Horror of Dracula (1958)

Title: Horror of Dracula (1958)

Director: Terrence Fisher

Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh      

                                                                

Horror of Dracula is one of the most important of all the Dracula movies mainly because it’s the first time that Christopher Lee donned the fangs and cape for the role; in my opinion one of the most ferocious and savage of the Dracula’s. Christopher Lee doesn’t say much in this film (actually he only has about fourteen lines!) but his look, snarl and hiss painted a very feral picture of Count Dracula. Lee would go onto play this character many times over for Hammer films and even other directors outside of Hammer films, but it was his portrayal of the character on Horror of Dracula that will forever remain his best. But it wasn’t just Christopher Lee who made this film such a memorable experience, many important elements came together to make this version of Dracula one of the best out there. For one, we get Peter Cushing playing one of his most memorable roles, that of Vampire Hunter Dr. Van Helsing, a vampire expert! We also have Terrence Fisher, now Terrence Fisher wasn't just any old director; he was one of the best that Hammer ever had. He directed many of the most memorable Hammer films, amongst them The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) The Mummy (1959) and The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) and these are just a few of the best ones, he did many other films for Hammer; so we have a true master of horror behind the director’s chair. 

Horror of Dracula starts out with Jonathan Harker arriving at Dracula’s castle to work as Dracula’s librarian. That’s right, on this one; Harker isn’t in Dracula’s castle to sell him a piece of land in London. Nope, on this one he is here to work for hire as Dracula’s book keeper. Dracula welcomes Harker to his castle, feeds him, and then proceeds to make him his prisoner! Now, if you know anything about Count Dracula, then you know this is standard operating procedure for the count. He bids you welcome and then when you are all nice and comfortable, he goes for the jugular! But, what Dracula doesn’t know is that this Jonathan Harker already knows that Dracula is a vampire, and he’s come here disguised as a “librarian” to kill him! We also have a professor in the "black arts" and a very knowledgeable guy in the field of the supernatural, Dr. Van Helsing to go up against Dracula! Will Dr. Van Helsing have what it takes to eliminate Dracula forever?   

So what works for me with this movie is how persistent it is with its horror movie ambiance. Some of the best movies always keep that horror atmosphere going all the way through, the mist, the spooky woods, the castle on top of the hill, and this one most certainly keeps it going, which I love. The film is filled with many spooky images, many memorable horror film moments. There’s this one scene in which a vamped out Lucy is walking through the woods, holding a child by her hand and we all know her intentions are to eventually feed on the child. Wow, there’s some spooky moments right there, the woods just seem so haunted, the vampire vixen, so beautiful, yet so evil! And the scenes where Van Helsing and crew go into a mausoleum to stab Lucy the vampire through her heart? Wow, awesome stuff, actually, kind of gruesome for a film coming out of 1958, I’m sure back in those days, seeing a bit of blood splashing on Van Helsing’s face must have been truly shocking for audiences of the 1950’s! Those scenes with Dracula appearing on the girls bedroom window as he is bathed in falling leaves and the night sky, so memorable! Actually, the whole film is filled with these classic images; while watching it you’ll feel like you are in the presence of a classic film. True, this film does take some liberties with the book, but then again, what adaptation of Dracula doesnt right? What matters in the end is if the resulting film is effective and I can assure you, this one is.

This was the first time that Lee and Cushing would embody these characters and since they are doing it for the first time, they perform with a certain intensity that was never to be repeated in the rest of the sequels. That scene where they confront each other in the last moments of the film are some of the most classic moments on any Hammer film, ever! Actually, if you’ve never seen a Hammer horror film, then this is the best one to start with, in my book it remains the best one of the Hammer Dracula’s. It was followed up by a film called Brides of Dracula (1960), which by the way was also directed by the awesome Terrence Fisher, that was a truly excellent sequel to Horror of Dracula. Even taking in consideration that Christopher Lee didn’t’ return in the role of Dracula, Brides of Dracula still remains a great Hammer production, truly atmospheric, very much a classic vampire movie. So if you want a double dose of spooky, old fashioned awesomeness, I recommend a double feature with those two films! Hammer would later repeat the formula presented in Horror of Dracula through a series of sequels, which to be honest, with few exceptions, were always good horror film fun for me because they were always bathed in that old school gothic atmosphere. Hammer did a good thing by embracing that gothic setting for their Dracula films, it's what people loved about these movies. The atmosphere and the spookiness in these films is the stuff that Halloween movies are made off. This is the reason why Horror of Dracula is my Halloween movie recommendation for Halloween 2013. If you guys want to see a movie that captures all those things you love about Halloween encapsulated in one spooktacular film, but with a touch of class, than look no further than Terence Fisher’s Horror of Dracula, a true horror classic and one of the best Dracula films ever made!

