Hammer Time! My Steady Diet of Dracula

Before last week, I had never watched a Hammer Horror movie. Meaning, that I had strangely never seen Christopher Lee in the role of Dracula. I know his version of Dracula is a classic and I really meant to get around to watching him at some point. I just hadn't. As you know, I liked Christopher Lee in his role as Willy Wonka's father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I also liked him as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

So, I had only watched an older Christopher Lee in movies. It was interesting to see him as a younger actor, playing Dracula. He had some very graceful moves, which were accentuated by that huge cape. From just watching him on the screen, I could tell he was tall and had a strong presence. At times, a commanding presence. His Dracula was able to control people with just one look. You can see him work his magic on the ladies in this video, which is set to some nice Tango music midway through:

To return to where I began, I'm pretty new to Hammer's version of Dracula. The reason that I'm up to date now is that my Mom gave me a 4 DVD set of Hammer's Dracula movies for Christmas. I'm not usually one to watch a lot of movies, but I was sick last week. So it was a good time to lay on the couch and get a steady diet of Dracula. The movies in this set are: Horror of Dracula (1958), Dracula has Risen From the Grave (1968), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) and Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972). I'm not going to review these in great detail, because four movie reviews would take forever to write. That, and watching four Dracula movies in succession while having a head cold sort of made them blend together.

To be brief.... Strangely, Horror of Dracula was my least favorite. I say strangely, because usually the first movie in a series is my favorite. I think the problem here was that I had already read Bram Stoker's Dracula. I felt that too much artistic license was being taken in this movie. As in the book, there were characters like Jonathan Harker and Lucy, but major parts of the story had been changed. It wasn't a bad movie, I just wish they would have left the original plot alone.

 

Dracula has Risen From the Grave had Dracula at his most violent. In all the other movies, he was able to seduce people and put them instantly under his spell. This time he was more frustrated, loud, and willing to slap people. Aside from Dracula's aggression, I enjoyed the movie. It has more religion in the plot, as a Monsignor attempts to exorcise Dracula's castle. There's also a cute little love story between the Monsignor's niece and a local baker.

Taste the Blood of Dracula was great. I actually cared about the characters in this one. The main plot revolves around a group of sleazy older men who are looking for cheap thrills. One of the meanest sleaze balls has a nice wife and daughter who he more or less keeps locked up and mentally abuses. Meanwhile, he's out visiting a bordello. Go figure. When the bordello is no longer providing enough fun for him and his friends, they decide to dabble in the black arts. This involves "tasting the blood of Dracula". This one is great fun and I liked how the story ended.

Dracula A.D. 1972... Oh boy. Well, this is the movie  that I was most looking forward to in the DVD set. After watching the trailer, I had low expectations but in the very best of ways. Meaning, I expected a cheese fest. It was actually pretty good! The movie was heavy on the silly dance moves, 70's clothing, hilarious lingo, and someone's weird interpretation of hippies. Just great. The basic plot involves the current Van Helsing's granddaughter Jessica, who is hanging around with a bunch of bad seeds. Her friends are sassy swinging kids, who party hard and think it would be fun to play around with Satanic rites. Of course, this does not go well.

(Jessica Van Helsing and her groovy hairdo)

Overall, Hammer movies have a definite style to them. I like the way the movies are filmed, sometimes at weird angles, or looking through trees and windows. There are shadows everywhere and great uses of light. One of my two complaints is that the fake blood could use a little work. It looked like bright red paint, red velvet cake batter, or ketchup. That and the blood seriously never dried! It could be days after the blood was spilled and it would still be sitting in the same neon red, unrealistic pool.

My one other complaint is that Christopher Lee didn't have many lines in these films. I was joking the other day about how he didn't even need to speak English to play this role. He has such an amazing voice too! Here's a little sample of his voice in an old interview from the 1980s. I always like to watch interviews with the actors who played Horror movie villains. It's fun to listen to them just being nice, normal people.

If you're wondering what Christopher Lee is up to nowadays, then this next video will answer that for you! At the age of 89, he is adventurously trying out something called "Symphonic Metal" music. You have to admire that!

Look who came home with me from Dollar Tree

Isn't he an aristocratic looking little bird? I also brought home nine of his friends. They will be playing the important role of place card holders at this year's Halloween party. I might decorate them with rhinestones, bows, or little hats and masks. I'm undecided on what they'll be wearing at this point, but they'll probably be holding little signs bearing each guest's name.

These birds were such a deal for one dollar each! I've seen similar ones being sold for six dollars at craft stores. Being that this was Dollar Tree, some picking and choosing needed to be done. Some birds had missing feathers or were funky in other ways. So, I would say that if you want some of these, you need to get to your local Dollar Store right away, while there are still good birds on hand.

Each of these birds has such a different character. Some of them have outstretched wings or are tilting their heads to the side.

I love how their little eyes are glowing in this photo!


Even though I know these birds aren't real, they still freak me out a little. Something about a bunch of birds, even fake ones, looking at me reminded me too much of a certain movie!


If I have any of these birds left over after the party, I can always cover myself with them and be Tippi Hedren's character in The Birds.

Isn't that an amazing photo? The silhouette of the bird and the shadows that fall across her face are beautiful.

For those of you who would like to dress as Tippi Hedren this Halloween, I found a good how-to article:

http://felinofelice.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-subject-of-costumes.html

So long as you can find an old green dress suit at Goodwill, you should be good to go!

Oh, and don't think I forgot about you guys. You can easily go as Rod Taylor's character:

Just find an old jacket and wear a dress shirt and tie. Then adhere the crows and there ya go! This could actually make a nice couples costume.

Speaking of costumes, I should have a package arriving in the mail soon! Hopefully, my next blog post will be a review of that costume.

My Encounter With Them!

Well, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I saw an ant crawl across the bathroom floor today that was going on an inch long! What's further disturbing is that it was wandering around confused like it just hatched.

Meaning...

1. There are probably more of these inside the house.
2. There is probably a huge mother ant somewhere.

This reminded me of the nutty old 1950's Sci Fi movie "Them!" If you aren't familiar with this movie, here's the trailer: