Arrived today: an Xmas gift for Teresa, who loves her Hammer films.
Several months ago I ordered a Hammer boxed set from Amazon, for one of Teresa’s Christmas presents. It took them so long to source the set I was thinking it was never going to arrive. But Amazon have always been pretty good at fulfilling their orders. And I order from them loads. So I was patient.
The only packaging was the shrink wrap!
And today it finally came. It arrived whilst I was out working. Teresa, however, was working from home. But even though she was in, she only got it after hearing a knock at the door, and opening it to find no one there. Inside our door was a bizarre courier note for a completely different address!
Hardly in a pristine brand new condition.Look at these corners!
Outside it was raining. Heavily. And the Hammer DVD set was simply sat outside in the rain. And it wasn’t wrapped properly either, just sealed in clingfilm. As the pics here show, the corners are damaged, and the bottom of the plastic case is cracked. Frankly I think this is appalling.
Both card box and plastic case are damaged.These cracks on the plastic case are not suggestive of careful transit.
It’s a Christmas present, so we won’t be opening it til late December. What do we do if we discover DVDs inside have been damaged, due to the absence of adequate packaging, and the shoddy delivery service? Simply dumping a more or less unprotected set of DVDs outside in heavy rain really is beyond the pale.
It looks second hand.
But the other side of the equation is that this set is out of stock in most places, and took Amazon two or three months to source. These facts, and the reasonable price I paid, incline me/us to keeping it and hoping it’s ok.
UPDATE: 28/1/‘22
So far we’ve watched maybe four or five of the discs. And thus far they’re all in working order.
The orgy of horror continues! With a classic from 1968, the year my dear Teresa was born; the Summer Of Love, and zombies! This has become a cult classic. And it’s not hard to see why.
Brother and sister, Barbara and Johnny, are visiting the cemetery, to pay their respects to their deceased father. At the graveyard a lumbering figure approaches, and it all turns from dull day out to spooky weirdness. In an instant.
A visit to the cemetery…
What’s notable about this is how it does a lot with very little. Barbara flees from the graveyard assailant, and after crashing her car ends up in a house, empty save for a rotten corpse at the top of some stairs. She’s soon joined by Ben. Barbara, in shock, is mute. Ben sets about securing the house, fighting off a few zombies, setting a couch on fire to keep them off, and hunkering down defensively.
Ben finds and switches on a radio. We hear a voice describing what’s going on. Barbara momentarily comes out of her shell, only to get hysterical over the fate of her brother, Johnny. When Ben goes upstairs, Babs sits silently on the couch, getting freaked out by the newscaster and his reports of zombie cannibalism.
Numbers at the house grow.
Two men then come up from the cellar. So now there are four… no, wait, there’s a family downstairs. Oh, and the girlfriend of the other guy. So it becomes three in the basement and four upstairs. And tensions grow between the two parties. It’s simple enough, but fairly realistic and well done.
The kitchen sink aspect, of everyday life going horribly awry, and the ‘Alamo’ vibe of defending the homestead, combine very effectively. The ‘verité’ aspects are further enhanced by use of the radio and TV reportage interjections. And elements of the direction, from tilted/angled camera work, right down to the movie being shot in stark black and white, add up to a simple but powerful formula.
Will any of the normal folk get out alive?
And it’s a formula that’s been hugely influential. Spawning a franchise and countless rip-offs or homages. The cast are all obscure unknowns, only a few of whom would continue to work in the industry, unlike director George Romero, for whom the movie launched a whole successful career.
Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ripley) are progenitors of the ‘classic’ young himbos and bimbos that would become future horror movie staples; Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman) is the uptight dad, whilst Helen (Marilyn Eastman), his wife, is, like Judy, very gorgeous. Their immobile injured/ill daughter turns out, surprise surprise, to be infected.
Fighting off the ghoulish hordes.
Having learned from the radio that a civic response is getting underway, and rescue centres are opening up, an attempt is made to escape. Only Ben survives to return to the ‘ranch’, where the zombie siege gradually intensifies. A short scene of cannibalism at the burnt-out escape truck ensues, and is, whilst risibly primitive by todays standards, special-effects wise, nonetheless pretty disturbing.
