MICHELLE JOHNSON MELTS 'WAXWORK' WITH DEBORAH FOREMAN

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPSgWscMm8yXlAP3mYgGkpzSgT73f7IKKl_HKR8zHf8KCO4DbHMnRymgaf26ohmQvEhpvgpRwAApsjP8a9ZMpvyQvAcSTMhbgaWV3D9yz03mUqP9xkZ_72qdK0NLch26XLQSZg8vxhUnJde3OjytLQmfgYp1xY6mFOLHXqkY8bQw34Cj9tG2E-G6B6m-mf/s2576/22.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1342" data-original-width="2576" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPSgWscMm8yXlAP3mYgGkpzSgT73f7IKKl_HKR8zHf8KCO4DbHMnRymgaf26ohmQvEhpvgpRwAApsjP8a9ZMpvyQvAcSTMhbgaWV3D9yz03mUqP9xkZ_72qdK0NLch26XLQSZg8vxhUnJde3OjytLQmfgYp1xY6mFOLHXqkY8bQw34Cj9tG2E-G6B6m-mf/s16000/22.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: WAXWORK Year: 1988 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>British director Anthony Hickox sets up what initially feels like a normal teen-slasher by the eclectic high-school students' contrary personalities: all of them gathered on otherwise empty campus bleachers, deciding what to do for the upcoming night...<br><br>Ironically, one couple wants to stay home to watch a horror flick while the others go to the local WAXWORK museum run by British villain-actor David Warner, wielding his usual nefarious charm: and not in the picture enough... </p><span></span>

anthony hickox, dana ashbrook, david warner, deborah foreman, eighties, fantasy, horror, michelle johnson, patrick macnee, vampire, werewolf, zach galligan

MICHELLE JOHNSON MELTS 'WAXWORK' WITH DEBORAH FOREMAN

Title: WAXWORK Year: 1988 Rating: ***1/2 British director Anthony Hickox sets up what initially feels like a normal teen-slasher by the ecle...

SOLEDAD MIRANDA BITING EWA STRÖMBERG IN 'VAMPYROS LESBOS'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCgbzq7k9z7_BAhvBENcEE9o7IHW4MTHV5j8BzBjFRfwhPrbjW7yRhLRej_ZTiR8H-zIsv1p49foJsvTRn8KIrgFmq7PoJMD4Xzno-_2HBc_JUVwTgH7jVP2AK8gHaY4QuAKUhSisYMYpQSXT7LGyJYayQOFkd44LtH49Bt_FCLm_nkUCsLXSBRivlZkE/s2682/Screen%20Shot%202026-01-26%20at%2011.40.15%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1490" data-original-width="2682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCgbzq7k9z7_BAhvBENcEE9o7IHW4MTHV5j8BzBjFRfwhPrbjW7yRhLRej_ZTiR8H-zIsv1p49foJsvTRn8KIrgFmq7PoJMD4Xzno-_2HBc_JUVwTgH7jVP2AK8gHaY4QuAKUhSisYMYpQSXT7LGyJYayQOFkd44LtH49Bt_FCLm_nkUCsLXSBRivlZkE/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202026-01-26%20at%2011.40.15%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Soledad Miranda in VAMPYROS LESBOS Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In what's otherwise infamously campy directing icon Jesús Franco's most creatively/artistic Spanish horror, just the mere casting of perhaps the most beautiful women ever filmed, round-faced brunette Soledad Miranda (who tragically died at 27 one year before release), makes VAMPYROS LESBOS more intriguing than the deliberately basic premise taken straight from both DRACULA and NOSFERATU...<br><br>A pawn in the form of contrasting blonde beauty Ewa Strömberg (in place of solicitor  Jonathan Harker), an insurance agent sent to the Turkish island lair to resolve an inheritance... where she's instantly smitten and bitten by Miranda's Countess Nadine Carody: followed by the usual sickly withdrawals during the human-to-vampire transition... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

andrea montchal, beni cardoso, dennis price, ewa strömberg, heidrun kussin, jesús franco, josé martínez blanco, lesbian, soledad miranda, spanish horror, vampire

SOLEDAD MIRANDA BITING EWA STRÖMBERG IN 'VAMPYROS LESBOS'

Soledad Miranda in VAMPYROS LESBOS Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2 In what's otherwise infamously campy directing icon Jesús Franco's most...

MARIBEL MARTÍN VAMPING AS 'THE BLOOD SPLATTERED BRIDE'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbx7qdXTKS9vNmf4YJ7OfnZVzTAF5uIS3AaffbdntkcU1pbkZ3u8SOUT98O54exRXDRX29h6SKFwSGRrbZ0AWLwFpjQ19_K77Wr1vAxyMQkR5yOPOUdRWiYzgMEw_vjONFUYLspkj588fbKNijJTK7aL0m-LNP-8vzKQal_EK5mpDZYlAZlJPN3Z27_V98/s1740/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1740" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbx7qdXTKS9vNmf4YJ7OfnZVzTAF5uIS3AaffbdntkcU1pbkZ3u8SOUT98O54exRXDRX29h6SKFwSGRrbZ0AWLwFpjQ19_K77Wr1vAxyMQkR5yOPOUdRWiYzgMEw_vjONFUYLspkj588fbKNijJTK7aL0m-LNP-8vzKQal_EK5mpDZYlAZlJPN3Z27_V98/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Maribel Martín in THE BLOOD SPLATTERED BRIDE Year: 1972 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Based on the Gothic vampire novel, perhaps second only to Bram Stoker's DRACULA, Sheridan Le Fanu's CARMILA gets adapted into Spanish horror after the British Hammer film <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/vamplovers.html">VAMPIRE LOVERS</a>...<br><br>Only there's no tangible lesbian element other than a dominating female vampire seducing a young and docile, newly-married wife... making <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2026/01/THTS.html">THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED</a> young-teen actress Maribel Martín (just turned eighteen) the titular BLOOD SPLATTERED BRIDE...</p><p><span></span></p>

alexandra bastedo, lesbian, maribel martín, mystery, rosa m. rodriguez, seventies, simón andreu, spanish horror, thriller, vampire, vicente aranda

