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{ [ VAMPIRES: UNDER THE HAMMER ] } Butler, Charles E ( AUTHOR ) Nov-16-2013 Paperback
Vampires under the Hammer concentrates its gaze on every vampire movie made under the original Hammer film studio between 1957 and 1974. reviewing all the Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee and all the Karnstein trilogy of films based on JS Lefanu's Carmilla. Inroads to Brides of Dracula, Kiss of the Vampire and Vampire Circus are featured as are the curios Captain Kronos and Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.
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First published November 15, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 22, 2014
Hammer horror movies were a staple requirement during my formative years, normally screened late at night when Tyne Tees were trying to fill some dead air, recorded faithfully by my parents and then watched and devoured the following day.
Of the many topics pumped out for filming by the great British studio, it's vampires - and especially Count Dracula - that dominated, indeed I think the first Hammer I ever saw was The Brides of Dracula. I must have been around 10 when I watched it. I was terrified. What I couldn't have known at the time was that Brides was about as good as Hammer ever got. They churned out Dracula flick after Dracula flick, at the behest of funding from the US and to sate an American market eager for another 'bite' of their favourite Gothic monster. For a time, it didn't even matter that Dracula entries were formulaic to the point of increasing tedium, certainly as far as regular star Christopher Lee was concerned, looking ever more bored and uninvolved. Then there were the non-Dracula vampire films - the altogether racier Karnstein trilogy, along with an unlinked sequence of one-offs, which often enough turned out to be more imaginative and enjoyable than the diabolical (it says here) Count's adventures.
All are dissected by Mr Butler in this criticism, a neat companion piece to Hammer's vampiric output. The tone of the book should be appreciable for any Hammer fan - it's written in the knowledge that very few of the films covered are actually any good, however there's a great deal of affection for them, some very skilled people were involved in their making and, damn it, they're a part of the British cinematic landscape! I am reminded that actually little of the horror genre constitutes anything approaching great cinema, not just Hammer, who knew how to stretch a limited budget to the point of breaking, always made good looking features with lovely attention to period detail and tried to do nothing more than entertain with their releases. Not a lot wrong with that, if you ask me.
One of the sadder aspects of the book is its effort to biograph many of the players and main crew members, so many of whom have since passed away. The affection felt by the author for Lord Peter Cushing is palpable - by all accounts a lovely man, a real gentleman and happy to apply his undoubted skills to whatever scurrilous project for which he'd been signed. The detail that goes into these notes is exhaustive and a pleasure.
A fine, enjoyable book that made me feel nostalgic and ready for another burst of Hammer viewing, perhaps a blast of the brilliant Brides of Dracula, possibly an attempt to catch the one film covered in it that I haven't yet seen, The Vampire Circus. Recommended for any film viewer who has quite rightly found the stagy, dated Hammer classics of yesteryear to be the guiltiest of pleasures.
Of the many topics pumped out for filming by the great British studio, it's vampires - and especially Count Dracula - that dominated, indeed I think the first Hammer I ever saw was The Brides of Dracula. I must have been around 10 when I watched it. I was terrified. What I couldn't have known at the time was that Brides was about as good as Hammer ever got. They churned out Dracula flick after Dracula flick, at the behest of funding from the US and to sate an American market eager for another 'bite' of their favourite Gothic monster. For a time, it didn't even matter that Dracula entries were formulaic to the point of increasing tedium, certainly as far as regular star Christopher Lee was concerned, looking ever more bored and uninvolved. Then there were the non-Dracula vampire films - the altogether racier Karnstein trilogy, along with an unlinked sequence of one-offs, which often enough turned out to be more imaginative and enjoyable than the diabolical (it says here) Count's adventures.
All are dissected by Mr Butler in this criticism, a neat companion piece to Hammer's vampiric output. The tone of the book should be appreciable for any Hammer fan - it's written in the knowledge that very few of the films covered are actually any good, however there's a great deal of affection for them, some very skilled people were involved in their making and, damn it, they're a part of the British cinematic landscape! I am reminded that actually little of the horror genre constitutes anything approaching great cinema, not just Hammer, who knew how to stretch a limited budget to the point of breaking, always made good looking features with lovely attention to period detail and tried to do nothing more than entertain with their releases. Not a lot wrong with that, if you ask me.
One of the sadder aspects of the book is its effort to biograph many of the players and main crew members, so many of whom have since passed away. The affection felt by the author for Lord Peter Cushing is palpable - by all accounts a lovely man, a real gentleman and happy to apply his undoubted skills to whatever scurrilous project for which he'd been signed. The detail that goes into these notes is exhaustive and a pleasure.
A fine, enjoyable book that made me feel nostalgic and ready for another burst of Hammer viewing, perhaps a blast of the brilliant Brides of Dracula, possibly an attempt to catch the one film covered in it that I haven't yet seen, The Vampire Circus. Recommended for any film viewer who has quite rightly found the stagy, dated Hammer classics of yesteryear to be the guiltiest of pleasures.
December 8, 2013
The vast library of Hammer Films’ vampire sagas is opened wide by Charles E. Butler in his third critical opus. He takes on not only the entire Dracula series which made Christopher Lee a household name, but also the Carmilla Karnstein trilogy inaugurated by Ingrid Pitt, and the company’s second-tier entries, leading the readers through another nostalgic tour of the horrors of yesteryear and reflecting on their influences on subsequent vampire treatments, as well as their own remarkable staying power. Many of the now-familiar vampire traits—the blazing red eyes, the sharp protruding fangs, the explicit emphasis on blood, and even the sexual undertone to the relationships between vampires and victims—were made such largely by the British studio, perhaps even more than by their American precursors, the Universal Horrors, whose own vampire excursions often felt the weight of heavier demands of censorship.
Each chapter is punctuated with exhaustive research, historical analysis, personal recollections, and interesting fun facts. There isn’t a Hammer devotee around who doesn’t know of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, but how many are aware that the nightclub setting in DRACULA, A.D. 1972 once featured the Beatles as regular performers? Or that Peter Sallis, Wallace from the WALLACE AND GROMIT series, was one of the heavies in TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA? Tidbits of information such as these, especially for the film collectors and fans, add to the overall appreciation of the movies.
As in his previous books, Butler also shows off his equally-impressive artistic talents with character shots, offering new renditions of iconic images of Cushing, Lee, Pitt and more, which we all have etched in our memories.
VAMPIRES UNDER THE HAMMER is an enriching showcase of an essential era of the vampire film. So sit back, turn the page, and lose yourself in a world of foreboding castles, terrified populaces, and the bloodthirsty noblemen and noblewomen at the center of it all.
Each chapter is punctuated with exhaustive research, historical analysis, personal recollections, and interesting fun facts. There isn’t a Hammer devotee around who doesn’t know of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, but how many are aware that the nightclub setting in DRACULA, A.D. 1972 once featured the Beatles as regular performers? Or that Peter Sallis, Wallace from the WALLACE AND GROMIT series, was one of the heavies in TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA? Tidbits of information such as these, especially for the film collectors and fans, add to the overall appreciation of the movies.
As in his previous books, Butler also shows off his equally-impressive artistic talents with character shots, offering new renditions of iconic images of Cushing, Lee, Pitt and more, which we all have etched in our memories.
VAMPIRES UNDER THE HAMMER is an enriching showcase of an essential era of the vampire film. So sit back, turn the page, and lose yourself in a world of foreboding castles, terrified populaces, and the bloodthirsty noblemen and noblewomen at the center of it all.
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January 27, 2015good critical discussion of all the Vampire films made by Hammer Studios
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews