Fantastic film & the TV series whilst not quite the equal is a must watch. What We Do In The Shadows, American TV series trailer
Memories of seeing with my Dad basically, I guess. Most all the Hammers were great when I was 10 years old. Always prefer them to the plethora of hacker/slasher movies that were popular from the 70's onward,
I never liked Dracula Prince of Darkness, either. In terms of plot it remakes Hammer's earlier Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and shuffles around the characters a bit. I got turned off by the human sacrifice scene with the body being hung over the coffin etc. It just rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't like the fact that Dracula never speaks and that he's only in the film for five minutes. I like how it looks, the design and color and the photography, that whole Hammer visual aesthetic. I keep upgrading it from VHS to to DVD to blu-ray to the new scan blu-ray because I'm a Hammer completest, but I stopped watching it in the DVD days.
I haven't seen POD in years but Drac's Hammer films in the 50s and 60s are all enjoyable to some degree or another. I watched Dracula AD 72 for the first time (!) on TCM recently and found it to be just okay. I wish they'd have focused a little on his reactions to modern day living instead of spending so much time on the other characters partying to bad 70s music.
Hammer’s BRIDES OF DRACULA made a huge impact on my 10-year old psyche. David Peel made for an interesting character and Cushing elevated anything he was in and IS Van Helsing as far as I’m concerned. Jonathan Frid’s Barnabas Collins is almost as iconic as Lee’s Dracula. I still watch DS on Amazon streaming from time to time. Given the low budget of the TV show, what they accomplished was grand fun and always interesting. The first feature that Dan Curtis did from the series, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS is an alternate universe where Collins’ intentions are anything but sympathetic. It’s been theorized that the explicitness of HOUSE helped to bring about the demise of the series with fans no longer content with the relatively tame programming.
I'm assuming it was cancelled, since DU was such a bomb. There were plans to do an entire new series of films based on the classic Universal monsters, but the failures of Dracula Untold and Tom Cruise's The Mummy have pretty much put an end to that.
The Wolfman with Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins bombed, too. It was a sour, negative, depressing misery. The Universal monsters were character-driven suspense-melodramas with a lot of warmth, faith and moral struggle. They had some action, but they were NOT action films. The recent reboots were the opposite. Larry Talbot couldn't go home again because he was never welcome in the first place, and his daddy was evil. The tone and attitude make all the difference. That's why the reboots bombed. Universal blew it, and they don't have a clue. Instead they assume audiences aren't interested. Wrong. Audiences are interested. They just don't want nihilistic action.
Wasn't director Joe Johnston brought into that at the last minute though...? Both The Rocketeer and Captain America: The First Avenger show he's actually a really good popcorn movie director when he's got the material, resources, and support to do it right... what a pity he wasn't asked to helm one of the recent SW movies; one would have considered him a natural choice in hindsight (certainly more than Colin Trevorrow, who's hiring always bewildered me; Johnston would have been my choice to replace him) because of his long association with both Lucasfilm and the OT (whose still-iconic design work Johnston was behind), alas... But anyway... back to good ol' Vlad...
While filming Anthony Hopkins decided he wanted to be a wolfman, too. So they rewrote and redirected to accomadate him. I doubt the original intent was much better, but I'm sure it was no worse.
It's just sad that-Universal,the studio that started it all with our favorite monsters couldn't get it right,all they had to do with[The Wolfman]was stick to the original storyline and add just a little bit more plot and preto another hit..shame on you universal.
Today's audience demands outlandish mayhem and gore with their horror, probably the legacy of all those 80s slasher flicks. Anything less elicits cries of "boring" and "too slow". Yup, exploring character doesn't appear to be what folks want and I don't think the genie is going back in the bottle. Thankfully, there are lots of old movies to still enjoy but yeah, it would be nice to get new stuff that engages more than our inner gore freak.
Rewatched Blacula the other night after 35 years. Expected cheese and got some but was surprised how good the movie was. Not politically correct at all. Mamuwalde starts off good and is forced to become a monster. You kind of feel for him though he does horrible things. Some genuine chills, although none of them come from the main vampire but rather those he creates. Worth a watch this Halloween.
Agreed, really good, fun movie. It seemed as if all the vamps created after his resurrection were destroyed except for this guy: I mean, c'mon. A vampire with a hook for a hand!
Hey thanks, cool link. That quote reminds me- "Blacula" is only uttered once by Dracula as he curses him. Which is funny, because he planned to leave him in the sealed coffin for all eternity.
And like I mentioned in an early post, Ketty Lester was also a singer with several Hot 100 hits, the biggest being Love Letters (#5) almost 10 years earlier.
And don't forget the sequel Scream Blacula Scream directed by Bob Kelljan. He also did Count Yorga Vampire and The Return Of Count Yorga. Three excellent early 70s vampire flicks.
I couldn't find any mention of space vampires. Some people call it B-Grade trash and a bit silly with over the top acting (from Steve Railsback in particular), and that maybe the case, but it is also a bizarre, jaw dropping, enjoyable romp with the most beautiful (perfect) woman I have ever seen at the centre of the chaos. LIFEFORCE (1985)