MARIBEL MARTÍN VAMPING AS 'THE BLOOD SPLATTERED BRIDE'

Maribel Martín in THE BLOOD SPLATTERED BRIDE Year: 1972 Rating: ***1/2 Based on the Gothic vampire novel, perhaps second only to Bram Stoker...

LORETA TOVAR NECKS MARÍA KOSTY IN 'NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VCJw0Jr3nRcK-oYJACz0YnTlAXXsCrfq5B74WHDnaN0CWUkkeULeo-oldyvUWV_2YsbVwxGz849rpNcViNGbtPiY6jgime2UB1CmPLWsgAqpO67Iy2pRs92O0yJCB2bux6NpQhVzC8-W7CLgICZ3I4HQeRHsPOqnCGif89GJpgHzOFu0XnMbrjxgQ0Aw/s2092/1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="2092" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VCJw0Jr3nRcK-oYJACz0YnTlAXXsCrfq5B74WHDnaN0CWUkkeULeo-oldyvUWV_2YsbVwxGz849rpNcViNGbtPiY6jgime2UB1CmPLWsgAqpO67Iy2pRs92O0yJCB2bux6NpQhVzC8-W7CLgICZ3I4HQeRHsPOqnCGif89GJpgHzOFu0XnMbrjxgQ0Aw/s16000/1.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Loreta Tovar in NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS/LA NOCHE DE LOS BRUJOS Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Spanish director Amando de Ossorio brings back <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2026/01/LGrasp.html">THE LORELEY'S GRASP</a> flirtatious schoolgirl Loreta Tovar as a safari photographer in NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS... and while she was the last hot ingenue to be attacked there, here she's the present-time first girl, making the reliable mistake of wandering out alone...<br><br>Beginning with gorgeous red-haired missionary Bárbara Rey killed by an African native zombie tribe in 1910, we cut to modern times where Loreta Tovar's part of a safari including another gorgeous blonde María Kosty, coveted by handsome guide Simón Andreu's voluptuous brunette girlfriend Kali Hansa...</p><p><span></span></p>

amando de ossorio, bárbara rey, body count, exploitation, horror, jungle, kali hansa, loreta tovar, maría kosty, seventies, simón andreu, slasher, spanish horror, vampire, zombie

LORETA TOVAR NECKS MARÍA KOSTY IN 'NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS'

Loreta Tovar in NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS/LA NOCHE DE LOS BRUJOS Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2 Spanish director Amando de Ossorio brings back THE L...

CAROLE GRAY AND WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'DEVILS OF DARKNESS'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicX3GlXWdswVqhKJTbvjxpkv76ZC43fCjyN6sk25MGfsj2-Tq9Lbnrq1l6i7fCNt6uQgzjtTfprfQEMHyBUXLEQFpcL2_Fq2pQSE_-Wq4bolIHymw3zDfqsYXFheTgJ2RFDIkVOdquC54VFG9rBOZB-OL2RO7GZxWkjHeuAEoC4tkq54E4KrEK_CDK8qR5/s1498/Screen%20Shot%202025-11-07%20at%2010.50.38%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="1498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicX3GlXWdswVqhKJTbvjxpkv76ZC43fCjyN6sk25MGfsj2-Tq9Lbnrq1l6i7fCNt6uQgzjtTfprfQEMHyBUXLEQFpcL2_Fq2pQSE_-Wq4bolIHymw3zDfqsYXFheTgJ2RFDIkVOdquC54VFG9rBOZB-OL2RO7GZxWkjHeuAEoC4tkq54E4KrEK_CDK8qR5/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-11-07%20at%2010.50.38%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Carole Gray in DEVILS OF DARKNESS Year: 1965 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Before playing the benign bombshell in Planet Film's ISLAND OF TERROR, raven-haired/full-lipped beauty <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/carole%20gray">Carole Gray</a> had a sensuously demonic/scene-stealing role in DEVILS OF DARKNESS that, shot by veteran crime-genre director Lance Comfort, is a hybrid of Hammer's DRACULA, Universal's THE WOLF MAN (with a harbinger gypsy woman), and the myriad of Satanic Occult Horrors that were gaining traction during the middle-to-late 1960's... <br><br>The first half being in Comfort's comfort zone with gentlemanly American-actor-in-England William Sylvester (later in Stanley Kubrick's 2001) and upper-class girlfriend Diana Decker (previously in Kubrick's LOLITA) figuring out that their idyllic vacation locale is really a demonic cult led by Hubert Noël's Count Sinistre, channeling Christopher Lee's neck-biter but more broodingly asexual and melancholy... <br><span></span></p>

british, carole gray, diana decker, eddie byrne, hubert hoël, lance comfort, marianne stone, rona anderson, sixties, tracy reed, vampire, william sylvester

CAROLE GRAY AND WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'DEVILS OF DARKNESS'

Carole Gray in DEVILS OF DARKNESS Year: 1965 Rating: *** Before playing the benign bombshell in Planet Film's ISLAND OF TERROR, raven-ha...

