Starring: Donald Pleasance, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney    Written by: Ceri Jones, Gary Sherman   Directed By:  Gary Sherman

The Story:

My friend Iron Annie once spent a semester studying in England. She told me when she got back that it was cold and the food was bad. Well, Iron Annie is a nitpicky eater, so if it contained meat she's probably not gonna like it. I've never been to England, but I always wanted to visit the place. Most of the brits I've met were some of the coolest mugs I've ever known. Maybe one day I'll luck out and have an opportunity to take a job there. (if wishes were horses, beggars would ride....)

Hell, I'd probably be far more welcome than the "star" of this movie, Alex. He's an American student, studying International Economics in London. (maybe he can tell me what a crown, farthing or grote is....hells bells, I've always wanted to know that!) He also has a cute brit girlfriend, Patricia. (Well, most Englishwomen are cute...its the accent I think) that is way to good for him. You see, Alex is a real asshole. When the movie begins he and Patricia are getting off of the subway (or "Tube" as the brits call it) and they find a man, unconscious on the platform. Alex pretty much has a "[unwrite] him" attitude, saying he's probably just a drunk, while Patricia insists that they find a policeman, because the man may be dying. Alex looks at the man's wallet and learns his identity, James Manfred.

Patricia convinces the coldhearted Alex to find a constable and see if they can help Manfred, but when Alex and the policeman return to the scene the body is gone. Alex puts this behind him, until Police inspector Calhoun goes over the activities of  the night and realizes that Manfred is some government big wig. Wanting to know more about the incident....and the fact that no one seems to be able to find Manfred....he interviews Alex. Calhoun doesn't learn much, but he's tenacious. (He's also played by the late great Donald Pleasance!)

Well, we the audience know what's going on....you see in 1892 a cave in occurred while building the subway...er,,...tube system. workers were trapped down there and left to rot. (the company went bankrupt and no one seemed to care!) What the characters don't realize is that the people trapped down there survived, and even procreated. One character, a city official, surmises that they "ate the bodies of the ones that died". Well, now in the present (at least the 1972 present) the last generation of these poor souls survives by yanking the late night travelers from the tube platform in Russell Square and turning them into Purina Human Chow.

This isn't a movie where the cannibal killer has supernatural powers or stalks the victims in a methodical way. Its also not even a movie about how Alex and Patricia solve the mystery. The film really focuses on Calhoun trying to figure out what's going on. He's even warned off by a government official that doesn't like him poking into Manfred's affairs. (played by Christopher Lee!) Calhoun gets a chance to circumvent the interference when the cannibal kills some workers in the tube.....he can investigate a murder case in the same area that Manfred was last seen in without rousing any trouble from the shadowy government figure.

the movie does well to let the story unfold with Calhoun. Pleasance was always underrated in the movies he appeared in....his Calhoun is witty and sour at the same time. He bullies his subordinates but in a funny "I'm only joshing ya!" way. Quite frequently he'll say something unkind and then laugh right in your face to show he's only kidding. If the movie was rewritten to let Alex and Patricia take the lead it would have sucked. David Ladd is horrible in the role. He can't act and it shows when he has any dialogue with ANYONE else in the movie.

The killer has no actual lines...he can't speak, he just howls...but  once you know of his circumstances and his dreary conditions he comes off as sympathetic. Yeah, you want him to be caught so he'll stop eating people, but you'll also hope he's caught and helped. He's not a monster. He's a guy that was had no other choice but to live where he lived and exist as he does. He knows nothing else. (Though you will have to disregard the biggest plot hole in the movie....if the cannibals have access to the tube, then they can get to the surface....so why didn't they just friggin' go there to live?) Raw Meat is worth checking out for any horror fan. The scariest thing I found in it though was the 70's clothing. At least they didn't try to explain the cannibals as victims of radioactive CHUD making waste flushed into the sewers.

Best Lines:  “Why don't you go back to planting pot on people?"- A cameo by Christopher Lee, playing Guvmint Sp00k and talking to Inspector Calhoun.

 Are you kidding me?

1.) Patricia nails it on the head when she tells Alex he's cold, callous and unfeeling. I was just thinking that myself. Actually I was gonna call him a whiny jerk, too. He acts like its way too much trouble to try and help an unconscious man in the subway platform. That's almost worse than just not giving a sh!t, Alex has the attitude that even trying to find help is an imposition. No wonder people think Americans are selfish pigs....they must have met this guy!

2.) Are real life coroners like the ones we see in the movies? Movie coroners....especially Horror Movie Coroners....are always a bit glib when telling the requisite cop  how someone died in a gory way. (A good example of that is the coroner in The Prophecy) I guess seeing a lot of dead bodies at work everyday would do that to you. The coroner in this movie shows the police the broomstick that was shoved clean through a victims body commenting "Look at this! what Strength!" in a "Gee Whiz, this is so Neato!" way, its as if he doesn't realize some poor asshole died from having that broomstick shoved through him.

3.) Could they have found anyone as wooden and uncharismatic than David Ladd to play Alex? I doubt it, unless they went and cast a chunk of plywood. Geez-Louse, this guy is boring to watch. His character Alex is kind of a dick head so its really hard to even want the guy to live to the end of the movie. I have a hard time believing that Patricia would go out with a jackass like that....especially since he's a cold, callous jackass. And that's HER description!

4.) Where did Patricia get that coat? She looks like Jo Grant from the Pertwee years on Doctor Who.

Nudity and Sex: None

Huh?:

Though I applaud Patricia's humanitarian nature, she might take it a bit too far. Waking Alex up in the middle of the night to tell him she's worried about the man they found in the subway is well....too much. Its not like they knew the guy and for all she knew at that point, Alex might have been right. He might have just been a drunk, he might have just woke up and walked off before they got back with the constable. I dated a girl with an oversized heart like that once. I'll never forget her breaking down into tears at inopportune moments, to lament on the fact that there were people starving in the world. Hey, I felt bad about that too, but as I told her "Its the freakin' middle of the night! what do you want me to do about it? Keeping me awake is not helping some schmuck in Africa eat!".

If the cannibal dude can get into the rail station from the tunnels he can also get to the surface. so why catch hapless travelers for food? He could just go to the city and steal some food. Gotta be better than eating people. I hear they taste like chicken anyway.
 

Bacon, the coroner, gives Inspector Calhoun some information on the blood of the killer/. First he announces that he's anemic....ok, I know what that means, and I'm sure most of the people in the audience do too....but then he goes into some medical terms and I'm stuck here waiting for him to put in in layman's terms or for Calhoun to at least ask 'what the hell does that mean?". He never does, so I don't even know if the later revelation that the cannibal killer has a form of plague had anything to do with it. For Pete's sake someone had to look up those big ass medical words to write the script....howabout shining some knowledge down on us man? (what the hell is Acute thrombocytopenia?)

Was there a point to the scene in the pub? Doesn't matter...Donald Pleasance was cool enough that even watching him get sh!tfaced drunk in a movie is fun.

The Final Judgment: Raw Meat has an interesting story, and with the exception of Ladd, an excellent cast. You can see Donald Pleasance (Dr. Loomis from the Halloween movies) and Christopher Lee in it. Though its not a pulse pounding adventure its still an enjoyable little horror flick and it can probably be purchased for the change under your car seat. The inferno grants it 4 devil heads. (the imps of the Inferno would give it five, but Ladd has a drag effect on the whole thing).