a yearly basis.
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BEST column on this site... But is there any chance that we can see it revived occasionally for Quint to review obscure movies in general, not just Horror? I'll sure as shit read and rent many of Quint's recommendations in the genre, but I miss the days when I used this column as a genuine resource to help me stack my Netflix queue.
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Thanks for 'Race the Devil' and 'The Devil's Rain'.... both were big hits at the halloween screenings I hosted at my house. LOVE THIS COLUMN!
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Added to my Netflix instant queue. Thanks, Quint!
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looks real. Total hell on earth. Funny how mob killers have re-enacted every scene of inexplicable horror portrayed in movies. It's just so fuckin histerical. Like how the iceman would tie a naked person up to a cross in the middle of a cave in the woods and let rats eat them over a period of 5 days till the rats finally cut into the vitals. They'd start with the eyes and genetals and the people would be screaming gurgling bloody horrors that usually only come from the deepest pits of hell. But the iceman would just sit there filming it all completely un-affected because he was born without empathy or emotion. The lessons one takes from these actual events is this: Never owe someone in the mob 50 bucks. I figure these people who were eaten by rats and suffered arguably the most prolonged and horrifying deaths in the history of the world had to at least owe 50 bucks to warrant that level of retaliation
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. . . saw that baby carriage scene and lost my shit. Saw it again in college and lauged my ass off. I'm all over Raw Meat. Sounds great. At what point did "Mind the Doors" turn to "Mind the Gap?" Thats all I ever heard when I was in the tube. I have 2 so-bad-their-classic suggestions for AMAD, Quint. Deadly Eyes (if you can find it) and Humanoids From the Deep.
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is the greatest work of scary midgetry ever devised
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Saw it in the theater.
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how the lair of the cannibals in this is pretty much dressed exactly like that of Texas Chainsaw, which came out two years later. Co-inkydink?
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Didnt that have an early scene with a baby in a high chair? I could swear The Entity was done last year.
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. . . played by f'ing dachsunds in rat costumes. DOGS dressed as rats!!!! Directed by the same guy who directed Enter the Dragon and later, the epic Gymkata. What the hell was his name? And yes, the rats take a baby out of a high chair off camera. Big trail of blood leads the babysitter to her demise in the basement. And it had Scatman Crothers in it, to boot! I once subscribed to Showtime just to see this for the first time since I was a kid.
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Saw that movie years ago on USA or something, back when they had monster films on Saturdays. Can't wait for that review. Finally, a reason to stave off suicide.
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That opens the film. A jazzy, syth, prog-rock piece that I love. It sounds like the musician just took delivery of a new synth, turned everything up to 10 and started recording
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Oct. 2, 2010, 5:15 p.m. CST
I truly miss Donald Pleasance at this time of year.
by The Reluctant Austinite
He was one of my favorite character actors. He made even the worst chapters of the "Halloween" franchise worth watching. For those of you who love or are curious about "Bad Ronald", I used to be a guest on a cult movie podcast called Movie Meltdown (www.moviemeltdown.com) where we devoted an entire episode to "Bad Ronald". It stuck with us so much that we quoted "Bad Ronald" in many episodes after that. Our favorite quoute: "You better get back to your lair, Ronald".
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I had more than a few wanks watching Craig Wasson fucking the Borg Queen in Ghost Story.
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I'm not saying where, but it's streamable from one of my favorite vid sites...
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Oct. 2, 2010, 11:48 p.m. CST
TEAM D.VADER!!!TEAM D.VADER!!!TEAM D.VADER!!!TEAM D.VADER!!!TEAM
by PRESIDENT BALTAR
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I am ashamed to admit that I have never seen this movie.
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