DEVIL'S EXPRESS
Aka "Gang Wars"
“Devil’s Express” is one of those unique trashy 70s films that’s a weird amalgamation of genres – 1 part Martial Arts, 1 Part Horror and 1 part Blaxploitation. All this makes for a film that doesn’t quite gel for coherency but one can’t deny it is truly unique and one hell-of-a good time despite-the-fact it’s complete garbage all around.
We open with a group of monks over in China committing
suicide after burying what looks like a coffin in a cave. Fast forward to
modern day 1976 and we are introduced to two martial artists that travel to
Hong Kong to complete their training. Once over there they discover an amulet
hidden in a cave and jack it for themselves. This awakens a centuries old demon
that hitches a ride in a unsuspecting victim and lands in the U.S., where it
takes refuge in the subway system and seemingly randomly starts mutilating
people Once the best friend of our afro-ed lead star (played by, I shit you
not, an ‘actor’ named Warhawk Tanzania) gets nixed, Tanzania heads into the
subway all dolled up in his yellow satin, bell bottomed jump suit to take the
beast on.
For a martial arts flick, what surprised me is that the
fight sequences were terribly choreographed, to the point of unintentional
laughter and despite our lead’s kick ass name, he is completely wooden as our
‘hero’, annoying the audience instead of having them root for him. The plot,
which jumps all over the place from Hong Kong, to the subways of the Big Apple,
to some distressing cops trying to solve the case which they blame on ‘gang
wars’, is also full of inconsistences. For one the devil-like-creature takes
over a human body to sneak over to America on a boat but later on it
demonstrates the ability to teleport and even shape-shift into humans. Tell me
again why it had to possess a body? Then again I’m probably looking for too
much logic in a film that is a martial arts/horror/Blaxploitation hybrid where
there obviously is none.
“Devil’s Express” was retitled by some distributors as “Gang
Wars” in order to cash-in on the gang fight film genre kick started by “The
Warriors”. “The Warriors” it ain’t but for it is a must see for fans of 70s
oddities in how entertaining a film can be by mish-mashing film genres together
into an incoherent mess. It is the only “Chinese demon travels to the subways
of New York to face off against a black fighter and inadvertently causing a inter-racial
gang war” film I can think of offhand. Think along the lines of “Miami
Connection”, terrible but insanely entertaining despite itself. Code Red spent
years trying to find a 35mm print of this ‘lost’ film and they succeeded and
released a high quality DVD for fans of 70s trash to enjoy.
Written By Eric Reifschneider
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