Rating: 5 out of 5

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

Title: The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

Director: Alan Gibson

Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Coles, Joanna Lumley

Dracula A.D. 1972 is universally considered to be the worst of the Hammer Dracula films, it took Dracula out of the gothic setting and put him right smack in the middle of 70’s London hipster scene. I guess it was a way for Hammer Films to attempt to connect with a younger crowd, after all, it was mostly the kids who went to see these movies and they couldn’t risk losing a connection with that market! As a result, we have these long scenes of young dudes and dudettes partying and grooving to the tunes of some hippy rock band as Dracula is being resurrected by a young dude interested in the black arts. For me it didn’t work because honestly, what I enjoyed about those old Hammer Dracula’s was the gothic setting, I liked the castles, the full moons, the cemeteries; it’s what made those films special for me. Taking Christopher Lee’s Dracula out of that and bringing him to swinging 70’s London felt like suddenly Dracula was in a fish out of water story? And that’s not what Dracula’s about! So anyways, I hated that film, it was directed by a guy called Alan Gibson, a director whose career was mostly centered on directing television. So here’s a guy who made one of the worst of the Hammer Dracula’s and what does Hammer do? They let him direct the next Dracula film as well! It’s not surprising that the end result was a less than stellar film.

On The Satanic Rites of Dracula the Count has become the head honcho of a major corporation, he runs things from this shadowy office at the top floor of his office building.  Apparently Dracula has grown tired of eternity and is looking for a way to end it all, in other words, on this film Dracula wants to hang his cape and die! But he doesn’t just want to die, he wants to take all of humanity with him, so he enlists the help of some of his followers (who also happen to be Satanists) in order to create a deadly plague that will eradicate all of humanity by way of a deadly flesh eating virus! It’s up to Van Helsing and a couple of detectives to stop Dracula’s plans!  

The thing about this Dracula movie is that it is kind of uneven in tone. For example, at times it feels like a James Bond movie, at times it feels like a satanic film and at times it goes into sci-fi territory and then at some point it attempts to turn into one of the old Hammer Dracula films, so it’s kind of like a mish-mash of genres that never quite works in my book. I will elaborate. On this movie, Dracula’s followers are a group of Satanists who kidnap people in order to sacrifice them to Satan, so part of the film focuses on their little operation, you kind of get the idea that they are here to resurrect Dracula, but it’s not even about that. Anyways, their operation hasn’t passed unnoticed to local authorities who have sent secret agents in order to infiltrate the satanic cult and find a way to stop their evil schemes. Now here’s where the James Bond type of thing comes into play! The secret agents use micro films and gadgets in order to record the secret meetings that these cultists perform! Then the film takes a turn towards sc-fi/post apocalyptic territory with the deadly plague plot line, and the idea that this plague could possibly destroy all of humanity. Of course, we never actually see the plague take over the world or anything, but the idea is there, the virus is set and ready to go on the petri dish! Where the film completely fails in my book is that it doesn’t even feel like a Dracula film at all! It might as well have been a film about the satanic cult and that’s it. Dracula feels like he was shoehorned into the plot, which is sad because what we want to see is a Dracula film, not a James Bond wanna be.

