31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Fearless Vampire Killers

The Fearless Vampire Killers
91 mins.
Dir. Roman Polanski
1967/UK


One of the best Hammer films Hammer never made is probably in my top 5 favorite vampire movies, and it's a horror-comedy.  A vampiric Gothic horror set in the lustrous snow filled mountains of Transylvania starring Roman Polanksi himself and his future wife, the beautiful Sharon Tate.

The comedy in this film is based on sight gags more-so then actual joke telling, but it also filled with many haunting visions of desolation in the snow, beautiful gothic castles and vampires ready to sink their teeth in your neck.  I love the atmosphere in this film and I think that is what draws me so deeply into this movie.  The opening scene alone, has our two characters Professor Abronsius played by Jack MacGowran (Burke Dennings from The Exorcist) looking unrecognizable in his Alfred Einstein get up and Alfred, his bumbling assistant played quite well by Polanski himself, traveling through a snow covered road pulled by sled in mid-19th century Transylvania.  Freezing and asleep Alfred is awakened by the sounds of wolves howling in the distance, he turns and looks and sees hungry wolves chasing the sled up the road.  It is a simple shot, but effective and imagining yourself in that situation is quite terrifying.


The story itself deals with the Professor, a vampire hunter ala Van Helsing getting wind of vampiric activity in a remote village.  Though the villagers have garlic hanging everywhere at the inn, they deny the existence of any castle where vampires live nearby.  One night while the gorgeous Sharon Tate is taking one her three bath scenes in the movie she is attacked by Count von Krolock played perfectly by Ferdy Mayne (Howling II, Night Train to Terror, Frightmare).  Her distraught father attempts to rescue her only to become a vampire herself.  Enter our fearless vampire killers as they follow Tate's now vampiric father off to the castle to put an end to Krolock's evil ways and rescue the girl.

I remember the first time seeing this film on a late night horror show and being mesmerized by the haunting scenes of a bird's eye view of numerous vampires rising from their crypts and heading into the castle for the Dance of the Vampires finale.  And then their is the dance itself, a room filled with vampires all decked out to the nines in their white wigs, yet still covered in dirt and cobwebs and our heroes disguised amongst them trying to rescue Tate only to be given away by their reflection in the mirror.  A truly horrific scene to find yourself trapped in.  Chalk it up as a bit of nostalgia, a bit of great atmosphere, a bit of humor to keep you entertained and bit of just good film making.  I really love this movie and while not scary in the sense that you will jump in fright, I find some scenes unnerving if you put yourself in that situation.  And all of that is what makes this one of my favorite vampire films. If only Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was based on truth and Sharon Tate was still alive to make more movies.  Fuck you Charles Manson. 

P.S. The trailer adds all kind of stupid sound effects that aren't in the movie that makes the movie seem much more idiotic than it actually is.  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

13 Nights of Halloween Horror part 14 - Prevenge

Image
Prevenge 88 Mins Dir. Alice Lowe 2016/UK How do you feel about a movie that deals with a pregnant woman going on a killing rampage?   Sounds fun right? Prevenge is more of a dark comedy then an out and out horror film, but there is enough stabbing and the sauce spilled that it would appeal to some horror fans. Ruth is a widowed seven-month pregnant woman who seems to randomly go around killing people.   As we follow her along we learn that she actually has an agenda, the more people she kills the more we put the story together as to why she is doing it.   Of course, then there is always the what is making her do it, and that is her unborn fetus inside her that is guiding her along in the killing.   Seems her fetus is talking to her and instructing her on what to do.   It is a rather simple story really, stalk, kill move on and that is where the movie falters.   It never really goes much deeper than that.   It is mostly 88 mins ...
Read more

31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 29 - Don't Leave Home

Image
Don’t Leave Home 86 mins Dir. Michael Tully 2018/USA As we get close to the end of the month, we are going to get a little highbrow and watch one of those fancy art films that are a slow burn with a twist ending.   The title of this one says it all.   Don’t Leave Home. Our story open with a priest who by hanging himself opens the gates of hell.   Ha Ha just kidding, a little Fulci joke there.   No this is a much different movie.  It opens In Ireland with a priest painting the picture of a little girl praying in front of a virgin mary statue out in a garden.   Soon after, the little girl goes missing.   The strange thing is though, the picture of her in the painting also goes missing, like she was never painted in it. Fast forward to the present day, Melanie an artist in the US is making a series of dioramas for an art show she is having, the theme is unexplained missing people in Ireland.   Apparently it is...
Read more

31 Nights of Halloween Horror - The Night Stalker

Image
The Night Stalker 74 mins. Dir. John Llewellyn Moxey 1972/USA You see kids, back in the day they actually made movies specifically for TV.  Not only that, but sometimes they made horror movies for TV and they were actually quite good.  Faced with more of a challenge by standards and practices these movies needed to be more creative when they couldn't splash the red stuff.  This caused us to get some really great films, Don't be Afraid of the Dark, the terrifying Salem's Lot and in this case The Night Stalker, which was the most popular highest rated TV movie at its time and spawned a sequel and a TV series afterwards. Darren McGavin, who if you don't know from this, you will remember as the father in A Christmas Story plays a Carl Kolchak, a reporter who has been fired from numerous papers throughout the country for his outlandish brackish stories.  He winds up in Las Vegas writing for a small paper with a boss who fights him on every article he hands in.  One d...
Read more