Tag: Vampires
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To understand Twins of Evil, you have to understand the state of Hammer Film Productions in 1971. They were under pressure. Hammer was responding more broadly to the rise of grittier, modern horror in the late 60s/early 70s (including Night of the Living Dead), plus declining US box office returns and shifting audience tastes, and…
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Hammer was in trouble in ’71. They were like a zombie at a disco, trying to look cool, but their limbs were falling off. They’d just had a hit with The Vampire Lovers, but Ingrid Pitt had bailed, Terence Fisher had literally broken his leg, and the studio was actively trying to modernise and court…
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I wasn’t sure if I was going to cover the Karnstein trilogy. Mainly because as a series of movies, they’ve always struck me more as ‘Carry On Horror,’ and though that might not be 100% fair, these films, staring with The Vampire Lovers, are the moment Hammer realized flesh sold faster than fear. They are,…
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By 1963, Hammer’s cathedral of Gothic horror stood tall. Dracula had already bared its fangs to the world; Frankenstein had resurrected the flesh of gods; The Phantom of the Opera had mourned beauty’s decay beneath the stage. But now, with The Kiss of the Vampire, Hammer stepped into a new chamber — one where the…
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The American novelist Mary Flannery O’Connor was known for her Southern Gothic morality tales. They mixed Christian Spirituality, moral values, and racial issues. From Dusk Till Dawn also explores faith. It is heavily more focused on the vampiric bloodshed in the latter half of the film, though. Take these two art pieces, throw some sweat,…
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Robert Eggers’ latest take on the classic vampire film Nosferatu is currently scaring up a boatload of business at movie theaters everywhere, making it the perfect time for all sorts of fanfare to step into the limelight. While younger filmgoers may go in with little knowledge concerning F.W. Murnau’s 1922 German expressionist film Nosferatu: A…
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When it comes to vampire movies, there’s very little left to the imagination. We’ve seen period pieces like Last Voyage of the Demeter and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and then there are the more modern ideas like Abigail and Renfield. But as far as content, we’ve been locked into a tired pattern of predator and prey,…
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Bogieville was one of the films I was really hyped up for at this year’s FrightFest. I love a good vampire movie. Who doesn’t? The preview offered a no-holds-barred fight between two factions of feuding undead creatures of the night. I don’t know if other people do this with movies, or maybe even different color…
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As previously stated, I’m a sucker for animated films. Recently, I’ve been on a bit of an anime kick, mostly looking for underground titles in the horror space that I’ve never seen before. The Kizumonogatari trilogy has been popping onto my radar many times over the last eight years. However, it’s almost impossible for Westerners to…
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It’s probably an exaggeration to say that vampire movies are the foundation of the horror genre, but it’s closer to the truth than you might think. Arguably the greatest silent horror film of all time, Nosferatu, is about a vampire, and vampire movies helped kick off the golden ages of both Universal Studios and Hammer…