The idea of people or creatures living in the Underground over many years has been the stuff of both urban legend as well as providing inspiration for films. These subterranean species have varied from large mutant rodents, hybrid creatures, to a forgotten troglodytic race whose ranks have been swelled by vagabonds, escaped prisoners, and even people who never returned to the surface during the Blitz. According to Fortean Times reporter Michael Goss, these survivors have been reduced ‘to near-bestial form…They [allegedly] prowl the sewers and railway tunnels showing themselves as little as possible… They probably eat the sandwiches and burgers we discard and it is “widely believed” that they also eat tramps, drunks and other isolated late-night commuters.’ Mass Observation (the social research organisation founded in 1937) reported in April 1943 on a study of tube life among the regular shelterers. They commented that some families had ‘established themselves permanently in the shelters, having abandoned their homes altogether. Children almost three years old had never spent a night at home…’
In the British horror film Creep (released in 2005) a young woman, Kate, having failed to catch a taxi, heads for the Underground where she waits for a train and promptly falls asleep on a seat (supposedly at Charing Cross). When a train eventually arrives Kate realises she is the only passenger. As the film progresses she meets up with a couple who have made their home in a small room at the station. They tell Kate about a creature creeping around killing homeless people. Kate inevitably encounters the ‘creep’, a mentally deranged cannibalistic hermit who feeds on strays and workers alone in the Underground. A controversial aside to this was that the poster for the film, which shows the bloody hand of a murdered passenger on an Underground train, was banned from all subway stations because it was deemed ‘too gory’.
Death Line (1972, aka Raw Meat), starring Donald Pleasance, must have inspired Creep as it takes up the theme of a lost tribe of people. These are the descendants of workers (men and women) who were buried by a railway tunnel cave-in in 1895 during the excavation of a line between Holborn and Russell Square. The ‘lost tribe’ survived and bred for many years. They ate people who ventured alone into the rabbit warren of tunnels. However, only one of the tribe is now alive and he is in search of new victims. When the body of a prominent Ministry of Defence official is found a search begins to uncover a secret enclave of survivors beneath the tunnels.
A scene in the film American Werewolf in London (1981) shows an unfortunate commuter getting off a train onto an empty ‘Tottenham Court Road’ platform. As he makes his way to the exit via the escalator he is stalked by the lurking presence of a werewolf. The man desperately runs to get away from the creature but soon falls prey to it. Another type of mythical creature, a dragon, is released from its long hibernation in Reign of Fire (2002), as a result of the building of the ‘Docklands Extension Line’. Once free, it breeds at a phenomenal rate, eventually wiping out most of the world by 2024. Other apocalyptic and dystopian-style films have also made use of the Underground, such as 28 Days Later (2002 – Canary Wharf); 28 Weeks Later (2007 – the actual exterior of the Jubilee line platform); Survivors – The Lights of London, parts 1 & 2 (1977); and Code 46 (2004 – Canary Wharf). The 1999 film Tube Tales follows a series of mysterious and funny encounters, based on the true-life experiences of London Underground passengers. One of the nine stories, Steal Away, follows two young people escaping from a robbery that they have committed. Using Holborn and Aldwych stations as locations, they try to escape and find themselves on what appears to be a disused station until a mysterious train pulls up and they board. Events soon take the form of a series of ghostly encounters.