Interestingly there is no mention of the z for zombie word. Instead the walking cadavers are referred to as ‘ghouls’. How ironic then, that Night Of The Living Dead should spawn, usher in, or re-animate a veritable zombie invasion!
The Cardille segment…
The segment with ‘chief McLellan’ is great, with TV personality Bill Cardille as himself, interviewing the head of a posse of ghoul-hunters. History has, with incredible irony, seen the rise in the US of zombie legions who, instead of being hunted by such vigilante posses, are instead those self same gun-toting rednecks; it was these ‘ghouls’ that besieged the US Capitol after Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election. As Partridge might say, at this point, you couldn’t make this stuff up!
… where he interviews ‘chief McClellan’ is great.
As the siege reaches its climax, young miss Cooper finally arises from her sickbed… to butcher and feast upon her parents! As primitively done as it is, it’s still a potent shocking scene. And it makes this movie, along with Hitchcock’s Psycho, an antecedent to the whole slasher genre, as well as zombie movies galore.
The end of the movie is an absolute classic. I won’t spoil it for those who don’t know it. Dark as pitch! And perfect Halloween viewing.
We watched this (again) tonight, as part of our Halloween half-term horror movie fest. The original English version is poorly named: it’s set in a village, not a city. But it’s a much better title than the US version, which revelled in the name Horror Hotel.
It follows a familiar old horror film theme: witchcraft persisting into the present. Albeit that the present in this case is now a very retro black and white place! The plot is totally ridiculous, naturally.
Nan, beautiful but very dim…It wouldn’t be horror without boobies!
Nan Barlow, a terrifically beautiful but rather dim student of Prof. Driscoll (Christopher Lee), visits Whitewood, Mass., at the latter’s suggestion, for reasons of academic research, concerning 17th C. witchcraft.
But before this, key characters are introduced at the film’s outset, in scenes of a 17th C. witch burning. The villagers burn Elizabeth Selwyn as a witch. Now, three centuries later, Nan’s visit is the chance for the Whitewood coven to indulge in a spot of virginal blood sacrifice.
Valentine Dyall, aka Jethrow, phantom hitchhiker and witch. Patricia Jessel is Elizabeth Selwyn/Mrs. Newless.
These key characters are Mrs Newless, who runs the Raven’s Inn, where Nan is staying, and Jethro Keane. Newless is of course Selwyn, and Jethrow is her lover, who we see invoking Satan to save Elizabeth.
It’s all ludicrous hokum, of course. And the film is also a little weird for the interludes of relatively ‘cool jazz’, as opposed to your typical horror movie spooky music (you get some of that as well).
The 17th C. opening scene…The phantom hitcher…It’s always misty in Whitewood.Hooded figures, more mist, crooked crosses…
These old Hammer-style movies are kind of charming, in a bizarro kitsch kind of way. I quite like them for their antiquated charms. And this is a better than average one, in terms of mood and atmos’.
It’s not particularly scary, more quaint, frankly. Were such films frightening when they came out? I really don’t know. It’s hard to credit that they were. But perhaps for some they were? Nowadays they’re more like a spooky form of panto’.
Nan’s bro’, Dick, and Norman MacOwan as the blind (and bushy-eyebrowed) Reverend Russell.The dreaded coven!In search of the life eternal… virgin’s blood, etc.
Nan’s brainless doe-like complacency gives ways to nails on a blackboard screaming when, well… I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen this. Her college beau and her brother decide someone ought to go looking for her, when she fails to rendezvous at a swinging party she said she’d be at.
The remainder of the film changes from following Nan to the duo’s investigation of her disappearance. Culminating in a… well, again, I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. There’s a blind reverend, a mute housemaid, and lots of general spookiness.
The shadow of the cross…
Silly, but appropriately fun for the nights running up to All Hallows Eve.
This more modern graphic is used on Shudder channel listing.
This movie is a pedigree blackbird, Turdus turdus.
Having recently been indulging in a veritable orgy of horror films, as we approach All Hallow’s Eve, Hellraiser has reminded me of one of the chief reasons I’ve eschewed the genre most of my life. It’s totally utterly awful.