And here’s the most disappointing thing about this movie, we hardly ever see Dracula on this one! Now this doesn’t surprise me at all because Lee always did a lot of these Dracula movies without any real interest in doing them. Actually, he was quoted as saying that he thought this particular Dracula film was unnecessary. “I am doing it under protest!” he said, Lee also used words like pointless, fatuous and absurd to describe this particular film and I have to say I agree. This is probably the reason why we don’t see much of Lee during the film. Actually, the film is close to hitting the 50 minute mark and still no Dracula! Can you imagine seeing an Indiana Jones film with no Indiana Jones after 50 minutes into the movie? Exactly. Instead we are treated to Satanists performing rituals involving naked girls and killing roosters. The film also centers a lot of its time on the Satanists escaping snooping cops.  The one moment where you feel you’re finally in one of those old Hammer Dracula movies is when the cops stumble upon a dungeon filled with a couple of Dracula’s vampire brides, but if it wasn’t for that, you’d think you were in some other movie. I also liked some of the visuals they pulled off during Dracula’s demise that I really liked, they did this thing where Dracula gets entangled in thorns which was pretty cool, Lee’s face on those scenes has all the evil and all the rage that should have been present on more of the film, not just the last 15 minutes!

Thank god we do get some Van Helsing! And this movie got me to thinking about what an important element Peter Cushing was in these movies, he was in them a heck of a lot more than Lee himself. Cushing was one of the most vital components of the Hammer Dracula formula. Gotta say, even though this isn’t the best of the Hammer Dracula’s, Peter Cushing gave it his all. By the way, this was the last time that Lee and Cushing worked together on a Hammer Dracula film, so it’s notable for that alone. This is the last time you get to see Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing vs. Christopher Lee’s Dracula, after this one, Cushing would go up against Dracula again one more time in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), a film that brought together the worlds of Shaw Bros. Kung Fu movies with Hammer Films Dracula universe, it’s one of the more offbeat Hammer films, but also, one of the most fun, highly recommend checking that one out! So anyhow, The Satanic Rites of Dracula doesn’t hold anything special to it, save for it being the last Cushing/Lee collaboration in the Hammer Dracula films.

Rating: 2 out of 5 

  

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969)

Title: Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969)

Director: Peter Sasdy

Cast: Christopher Lee, Ralph Bates, Linda Hayden, Geoffrey Keen

Review:

I have started a lot of these Hammer film reviews with the words “this is one of the best” and I just realized while re-watching a lot of these old Hammer Dracula classics that they truly were a very well produced batch of films. It was in their last days that they started to go down in quality. But these earlier Dracula films, were awesome. Taste the Blood of Dracula was the fourth Hammer Dracula film to star Christopher Lee as Dracula, and if you ask me, it truly was one of the best of the series!

The film concerns these three rich entrepreneurs who are bored with life. They have seen it all and done it all. Now they want something new to spark some life into their redundant and dull lives. So in there search for new amusements, they stumble upon one Lord Courtley, a young guy who’s very much into black masses and selling his soul to the devil. Not in the poetic sense, but in its literal sense. Lord Courtley offers the three rich dudes the opportunity to sell their souls to Satan by resurrecting Count Dracula himself! Will these three gents go through with it and literally taste the blood of Dracula?

What I loved most about this movie was the way the script was unfolding. It was written in such a way that there is never a dull moment. And this is saying a lot since the film managed to retain my interest with no Dracula in sight for more then 45 minutes! I mean, I was literally interested in everything that was happening before Dracula even shows up, so that’s a bonus in my book! The thing about this movie is that the three rich gentlemen prove to be such interesting characters. On the one hand, they put up this façade where they go to church, and they are respectable members of society, while on the other they go away to some hidden whore house and entertain themselves with alcohol, drugs and whores dancing with snakes. But even with all the lewd entertainment they can afford, they are still frustrated and bored with their lives. In comes Lord Courtley one day (played with evil relish by the great Ralph Bates) to offer these gentlemen the opportunity to resurrect the lord of darkness.

Ralph Bates was being considered to play the role of the main vampire in this movie because Christopher Lee was refusing to appear on this film. Hammer was basically going to do the same thing they did with Brides of Dracula. If Christopher Lee doesn’t want to be on our movie fine, will do the movie without him! But unfortunately for Hammer, American distributors were not going to market this movie unless Lee was in it, so after a lot of begging from Hammers part, Christopher Lee agreed to appear on Taste the Blood of Dracula. What this meant for Ralph Bates was that he was denied the chance to play the lead vampire. This is probably the reason why Dracula does not appear until we are already way into the movie. But like I said, that’s not a major problem because the film itself is interesting on its own without Dracula. We get Ralph Bates being the evil one for one half of the film, the one that instigates the three rich guys, and the one who offers them the doors to hell. Then Dracula takes over on the second half of the film.

Honestly, I would not have minded if Ralph Bates had played the main vampire on this movie, to me he was always such a great asset whenever he appeared on any Hammer film. He always did a great job. Specially when playing villains. On this one, he is the young guy unafraid to resurrect Dracula, but not entirely comprehending what he is truthfully getting himself into.

What I enjoyed the most about this picture though were the three rich dudes. They are these two faced heartless individuals. They go to church, they have these beautiful families, but in their personal lives they are idiots. One in particular, Geoffrey Keen who pretty much plays the leader of the trio did an outstanding job of playing the evil over protective father. He is a Christian, yet goes to whore houses, does drugs and gets drunk, yet he expects complete chastity from his daughter Alice, who is only looking for true love in her life. Keen played the type of father who doesn’t want to let his daughter ouf of his home, he wants to keep her in her room locked tight! No flirting with young men, though its completely normal behavior at her age. Geoffrey Keen's performance is outstanding, in one scene he feels real remorse for having dealt with the forces of Darkness, and I swear real pain could be felt in his performance!

Speaking of performances, Christopher Lee doesn’t do much on this movie besides do what he does best. Play the silent evil Dracula! There are some memorable Dracula images on this one! Like the scene where Dracula has completely red eyes! Not bloodshot, but entirely red! Dracula appears 50 minutes into the picture, when his resurrection is finally complete and he begins to take revenge upon the three fathers who weren’t willing to go through with the resurrection ritual in its entirety. In this movie, Dracula goes for the sons and daughters of those who wronged him, so he goes about turning them into vampires. This movie does a good job of getting us to like and fall in love with certain characters, like the beautiful Alice (played by the incredibly angelic Linda Hayden) and then transforming them into tools of evil! Awesome, this movie was one of the ones where I was yelling at the screen “No! That is NOT happening!” So it moved me that way, I got into it.

The true message of the movie is towards parents. The message being, if you are an evil father, you are going to eventually pay for it. There is one truly shocking scene in which Alice is going to commit patricide! I thought that was kind of shocking for this kind of film, but there it was in all its shocking glory. I like that idea of kids running away when they realize that their parents aren’t good for them in the least. It’s the rational thing to do when you have the unfortunate fate of getting unreliable or just plain evil parents, run for the hills! Make it own your own in this damn life! So that’s more or less what this movie is trying to put forth. Be a good loving parent to your kids…or else it will come back and bite you in the ass! Or in your neck.

Rating: 5 out of  5

To the Devil...A Daughter (1976)

Title: To the Devil A Daughter (1976)

Director: Peter Sykes

Cast: Christopher Lee, Nastassja Kinski, Richard Widmark

Review:

If you know Hammer Studios history, then you should know that this was Hammer Studios last film. And as they say, it was “too little, too late”. With this film, Hammer wanted to steer away from their outdated Dracula/Frankenstein films, and go into new ground. You know, to keep in touch with modern movie goers. Where movie goers back in those days wanting to see Christopher Lee in a black cape and fake fangs? Nope. They had outgrown and tuned out of that. What were audiences curious for back in those days? Satanic worshipping films! Anything with demons! You see, in the 70’s satanic films where the talk of the town, and they were getting made left and right. All thanks to the success of films like The Exorcist, The Omen, Beyond the Door and Rosemary’s Baby. So Hammer, looking for away to help the studio survive, decided to jump on the satanic band wagon and made To the Devil...A Daughter based on Dennis Whitley's 1953 novel of the same name. This is the second adaptation done by Hammer Studios of a Dennis Whitley book, the first one being The Devil Rides Out (1968). Was Hammer’s last attempt to stay afloat any good?

