Director: Eugenio Martin
Year: 1972
Country: Spain/United Kingdom/USA
Alternate Titles: Pánico en el Transiberiano; Panic in the Trans-Siberian Train; The Possessor
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
When a professor ships a fossil of a prehistoric ape-man back to the UK from China, the train ride back becomes the hunting ground for the reawakened creature as he targets the passengers onboard, forcing a few survivors to stop the creature before it kills them all.
Review:
For the most part, this one was a decent mid-70s Eurohorror. One of the more enjoyable elements here comes from the rather fun number of confrontations with the creature, as this one manages to provide that facet quite nicely throughout here. There's some fine scenes in the first half as there's the rather enjoyable excavation scene getting the creature out of the ice and loaded onto the train while it's escape from containment is quite creepy as well with the inhuman hand reaching out to get the lock replaced and then confronting the guard trying to stop it. The fact that it's loose and constantly on the prowl makes other really fun encounters as the patrolling guards encountering it in the kids' room or the creature getting the drop on the thief in the luggage compartment where they first encounter the creature makes for some rather fun times here.
When the second half features the idea of the supposedly-dead creature still haunting the train this one becomes even more fun with the fever-pitch suspense driving idea of the creature's true whereabouts and identity this has quite a lot more to really like with their search for the hiding place on-board with the search being completely unaware of the shape-shifting abilities and using the fact that this one features the creature hiding in plain sight going for some pretty ingenious stalking scenes with the creature going after those who it thinks knows it's true identity resulting in plenty of fine stalking sequences on the train. With the body-hopping allowing for some rather enjoyable sequences bringing out the rather fun and exciting final half where they get the outside officers resulting in the wild massacre of the staff and the big final resolution where they finally manage to stop the creature once and for all through a rather ingenious method here, it provides a rather enjoyable finish to this one.
Alongside the great creature design and the high body count, this one really gets a lot to like here, even though there's a few flaws on display. The film's biggest flaw is the fact that it commits the cardinal sin that these should never do, kill off the creature in the first half so it's not visible for the second half, and those scenes sitting around the train simply waiting around for a plan of action are dreadfully dull. Likewise, the fact that it pulls the trump-card of its powers at the very end here is somewhat confusing as there's almost no reason for it to accomplish this at this point in the film and it really could've used some work in that area describing its powers and motivation. It's still somewhat fun, but these flaws here do drag this down.
Overview: ****/5
A fun if slightly flawed creature feature, there's some worthwhile factors to this one that are enough to like that hold it off against a few drawbacks that emerge to hold it down. Those with an interest in this era of genre fare, who are curious about this style or approach, or who are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.
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