HELL TRIAN - ****

by Christopher Fowler. Horror.

Published by Solaris Books, 270pp paperback and ebook. out now, £7.99.

It is 1966 and Hammer Studios hires an American screenwriter to pen a lavish horror film in the hope of turning the studios fortunes around. This provides the wraparound story for Chris Fowler’s HELL TRAIN, an ingeniously plotted, slice of pulp horror. The script finds a series of Hammer staple characters - an English adventurer, a comely virgin, a parish priest and his greedy uptight wife - board a mysterious midnight train in one of those non-specific Eastern European countries familiar from the studio’s horror output. Once onboard they discover that the final destination may not be of this world, and each is tested in a variety of nicely gruesome scenarios.

A great deal of the fun of HELL TRAIN is fitting the characters to classic Hammer actors, and the Bray Studio backdrop is marvelously realised, with many appearances from real Hammer figures. Ultimately though, HELL TRAIN is a ripping yarn and one that steams ahead as fast as it’s demoniacal subject.

Stuart Barr.

GORE ON THE SHELF
REVIEWS BY FANS FOR FANS
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH