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Here they are for today.

Hammer Dracula series: As I was growing up and loving many of these films there was only one Dracula that I knew and that was Christopher Lee. It was a bit later that I discovered Bela Lugosi, but Chris Lee was “my first.” So for me it is always great to see him as Dracula, even if more than a  few of the films are not very good. There were 7 Chris Lee Dracula films and the first (Horror of Dracula) is the best so I am saving that one for later in this countdown. Horror of Dracula was kind of a game changer for Horror movies, and the surge was on. Funny enough though it was 8 years before the next Chris Lee Dracula film. Hammer was producing many horror films during that time (including vampire movies) but no Dracula until 1966.

Dracula Prince of Darkness: And this was that next film! Not particularly inspiring, but the revival of Dracula is pretty good (and violent for it’s time). The film actually begins with footage from the exciting ending of Horror of Dracula. Van Helsing destroys Dracula, and that should have been it but………………lost travelers end up having to stay at castle Dracula for the evening, and one of them is killed then cut open, and hung out to dry above Dracula’s crypt (containing his ashes). Blood streams down like a fountain, and revives Dracula. Unfortunately Chris Lee speaks not a line of dialogue on this movie and he has since said that the dialogue was SO terrible that he refused to say any of it so……….Dracula has to depend on his evil eye. The ending is especially perplexing. he is killed by “running water.” Dracula slips through a hole in the ice into water and is destroyed? Hmmmmm. Good to see Christopher Lee again though. Next……….

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave: This was the first Dracula film I ever remember seeing. I saw it at the drive in and thought he was a REAL imposing and scary character. Dracula is accidentally revived by a priest who goes to the castle Dracula to assist in placing a large crucifix on the door of the castle. He becomes lost, takes a fall, and hits his head on an iced up stream. Of course Dracula is frozen in the ice, and blood drips from a small wound on the priest’s head into a crack in the ice AND into Dracula’s mouth…reviving him. Dracula discovers the crucifix and goes on a revenge spree. The ending is memorable………it takes place back at Castle Dracula, as the crucifix has been removed from the door, and tossed aside into a shallow ravine. Dracula, and the hero struggle, and both tumble over the side into the ravine. The hero hangs on just off the railing whilst Dracula falls straight on to the crucifix impaling him from behind.  There he is….the end of a crucifix pointing straight out of his chest, and he can’t get  it out! I would say this one is a not too bad, but not great one. They got a lot worse though!

Taste the Blood of Dracula: This would actually be a pretty good movie without Dracula in it. As a matter of fact he was added late in the game and it shows. he mostly stand around having others do the killing for him. The interesting part of the story are the three “thrill seeking” types. Older men who in their outward appearance are very old styled, English law abiding citizens, but secretly they carry on with depraved acts. Sex, drinking, drugs you name it. Until they meet a fellow who says he has the ashes of Dracula and can revive him in a ceremony…things go south after that! Originally the film did not even have Dracula in it, but Hammer inserted Chris Lee so he just stands there giving out orders. The result is this film is not put together all too well. It’s Christopher Lee though, and that always helps.

Scars of Dracula: Lots of blood in this one, and we finally get to see Dracula crawl up the side of his castle wall, just as he did in the novel. Also starring Patrick Troughton who played Dr. Who for a run in the 1960′s. This one is a strange mix of  traditional Dracula stuff and Dracula doing things we are not used to seeing. I won’t spoil it for you here though. see it for yourself, and have a listen to the commentary track featuring Christopher Lee and Roy Ward Baker!

Dracula AD: It was at this point that Hammer made the decision to bring Dracula into the modern age so there he is in swinging London in the early 70′s! Does it work? Not really..sigh, but the film does open with an exciting flashback sequence to Dracula and Van Helsing battling it out. Dracula ends up being accidentally impaled on a broken wooden spoke of the horse carriage  the 2 of them are fighting on. The film is interesting because Peter Cushing plays the Van Helsing parts. The original Van Helsing in the opening sequence AND Van Helsing’s descendant in the modern part of the film. Always good to see Lee and Cushing together! They were great friends in real life and starred together in several films. 2 classic/and class guys that always gave their best.

Satanic Rites of Dracula: The last of the Christopher Lee/Hammer Dracula films and it shows! The film continues in the current day (early 70′s) and this time Dracula has a major plan.  He has had a scientist develop an extremely contagious and deadly bacteria that wioll wipe out all the humans on Earth. Van Helsing (Cushing again) tells Dracula that he secretly wants to die, and this “revenge” he is taking out on all mortals will never replace that (or he says something to that effect if I remember correctly). When Lee yells out “My revenge has spread over centuries!” we know it is time that this series was put to rest…and it was. BUT, in the end I will always remember Chris Lee as a towering, intimidating, frightening and classic Dracula.

