...Horror films. Martial arts films. Two eclectically varied and widely spectrumed movie genres, which...for the purpose of this particular review's focus...have embraceably engaged a wildly exploitative reign in the infamously grungy and promotionaly hawking, inner city grindhouses of bygone past. Each genre, garnishing their own individual appeal and intrigue, among the cult-film embracing masses...their own brand of mystery, albeit one of a more exotic and dynamic kind, and the other...well, much more chilling, shocking and terror-inducing. It almost seems inevitable that both of these genres would one day collide and meld...Reece's peanut butter cup style...in the imaginative minds of filmmakers...initially and primarily of Asian production origin...sometimes garnishing unintentional laughs...and wholly proving that such a provocative, unconventional and totally outrageous merging of genres, actually works...or to quote a famous Bundy family line...horror movies and martial arts movies go together...uh, like 'Thanksgiving and pizza'...duhhh!!...
...some 200 years in the B.C., a cache of Chinese monks are transporting a coffin-like chest, sealed with a mysterious medallion, to a seemingly bottomless cave crevice; upon emerging from the hole, having left the casket within, the lead monk...wielding a samurai sword...dispatches and beheads the other monks...Kharis-like, to 'hide' the burial...and soon after, takes his own life. Flash forward some 21 centuries-plus, and a gritty 1970's New York, where a skilled, though impetuous young inner-city martial arts instructor, Luke (...a sensationalistically named Warhawk Tanzania)...with Roldan (...Wilfredo Roldan...I guess that the filmakers thought the last name would make for a good character name), one of his brash and covertly criminal-inclined, apprentice skilled students in tow...makes plans to venture to China, to receive high martial arts mastership honors from his master senzei. During Luke's island-seclusive, post-award meditation session, Roldan...who has been adamantly instructed to watch over Luke...instead wanders off alone, discovers a moldy & weathered casket, and finds a strange amulet atop it. After a stern master-to-student scolding, Luke and Rolden take flight, bound for a return to New York. However, as the plane departs Hong Kong, something...or rather, something quite savagely angry breaks free from the deeply buried casket...something monstrous...
...sometime after Luke and Rolden's return to the Big Apple...where they quickly find themselves in the midst of a potential gang war between the blacks and Asians, at the result of some of Rolden's drug dealings...a mysterious drifter deboards a harbor shipping vessel...walking around wide-eyed, but in a blind, almost drunken daze...disturbed by the torturous lights and sounds of the city...and finds driven solace in the cold, pitch-black darkness of the New York subway tunnels. Shedding it's human shell, a demonic creature emerges, and begins a bloody assault on the city's unsuspecting populous, in and around the subways. When some of the slaughtered victims turn out to be alternating black and Asian citizens, the police suspects gang war activity; however, in reaching now-Master Luke's impetuously righteous attention...who also initially assumed and attributed the deaths to gang activity...but upon further investigation, involving his student's mysterious amulet, comes to realize that there's something more monstrous & horrific, going on...and against better judgement, takes matters into his own hands, and with iron fists clenched, cautiously proceeds into the depths and lengths of the subway tunnels, in search of...
...for this ardent purveyor and seeker of rare & obscure cult and exploitation cinema, this was one helluva find...a tainted and tarnished gem of a 'B' flick...long relegated to the 'urban legend' suggestion, only hinted at through movie trailer collections, and finally unearthed, in the flesh. As hybrid genre films go...and we're talking not only martial arts and horror, here, but also blaxploitation...this one works magnificently, in a creepy and gritty, albeit goofy, unpolished and low-budget way. The '70's urban city locale is embraceably atmospheric, and is perfectly accented by a really groovy, though genetically rendered, hip funk & soul soundtrack. Though punches are pulled, with regards to the delectably slipshod make-up and special effects, they are still quite effective, unnerving and creepy (...the rubber demon monster suit is to die for...). The martial arts sequences are surprisingly well-choreographed and executed, though still bearing the amusingly typical stigma of 'ping-pong paddle hitting a Naugahyde couch' sound effects, notoriously heard in '70's chop-socky flicks, as far as fist-to-body, kick-to-the-head impacts. Some keenly observant genre fans might even get a giddy revelation, in seeing writer/director David Durston (...of 1970's "I Drink Your Blood", 1972's "Stigma", etc.), in a minor role, as one of the demon monster's hapless victims...
...in total, given that "Devil's Express" (...also known as "Gang Wars", with an accompanying trailer that removes any of the horror elements, so that it made for a great co-feature, with 1979's higher-profiled and gang-related film, "The Warriors") is slighty lighter fare than most of it's kind, it is nonetheless vintage grindhouse, in it's finest...and most grungiest form. No extras to speak of, as far as Code Red's DVD rendering...save for some great, and equally sleazy trailers, but still, well worth seeking out...brainless, creepy fun...an hour and a half of delectable grindhouse sleaze...
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