Tag Archives: Hammer Horror

Vaults of Hammer Horror

(Vaults of Hammer Horror) Die! Die! My Darling! (1965)

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Not to be confused with famous Misfits horrorpunk evergreen, this Hammer Horror is a bit different than their other stuff, because it is really a thriller rather than horror with religious fanaticism, madness and drama coming your way. The screenplay was again written by Richard Matheson, based on the novel by Anne Blaisdell and directed by Silvio Narizzano. Patricia Caroll(Stefanie Powers) travels to the countryside to visit mother of her late boyfriend, but little does she know that Mrs Trefoile(Tallulah Bankhead) is in fact a crazy religious fanatic who traps Patricia with help of her servants and is ready to torture her physically and mentally to have her revenge for the death of her son. As I said, this one is no horror, rather a very intense psychological thriller with both main actors just fantastic especially Tallulah Bankhead whose Mrs Trefoile is one diabolic crone set to get hers and will stop at nothing. This is one of the gems of house Hammer, just confirming why Hammer horror is one of my favorite horror subgenre.

Reviews, Vaults of Hammer Horror

(Vaults of Hammer Horror) The Curse of Frankenstein(1957)

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Everybody who knows me can testify that Hammer Horror movies are my personal favorite horror subgenre, besides found footage(yes, I am a sucker for them) and eighties golden era slasher movies. Hammer is British movie company which delivered many legendary horror movies and legends like Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing starred in many of their movies and delivered some of the unforgettable roles like Dracula, Van Helsing or Dr Frankenstein. The latter is main character in this, first of Hammer Frankenstein series movies.

The movie is loosely based on Mary Shelley´s legendary novel, screenplay by Jimmy Sangster is not so based on the novel, the movie starting with imprisoned Victor Frankenstein who recalls and tells his tale to the priest which visits him in his prison cell.

Frankenstein was always interested in medical experiments and had no real morality values, cheating his fiancee Elizabeth(lovely Hammer alumni Hazel Court) with servant maid Justine(Valerie Gaunt) and conducting various animal experiments with his friend Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) starting with animals and later evolving into experimenting with corpses of hanged killer and brain of distinguished scientist. They revive an evil creature(Christopher Lee) which wreaks havoc and will change lives of all protagonists forever.

This is one of the top ten Hammer movies I have watched. Everything is done perfect, from character of Victor Frankenstein portrayed by Peter Cushing to evil and chaotic creature portrayed by Christopher Lee, which is so much different than Karloff and the creature which we were used to watch in Frankenstein movies. Maybe movies such as this don´t have much action and carnage, but there is drama, there is good story, great acting and poetic ending which leaves open window for sequels. If you are watching Hammer movies and want to become fan, I recommend this one for a Hammer starter package.

9/10

movie, Reviews, Various, Vaults of Hammer Horror

(movie) Dracula has risen from the grave (1968)

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Being an avid horror movie maniac and also collector, I enjoy watching movies in general, but horror is my first and greatest love. My favorite horror subgenre are golden era slasher 80-ies horror, found footage and all those Hammer Horror classics. This is one of those old school legendary house´s British horror movies featuring Christopher Lee in his most legendary role and for me being best Dracula with tight choice between Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman, who are my top three besides Lee.

This is fourth installment in Hammer´s Dracula series and it revolves around story of a priest Monsignor Ernst who returns to Castle Dracula to perform an exorcism which would expell evil forever although Dracula is dead and gone. As it often goes, Monsignor fails, awakes Dracula who is very angry because of the cross left barring the doors of his ancestral home. Dracula wants revenge and follows priest to the town with help of disgraced local drunkard priest. Simple? Perhaps naive and thrashy? No matter, Hammer movies had charm, charisma, story and they did not depend on cgi effects like today´s horror do. Chris Lee is just fantastic and charismatic, but besides just staring and being evil, he also talks quite a lot in this sequel apart from the ones prior and after. I enjoyed the atmosphere of Transylvania, of old school horror and blood spilled from the most legendary vampire of all. The ending is kind of poetic but leaves place for further sequels. The one thing that I did not enjoy is kind of main good character, young baker Paul, portrayed by Barry Andrews, who went on my nerves with his every facial expression and sentence he said. Maybe it is just me, who knows.

6,5/10