CHRISTOPHER LEE & LINDA HAYDEN 'TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNjalysZWd4PzQXbJ9S_c2SimTvEecMAHHamhoLxKS1ARLzUNSaHv4lhPnC71AdQSWz9zvzzdxNIUwtBot8WUvbaLNlNQX1gwdYvLYeAGI2ESSU2RzZyS6WJwTfrF7xn9qrNfWkHHXIiDFMR3jfUpXHi2Mq2P7ANXaXsdeIMLmFLAv1QCrTbFYkVuOl3yT/s2040/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%201.27.20%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1114" data-original-width="2040" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNjalysZWd4PzQXbJ9S_c2SimTvEecMAHHamhoLxKS1ARLzUNSaHv4lhPnC71AdQSWz9zvzzdxNIUwtBot8WUvbaLNlNQX1gwdYvLYeAGI2ESSU2RzZyS6WJwTfrF7xn9qrNfWkHHXIiDFMR3jfUpXHi2Mq2P7ANXaXsdeIMLmFLAv1QCrTbFYkVuOl3yT/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%201.27.20%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee, Linda Hayden & Isla Blair Taste the Blood of Dracula Year: 1970 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Foreshadowing GHOST STORY with three older, wealthy, distinguished, sophisticated Victorian Era gentlemen who, with a curious penchant for the macabre, become involved in a strange, semi-accidental murder before being stalked and picked off one by one...</p><p></p><p></p><p>And not by Christopher Lee, returning in Hammer's TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA in which he seeks vengeance against these fathers of one young man and most importantly, two token girls/women he bites and hypnotizes... this time for a particular reason other than eternal enslavement...</p><p><span></span></p>

anthony higgins, christopher lee, dracula, geoffrey keen, hammer, hammer films, horror, isla blair, john carson, linda hayden, madeline smith, peter sallis, ralph bates, roy kinnear, seventies, vampire

CHRISTOPHER LEE & LINDA HAYDEN 'TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA'

Christopher Lee, Linda Hayden & Isla Blair Taste the Blood of Dracula Year: 1970 Rates: ***1/2 Foreshadowing GHOST STORY with three olde...

PETER CUSHING TRACKS 'THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVw_Wv079ks-z9W5sruiADLjP6EKarZVqcSRKYOflGFxr-ns9kwSVQJufTIdguCjeA3zsANQAkTW0Zc17jT26CYrcT6q8oneIjHVBex2IWczxML0dVd2onm0bbkJ94Hb62sSuNEqeLQnM4EB1xupIin0LM4WuSmGuy3R9IK6Fnw6aP9S7d5fGjMInuGbT/s1956/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%208.20.09%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="1956" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVw_Wv079ks-z9W5sruiADLjP6EKarZVqcSRKYOflGFxr-ns9kwSVQJufTIdguCjeA3zsANQAkTW0Zc17jT26CYrcT6q8oneIjHVBex2IWczxML0dVd2onm0bbkJ94Hb62sSuNEqeLQnM4EB1xupIin0LM4WuSmGuy3R9IK6Fnw6aP9S7d5fGjMInuGbT/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%208.20.09%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: </u><u>THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES</u><u> Year: 1973 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Director Roy Ward Baker had nothing but complaints about the dank/uncomfortable sets in Hong Kong for what would bring the ENTER THE DRAGON martial arts craze into Hammer's horror, Count Dracula in particular, played by <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/vamplovers.html">THE VAMPIRE LOVERS</a> Christopher Lee surrogate John Forbes-Robinson who, during the ten-minute expository prologue, morphs into the body of roaming Satanic monk Shen Chan in order to bring together the titular LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES...<br><br>And Hammer regular Baker actually hardly used those supposedly troublesome interiors since most of GOLDEN occurs in daylight, as Cushing's college-lecturing Van Helsing ventures out with buried leads/karate-ringers David Chiang and his sister Szu Shih; Van Helsing's blandly handsome son Robin Stewart and the token Hammer blonde hottie Julie Ege...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, hammer films, horror, julie ege, karate, peter cushing, seventies, shen chan, szu shih, vampire

PETER CUSHING TRACKS 'THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES'

Title:  THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES Year: 1973 Rates: *** Director Roy Ward Baker had nothing but complaints about the dank/uncomfo...

CUSHING/LEE RETURN IN HAMMER'S 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLj6wsNMvmOObbLjC4P1KaZdU3v2CbQeM-op0_xy4s3Mb3q43cx0jF2nTEZFQBsv-B6e8JP_ZhOczoF6rX7TyWZECWL0K9xfd4zx6SK9nLVMXj8UHrjMlNPUIG6xlNrgrCcBEWEgiocPjuRC-8EzogmKi1fuRXzfHmKIsEnyY3Hw-8IJA3y4UB9HQJO5J/s1984/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%207.56.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1984" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLj6wsNMvmOObbLjC4P1KaZdU3v2CbQeM-op0_xy4s3Mb3q43cx0jF2nTEZFQBsv-B6e8JP_ZhOczoF6rX7TyWZECWL0K9xfd4zx6SK9nLVMXj8UHrjMlNPUIG6xlNrgrCcBEWEgiocPjuRC-8EzogmKi1fuRXzfHmKIsEnyY3Hw-8IJA3y4UB9HQJO5J/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%207.56.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA shouldn't be considered Christopher Lee's seventh Dracula but his 2nd... after <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/drac72.html">DRACULA A. D. 1972</a>, which brought the famous vampire from the signature Victorian-era into the 20th Century including hippies, nightclubs, night parties and one important seance...<br><br>But that was then... and now, two years later, there's a reclusive billionaire inside a spooky corporate building shot in murky wide angle lenses... actually looking more antique Gothic than Dracula's awakening church from 1972...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

body-count, christopher lee, dracula, franchise, freddie jones, hammer films, joanna lumley, michael coles, peter cushing, thriller, vampire, william franklyn

CUSHING/LEE RETURN IN HAMMER'S 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA'

Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2 Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA shou...

