Plot
Trapped in a London subway station, a woman who's being pursued by a potential attacker heads into the unknown labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city's streets.

Release Year: 2004

Rating: 5.5/10 (13,835 voted)

Director: Christopher Smith

Stars: Franka Potente, Sean Harris, Vas Blackwood

Storyline
Heading home late one night after a party, Kate falls asleep while waiting for her train. She awakens to find herself trapped in the London underground, with all the doors locked for the evening. While being attacked by a co-worker who has followed her, a mysterious unseen creature drags him away and kills him. This begins a terrifying ordeal, as Kate and a young homeless couple are stalked through the dark tunnels by something dangerous with payback on its mind.

Cast:
Vas Blackwood - George
Ken Campbell - Arthur
Kathryn Gilfeather - Girl
Franka Potente - Kate
Grant Ibbs - Man
Joe Anderson - Male Model
Jeremy Sheffield - Guy
Sean De Vrind - Friend
Ian Duncan - Friend
Debora Weston - Mya
Emily Gilchrist - Karen
Craig Fackrell - Homeless Guy
Elizabeth McKechnie - Woman
Kelly Scott - Mandy
Strapper - 'Ray' The Dog

Taglines: Ever missed the last train?

Release Date: 28 January 2005

Filming Locations: Aldwych Underground Station, Aldwych, Holborn, London, England, UK

Opening Weekend: £477,687 (UK) (30 January 2005) (194 Screens)

Gross: £1,728,375 (UK) (20 February 2005)

Runtime: 85 min

Trivia:
It took seven hours a day to transform Sean Harris into Craig and three hours to remove all the make-up at the end of a day's shooting.

Goofs:
Continuity: Near the end of the movie, Kate's hair is wet and she has a bloody nose. When she finds the platform again her hair is a lot dryer is and her nose is not bleeding.

Quotes:
Kate: [to a silent figure in the train] Excuse me, I fell asleep on the platform
Kate: [after silence] Don't you check them before you lock up?
[silence]
Kate: I mean, it sounds a little weird nobody's in charge here
Kate: [after no answer] Excuse me? Would you mind answering me? You're starting to freak me out!

Bloody Northern Line

Rating: 8/10

This is good little shocker; not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but tight, competent and disturbing. An excellent example of a simple idea developed into a compelling 90 minute script.

The set up requires no bells and whistles, no lengthy exposition or wordy back story; Kate (Franka Pontente), a young German business woman living in London, drifts off whilst waiting for the last tube train. She awakens to find the place deserted, but quickly comes to realise that she is far from alone. Someone, or something, is down there with her and it's intentions are wholly malicious.

In fact she encounters several other characters in her quest to survive, including a lecherous work colleague, a homeless couple and a caged sewage worker, all of whom add pace and substance to the plot. There is a slightly awkward gear change somewhere in the middle of the film when tension thriller mutates into gore fest, but nothing so clumsy as to slow the hectic pace. For those of you with weak dispositions this is likely to be a harrowing ride; for those of you who relish a bit of well executed carnal mayhem this should press all the right buttons.

The climax of the film is perhaps less successful than the main body of the film, but it is punctuated with a nice moment of unexpected social commentary which provides a satisfying conclusion.

Some may find themselves feeling somewhat cheated of a clear explanation as to the exact nature and history of the threat encountered by Kate and her confederates, however, for me this was not the case. A horror film writer should not need feel compelled to dot every i and cross every t, in the same way a writer of political thrillers might be expected to. There are enough clues here to give you a very pretty clear idea of what brought this evil into existence, making a detailed and conclusive solution superfluous. The retention of a certain sense of mystery is to be welcomed and reminds us that in this film the ride was always going to be more important than the exact destination.

My understanding is that the budget for this film was, to say the least, minimal, in which case our applause for this British horror should be all the louder, for at no point does one have the impression of corners being cut or effects failing to deliver.

If this sounds like your kind of film then it probably is. Buy a ticket and climb aboard.

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