To the Devil a Daughter is about this demon worshipping cult, who wants to bring their demon Astaroth to our world so he can rule humanity and bring hell on earth. In order to do so, they raise a young girl named Christine (played by a very young Nastassja Kinski) as the vessel for this demon. When push comes to shove, the young girls father gets a case of cold feet, so he decides to back out of the deal and tries to protect his daughter from the cult. This proves to be very difficult since the girl herself thinks this is her destiny and something she was born to do!

This film is interesting because you can see Hammer trying to get away from the old look and feel of previous Hammer films. Dracula isn’t here, neither is Frankenstein, and there’s no castle at the top of the hill, there’s no angry/scared villagers suffering, all these things that represented what a Hammer film was during the 60’s and early 70’s is gone. Hammer had tried to update Dracula for our day and age, but it just didn’t work, as evidenced by films like Dracula 1972 A.D. (1972) and Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974). So Hammer decided to drop those characters (which had been done to death anyways) and went the way of what American films were doing, namely, scaring the pants off of audiences with Satan, demons and demon possession films! As a result, this film ends up feeling a heck of a lot like a mix between The Exorcist (1973)and its Italian rip off Beyond the Door (1974). The main parallel between this film and The Exorcist is that we have a young girl about to be possessed by a demon. Nastassja Kinski plays the young girl, Catherine, who is more then willing to go forward with everything! And it’s a lot like Beyond the Door because it has a woman about to give birth to a child who’s body will be inhabited by a demon.

In my opinion, though this movie tried to get away from what Hammer films always did in the past, it still remains a Hammer film. We still get Christopher Lee playing the major villain, and no matter how much you tell me that this guy is the leader of a Satan worshipping cult, if he is a villain and he is dressed in black, he is freaking Dracula. Also, old Hammer films always had black masses and rituals with women on top of altars, and we get a lot of that on To the Devil a Daughter as well. The dungeon like place where the cultist unite feels and looks much like Dracula’s castle did. So in reality, this film tried to get away from the old formula, but ultimately, it really isn’t all that different from the old Hammer films. The making of this film was a fiasco, they couldnt find the right director, the film was offered to damn near every director even Ken Russell (who directed The Devils) was contacted, but he declined because he hated Hammer films! They finally decided on Peter Sykes because he'd directed Demons of the Mind for Hammer in 1972. They couldnt find the right actor to play the main character. Hammer wanted an American actor, to pull in american audiences, so they decided upon Richard Widmark, who ended up being a complete asshole during the whole shoot of the film. They even started shooting without having a completed script! The screenwriter would write pages as the film was being shot! Peter Sykes would shoot things that werent in the script! And finally, since they started without a completed script, they didnt know how to end the film! Which is probably why the film falls apart in its last 10 minutes. Dennis Whitley, who wrote the novel on which the film was based hated the completed film because it wasnt his book!

The movie does have some interesting moments in it. Like for example, the Satanists do this ritual where they rip the baby out of a woman’s womb. Though most of it happens off camera, just the idea of this happening and all the blood make it more shocking then it is. And let’s not forget Nastassja Kinski. She was 16 when she made this movie, yet somehow they managed to get her to do full frontal nudity! During the last sequences of the film she takes of her robe and walks around naked! Doesn’t that make this movie illegal or something? I don’t know, somebody check that out. There’s a laugh inducing moment when Astaroth invades her body, where we can obviously see the creature is a pathetic looking hand held puppet! I mean, they could have done that better. Or avoided it all together somehow, because it just brings the movie down. Also, I have to warn you guys, Christopher Lee bares his 50 year old ass on the screen while having sex with a cult follower! Just a warning. Speaking of Lee, he gets to act a whole lot more then he did on any of the Dracula films.

Don’t know what it is, but to me Satanic movies always end up being kind of laughable. Mayb it’s the fact that I don’t believe in the devil at all. To me, true evil lies in the hearts of men, not some invisible evil force we've never seen. I can never take these movies seriously, specially if a demon or Satan himself shows up and its done in a laughable manner. I mean, in order for me to take a movie of this nature seriously, it has to be done well, and avoid any cheesy factors whatsoever. For example, dont know how many of you guys and gals have seen The Devils Rain, but god, when Ernest Borgnine shows up as Satan, I couldnt help bursting in laughter! This movie was going well, until that hand puppet showed up, and until we see Nastassja Kinski having sex with a golden statue of Astaroth, that’s when I stopped taking this movie seriously cause the first thought that pops into my mind is, wow, what a bunch of buffoons! What a bunch of idiots! And these guys are supposed to be the villains? They aren’t menacing, they are just loony! Unfortunately for me, just when Nastassja was being humped by a golden statue was the exact moment when my girlfriend decided to walk in and see what kind of a movie I was watching. That my friends, is another story.

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5

Vampire Circus (1972)

Title: Vampire Circus (1972)


Director: Robert Young


Cast: Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters, Anthony Higgins


Review:

Vampire Circus is one of those hard to find, elusive Hammer flicks (like Twins of Evil!) that have not yet been oficially released on DVD in the United States. You either find a bootleg of it like I did, or you simply get some foreign release of it and play it on a region free player. Either way, going to some lenghts to get to finally see this one is well worth it. Hammers Studios was on its last legs, yet this did not mean that they were making crappy movies. I find it so strange that many of the last films they made turned out to be the most rewarding films in their whole collection of films! Its a bit obvious that Hammer Studios knew that they had to infuse their films with more of an edge, cause the times, they were a changing. So they added more blood, sex and nudity then any of their previous films. At the same time, these films had faster pace and more sadistic and evil villains. As a result, these last batch of Hammer films turned out to be some of the most offbeat and entertaining of all Hammer films.

In Vampire Circus, the town of Ketl has decided to storm Count Mitterhouse's castle because he is a vampire who has been feeding on the towns young women and children. They decide to take justice into their own hands and rid their town and the rest of the world of Count Mitterhouse. Unfortunately for them, just before he dies Count Mitterhouse sends a curse upon the small town, warning them that the town is going to die and that their children were going to die. Fast forward a couple of decades, and its all coming true. The town is dying of a deadly plague that has spread across the land, town morale is low. Suddenly, amongst all the sadness and death, a curious traveling circus stumbles into town! The circus is called "The Circus of Nights". Suddenly, the people of the town have something to entertain themselves. The Circus of Nights is here to take their minds of all the sadness and depression. They dont have to be so sad anymore! Unfortunately, theres a dark secret that comes along with this mysterious traveling circus. What could it be? Oh yeah, everyone in the circus is a bloodsucker! Will the people of the town realize this before its too late? And exactly why is this circus in town, besides feeding?

Theres a couple of horror films out there that revolve around the strangeness and surrealism that hovers around the circus atmosphere. Tobe Hoopers Funhouse comes to mind. Usually, in movies of this type, the circus performers take center stage. This is the case with Vampire Circus where all the vampires in the circus got something that makes them special, the villains are the main stars and are by far, more interesting then the villagers. For example, we have the man who can mysteriously transform into a puma! We got the twins who turn into bats! We have the "mirror of life" where if you look into it, you can see what the future has in store for you! We have midget clowns! In other words, we have a whole assortment of freaks. All of whom look forward to entertain you, only so the can suck your blood afterwards! But in reality, all this elements put together, makes for one of Hammers strangest movies. A circus of horror!

The main villain in this movie, Count Mitterhouse is one of the most viscious vampires in all of Hammers films! In the first ten minutes of the movie, he has already killed a little girl! Before he dies, he curses the whole town! So be on the look out for a mean viscious and cruel vampire. In fact, all the vampires in this film are more evil then usual, they love feeding on the blood of children! By the way, its no secret that the villain has to die at the end of a Hammer movie. I always find it funny how once the villain dies, the movie is instantly over! The End, credits roll. When Count Mitterhouse bites it, its in a very original way, not gonna spoil it for you guys, but its memorable. Never seen that happen in a vampire movie before. Ditto for a vampire who transforms into a puma.

Thats one other thing about this movie, it plays around a lot with vampire lore. Who the hell heard of a vampire who turns into a puma? Or a vampire that needs the blood of various victims to be poured over his dead carcass so he can be resurrected? Or have you ever head of a vampire who can put a curse upon a whole town? Thats the cool thing about these Hammer vampire films, some of them exists outside of the whole Dracula mythology. So they can do whatever the hell they want with vampire lore and nobody can tell them otherwise. I guess it just adds to the bizarre feeling this movie has. The only bad thing I can say about this movie is its main protagonist was a poor choice for a hero, he was too much the pretty boy, with not enough ass kicking virtue in him. He didnt convince me as a guy who would go out there and kick Count Mitterhouse's vampire ass.

