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Post by dem bones on Nov 3, 2007 18:15:32 GMT
Reading Mark Samuels' delightful Sentinels in Mammoth Years Best Horror #18 got me thinking that a thread on the subject of subterranean meat men haunting the underground might work. A warning to us all that what seems like a brilliant idea when you're pissed never is.
Sadly, I can't claim a personal acquaintance with any race of tube-dwelling cannibals, but the idea of mutants flesh-eaters lurking below London waiting to snatch lone passengers from the platforms possibly originates from the early 'sixties when the Victoria line was under construction. There is some controversy about this, but one version of the story has it that, as the drum-digger was burrowing beneath Green Park, it began spewing out shards of human bones. The word on the street had it that the workmen had struck a plague pit (an occurrence not without precedence, it seems: Aldgate station is reputedly built directly above one). This has been dismissed in some quarters as an urban myth, but Bob Rickard, writing in Fortean Times # 61 offered that he shared digs with two men working on the line at the time and::
" ... they clearly believed they were tunneling through London's plague pits, and openly admitted that most of their colleagues were spooked by the eerie nature of what they were doing. The workmen all knew of the Quatermass series" (in Quatermass & The Pit insectoid Martians are exhumed during excavation work at "Hobbs End" tube station) "yet still vouched for the existence of ghosts in the tunnel".
It was a relief to be reassured that they're only ghosts as, for my part, I first heard the story from a teacher in primary school. In her account, the workmen were attacked by what sounds like a bunch of extra's from Plague of the Zombies except their skin was a dull yellow, not mouldy corpse blue. I'm afraid my memory is vague as to the exact details of the rest of her version but it gave me an almighty scare at the time.
Often cited as an inspiration for the legend is Death Line, a grim 1973 shocker from Probe films. In 1892, a mixed group of navvies, excavating the Piccadilly line, are trapped underground when a tunnel collapses. Abandoned to their plight as it would be too expensive to dig them out, the tribe expand and survive by snatching lone travellers from the platform of Russell Square tube station - and eating them. Eighty years on and there are only two of their number left: a shambling, plague-ridden wretch and his dying wife. When a VIP goes missing, the Police finally investigate the string of disappearances ...
One of several great things about Death Line is that the cannibal is entirely sympathetic. For all his savagery, it's hardly his fault, and the scene where he watches helpless and heartbroken as his soul-mate expires is truly affecting. The murders are fairly gruesome for their day - certainly more-so than anything in Hammer - and are always preceded with a growl of "Mind the doors", because they're the only words the put-upon creature has ever heard.
A top pulp treatment of the theme is Far Below (Weird Tales, June-July 1939) by Robert Barbour Johnson. New York. From dusk 'til dawn a special unit of ten men led by Inspector Craig patrol the subway under Manhattan, as they have done for quarter of a century since the "giant, carrion feeding, subterranean molemen" derailed a train and ate six of the passengers, maiming several others, leading to a huge cover-up by the authorities. But the longer a man works down there, the more he takes on the characteristics of the underground-dwellers and one of the special detail has already been gunned down when the change overtook him. Craig knows that his days too, are almost numbered.
Obviously inspired by a scene in Pickman's Model - Inspector Craig even name-checks Lovecraft and boasts of having given him a tour of the tunnels!
It's possible Clive Barker took inspiration from this for his Midnight Meat Train (Books Of Blood: Vol 1., 1984)- "a stomach churning ride on the New York subway, to feed the Old Gods on human meat." Must reread that soon.
More recently, Ron Weighell's The Tunnel Of Saksaksalum (The Greater Arcana, Haunted Library, 1994) finds freelance journalist Miss Vallance researching an article on female manual workers by interviewing the cleaning staff at Mortland station. The ladies direct her toward Charlie Mitten, a night shifts fluffer with a wealth of information on mysterious disappearances. Charlie being a misogynist and racist bigot she gets no joy from him but Samuel, a friendly old West Indian, volunteers to escort her to the hidden tunnel where they found the torso and the mound of skulls, filth and bones. And abandons her. the mound moves ...