HAMMER'S SWINGING LONDON COMEBACK OF 'DRACULA A.D. 1972'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7qOR0zD_28WY4P1xpRjVH_o6hAdjsh8XSzI5EjFQ8ha496EIdQlRlZt8g37HnKWqDb9oBnkM0EJDWKoXZ4NwtSnIlFhod9JuZBVojt1Am7mscTe-5WJO-KgXvADiptu0twbFTU24BHQg_FqjGDUdNp_VgpyJK4Oobgk0bk7fg_V_JPeZZuUv4orK2uKm/s1644/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-31%20at%204.28.15%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="1644" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7qOR0zD_28WY4P1xpRjVH_o6hAdjsh8XSzI5EjFQ8ha496EIdQlRlZt8g37HnKWqDb9oBnkM0EJDWKoXZ4NwtSnIlFhod9JuZBVojt1Am7mscTe-5WJO-KgXvADiptu0twbFTU24BHQg_FqjGDUdNp_VgpyJK4Oobgk0bk7fg_V_JPeZZuUv4orK2uKm/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-31%20at%204.28.15%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter Cushing scolds Christopher Neame in Dracula A.D. 1972 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A year after Hammer's progressively-sexual <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/karstein">Karstein Trilogy</a>, thrusting the classic vampire-horror into the counter-culture sensibilities while remaining in their signature Victorian Era, they finally skipped to the present, built right into the DRACULA A. D. 1972 title...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And while Peter Cushing's college professor Van Helsing heir has several long bouts of exposition and two third-act vampire battles, Christopher Lee basically hangs around at the same gothic church where he was reawakened by a young British swinger, who's basically the main character here, or at least, technically speaking, the most important...</p><span></span>

caroline munro, christopher lee, christopher neame, dracula, exploitation, hammer films, janet key, marsha a. hunt, michael coles, peter cushing, pip miller, seventies, stephanie beacham, vampire

HAMMER'S SWINGING LONDON COMEBACK OF 'DRACULA A.D. 1972'

Peter Cushing scolds Christopher Neame in Dracula A.D. 1972 Rating: ****1/2 A year after Hammer's progressively-sexual Karstein Trilogy ...

INGRID PITT STEALS HAMMER'S EXPLOITATION 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RBRiDblClxmwWwXslzng7YwqeRNEhgpgrE-I07wsNHFAVzrWFg61w1kFLhkID7T22PP8n5gBRg_CgnA7euY5hsHDfHKmeK5hJD6HIY5C7ntz6Hf-vS8HAi8L1QzraXSQt-1vxoaGFik8jZsmVwqZK3WhwZVA93cPKBciEiV9XjpOHFJvgRYWXCL-d_e_/s2062/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-29%20at%2010.11.20%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1206" data-original-width="2062" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RBRiDblClxmwWwXslzng7YwqeRNEhgpgrE-I07wsNHFAVzrWFg61w1kFLhkID7T22PP8n5gBRg_CgnA7euY5hsHDfHKmeK5hJD6HIY5C7ntz6Hf-vS8HAi8L1QzraXSQt-1vxoaGFik8jZsmVwqZK3WhwZVA93cPKBciEiV9XjpOHFJvgRYWXCL-d_e_/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-29%20at%2010.11.20%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ingrid Pitt with Kate O'Mara & Madeline Smith THE VAMPIRE LOVERS Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>At one point in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, Ingrid Pitt's central vampire Marcilla (then Carmilla) turns to the young, innocent and naive Madeline Smith's Emma and shouts, "You must die... Everyone must die!"<br><br>What sounded like a threat was really a kind of arthouse philosophy lesson... making THE VAMPIRE LOVERS more a Bergmaneque lesbian-fueled melodrama than the harsher followups <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/lustvamp.html">LUST FOR A VAMPIRE </a>and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/eviltwins.html">TWINS OF EVIL</a>... later deemed <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/karstein">The Karstein Trilogy</a>... that brought Hammer Films into the naked-sexy 1970's...</p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

dawn addams, douglas wilmer, exploitation, george cole, hammer films, ingrid pitt, janet key, jon finch, karstein, kate o'mara, lesbian, madeline smith, peter cushing, pippa steel, seventies, vampire

INGRID PITT STEALS HAMMER'S EXPLOITATION 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS'

Ingrid Pitt with Kate O'Mara & Madeline Smith THE VAMPIRE LOVERS Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2 At one point in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, Ingri...

MADELEINE COLLINSON AND MARY COLLINSON IN 'TWINS OF EVIL'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp4dvej3Cj0SZRWufU4li5ysEj8Ohhr5sHs1kXgYetFc5HkYPwqeOH0zCN_G4XggHkhRSxq_ibuIVHS15OYQVDisjZ3w0xebtoN7tzpY51AAV2zqP6iqngZZhFskXLsZuiB2VS2ZFFuvRMenDbblSjXnUSjX2mwSnkrJ1NpqAbCr2gKjf5Y0qlONFLgecP/s1804/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-28%20at%204.33.31%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1804" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp4dvej3Cj0SZRWufU4li5ysEj8Ohhr5sHs1kXgYetFc5HkYPwqeOH0zCN_G4XggHkhRSxq_ibuIVHS15OYQVDisjZ3w0xebtoN7tzpY51AAV2zqP6iqngZZhFskXLsZuiB2VS2ZFFuvRMenDbblSjXnUSjX2mwSnkrJ1NpqAbCr2gKjf5Y0qlONFLgecP/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-28%20at%204.33.31%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Madeleine Collinson in TWINS OF EVIL Year: 1971 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The last in what's called Hammer's <i>Karstein Trilogy</i>, bringing their Victorian-Era horror into the sensuous sensibilities of then-modern drive-in-era 1970's with sex, lesbianism and nudity, TWINS OF EVIL defines exploitation cinema by the novelty casting of real life identical twin sisters who had famously posed for Playboy Magazine...<br><br>As the good and bad siblings, both Mary and Madeleine Collinson are equally gorgeous with full lips and cherubic cheeks (resembling American starlet <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/05/checkbounced.html">Leigh Taylor Young</a>)...  </p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

dennis price, hammer films, horror, isobel black, judy matheson, karstein, katya wyeth, luan peters, madeleine collinson, mary collinson, peter cushing, seventies, vampire

MADELEINE COLLINSON AND MARY COLLINSON IN 'TWINS OF EVIL'

Madeleine Collinson in TWINS OF EVIL Year: 1971 Rating: **** The last in what's called Hammer's Karstein Trilogy , bringing their Vi...

YUTTE STENSGAARD NECKING HAMMER'S 'LUST FOR A VAMPIRE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ39KQSdlZa5Jm_JyXmBRKK6ZDcWfBqvofeQ-Y8AuHIEGKtoKtJn6W1TWEhyNM0jZ5ASuE1H0dhZ1Vo3tcRodBbkX4XZx96h8qWnCMor-ticRyy19qkhDPjGDTHmxP8FAl9wWwKERfYPkOTUt0Wqb7PZp1chM41MQ_j_wS1Nmvz6bUyF5c31a4KIvIHFjn/s1574/1%20Pippa%20Steel,%20Yutte%20Stensgaard.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1574" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ39KQSdlZa5Jm_JyXmBRKK6ZDcWfBqvofeQ-Y8AuHIEGKtoKtJn6W1TWEhyNM0jZ5ASuE1H0dhZ1Vo3tcRodBbkX4XZx96h8qWnCMor-ticRyy19qkhDPjGDTHmxP8FAl9wWwKERfYPkOTUt0Wqb7PZp1chM41MQ_j_wS1Nmvz6bUyF5c31a4KIvIHFjn/s16000/1%20Pippa%20Steel,%20Yutte%20Stensgaard.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Pippa Steel and Yutte Stensgaard in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE Year: 1971 Rating: **<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Following 1970's THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and second in what's deemed The Karnstein Trilogy, Hammer continued putting the then-modern exploitation-cinema sensibilities back into their signature Victorian Age Horror with LUST FOR A VAMPIRE involving lots of nudity, some near-lesbianism and even borderline psychedelia.... at least in one dream by this vampire film's good/innocent guy, a bland writer investigating a girls' school full of bitten beauties that provides the potentially sensuous premise that's the sole reason this movie's a movie at all...<br><br>Yet VAMPIRE never goes further than wanton eye candy... a shame since former Hammer (and Amicus) starlet Suzanne Leigh's around to intensely attempt keeping younger and insanely gorgeous Yutte Stensgaard from falling for the guy (not interesting enough for a potential love-triangle or that titular LUST) who's investigation should have led to spookier scenes that are all dressed up (or taking off their clothes) with absolutely nowhere to go.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

christopher neame, exploitation, hammer films, horror, judy matheson, karstein, mike raven, pippa steel, ralph bates, seventies, suzanna leigh, vampire, yutte stensgaard

YUTTE STENSGAARD NECKING HAMMER'S 'LUST FOR A VAMPIRE'

Pippa Steel and Yutte Stensgaard in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE Year: 1971 Rating: ** Following 1970's THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and second in what'...

ISOBEL BLACK BITING INTO HAMMER'S 'THE KISS OF THE VAMIPRE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2WaAJZq6_BIdx4_mFsNqEJtYVHv3WXX92lPa9L5aGLFRQLd5nnlgBVfwn-DxWoitL7cxn2TSbnWhSCUD2pWw0IURwTegWMAzFDKlMvndj4-Q9y-xWyTI0QqLbKaDD01buSMCnnJynaky9_v0H5DEg7osBgly9zE4aBpjr6-42Sm7LOpbFtX5KqeEPteF/s1388/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-26%20at%2012.22.58%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2WaAJZq6_BIdx4_mFsNqEJtYVHv3WXX92lPa9L5aGLFRQLd5nnlgBVfwn-DxWoitL7cxn2TSbnWhSCUD2pWw0IURwTegWMAzFDKlMvndj4-Q9y-xWyTI0QqLbKaDD01buSMCnnJynaky9_v0H5DEg7osBgly9zE4aBpjr6-42Sm7LOpbFtX5KqeEPteF/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-26%20at%2012.22.58%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Isobel Black in THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE Year: 1963 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>At one point in the middle of Hammer's THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, honeymooning husband Edward de Souza, realizing the silence of the castle he's been partying in since well after his vehicle broke down in the middle of a small village, asks where the party is... then where his wife is...<br><br>She'd been partially abducted and, like any vampire flick, seduced into the clutches of the castle-owning patriarch of a family consisting of his own mother and his three kids, two of them daughters...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

clifford evans, edward de souza, hammer films, horror, isobel black, jacquie wallis, jennifer daniel, noel willman, vampire, vera cook

ISOBEL BLACK BITING INTO HAMMER'S 'THE KISS OF THE VAMIPRE'

Isobel Black in THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE Year: 1963 Rating: *** At one point in the middle of Hammer's THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, honeymoon...