So, in conclusion. Vampire Circus it a film that was fun because its weird freaky carnival feel and its despicable villains. Too bad this film is often times ignored and doesnt get the recognition it deserves. Why has this gem of a vampire movie been left out in the cold? Its been completely ignored! And its so damn entertaining! It certainly is one of the most unique vampire films to come out of Hammers House of Horror, and one that any Vampire/Hammer lover should not miss.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Twins of Evil (1971)

Title: Twins of Evil (1971)

Director: Jhon Hough

Cast: Peter Cushing, Dennis Price, Mary and Madeline Collinson, Damien Thomas

Review:

This Hammer film had managed to elude me for sometime because unfortunately, its NOT on DVD yet! For some unholy reason some studio head somewhere has not done his homework, and as a result, we still dont have a proper DVD release. But thanks to a buddy of mine I finally got a bootleg copy of it. So I finally I got to get a look at Twins of Evil. And Ill be damned if it wasnt one of the coolest vampire flicks Hammer Studios ever produced!

This is the third film in Hammer films "Karnstein" trilogy. This trilogy consisted of The Vampire Lovers, was followed by Lust for a Vampire and ended with the film I will be reviewing today, Twins of Evil. They all deal with the Karnstein family as the vampiric threat in their stories. On this one we get Count Kernstein, a young bachelor who lives on a castle at the top of a hill, as is usually the case with villains in Hammer films. Everyone in town knows he is into witchcraft and devil worship, and they are right. It's all true. This count is really into worshipping Satan! Black Masses! Human sacrifices! Anyhows, Count Karnstein grows bored with charlatans and fakers claiming to be true devil worshipers. So on a desperate attempt to really get things moving, Count Kernstein decides to summon old Beelzebub himself into his home by sacraficing a virgin! This makes for a fantastic scene if there ever was one! The scene reeks of satanic blasphemy! The virgins blood doesnt make Satan show up...but it does awaken the corpse of Mircalla Karnstein! An old vampire vixen who's laid dormant for years! When Mircalle wakes up, she in turn transforms the young Count into a vampire. Shortly after that, two innocent yet mischievous twin sisters decide to wonder into the castle...will they fall for Count Kernsteins charms? Will these twin sisters be turned to the dark side to worship the devil?

The first film in the Karnstein trilogy was Vampire Lovers wich starred Ingrid Pitt as Countess Mircalla Karnstein. And even though the beautiful Ingrid Pitt, who wows us in Vampire Lovers does not reprise her role in this sequel, Twins of Evil is an excellent example of what a really great Hammer vampire film should be like. A great story, great atmosphere, lots of blood and lots of nudity. Oh and lets not forget the girl on girl action. Lust for a Vampire, the second entry in Hammers Karnstein trilogy I have yet to see, so I cant comment much on that one. But from what I hear, its one of the weakest in the trilogy. But with Twins of Evil Hammer studios out did themselves once again, as if they were trying to compensate for making a weak film with Lust for a Vampire. As I watched Twins of Evil, I couldnt believe how good this movie was turning out to be and I realized what a crime it is that its not yet available on DVD. Last info I discovered about this getting a U.S. DVD release, Fox bought off most of MGM's library (cause MGM is actually going bankrupt if you can believe it!) and well, it looks like this films DVD release is still very much uncertain, at least in the U.S.

One is the good sister, the other is the bad.

I was surprised to see that this film, had non of the usual Hammer directors, writers or producers. Theres no Terrence Fisher or Freddy Francis, or Roy Ward Baker directing...no John Elder writing the script. It was weird not to see any familiar names (save for Peter Cushing) being involved on this Hammer production. Maybe thats why this film feels like a breath of fresh air in certain occasions. Though this still is a Hammer film and we do get a lot of traditional Hammer situations...this one did things just a little more intensely. Its a very viscious film for a Hammer film, with a slightly edgier tone to it. More graphic, more satanic. Which of course in my opinion makes for a better film. This film in particular was directed by John Hough, who would go on to direct the excellent Legend of Hell House. He was also responsible for a horror film called Incubus (1982). He also made the Witch Mountain movies and the haunted house film The Watcher in the Woods (1980) for Disney Pictures. He also directed Howling IV: The Original Nightmare. But we dont need to get into that.

