Hammer Dracula films

seun

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I've been watching a few of the Hammer Dracula films recently and it's struck me how fun they are. OK, the orange blood is a bit naff, but for their time, they really pushed boundaries in terms of violence and, in the later films, sex. I know they seem a little silly with all the obligatory buxom serving wenches (I laughed a lot at the redhead in Dracula Has Risen From The Grave who spent most of the film leaning over for no reason) and women who really enjoy Christopher Lee nibbling their necks, but I still think they're underated as horror films.

Anyone else a fan?
 
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Bmwhtly

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Hah! First in!
Anyone else a fan?
I'm not convinced I've ever actually seen any of them.

But I dare say these are the sort of things that are repeated on late night telly from time to time.
I know they seem a little silly with all the obligatory buxom serving wenches (I laughed a lot at the redhead in Dracula Has Risen From The Grave who spent most of the film leaning over for no reason)
I direct your attention to the poster for this one:

220px-Draculahasrisen.jpg
 

BenPanced

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In The Satanic Rites of Dracula, he doesn't even really show up until the last reel. Even then, he barely had any dialogue. I think that was part of the surprise/allure, for me. It added to the suspense.

That, and Christopher Lee is teh hawt.
 

Manuel Royal

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Absolutely. The orange blood is typical of modestly-budgeted movies from, say 1965-1975. I don't know if it's because the substance they were using really looked like that, or if it's an effect of the color film stock they used, or what.

The Hammer Dracula films are just goofy. They exist in their own bubble; forget about making sense of the series in terms of chronology or geography. It's as if Romania, Bavaria and England are adjoining counties.

Lee is one of the great Draculas, even though they hardly used his wonderful Shakespearean voice at all; his Dracula just seems to radiate physical menace, and he was an imposing enough figure to pull it off. And he and Peter Cushing made great adversaries.
 

seun

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Hah! First in!I'm not convinced I've ever actually seen any of them.

But I dare say these are the sort of things that are repeated on late night telly from time to time.
I direct your attention to the poster for this one:

220px-Draculahasrisen.jpg
I knew you'd be first. :D

And you must watch them for the bosoms...uh...I mean acting. Yeah.
 

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I know they seem a little silly with all the obligatory buxom serving wenches (I laughed a lot at the redhead in Dracula Has Risen From The Grave who spent most of the film leaning over for no reason)
Or the authentic 17th century beehive hairdo's, rayon nightgowns, and Cleopatra/cat's eye make-up...
 

Diana Hignutt

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I'm also a big fan of Hammer films. You have good taste.
 

dolores haze

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Those old Hammer films are one of the reasons I write horror.

Little blog post about it here.

For the longest time I thought The Wicker Man was a Hammer film. Must have been the Christopher Lee ( I ADORE him) connection.
 

thothguard51

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I've been watching a few of the Hammer Dracula films recently and it's struck me how fun they are. OK, the orange blood is a bit naff, but for their time, they really pushed boundaries in terms of violence and, in the later films, sex. I know they seem a little silly with all the obligatory buxom serving wenches (I laughed a lot at the redhead in Dracula Has Risen From The Grave who spent most of the film leaning over for no reason) and women who really enjoy Christopher Lee nibbling their necks, but I still think they're underated as horror films.

Anyone else a fan?

I think the redhead was Ingrid Pitt. She died recently but she was also known as the Queen of the Scream Queens in british films. She did a lot of Hammer films. I think she did the very first Lesbian Vampire scene...
 

Manuel Royal

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I think the redhead was Ingrid Pitt. She died recently but she was also known as the Queen of the Scream Queens in british films. She did a lot of Hammer films. I think she did the very first Lesbian Vampire scene...
I don't think Ingrid Pitt was in that one; probably Barbara Ewing.

Ingrid was in The Vampire Lovers, which, coming several years before Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness, probably did have the first noteable vampire lesbian scene.
 

Shakesbear

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Christopher Lee was Dracula. He has such an amazing presence. I think the first film was the best. Some of the later ones were just plain silly.

If you think the films are fun try seeing Dracula on stage! Even a good production can be reduced to Pantomime status with the audience shouting 'he's behind you!'
 

SirOtter

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Christopher Lee was Dracula. He has such an amazing presence.

And best of all, he doesn't sparkle!

I've seen every Hammer horror film several times, own most of them. I've been a fan since I saw my first one back in the late 60s.
 

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I love the Universal monsters, but the Hammer Dracula films are a very, very close second. They scared me as a kid. Can't remember which movie it was, but they were in a dining room and Cushing leaps up and tears down some curtains, the sunlight strikes Dracula's hand and it turns to bone. Seeing Dracula shrivel up in the sun is still memorable.
 

thothguard51

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I don't think Ingrid Pitt was in that one; probably Barbara Ewing.

Ingrid was in The Vampire Lovers, which, coming several years before Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness, probably did have the first noteable vampire lesbian scene.

Barbara Ewing was another good one...
 

DavidZahir

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Hammer films were/are so very much fun--at their very best they are not only lots of fun but sometimes genuinely insightful. The Vampire Lovers is actually one of the best adaptations of Le Fanu's Carmilla, for example, and Vampire Circus is a genuinely disturbing, original story. Curse of the Werewolf is also a pivotal film of its genre.
 

seun

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I don't think Ingrid Pitt was in that one; probably Barbara Ewing.

Yeah, Babs was in Dracula Has Risen...Love the scene where she walks around in her underwear for no apparent reason. :D

Can't remember which movie it was, but they were in a dining room and Cushing leaps up and tears down some curtains, the sunlight strikes Dracula's hand and it turns to bone. Seeing Dracula shrivel up in the sun is still memorable.

That was the first Hammer Dracula - released as Horror of Dracula in the States. Saw that when I was around 10 and thought it was one of the coolest films ever. I still do.
 

Manuel Royal

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Although not a Dracula movie, another good Hammer vampire movie was Captain Kronos -- Vampire Hunter. Had some fun vampire lore, the yummy Caroline Munro, and one of the better dealing-with-three-mercenaries-hired-to-kill-you-in-a-bar scenes.
 

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Honestly, I though they under-used Lee. His subsequent career indicated just what he could have done with that role if given a real chance. Still, I enjoyed almost all of them (the two modern day versions and Scars of Dracula leave me cold). Another wish is that they'd maintained some things established in the first film, namely that one bite does not necessarily kill and/or transform a victim into a vampire.