ROBERT QUARRY SINKS HIS TEEH INTO 'COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuKRTyfUWhsE8AoYvkFGM67fvdW10fVSiytFOQE0Tjzha0OiH06R6McVdqn84jzXmEQaEbzaPMYKHzvRe0QJDjXx1RF_Cqp5IqNUysk7lxgarHvN-1Ww2mUhKN5hbb6Ewlen-nbLNezQ8FSUoPENSJERv9a0xZf75RPRItsZ-5A1eSJQg26I8LFGwK5a7/s1970/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="966" data-original-width="1970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuKRTyfUWhsE8AoYvkFGM67fvdW10fVSiytFOQE0Tjzha0OiH06R6McVdqn84jzXmEQaEbzaPMYKHzvRe0QJDjXx1RF_Cqp5IqNUysk7lxgarHvN-1Ww2mUhKN5hbb6Ewlen-nbLNezQ8FSUoPENSJERv9a0xZf75RPRItsZ-5A1eSJQg26I8LFGwK5a7/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE Year: 1970 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A hybrid of late-1960's leading to early-1970's low-budget exploitation horror and the classic horror genre, COUNT YORGA VAMPIRE balances rough, grainy exterior with an American actor seeming extremely British... so formidably sophisticated yet wonderfully underplayed, he was supposed to replace an aging Vincent Prince for American International Pictures... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Consisting of sparse-setup interiors, gothic mansion exteriors and stolen shots of various characters having looped-in conversations throughout daylight Los Angeles, YORGA not only made money but was critically praised... mainly because of Robert Quarry's titular role, more befitting a higher-budgeted, Victorian-era Hammer production... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

bob kelljan, body count, cult, donna anderson, edward walsh, horror, judy lang, michael murphy, robert quarry, seventies, sybil scotford, vampire

ROBERT QUARRY SINKS HIS TEEH INTO 'COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE'

Title: COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE Year: 1970 Rating: **** A hybrid of late-1960's leading to early-1970's low-budget exploitation horror a...

JIM CARREY & KAREN KOPINS IN 'ONCE BITTEN' WITH LAUREN HUTTON

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwdpzDuHnya0wcECULCDsBc4L_Up7zLJG4wZ-I1btRRO3Wu3rnO-HRDe2NItQnjpr-qU-PqHfKZKegeq_yWBWSMJOXuzhL1SPtgcSiujBXp8vRgi3c5bdyDkF3cCjQCvsn7ZWxtav14fiQiWHOESo6Bgi7WvTB45tjAvXXwJ6AsYHsy1J5t-XrqgLei6Cv/s1996/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-09%20at%201.35.44%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="1996" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwdpzDuHnya0wcECULCDsBc4L_Up7zLJG4wZ-I1btRRO3Wu3rnO-HRDe2NItQnjpr-qU-PqHfKZKegeq_yWBWSMJOXuzhL1SPtgcSiujBXp8vRgi3c5bdyDkF3cCjQCvsn7ZWxtav14fiQiWHOESo6Bgi7WvTB45tjAvXXwJ6AsYHsy1J5t-XrqgLei6Cv/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-09%20at%201.35.44%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Karen Kopins and Jim Carrey in ONCE BITTEN Year: 1985 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Bizarre that the future highest paid comic actor (at the time a hyperactive standup comedian) with the talents to go insanely overboard with zany expressions and physical zaniness, would actually consecutively headline a TV-series and motion picture as the straight man passively watching the goofiness occur around him...<br></p><p></p><p>In 1984, after THE DUCK FACTORY was cancelled, Jim Carrey got his big screen debut in ONCE BITTEN (which gained a cult following on cable television): cleverly stretching a then-timely joke that goes along with while blending into the sex-comedy template: in that four-hundred-year-old vampire Lauren Hutton could never find a modern day virgin to remain youthful... ironic since those comedies are about shy boys trying desperately to lose theirs'...</p><span></span>

cleavon little, eighties, horror satire, jim carrey, karen kopins, lauren hutton, sex comedy, vampire

JIM CARREY & KAREN KOPINS IN 'ONCE BITTEN' WITH LAUREN HUTTON

Karen Kopins and Jim Carrey in ONCE BITTEN Year: 1985 Rating: ***1/2 Bizarre that the future highest paid comic actor (at the time a hyperac...

ALICE KRIGE & BRIAN KRAUSE IN STEPHEN KING'S 'SLEEPWALKERS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tUyVgi8UvvAt4H6zIkvQsad-eEkU9skjNqIzaORtcdnQ1pcCmcrdg-Azne0Lp16REUZ3LO1qVTesRItD8M1cYRSdUeTD4S6YYXjdoc913V1zHrA4JhMdpYixrpYKAVClzfwA2OMCXElLiUtbvhoX-UpwMCuLizR9NO3vFIzyfGBD54rhqQWvapsvVg/s1334/Screen%20Shot%202019-02-21%20at%201.57.40%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="1334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tUyVgi8UvvAt4H6zIkvQsad-eEkU9skjNqIzaORtcdnQ1pcCmcrdg-Azne0Lp16REUZ3LO1qVTesRItD8M1cYRSdUeTD4S6YYXjdoc913V1zHrA4JhMdpYixrpYKAVClzfwA2OMCXElLiUtbvhoX-UpwMCuLizR9NO3vFIzyfGBD54rhqQWvapsvVg/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202019-02-21%20at%201.57.40%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: SLEEPWALKERS Year: 1992 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Stephen King found himself a worthy future director in Mick Garris for the TV mini-series THE STAND two years after SLEEPWALKERS, an intentional b-movie that introduces a new kid in school, fawned-over despite his shyness and, somewhat like Sissy Spacek in CARRIE, which was King's first adaptation, Brian Krause's Charles Brady reads a story aloud in class that the English teacher reviews rudely... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Resembling a magazine model surfer, Krause does a good enough job playing-down who would obviously be an otherwise instantly popular kid... Although, blond and bright on the outside with a dark, secret interior, he does quickly land an equally perfect-looking girl, and Mädchen Amick's Tanya quickly becomes our vulnerable bottom-lip-biting ingenue dating her dream boy; the latter who, behind very closed doors, has an extremely close relationship with his sexy middle-aged (or maybe eternally-aged) mother, Mary...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, alice krige, body count, brian krause, horror, mädchen amick, mark hamill, mick garris, nineties, stephen king, thriller, vampire

