THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960)

Well.. time to explore the semi distant dark past of the horror industry with some "Hammer Horror" flicks .. for this time round I chose "Brides of Dracula".

Hammer films were a british institution in horror circles, they managed to create (In my opinion.... some might disagree) some rather classy films when compared with what was going on at the time in the horror world of the 1950s through to the 1970s...

This is set after Dracula's death and revolves around the Baroness and young Marianne who is on her way to take up a job in Transylvania. of course the local coach driver who is still wary of the myths of Dracula that surround the region won't proceed to Transylvania and drops her off at the local tavern. Marianne can't find a room to stay so she takes refuge with a wealthy countess for the night. The countess keeps her son in chains within the house, she claims he is mentally unwell, but Marianne's curiosity gets the better of her and she meets him and finds him rather personable. It would appear the son is the heir apparent to the property and the countess is trying to keep him from claiming it. Marianne takes it upon herself to free the Countess' Son … without realizing he's a vampire.

Once loose the vampire is free to prey on the town folks and it up to the Dr. Van Helsing (the vampire hunter of Dracula fame / played by horror icon Peter Cushing) who just happens to be passing through town and Marianne to stop him.

Overall, its a well written and shot film, the violence levels are low so you can watching it with your horror loving offspring, tho some more may find the movie a little "campy", its definitely shot in that English drama style with a hint to Shakespeare, but if you can deal with that its a pretty cool movie!

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WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1967)

I'd been searching for this one for a while now, and didn't realise it starred the one and only Vincent Price, whose movies I've become a little obsessed by of late.

The film itself revolves around Matthew Hopkins the "witchfinder" who wanders around 17th Century England doing Gods work, seeking out those who've been suspected of witchcraft and extracting confessions out of them and putting them to death or just killing them regardless. From what I've read about the witch burnings of the time (which isn't a huge amount) it seems to follow the historical accounts reasonably closely and the costuming and dialogue really add an air of authenticity to the proceedings.

Vincent Prices performance is of course legendary and chilling as per usual, and the film is lavishly shot, I love these old style films shot on film which i think have a more life like texture than many of the digitally shot films of today. The disc copy I got is of course a modern reprint, and it shows an "R" rating, while it may have been on the more extreme end of horror for the time, it was rather tame by today's standards and would have barely qualified for a "M (15)" rating .... which I guess isn't really important as the film holds up brilliantly either way, but it did kind of get me really excited for a gore-fest, which it certainly isn't.. while the violence contained in the flim does look convincing the blood looks like bright red paint and comes across as fake, which to be fair most films of the time up until the mid 70's tended to do.

Minor criticisms aside, I was immensely pleased I finally got to watch this little gem and i'd certainly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the old "hammer" style horror films, if you just want a blood and guts gorefest this may not be the film for you but i'd certainly recommend it for fans of Price, or vintage horror in general.

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