We love to be scared. Horror Movies engage with some of our deepest darkest elements of self. These can be creepy, gory, suspenseful, chilling, hammy or just downright unpleasant.
A Key player in this arena was Universal Studios with their movies featuring Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Wolfman in the 1930s.
In the 1950s to 1970s the horror mantle was taken up by Hammer studios who brought glorious color to old favorites and many sleepless nights for the censors. Good examples include :
- Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931, USA)
- Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931, USA)
- Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958, UK)
- The Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1958, UK)
- Quatermass and the Pit (Roy Ward Baker, 1967, UK)
Best vampire resurrection ever !
We all know that there are many ways to “kill” a vampire (Stakes, Sunlight, Beheading, Hawthorns, Running water, holy water, bullets from melted down crucifixes, fire, wooden bullets…). Of course writers of vampire story arcs also need ways to bring a vampire back to life. In the Universal canon this was rarely done explicitly (in House of Frankenstein simply removing the stake from Dracula’s skeleton did the trick). In the Hammer movies it was achieved mostly with a supply of fresh or newly dead blood (bat blood even) with optional rituals and/or sacrifice.
Blood of the vampire(1958) is an early British color horror movie, released the same year as Hammer’s Dracula and directed by Hammer staple Jimmy Sangster.
While largely forgettable it boasts a unique vampire resurrection. The vampire (Dr) Calistratus is initially dispatched in the opening scene in the traditional long sharp wooden stake through the heart manner. Of course Calistratus has the obligatory deformed assistant (Carl), Carl kills the grave digger and recovers the body of Calistratus.
Carl then bribes a drunken doctor (who is later killed for arguing over the fee) to perform a heart transplant (presumably the heart was donated by the grave digger, but who knows).
It turns out Calistratus is not really a vampire (it is just an honorific) after all just a standard mad prison doctor with a blood condition and kept alive by blood transfusions from involuntary donations. It’s pretty dire stuff.
Leave a Reply