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Post by Calenture on Nov 3, 2007 19:08:33 GMT
It's possible Clive Barker took inspiration from this for his Midnight Meat Train ( Books Of Blood: Vol 1., 1984)- "a stomach churning ride on the New York subway, to feed the Old Gods on human meat." Must reread that soon. I looked in the Dolls House for this, but somehow I never got around to putting up reviews of the first book. This note was made when I wrote them with less detail, unfortunately. The Midnight Meat Train by Clive Barker: When Leon Kaufman comes to New York he thinks of it as the Palace of Delights. Three months later, he only wants to leave. A murderer is haunting the subway systems; corpses have been found suspended with their feet through the leather hand-grips in the carriages, drained of blood. The murderer is Mahogany, a fifty-year-old man who is a little past his best but believes totally in his work - which is to provide meat for the Fathers.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 4, 2007 14:40:44 GMT
Another film: Christopher Smith's low budget Creep (2004), Kate falls asleep on the platform at Charing Cross after a hard night's partying and misses the last train. It's soon apparent that she's not the only one locked in for the night. Bad enough that she's molested by a drunken work colleague in an empty carriage, even worse when the rapist is dragged under the train by a man-beast who looks like Nosferatu with a skin condition. Caught this on TV recently and was pleasantly surprised that it was nowhere near as poor as what I'd gathered from the reviews.
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Post by benedictjjones on May 14, 2008 10:36:52 GMT
the story i have just had published in One Eye Grey is along these lines (it's called 'Goin' Underground') and was inspired in part by some of the above , notably death line and the midnight meat train. i dont think anyone with 'a certain mind frame' can ride the tube without looking out into the dark tunnells and wondering!
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Post by dem bones on Jun 9, 2008 10:59:37 GMT
Just read it!
Ben Jones - Goin' Underground (One Eyed Grey #5: Bank Holiday Weekend, May, 2008): Editor Chris Roberts calls it right in his notes: "A welcome addition to the London legends of underground troglodyte communities who live off discarded burgers and unguarded commuters...." It's approaching midnight when a tube train arrives at Moorgate station minus one carriage. Guards Paulie, Jono, Dennis and narrator Steve enter the tunnel to see what's become of it - and wish they hadn't. Reads like a shudder pulp in miniature without the Scoobie Doo 'rational' ending and, like Sentinels, The Tunnel Of Saksaksalum and Far Below, a delightfully unpleasant treat for Death Line/ Creep enthusiasts. Rest of mag looks interesting, too .....
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Post by benedictjjones on Jun 9, 2008 11:13:43 GMT
Meant to say before, i'm not a massive fan of 'Creep' (but it wasn't as crap as i'd been led to believe!), why have an american as the main character??? some of it was very enjoyable though but all in all there is better stuff out there.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2010 10:46:58 GMT
Jonathan Oliver (ed.) - The End Of The Line: New Horror Stories Set On And Around The Underground (Solaris, Nov. 2010) Introduction - Jonathan Oliver
Paul Meloy - Bullroarer John L. Probert - The Girl in The Glass Nicholas Royle - The Lure Rebecca Levene - 23:46 Morden (via Bank) Jasper Bark - End of The Line Simon Bestwick - The Sons of The City Al Ewing - The Roses That Bloom Underground Conrad Williams - Exit Sounds Pat Cadigan - Funny Things Adam L.G. Nevill - On All London Underground Lines Mark Morris - Fallen Boys Stephen Volk - In The Colosseum Ramsey Campbell - The Rounds Michael Marshall Smith - Missed Connection James Lovegrove - Siding 13 Gary McMahon - Diving Deep Natasha Rhodes - Crazy Train Joel Lane - All Dead Years Christopher Fowler - Down This looks the part! Due November 2010 from Solaris and surely a must for this thread. I still reckon there's mischief to be had with a similar Terror on the buses themed selection - you just can't have too much LT horror.
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 18, 2010 11:10:50 GMT
This definitely looks a must have book.
(I always thought On the Buses was horror)
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 18, 2010 13:51:23 GMT
All the written fiction on this them I can think of is covered (though I do recommend for a factual trip into a mind-blowing reality the book Paris Underground, by Caroline Archer and Alexander Parre), but there are a couple more movies on this theme - Moscow Zero, which 'stars' Val Kilmer for about ten minutes, and After. Both are set in the Moscow metro system and the underworld leading from it, but with different takes on it. Moscow Zero has a doomsday cult living down in the tunnels, guarding the exits from the lower levels to pen in the tribe of feral children (who may or may not be dead) originally taken down there by nuns to evade Stalinist purges; and After features a very unsettling tour of the underworld by American urban spelunkers, passing through radiation contamination, Ivan the Terrible's torture chambers and other interesting spots. Both low budget and largely ignored, but I enjoyed them both.
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 18, 2010 13:57:34 GMT
Thanks for that info. I've just ordered both these films from Love Film.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2010 20:48:48 GMT
The Midnight Meat Train by Clive Barker: When Leon Kaufman comes to New York he thinks of it as the Palace of Delights. Three months later, he only wants to leave. A murderer is haunting the subway systems; corpses have been found suspended with their feet through the leather hand-grips in the carriages, drained of blood. The murderer is Mahogany, a fifty-year-old man who is a little past his best but believes totally in his work - which is to provide meat for the Fathers. Re-read this recently and, consciously or otherwise, it owes a debt to Barlow's Far Below. Thought the sequence where Kaufman, fleeing through the carriages, chances upon the bodies of the slain was terrific, like something out of a John Newton Howitt painting when he was going hell bent for lurid. The confrontation with the cannibal city founders and outcome of same is also very effective. The blurb on back of the Sphere edition describes the story as "stomach churning" and much was made at the time of the explicit gore, sex and violence in Clive Barker's work, all very true but compared to, say, Laurence James he was a model of restraint. Which is not to say James was "better", just that The Witches still retains it's power to disgust and even scare me whereas The Midnight Meat Train is a really good horror story.
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 19, 2010 8:29:43 GMT
I've seen the film of The Midnight Meat Train - can't say I was very impressed. I thought it started off OK, but then took a ridiculous plot twist that (for me) simply made it less scarey. Never a good idea in a horror film, really. Still, probably Vinnie Jones' most convincing on-screen performance, and the overall style and FX were interesting (if not really convincing).
I too thought Creep was better than most of the reviews suggested, though the plot obviously doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.
The best subterranean cannibals have to be those in The Descent, which restored my faith in the possibility of actually being scared by horror films again. Don't mention the sequel though... it's a large pile of pants.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 19, 2010 11:20:57 GMT
I too thought Creep was better than most of the reviews suggested, though the plot obviously doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. The best subterranean cannibals have to be those in The Descent, which restored my faith in the possibility of actually being scared by horror films again. Don't mention the sequel though... it's a large pile of pants. my liking for Creep had little to do with the plot and nothing at all to do with the gore, but the rather nasty atmosphere of the thing. For me, almost despite itself, it captured that 'just missed the last train, locked in and can't be certain you're the only person down there' sense of unease even better than Death Line. Descent has eluded me as, indeed, everything does until it's shown on terrestrial TV, but i've heard only good about it and will keep an eye on the listings.
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 19, 2010 12:18:26 GMT
That wasn't an exaggeration about how scarey I found The Descent, nor how it reignited my interest in contemporary horror films. Have to say, though, that it really helped to see it on a big screen and in the dark - so you feel you are there. Either way, it's one of my all-time favourite horror films.
There was also a bit of controversy at the time regarding alternate endings - I think it was actually released in the UK and US with different endings - but the DVD has both, so that makes it well worth getting hold of in that format as well.
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 24, 2010 10:16:39 GMT
Actually I found The Descent a bit lame; I was very disappointed, after the joyous antics of Dog Soldiers. Still, it was so much better than The Cave or The Cavern. But Death Line - well, after all the pleasant reminiscences of it on here, I just had to get a copy. Good to the last drop.
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