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein: The best monster comedy film ever. This was 1948, and the Universal monsters had become pretty much old hat. They had repeated themselves so many times, and all that was left for them was a comedy. So Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Lon Chaney as the Wolfman, and Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein monster made one last appearance. Oh yes, and there was a very short cameo of the Invisible man at the end of the film who was voiced by none other than Vincent Price! Dracula wants to finally control the monster, and needs an extremely susceptible brain for the job. Larry Talbot knows about this plot and tracks the two of them to America. Abbott and Costello (THE comic team of the 1940′s) were of course caught in the middle of all this. Who can forget the climax? Abbott and Costello running from room to room chased by the Frankenstein monster, while Dracula and the Wolfman continually barge in and out fighting each other.  It’s a great send off to the classic monsters, and supposedly there were other monsters to be included in the early script stages. The Mummy among them.  Get it for this Halloween and watch it with the kids.

Son of Frankenstein !939): The REAL star of this film is Bela Lugosi as Ygor. He does a grand job with the part, and seems to enjoy the heck out of it. This was also the last time Karloff played the monster, and he gets a grand send off…..falling to his death into a pit of boiling sulfur, having been pushed there by Wolf Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone swinging from a cable) just after the monster has torn off the prosthetic arm of inspector Kroegh (Lionel Atwill). The monster swings the arm about, Kreogh fires his pistol, while the monster pins the young son of Wolf Frankenstein to the ground with his foot! This was also the first Universal monster film with one of those memorable Skinner/Salter soundtracks AND it began a new horror cycle of the 1940′s. Just a fun film to watch because of the characters and the expressionist style it was shot in. Highly recommended.

Gamera vs Legion: My favorite of the three modern Gamera films it has everything. A city blows up, Gamera struggles valiantly, and the monster foe(s) are unique and tough. An army of crab like, alien forms show up and even Gamera has a tough time with them. There are so many…they cover him like a bee hive! he escapes, but that is only the beginning. There is a also a HUGE Mother version. These creatures are dubbed the Legion, and the mother Legion is very bad ass! She has a very tough outer shell, and fires deadly energy that wipes out the military. She beats Gamera badly in their first encounter with a surprise attack, and the entire swarm of Legion is wiping out the energy as it travels towards Tokyo. The final battle is a lot of fun, and the climax is especially great. I highly recommend this film if you like Japanese Kaiju films, and especially if all you remember is the old Gamera. This is DEFINITELY not your old Gamera.

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 1, 2 and 3: Mechagodzilla seems to be so popular that he has appeared in 5 films and the first appearance is one of my favorites.

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974): Aliens want to conquer the Earth, but Godzilla stands in their way. How to beat Godzilla? Build a huge robot, that look  like Godzilla and call him Mechagodzilla. A monkey wrench is thrown into the works though. Okinawa’s own King Seesar is revived after an ancient sleep to defend against Mechagodzilla. Mechagodzilla is one tough robot too. he beats the snot out of Angilas, and holds his own against Godzilla and King Seesar at the same time. Finger missiles, mouth beam, a chest beam, force filed, toe missiles…he’s go the goods, but eventually Godzilla outsmarts him and (with King Seesar’s help) send MG to oblivion. To me this is the most fun Godzilla film of the 1970′s.

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975): This film was the last of the Showa Godzilla films and is a direct sequel to Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla. It’s a little slow, but we do meet a new monster called Titanosaurus. Aliens, Mechagodzilla, a cyborg chick, music by Akira Ifukube, and Godzilla. It’s goofy yes, but it’s still a fun watch. Classic Media issued an excellent DVD with the Japanese and the American cuts, which is lucky for us in the US because the version that floated around for years was a horrendously edited one that made little sense at times.

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1993): This may be the best of the Hesei era Godzilla films. The Japanese “G force” (a gov’t organization formed to stop and/or exterminate) Godzilla builds a super robot out of the technology left behind by the remnants of Mecha King Ghidorah. This is a huge robot called Mechagodzilla and it is operated by a crew inside it’s head. It’s very powerful , BUT it’s main weapon is it’s armor coating and plasma cannon. When Godzilla fires his powerful breath at Mechagodzilla it’s armor plating skin, absorbs the blast and sends it back at Godzilla through a very powerful plasma cannon. There is also a fun battle between Godzilla and Rodan, although this is not quite the huge, powerful, majestic Rodan from years before. We also meet Baby Godzilla. A slightly larger than human sized “godzilla.” This is a wonderful movie, with a great Godzilla ending. Godzilla is in big trouble against Mechagodzilla, and has basically lost, then………….ah why spoil it for you. Watch this movie!

