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You sign your kids up for Camp Fear, it'd be scarier if they didn't have a skeleton bus driver.
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Welcome To Our Nightmare: A Terror and Wooley Horror Show
The first song is quite old, maybe early 1910s. The recording is from Tom Waits' The Black Rider from 1994. The Nick Cave song is from his Murder Ballads, which is one of his best albums. Highly recommended.
So that's a Tom Waits cover of a song from the 1910s?
So that's a Tom Waits cover of a song from the 1910s?
There's a bunch of 78 instrumentals, but this is one of the earliest vocal versions I could find.
The Black Rider is a great Tom Waits record, right in line with Raindogs and Bone Machine, and all seasonally appropriate. The music was originally written for a Robert Wilson stage production, which you can see below (also seasonally appropriate), but it still deserves to be heard from Waits himself, and friends like Old Bill.
THE VAMPIRE DOLL (1970)
LAKE OF DRACULA (1971)
EVIL OF DRACULA (1974)
In the same year that I learned of Universal's Ape-Woman trilogy, I also learned that Toho made this trio of films. (Pretty sure I have @Rockatansky to thank for that.) These are marketed on BluRay as "The Bloodthirsty Trilogy" but the films don't share any characters or plot elements, so calling them a trilogy isn't really accurate, but whatever.
So this is Toho making a credible stab at Western-style gothic horror and very much succeeding, as far as I'm concerned. They're not period pieces so I'm inclined to compare them to Amicus more than Hammer but fans of that era/approach are strongly encouraged to check these out.
Vampire Doll is a strong opener, about a young man visiting his fiance in her rural town only to learn that she's been killed in an accident. OR HAS SHE??
Pretty strong sense of atmosphere here and lots of creepy bits.
Lake of Dracula ramps up the creepy-castle aesthetic and leans harder into the supernatural elements than Doll. It features one of the most intense vampire deaths I've seen (with cool makeup to go along with it) and introduced me to my newest vampire crush, Sanae Emi.
Evil of Dracula is the sexiest of the three. To wit: victims are found with bite marks not on their necks but on their bewbs.
So all three of these were completely up my alley and I'm definitely buying the Arrow Blu Rays in the near future. I can easily recommend all three to fans of vintage horror, but if you're a more casual fan I'd say start with Lake of Dracula. I'm the first to admit that this Cobwebs 'n' Candelabras subgenre can be a real sleep-inducing affair, but I found all of these to be very accessible, nicely paced and a lot more coherent story-wise than some of these things tend to be.
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I wouldn't call any of those masterpieces, but they did hit the spot for low-key, Hammer-inspired atmosphere.
It's worth noting that The Vampire Doll stars Kayo Matsuo, who some will recognize as the head lady ninja from Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx and Shogun Assassin. Alas, she does not chop anybody into a stump while cackling in this.
It's worth noting that The Vampire Doll stars Kayo Matsuo, who some will recognize as the head lady ninja from Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx and Shogun Assassin. Alas, she does not chop anybody into a stump while cackling in this.
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So what Hammer Films Production treat do we have coming at us?
Vampire Doll is the only one I've seen, but I'm keen to seek out the others.
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All three are on Tubi.
I've found that this is a pretty good site when you know what you're looking for, but trying to browse it is useless. Tons of junk on the surface. Is there somewhere that can sift the gold from the chaff to make it easier to find what I would want to see?
If you use Letterboxd, it can tell you if a movie you've looked up is on there, which can be helpful.
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I assume you mean it's Hammer time.
So what Hammer Films Production treat do we have coming at us?
So what Hammer Films Production treat do we have coming at us?
I'm in the middle of the complete Mummy Tetralogy. (new word I just learned.)
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I wouldn't call any of those masterpieces, but they did hit the spot for low-key, Hammer-inspired atmosphere.
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I've found that this is a pretty good site when you know what you're looking for, but trying to browse it is useless. Tons of junk on the surface. Is there somewhere that can sift the gold from the chaff to make it easier to find what I would want to see?
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It is, indeed, Hammer Time.
I'm in the middle of the complete Mummy Tetralogy. (new word I just learned.)
I'm in the middle of the complete Mummy Tetralogy. (new word I just learned.)
THE MUMMY (1959)
Not my first time watching this one of course, so not much to say. If you're in the market for a Hammer film, this is one of the good ones. Peter Cushing doing his usual solid job, excellent creature design, beautiful sets beautifully filmed, and Christopher Lee showing a range of emotions with only his eyes.
Also a horrific tongue-removal that happens offscreen but we still see enough to curl my toes.
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