I’m guesstimating that I managed about 30 minutes. After which I decided I’d rather gargle acid whilst having my plums crushed in a vice than suffer any more of it. So I bailed, and instead I’m going to bed with Michael Palin, in the good ship Erebus.
Another October evening in half-term, another Hammer-esque horror movie. This is actually another from Tigon (as was Curse of the Crimson Altar). Fortunately this is a much better than film.
It’s still far from top-notch, frankly, despite having garnered a cult following thanks to the ‘folk horror’ aulde Englande atmos’, very pleasingly conjured by director Piers Haggard. This evocation of a vanished England is my favourite aspect of the film.
What a fantastic shot!
Also worthy of note are some of the camera angles, from a crow, rook or raven or summat similar, viewed from below against a lowering sky, in the opening credits, to similarly vertiginous close in views at other moments, both the look of this film and it’s overall direction are great.
What is ultimately most shocking is the fact that the evil-doers, the ‘possessed’ are children. There are several scenes, all of which are quite shockingly graphic, not in necessarily typically explicit or gory ways, but rather in an old-school suggestive pre-cgi manner.
Childhood innocence corrupted is at the heart of this P. D. James style story.
The twin ‘daemons’ of sex and death rear their horny hairy heads, as paganism returns to haunt Olde Englande. As the film progresses I think I grow to like it more and more. The denouement, however, brings everything rather clunkily back down to earth.
We start with Ralph (rugged, handsome, tousle-haired Barry Andrews), a ploughman, turning up something rather oddly disturbing, as he goes about his work. He reports his find to the local justice of the peace (Patrick Wymark), who is sceptical of Ralph’s country bumpkin superstitions. But it turns out Ralph’s right, and has unwittingly unleashed a formerly dormant demonic force.
The judge questions Margaret (Michele Dotrice).
I won’t synopsise the whole plot. Watch the movie to find out what happens. The chief attractions are the evocation of ye Olde Englande, and a gorgeous vision of rural 17th C. life, plus (un?)healthy doses of pagan sex and death.
Unlike most films of this ilk/era, this is actually a little bit scary in places, in the way The Whicker Man is (although this is not as good a film as that genuine ‘folk horror’ classic), because, as mentioned before, it’s chiefly kids that become ‘possessed’ and act out the evils of their demonic master.
Angel and Cathy during a climactic scene.
Linda Hayden is Angel Blake, who becomes the leader of the devilish coven, and Wendy Padbury plays Cathy Vespers, whose fate is one of the film’s darkest moments. Characters are well named in this movie!
The Blood On Satan’s Claw touches upon one particular area that is potentially very fraught, especially in our current climate, child sexuality. And it does so in two surprisingly shocking scenes: Angel’s attempt to seduce Rev. Fallowfield (Anthony Ainley, perfectly cast), and the ritual rape and murder of Cathy.
Rural England is beautifully evoked.
Taken as a whole, this is a beautifully filmed work, with some great turns from actors who aren’t giants of their art. I can certainly see why The Blood On Satan’s Claw has attained a cult status. Not quite a classic of the same order as The Whicker Man , but definitely amongst the best of its kind, I did really enjoy this, as silly as it is at its core.
Ralph’s fate is key to the plot arc.Ralph battles with boobies and a blade, for his eternal soul.
Phew! This was a pretty hardcore watch. I loved the whole Peter Bird part; he’s very easy to like. But he died doing what he loved, or was was obsessed by, rowing across oceans. Mental!
The hard part, harder than his death, for me, is the legacy, particularly as to how it affected his wife and son. Peter’s son Louis has clearly been profoundly effected by his loss, and the film’s subtitle is My Dad’s Last Journey.
Peter, wife Polly, and little Louis.
It’s a very powerful story, equal parts sad and seductive; dreams of adventure, fame and freedom, pushing oneself to achieve something unique, and at the same time being solitary. Those things appeal to me.
But there are other darker sides, such as a trauma in the family; Cyril, Peter’s father, and Louis‘ grandfather, was what we’d now call bi-polar, and committed suicide by drowning himself in the Thames. Peter then went out and ultimately did something similar, albeit in a very different way. And perhaps neither deliberately nor intentionally?
