Horror Non-Express Disclaimer / Urgent Hammer Vampire Update.

As you will have noted, today is the 1st of October - the date upon which, for the past few years at least, this blog has launched an annual posting marathon, providing some suitably horror-centric new content every few days in anticipation of the All Hallows bacchanal at the end of the month.

Unfortunately however, the same real life chores and responsibilities which have slowed down the frequency of my posting during the summer look set to only increase over the next month or so, meaning that dedicating additional time to writing/blogging is simply not going to be possible.

Never fear though -- I’ll get some good spooky stuff up here, that’s for sure. I’m just unable to make any guarantees right now re: quantity or frequency.

More urgently however, long-time readers will recall that, back in 2019, apparently high on the fumes of Autumnal horror delirium, I celebrated Halloween by posting a run-down of all of Hammer’s vampire films, ranked according to quality.

Well, since publishing these important conclusions, I am duty-bound to report that I have revisited ‘Dracula: Prince of Darkness’ for the first time in a number of years, and now believe that I significantly undervalued it. Though the film’s flaws (stupid, back-of-a-napkin story, abysmal anticlimactic ending, failure to give Christopher Lee much to do) remain impossible to ignore, in most other respects (direction, acting, music), it is actually very good, with Terrence Fisher’s guiding hand lending a sense of dread solemnity to proceedings which positively reeks of “quintessential Hammer”.

Looking back on my list therefore, I’d probably now zip it straight up to, say, #8, between ‘Satanic Rites..’ and ‘..A.D. 1972’.

Meanwhile, I also watched ‘The Vampire Lovers’ again recently, and, although I still enjoyed it, in no way does it deserve to sit at #6 on the list.

Despite its charms (not all of them Ingrid Pitt-shaped), it now strikes me as a rather dreary, moth-eaten kind of affair. Visuals and production design aren’t remotely up to the level of those seen in Hammer’s earlier films, whilst its approach to sex and nudity - as per so much British sexploitation - has a furtive, slightly camp / self-conscious feel to it which makes it seem far sleazier than the relatively mild on-screen content (all crammed into one reel I note, so that the offending ‘naughty bits’ could be easily yanked out when needed) really demands.

I still find myself perversely amused by how outrageously misogynistic the whole affair is (see my original write-up), but… in short, not half as good as I remembered. In fact, I think I’d now boot it all the way down to #10, just narrowly beating ‘..Risen From The Grave’.

So, I’m glad to get all that off my heaving bosom. Please adjust your wall-charts accordingly.

Now, roll on whatever I manage to knock out for October, and tune in in 2023 for my long awaited reappraisal of ‘Captain Kronos’!