Hammer Vampires

KISS OF THE VAMPIRE-1963-This Hammer production begins with a guy interrupting a funeral and using a shovel to smash open a coffin. A scream emulates from within and blood appears. Then newlyweds Gerald (Edward DeSouza) and Marianne (Jennifer Daniel) have car trouble and Jerry goes off for some petrol. All the while they are being spied on by a mysterious figure in a nearby castle. All alone and spooked by the rising wind Maria ventures out of the car and meets the guy with the shovel who warns her to go back to her car. After getting a tow the couple get a room at an inn and are invited to dine with Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman), the guy who was watching them earlier. The eerily suave doctor has two kids, Sabena (Jacquie Wallis) and Karl (Barry Warren). At dinner Marianne seems mesmerized by Karl's piano playing. At a masked ball Marianne learns the truth. Ravna is head of a vampire cult. They imprison Marianne then tell Gerald there is no such person as his wife. Everyone agrees so Gerald goes to Prof. Zimmer (Clifford Evans) for help and we learn that his own daughter had been vampire-ized by Ravna (he killed her in the pre-credit funeral sequence). 

Although the story is fairly standard and boring, the finale where Zim and Jerry rescue Marianne is exciting and violent with the professor using a spell that sends vampire bats to kill the vampires! Director Don Sharp went on to direct Christopher Lee in THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES, RASPUTIN and several Fu Manchu entries.

It Had To Be Told?

DRACULA UNTOLD-2014-After an encounter with a vampire in a cave, Vlad The Impaler Jr.(Luke Evans) reigns over his peaceful kingdom until the Turkish sultan demands 100 boys for his army (Vlad's dad had handed him over to the Turks in a compromise when he was young). In a new compromise the sultan makes Vlad his new chief but forces him to hand over his son Vlad 3. Instead dad kills the party that comes to get his son. To save his kingdom Vlad drinks the blood of the cave vampire (Charles Dance) and receives great power (and great night vision) and defeats the Turkish horde all by himself (some bats help too). However he is told if he can go for three days without drinking blood he will return to normal, otherwise more blood drinking will cause him to remain a vampire forever. Despite his best efforts, when his wife dies and his son is taken prisoner he drinks his wife's blood and becomes a full fledged vampire. He turns some friends into vampires too and they destroy The Turks. Later they all stand in the sun and die. In the modern day Vlad is still alive for some reason and seems to meet his long lost lover but the cave vampire is there as well. 

Yeah, like there was going to be a sequel to this routine bloody ridiculous CGI laden horror....

The director Irish born Gary Shore had previously done corporation shorts.

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I Don't Get it

THE ROOST-2005-In a black and white intro Tom Noonan is a horror host who introduces the story and even interrupts it later on. Three guys and a girl on their way to a wedding have a car accident. They wonder around a bit then come to a house where earlier an old couple were killed. A cop picks them up but he's killed and one guy disappears. The remaining three are terrorized by vampire bats and the reanimated corpses of the cop and the old couple. It's seems to be some kind of weird found footage horror movie that really makes no sense. Larry Fessenden was the executive producer and appears as a tow trucker driver. Director Ti West later made CABIN FEVER 2 and a segment of V/H/S.

 

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