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (2002): For a lower budgeted film this one is a lot of fun. The Godzilla films of the 2000′s (millenium Godzilla’s) were all separate time lines. Like it or not…that’s the way they did it. Anyway, this timeline went like this. The government uses the DNA from the bones of the original Godzilla to build Kiryu. Kiryu is a huge robot Godzilla equipped with an extremely harsh freeze cannon. Kiryu and Godzilla end up battling in Tokyo in what is actually one of the more fun monster battles in a while.Sometimes the effects fall flat, but the spirit is there. The US dub on the DVD is pretty bad, so see if you can seek out a Japanese version with subs somewhere.

Godzilla, Mothra, Mechagodzilla Tokyo SOS (2003): This is a direct sequel to Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla and (at least for me) it is pretty good. The Kiryu saga concludes, Mothra shows up to protest the digging up of Godzilla’s bones, plus Godzilla and Kiryu have a rematch. This time with a different result. Mothra appears as the adult moth AND two larva caterpillars. The Mothra adult looks the best she has looked in almost 40 years! It seems that Kiryu (Mechagodzilla) is unhappy with it’s existence and wants to rest in peace. First though…there is plenty of monster fighting. Mothra fights Godzilla, then Kiryu steps in , then the adult is killed, then the larva step in to aid Kiryu who gives Godzilla a very painful “drill arm” in the stomach! Godzilla is the thorn in everyone’s side though, and how he ends up is something you will have to watch this movie to learn. A pretty good Millenium Godzilla entry from director Masaki Tezuka.

Night Gallery: (1969-1973) An underrated (and sometimes very un even) “anthology styled show that at it’s best could be quite frightening. Rod Serling “hosted” the show and introduced each segment with cool paintings (see pic). Each show usually consisted of more than one story, so if you didn’t like one, you had more to choose from. Some of  my favorite segments are:

The Pilot episode (which I saw when it first aired and it scared that 9 year old back then!)

The Little Black bag Burgess Meredith!)

The Doll (A doll is ALWAYS scary)

The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes (Clint Howard is good in this)

Silent Snow, Secret Snow (a tragic story of a boy who retreats into his own world)

A Question of Fear (Leslie Nielson and definitely NOT a comedy)

Pickman’s Model (HP Lovecraft)

The Caterpillar (maybe the best one of the series)

AND many more. If you enjoyed the Twilight Zone you may like this show. Although it is much more Horror/fantasy oriented. Most episodes are now available in 2 box sets. I would recommend these any time to anyone.

Blair Witch Project: This film caused a big sensation when it came out. Made for next to nothing it raked in millions of dollars. Why? because we didn’t see the threat. We heard things, saw results of things (where our imagination can play havok with us!), but not the Witch or threat itself. This movie becomes a bit tiresome though because it is shot through someone’s video camera. 3 people have gone missing in the woods, and only the camera is found, so the story is told through whatever was shot on that tape in that camera. So….the jittery camera sometimes gets on your nerves, but there are moments. Ok, ok I won’t spoil it for you, but the ending is especially creepy. If you have only heard about this film you may want to finally  check it out this Halloween. It seems to divide people though. You either like it or you don’t. I do like it.

The Golem: This is the only silent version of this “fable” still existing. Paul Wegner shot earlier version that are all lost. So…..while the story itself is cool the Golem is a bit silly looking, but he has a temper! Here is a short and to the point synopsis from Wiki:

“The film concerns itself with the legendary creation of the Golem, which had appeared in the earlier film, by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel. In the 16th century, the Jews of Prague face persecution. Rabbi Loew creates a giant Golem out of clay to protect the people. Unfortunately, the creature rebels, setting fire to the ghetto, and wreaks deadly havoc. In the end, a small girl stops the Golem by removing the amulet (magic 5-pointed star) from its chest.”

This version is available in a good DVD version from Kino. Check it out to see the best version out there.

Let the Right One in (2007): Sometimes we need other countries points of view to get a refreshing take on a tired genre. The “vampire” genre has taken some very hard hits in recent years.  I guess it all started somewhere with the Interview With A Vampire Dreck and continues into today with the Twilight world. Sigh….the days of a terrifying Nosferatu seem so far away now. Well…..this film is a nice compromise. It doesn’t cream puff the subject matter. The Vampire (a young girl) is a terrible creature, yet she is still a bit of a girl. The strange relationship between her and the young boy (who takes over as her “provider-helper) is not a sickening romantic nonsensical one as in Twilight.  The film has just been r e-made as Let Me In, so if you haven’t seen it yet I won’t say anything else. You may want to watch the original Swedish version first though. It is an original take, on an old subject. Highly recommended.