ALICE KRIGE & BRIAN KRAUSE IN STEPHEN KING'S 'SLEEPWALKERS'

Title: SLEEPWALKERS Year: 1992 Rating: *** Stephen King found himself a worthy future director in Mick Garris for the TV mini-series THE S...

TOBE HOOPER DIRECTS THE TV VAMPIRE MOVIE OF 'SALEM'S LOT'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5bK2QdZk6eNrc2LFoc7C-OqUnNSr3nq3-3vIfWZohzDvD8sEJLy-o30FJgXFKh6uSfpMDaB0lEZUp4qLBkX930PTCd-y7GyGISg2O75vonqZyp9jbk262S-9iSc0z2cUN7XbVHoTxh267BeMkB1mcE-iBsEul-dPrAIDedrfy2pFhkHXrdkf4oG6sPQ/s1600/22.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="891" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5bK2QdZk6eNrc2LFoc7C-OqUnNSr3nq3-3vIfWZohzDvD8sEJLy-o30FJgXFKh6uSfpMDaB0lEZUp4qLBkX930PTCd-y7GyGISg2O75vonqZyp9jbk262S-9iSc0z2cUN7XbVHoTxh267BeMkB1mcE-iBsEul-dPrAIDedrfy2pFhkHXrdkf4oG6sPQ/s16000/22.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>David Soul in SALEM'S LOT Year: 1979 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Although groundbreaking horror/exploitation director Tobe Hooper is best known for and forever linked to the legendary low-budget slasher TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, his coolest, tightest and most accessible work is fulfilling and utterly frightful, unlike some other television movies/miniseries during the 1970's in which Stephen King's SALEM'S LOT rode the crest of... <br> <br>Involving an eclectic ensemble from several cinematic generations behind leading man David Soul as a second-rate author returned to the titular New England hometown, doing investigative research on the locally-infamous, spooky-looking haunted manor on a hill described to former English teacher/mentor Lew Ayres: "Can a house be evil in its stone foundations? In its wooden beams? In the glass of its windows?"</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

body count, david soul, fred willard, geoffrey lewis, horror, james mason, julie cobb, kenneth mcmillan, lance kerwin, lew ayres, miniseries, seventies, stephen king, tobe hooper, tv movie, vampire

TOBE HOOPER DIRECTS THE TV VAMPIRE MOVIE OF 'SALEM'S LOT'

David Soul in SALEM'S LOT Year: 1979 Rating: ****1/2 Although groundbreaking horror/exploitation director Tobe Hooper is best known for...

DENNIS WATERMAN GROUNDS HAMMER'S 'SCARS OF DRACULA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0jxk6TG22aG49W7mE4jJUlB0ZnoXjkOPAmy13BmWHH89tOKWZd_oMpk0eeEPAwH4jMJEwr2S0abFylLXWOgOT5RXu1E-HFoNxbiOqnIL4sBA-F8ZOHKE8bDJz0tqNGauNDf8gUkJcp8a30I9Flt5kIFDs_WOoRywQLyAj1Ow3x_wJR1RRxlOwdpr9LA=s2364" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="2364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0jxk6TG22aG49W7mE4jJUlB0ZnoXjkOPAmy13BmWHH89tOKWZd_oMpk0eeEPAwH4jMJEwr2S0abFylLXWOgOT5RXu1E-HFoNxbiOqnIL4sBA-F8ZOHKE8bDJz0tqNGauNDf8gUkJcp8a30I9Flt5kIFDs_WOoRywQLyAj1Ow3x_wJR1RRxlOwdpr9LA=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: SCARS OF DRACULA Pictured: </u><u><u>Christopher Matthews, Jenny Hanley, Dennis Waterman </u>Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer decided why mess with a successful formula, and turned their 1970 sequel SCARS OF DRACULA into what's basically a remake of the original, HORROR OF DRACULA, with a womanizing flake in the place of a traveling solicitor, and he even rides a dark-forest coach to get there...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This after beginning with the cheapest of fake-looking bats spitting blood on ashes and thus conveniently reanimating Christopher Lee's iconic and eternal Bram Stoker-created vampire legend... </p><p><span></span></p>

body count, british, christopher lee, dennis waterman, dracula, hammer films, horror, jenny hanley, michael ripper, seventies, vampire

DENNIS WATERMAN GROUNDS HAMMER'S 'SCARS OF DRACULA'

Title: SCARS OF DRACULA Pictured: Christopher Matthews, Jenny Hanley, Dennis Waterman Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2 Hammer decided why mess with...

