Death Line

Mind the doors!

It looks wrong. It looks amazing, but it looks wrong. Cannibal chiller Death Line always seemed to exist behind a patina of scuzz. All those late-night screenings from tattered old prints only enhanced the film’s vibe of grot and grotesquerie, filthy as an ashtray crammed with Silk Cut in some decaying ’70s boozer.

Now it’s been given a hi-def scrub for Blu-ray. And it’s a remarkable makeover, allowing you to marvel at the sheer artistry of the decrepitude on display, from an abandoned Tube station, caked in Dickensian grime, to every toxic pustule on the skin of The Man (sympathetically played by Hugh Armstrong), part of a flesh-craving cabal lurking in the depths of the London Underground.

The movie wields two big horror stars, though Christopher Lee’s turn as an MI5 mandarin is really a cheeky cameo. Donald Pleasence is better value, just on the edge of send-up as a sweary, hanky-blowing copper who just wants a decent cup of tea.

Brutal, sardonic and oddly moving, this is Brit horror that gets beneath the nails.

Extras An amiable interview with the late Hugh Armstrong (15 minutes); trailer; gallery (including wonderfully lurid posters and lobby cards). Nick Setchfield

Astonishingly, Marlon Brando nearly played The Man, but had to pull out when his son Christian became ill.

There’s a cream you can buy for this sort of thing, you know.