Trailer: http://adf.ly/1ntb20
The basic plot is old hat by now, but it still serves: a young couple on their honeymoon in Bavaria fall afoul of a vampire cult, led by Dr. Ravna and his two children. Their family dynamic reminds me of the Borgias in Renaissance Italy. Enter Professor Zimmer, who knows about the cult and is determined to stop them, even if it costs his own soul.
The Good: Aside from the actors clearly enjoying themselves, especially Noel Willman as Dr. Ravna, this film is among the first to show just how close to the dark side the vampire hunter can get, a theme that Hammer would revisit in Twins of Evil and has taken on a life of its own. Professor Zimmer is not the heroic Van Helsing; he's a depressed, vengeful drinker who, as I mentioned previously, is willing to take a step Van Helsing would never consider: communing with the forces of evil to summon a larger predator than the vampires. It also expands on an idea introduced in Brides: that vampirism is not only cult-like, but a form of unholy STD afflicting those who live decadent, corrupt lives. Truly a curse that the recipients have embraced. We see this in a lot of vampire films, including the Yorga movies.
The Bad: Not so much "bad" as what could have been. Hammer planned this as a follow-up to Brides of Dracula, but neither Christopher Lee nor Peter Cushing were available (for whatever reasons), so they went with what they had.
The Ugly: This film was so heavily censored for TV broadcasts they had to shoot new scenes, which don't relate to the picture in any way. To put it bluntly, the new prologue for Fistful of Dollars was high art compared to this.
Surprisingly, it's a better deal to get Kiss of the Vampire as part of the Hammer Horror set, which also includes Curse of the Werewolf, Phantom of the Opera, and Brides of Dracula.
No comments:
Post a Comment