The Birds: Hitchcock…how can you go wrong here? There are small metaphors spread out in this film, but never is there a real reason to why the Birds attack people, and that is one of the best parts of this film. Nowadays, the studio would feel the need to explain away everything. Too bad about that. Most have probably seen this film if not, you only need remember that it is a Hitchcock movie. That reason alone should be good enough to see it. This scared me as a kid too!

I walked with a Zombie: Another Val Lewton film. First off…to be clear…lewton supposedly did NOT choose the title. the studio did. Secondly this is a Val Lewton styled film all the way through. Your imagination has to be switched on because much of the fear is implied through atmosphere, sound and such. The Zombie angle (BTW) is Haitian in nature, and NOT walking dead that eat your flesh! Unfortunately, as good as Lewton is he may not be up to the so called “modern” taste of some people. That’s a shame, because a good film is a good film no matter WHEN it was made, and this one is pretty good, no matter how you slice it. Best place to get it is that Val Lewton DVD box that I mentioned in a previous post.

2001 a Space Odyssey: (1968) I saw this when it came out at age 8. I didn’t get it then, but I have developed my own interpretation though the years, and with another viewing you may too. Wonderful special effects, great music and Kubrick. A good combination, but for many people it may be way too  slow of a movie. Truth is it IS slow, but that was on purpose. The pacing is part of the atmosphere, and at times it works VERY well. If you have never seen this take some time, and watch it for yourself. Just don’t tell anyone that HAL sent you.

So bad guilty and everything else….

How to Make a Monster: (1958)  AIP strikes again! A Hollywood monster makeup man who created famous characters such as Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein is upset that the new studio owners are phasing out his department. So what does an obsessive makeup man do? He creates a “hypnotic makeup” that makes the user susceptible to commands, and orders the teenage monsters to kill the studio execs! Ok, a dumb sounding plot, but seeing many more of Paul Blaisdell’s creations in the makeup guys home is pretty cool.

Paul Naschy: Good old Paul. He was a workhorse. The “Spanish Lon Chaney” toiled away for years as monsters. Especially as his most famous creation……..Waldemar Daninsky, the werewolf.  A bit more on an institution from Wiki:

”

The werewolf Waldemar Daninsky is without a doubt Paul Naschy’s most famous horror character, since he played Daninsky in 12 different films. In fact, Naschy holds the record for playing a werewolf the most number of times, easily beating out the great Lon Chaney Jr. (who played a Wolf Man only seven times during his career).

Unlike the Chaney Universal films, however, which formed a somewhat chronological storyline from picture to picture, Naschy’s Daninsky films were not connected to each other plotwise. Each film was more or less a free-standing story that was not meant to relate to the other films in the series the way the old Lawrence Talbot movies often interconnected. Daninsky’s lycanthropy had a different origin in each film (which many Naschy film buffs find confusing). This was probably for the best, since in the 1970′s, Euro-horror films were often theatrically distributed years after they were completed, and they probably would’ve all been released out of chronological order anyway.

Only eleven of the 12 “Hombre Lobo” films actually exist today. All traces of the 1968 “Nights of the Wolf Man” apparently vanished before the film was ever released, and it remains a mystery to this day whether or not the film ever really existed at all in a completed form. (The producer of the film, one Rene Govar, is said to have died in a car accident in Paris a week after the film was completed, and no one ever picked up the lab bill that was outstanding. Hence it is thought the people who owned the lab may have confiscated the film print. Naschy claimed he only became aware decades later that the film had never been released anywhere.) Some Naschy fans think the film was scrapped by the producer before it was completed and the script was later rewritten to become the 4th film in the series, “Fury of the Wolf Man” (1970). This is possible since Naschy himself vaguely remembered both films as having almost the same exact plot!

Naschy’s only other recurring character was the villainous medieval warlock Alaric de Marnac (who appears in Naschy’s Horror Rises From the Tomb (1972) and returns to life again in Panic Beats (1982)). Naschy claims he based this character on a real-life medieval nobleman named Gilles de Rais, a bizarre serial killer on whose life story Naschy also based the lead character in his 1974 film The Marshall From Hell.”

If you are going to watch a Naschy film be prepared….they are cheap, and not the greatest films. However give Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror a try and see what YOU think.  Come to think of it I haven’t watched a Naschy film in a while. Time to get to it this Halloween.

Happy Halloween…more tmrw,

Robert

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 24th, 2010 at 9:29 am and is filed under Halloween Movie Countdown 2010. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.