One of the things that stood out for me on this film was the sets. Usually on a Hammer film the sets will seem familiar some how, because many times they just reused sets used on previous films. On this one, the sets had a very unique look to them. Specially Count Kernsteins castle. That castle looked great on the inside! Its got a lot of skulls, Gargoyles and statues with horns coming out of them, it just made everything all the more gothic. Also the way the interior of the castle was lit, helped everything look all the more spookier. They later reused these sets for filming Vampire Circus.

The comes the acting. Peter Cushing is known for elevating Hammer films with his acting, in this film, his character is one Gustav Weil, witch killer! Cushing plays a priest, hunting down witches and warlocks and burning them at the stake! Part of that whole inquisition deal where a lot of innocent people were burned at the stake and tortured if they werent catholics. Cushing plays the witchfinder, his character in Twins of Evil is very similar to that of Vincent Price's in Cry of the Banshee or The Conqueror Worm, constantly looking for witches to burn. Great thing about this character is that apart from Cushings great performance, he is a very ambiguous character. He is often times seen as the villain of the film because of his habit of burning beautiful girls in account of religious fanatism. But at the same time he is seen as the heroe who is after Count Kernstein. So theres a duality to his role on this one. A detail that might have added to the somberness of Cushings character is the fact that his wife had very recently died right before he began production of this film, so during the filming of Twins of Evil, Peter Cushing was an actor in pain.

Still, I like how the film explores these themes, of how at one time people were burned if they werent catholics. Shinning a light on those dark times when you had to be a catholic, or else you were in cahoots with Satan! There is a scene that I really loved where Peter Cushings withfinder character almost burns a completely innocent person, and realizes it just before they burn the person alive! In this way, the film comments on how this sort of thing happened during those dark days of the inquisition.

As for the titular twins, well they do a good job of looking sexy as heck. These two actresses actually appeared in a 1970s issue of playboy! This film was actually marketed as a new X rated horror film from Hammer Studios! The sisters reveal their respective cleavages more then once during the film. Though nudity was not common in Hammer films of the past, after they did their first use of it in Vampire Lovers, nudity was common in Hammer films. I liked how one sister was the good girl, while the other was the rebelious one, looking to get into trouble all the time. I found it interesting how the "evil" twin was actually lured into the dark side because of how she hated her religious fanatic uncle. In a way, religious fanatism made her run into the clutches of something even more evil. Interesting situation they present us with there. The rebellious sister runs right into the vampires arms! Then she has to deal with the ambiguous nature of being a vampire, and trying not feed on her own sister! Kind of like the same situation we saw a couple years later in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys.

 Burning innocents was something catholics enjoyed doing during those days.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this film was its fast pace. Lets face it sometimes Hammer films can get a little slow...specially the earlier ones. But this film comes to us from a new school of Hammer directors and writers, who moved their story telling at a faster pace. The ending is a rollercoaster ride of thrills when compared to other Hammer films. Another cool little tidbit about this film: the vampires have huuge fangs! When they reveal their vampire fangs its awesome. Kind of reminded me of the vampires in Vampire Circus. So what we got here is actually a Hammer vampire film that comes from a new generation of Hammer directors, striving to move things quicker, and striving to give their films a new edge.

In conclusion, I can say that this film quickly became one of my favorite Hammer vampire films. Its right up there with the best Hammer films. Im surprised to see that most of my favorite Hammer vampire films ended up being the most offbeat ones! Or the ones that have not yet made it to DVD. I love these flicks because they are films that were made many years after Hammer had already firmly established itself as a horror studio, so these last films learned from the mistakes of all the previous Hammer efforts. Hence the faster plots, abundant nudity and blood. Try to get your hands on this flick if you get a chance, its well worth the effort!

Rating: 5 out of 5