DAVID PEEL & PETER CUSHING IN HAMMER'S 'THE BRIDES OF DRACULA'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhekv4M0-n8vPytQmvjJPESOGSb7FjJpDxSvE_MtlbztXyi1IyhETcarrtSGW9AUo2bjMVlY23lVjYSWaN-5Pn_57zEErGNXgrvWvw5cSa8gP_MkkxAeFcjBtHI4GAy9kehp6izo3Q8EmvQ/s400/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-03-07%25252Bat%25252B8.54.49%25252BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="323" data-original-width="400" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhekv4M0-n8vPytQmvjJPESOGSb7FjJpDxSvE_MtlbztXyi1IyhETcarrtSGW9AUo2bjMVlY23lVjYSWaN-5Pn_57zEErGNXgrvWvw5cSa8gP_MkkxAeFcjBtHI4GAy9kehp6izo3Q8EmvQ/w400-h323/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-03-07%25252Bat%25252B8.54.49%25252BPM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Brides of Dracula Year: 1960 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A pretty boy Hammer DRACULA works since David Peel has such little screen-time, and it's not that he's unsuited for the role. In fact, dealing with the titular BRIDES, which is really a singular character played by Yvonne Monlaur, a younger, more apparently-attractive neck-sucker fits...</p><p>Having been held captive by his mother in the family castle, Monlaur's Marianne, a teacher on her way to working at an all-girl's school, has only to look at this particularly vulnerable, chained-up Dracula to fall in love — hypnotic eyes aren't needed, at least not up front... </p><p>But the true lead is Hammer legend Peter Cushing in what's a separate case file for Van Helsing: During scenes without him, there's wasted potential in that girl's school replete with beautiful, virginal maidens: If only they'd ALL have been brides, Van Helsing's task would garner more urgency, which this second Hammer Dracula needed more of. Although, the two or three bitten babes do look terrific, and there's an attempted lesbian seduction till Cushing cuts in and saves the day... or rather, night. Damn him! The movie, though, under 90-minutes, is entertaining enough to fill the absence of Christopher Lee, who'd return a few years later — and let it be noted that some of those entries aren't as good as this one.</p><p><span></span></p>

body count, david peel, dracula, exploitation, franchise, hammer films, horror, peter cushing, sixties, terence fisher, thriller, vampire, yvonne monlaur

DAVID PEEL & PETER CUSHING IN HAMMER'S 'THE BRIDES OF DRACULA'

Brides of Dracula Year: 1960 Rating: ***1/2 A pretty boy Hammer DRACULA works since David Peel has such little screen-time, and it's not...

JOANNA GOING & REBECCA STAAB IN THE REVIVAL 'DARK SHADOWS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjcVM6J0rhpED_DJkWD6TpJvUlYikbacZC7cb5FfekvFi2vhY9enF-wOe6DYubkmoRf3SWPtge0C0tuRm0NBSW3F8Y5s8Y5Y8OnxLRiOTFs_4ydk20-glHp7NAu9XJYIVqJ5RXZ_DtvHjc2MaSWA6WaIJODMayXWP090g3O0i8s7a60jZrhvGYbn0J2jZi/s1578/Screen%20Shot%202025-07-28%20at%2011.00.01%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1476" data-original-width="1578" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjcVM6J0rhpED_DJkWD6TpJvUlYikbacZC7cb5FfekvFi2vhY9enF-wOe6DYubkmoRf3SWPtge0C0tuRm0NBSW3F8Y5s8Y5Y8OnxLRiOTFs_4ydk20-glHp7NAu9XJYIVqJ5RXZ_DtvHjc2MaSWA6WaIJODMayXWP090g3O0i8s7a60jZrhvGYbn0J2jZi/w400-h374/Screen%20Shot%202025-07-28%20at%2011.00.01%20PM.png" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Joanna Going in Dark Shadows Year: 1991 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Dan Curtis turned his daytime soap DARK SHADOWS into a nighttime soap/miniseries that holds up pretty well with a younger Barnabas Collins in Ben Cross, seeming more like a lovelorn college professor than vampire, but he does bare his fangs enough times into the likes of Rebecca Staab for a Body-Count Slasher/Horror element that ups (and progresses) the underline terror and suspense, mostly taking place in an old seaside manor where Collins rises/returns to an eccentric family that only knew him through a looming portrait from many, many years ago...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And it's no wonder the poor fella falls so quickly in love with the newly arrived babysitter of troubled boy Joseph Gordon-Levitt — and Joanna Going is the most beautiful actress to ever hit the small screen, ever, and is what makes this DARK SHADOWS intriguing and worthwhile... <br></p><p>Also like the original, we go back in time to Collins' own turf, the 1700's where snaky/flaky uncle Roy Thinnes can act sinister with the other family members, all somewhat benign before the Salem Inspired/Religious Zealot transition. But the show hits a big wall with the otherwise talented Lysette Anthony as an all-knowing/all-seeing phantom/wraith so powerful, vicious and vile, Collins loses his bite, and purpose (a young girl ghost is also a cop-out). Although by the end of the one and only season, Going and Cross's romance keeps the viewer intrigued... as we shall be, for eternity. <br></p><p><span></span></p>

barbara steele, ben cross, dan curtis, franchise, gothic, horror, jean simmons, joanna going, joseph gordon-levitt, lysette anthony, nineties, rebecca staab, reboot, roy thinnes, TV, vampire

JOANNA GOING & REBECCA STAAB IN THE REVIVAL 'DARK SHADOWS'

Joanna Going in Dark Shadows Year: 1991 Rating: ***1/2 Dan Curtis turned his daytime soap DARK SHADOWS into a nighttime soap/miniseries that...