Reviews of vampire movies.
Wednesday, May 21st 2008
Grade: B-
Synopsis: A doctor (Roger Perry) battles a vampire (Robert Quarry) in 1970’s Los Angeles.
Count Yorga, Vampire is a better than it really has any right to be. I began life as a soft-core porn before morphing into a straight horror. Some of the erotic elements remain though, and add to the film’s bizarre charm.
This is a prime example of how a small budget can be an asset. With little money for lighting, the small crew only had a few actual lights, but this translated into lots of dark, atmospheric shots. With little money for special effects, the filmmaker’s had to improvise ways to shock the audience, such as a particularly memorable scene involving a cat. MORE »
Posted at 3:38 PM in Movie Reviews and Vampire Movies.
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Monday, February 4th 2008
Grade: F
Synopsis: Old Mother Riley foils a mad scientist (Bela Lugosi) and his android.
Mother Riley Meets the Vampire was the last in a string of movies featuring the titular character, Old Mother Riley, played by Arthur Lucan.
Lucan isn’t funny as Riley. At all. He shrieks and mugs his way through the entire film, like some kind of bad vaudeville act. That he made sixteen other movies based around Mother Riley character is simply mystifying.
The kicker here is that Bela Lugosi is actually pretty good, in an Ed Wood, so-bad-it’s-good, kinda way, but Lucan’s incessantly annoying performance obliterates any camp value. MORE »
Posted at 4:39 PM in Movie Reviews, Bela Lugosi and Vampire Movies.
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Thursday, January 24th 2008
Grade: C
Synopsis: After villagers start turning up dead and drained of blood, local townspeople suspect a vampire.
The Vampire Bat is a highly atmospheric thriller that works almost in spite of itself.
For the first three-quarters, The Vampire Bat is a solid a mystery-thriller. The very American Melvyn Douglas plays a German policeman who, along with a doctor played by Lionel Atwill, investigates a series of mysterious deaths in the local village. All signs point to a vampire and the local loon played by Dwight Frye (in a performance very reminiscent of his turn in Dracula (1931)) is the chief suspect. MORE »
Posted at 12:44 PM in Movie Reviews and Vampire Movies.
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Wednesday, January 23rd 2008
Grade: C
Synopsis: After running out of petrol, a young couple on their honeymoon falls prey to a vampire cult.
The Kiss of the Vampire starts out with a funeral sequence dripping vintage Hammer atmosphere. As Clifford Evan’s character, Professor Zimmer, approaches the grave, the townspeople are visibly afraid and whisper amongst themselves that he’s probably drunk. Zimmer casts a haunted gaze down at the coffin and reaches, wordlessly, for the gravedigger’s spade, which he then hurls down into the coffin. A scream rings out as the camera cuts to the coffin spurting blood where the spade pierced the wood and the vampire corpse within. Cut to opening titles. MORE »
Posted at 2:07 PM in Movie Reviews, Hammer Film and Vampire Movies.
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Wednesday, January 2nd 2008
Grade: D
Synopsis: A vampire countess (Gloria Holden) believes a physician (Otto Kruger) may be able to cure her blood lust.
Dracula’s Daughter is an ill-conceived sequel to Dracula (1931) that’s chock full of plot holes.
Supposedly picking up right where Dracula left off Van Helsing (still played by Edward Sloan, although his character is now credited as Von Helsing) finds himself under arrest for Dracula’s murder. The first hole pops up right here, as neither John Harker nor Jack Seward are mentioned, let alone present, as Harker was at the end of the original film.
The next large plot hole pops up shortly after. The original Dracula was set in turn-of-the-century England, yet this film features cars, radios and telephones, all indicative of a more modern setting. Apparently, it took Van Helsing 30 years to walk out of Carfax Abbey. MORE »
Posted at 3:35 PM in Movie Reviews, Universal Monster and Vampire Movies.
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