A slew of movies have explored the subterranean horrors of subways – think Maniac, Midnight Meat Train, or the unusually quiet Berlin S-Bahn from Demons, all of which featured isolated travelers accosted by a creep.
And speaking of which, the British horror Creep – not to be confused with the stellar found footage horror Creep from 2014 – sees a woman en route to Charing Cross tube station (which is near the tacky/seedy Piccadilly Circus) fall asleep on a train, only to be trapped underground. That one’s oft-compared to the Christopher Lee/Donald Pleasence 70s horror Death Line because of the nearby setting/setup.
End of the Line takes a different approach: there are multiple victims and assailants too.
In this Canadian production, a psychiatric nurse on a late night train ride, who lost a patient to suicide, is stalked by doomsday cultist pill-poppers, The Voice of Hope.
Eventually, when power outages plague the subway line, end-timers emerge from out of the tunnels to wreak havoc.
This Maurice Devereaux-directed feature debuted at TIFF, and makes great use of an abandoned Montreal station, as well as a ghost station in Toronto that’s now only used for rerouting trains. The latter, Lower Bay Station, also saw action as a filming location for the tepid Taking of One Two Three reboot as well as Mimic and Suicide Squad. It’s also a staging ground for EMS drills.
The self-financed End of the Line, which has a budget of approximately 250k, is pretty good of its type, with some legit scares and some really solid practical effects to keep things moving. Stand clear of the doors, please.
***1/4 (out of 5)
(Editor’s note: The Toronto subway system makes an appearance in the obscure Canuxploitation flick, Murder By Phone, aka, Bells, which is sorta like Scanners for dummies)
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