An outsider travels to a rural English town to conduct business and uncovers an ages old secret. The town commemorates the execution of a witch centuries before. Our businessman begins to experience nightmares of weird rituals of which he is a participant and stumbles upon evidence of unwelcome intrusions into his room. Could it be that witchcraft practitioners are still active in the town and he is to be one of their unwitting sacrifices? I think you know the answer to that. Enjoyable romp due chiefly to the presence of horror legends Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee. Both are very [More]
I have always enjoyed Hammer Films’ “Horror Of Dracula” starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing, vampire authority, and Christopher Lee as the undead blood sucker, Dracula. I thought the movie was a very well done horror thriller. Lee is menacing and frightening as a very strong but cold parasitic beast bent on his own survival. Cushing is magnificent as the determined and brilliant expert on folklore and the Supernatural bent on ending the vampire’s reign of terror. With the current pandemic raging on and being newly unemployed, I found time to finally finish Bram Stoker’s novel, “Dracula”. Now, comparing [More]
I have given a minute or two of thought to what I would enjoy most viewing on Halloween. I would most definitely need to take the day off of work because this lineup would probably consume a good 10 hours. Sacrifices must be made! Granted this is the first of what may be a series of some of my most adored movies piled together in one marathon viewing. These movies are what came off the top of my head at the time and can definitely be mixed and matched and replaced with other selections. I think that makes sense. 5 [More]
Back when Hammer Films were all the rage and knocking horror fans dead at the box office, “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” marked the return of Christopher Lee to the title roll of the infamous undead vampire king. He had gone away from the role after his turn as the blood sucker in the remarkable “Horror of Dracula” (1958), one of Hammer Films’ first stabs at rebooting the Universal monster cycle from films decades before. Lee appeared in Hammer Films such as “The Gorgon” (1964) and “She” (1965). He just wasn’t interested in playing Dracula. But through whatever form of alchemy [More]
A documentary detailing the history of the vampire character Dracula, assembled using various movie clips and the narration of horror icon, Vincent Price. You’ll see clips from the silent “Nosferatu” and other cinematic appearances featuring the ancient blood sucker such as Lugosi in “Mark of the Vampire”, and the 1950’s alternative vampire film, “The Vampire” . “VPD” is a good flick to curl up by the fire to watch as we come upon the Autumn season and move closer to Halloween. Heavy on the garlic fries. Hehe.
Gruesome Hammer Films reinterpretation of the classic Universal monster movie vehicle of a mad, maverick doctor and his attempts to bring life to dead bodies. Made in 1957, this horror remake is a graphic, Technicolor chronicle of the despicable practices that Dr. Frankenstein engages in. Portrayed as a kind of sadistic, cold-hearted deviant, Peter Cushing is marvelous as the doctor. Cushing carries on an affair with his housekeeper even while his long suffering fiancé is sleeping upstairs in the castle. Having previously promised the housekeeper marriage, as well, Cushing laughs in her face and says he never had any such [More]
Christopher Lee commented that he welcomed this take as Dracula because it was a role that followed the novel source material closer than the Hammer Film’s series which brought Lee to international stardom. Lee also had a chance to emote beyond the various snarls, grunts and invectives that the Hammer Dracula required. I look back fondly on this film, admittedly. a low budget affair. Yes. The interior sets look a bit prefabricated and cheap and spray on spider webs adorn Dracula’s castle to an uncomfortable degree but there are many charming exterior sequences that sustain my interest. There is [More]
A guilty pleasure! Caveman is dug up in China by a scientific expedition and transported by train out of the frozen wastes. Unbeknownst to the expedition, an alien life presence has been trapped inside the prehistoric life form and it wants to make up for millions of years of lost time! Namely, turning anyone who gazes into its hypnotic red eyes into a zombified slave who does the alien’s bidding. A battle between us and them erupts on the train ride with the very future of mankind’s supremacy on this planet at stake! Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are teamed [More]