I’m assuming this is Xmas day, at sea.This image is fab! Oozing adventure glamour.
Using archival film and audio, and with old newsreels and family and friends as talking heads, this excellent film tells a compelling story. I really loved this documentary. It’s very potent. Very sad. But it also has something magical about it. Hard to convey.
Essential viewing.
PS – Louis decided to row the Pacific, like his father, but – unlike dad – as part of a two man team. To face his own fears, and to try and understand what drove his father.
Louis, with the wreck of the boat recovered without Peter.
PPS – This superb doc’ was directed by Johnny Burke, Amy Ellis’ brother. We spent a terrifically convivial night out recently with Dan, Amy, Johnny and a number of others, during which this programme came up Prompting me to track it down on All 4. Very glad I did!
Hmmm!? I took out a free week long trial with Shudder, so as to watch more horror over Halloween this year. But this Tigon movie from 1968, despite horror ‘heavyweights’ Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee playing key roles, was pretty dire.
The titles are possibly more exciting than the movie.
It starts out with much mammary action, like a weird collision of Star Trek and Hammer (turns out the writers also write for Dr Who!), titillating, if you’ll pardon the pun, as if it’s going to be a kind of trashy sexploitation flick, with a bit of hippy era debauchery thrown in.
Bimbo and himbo, attractive but dull.
But then it goes all stodgy and lame – not warranting the effort a plot synopsis might entail – and wanders around aimlessly for ages, with sod all happening. Mark Eden as Robert Manning is a good looking but rather charisma-less lead, and his dolly bird love interest, Eve Morley (Virginia Wetherell), is sexy but soulless. Like the film. Actually, the film isn’t even sexy. Tawdry, perhaps?
Not as sexy as it thinks it is.
The done to death ‘witches coven in the modern world’ trope is flogged like a long dead carcass, yielding nothing more than the stale odour of decay. Sad, as this was one of Karloff’s last roles. Mind, I’ve never seen him in anything good. But to go out with a whimper on a damp squib like this? A shame.
As crap as it looks …
Can’t say I’d recommend this. Instead I’d recommend not bothering.
I’ve been getting into horror films recently. Much to my own surprise. I’ve even been watching those awful YouTube videos of people talking about their favourite horror stuff. That’s how I found out about this film.
Stranger still, I’ve gone as far as taking out a free week long trial of Shudder, so I could watch this, and some other horror movies, over the upcoming Halloween half-term holiday.
A screenshot from the Subject segment.
VHS ‘94 is part four of what’s become a growing series (I haven’t seen any of the other instalments). It looks and feels, for the most part, like a relatively low budget affair, many of the stories using suspense and ‘jump scares’ or ‘jump cuts’, or whatever they’re called, more than special effects. It’s also done, in the main, as if recorded to VHS, in the popular ‘found footage’ style.
The wobbly camera work and glitchy images might annoy some, but I quite liked the retro granular video vibes. Plus it can help make lower budget horror and gore less obvious/risible.
And on top of all of this, it’s also a horror anthology. There’s ‘ratman’ (Storm Drain), a risen corpse at The Empty Wake, a mad prof/doc’ making human/robot ‘neo-humans’ (Subject), and cultish ‘homeland patriot’ nutters in Terror. A fifth story, Holy Hell, frames all the others. There’s cultish weirdness, monsters, violence, gore, fear, and above all a general desire to scare.
A screenshot from the Storm Drain segment.
I wonder what it says about us as a species that we’re so given to the contemplation of death, and our fears? I suppose those things in themselves aren’t too surprising. What is surprising, and possibly disturbing, is the fact it takes the form, these days, of a whole subculture and industry, as prolific as it is … erm..? grotesque.
Certain passages in several segments are very like action from first-person video games. It seems the intersection between the worlds of video game culture and the rest of life, movies in particular, proceeds apace. This is especially true of Subject, which is probably the strongest individual segment of VHS ‘94. Subject is the only story not set in the US, and is also the slickest of the shorts, production wise.
I actually enjoyed VHS ‘94, or at least parts of it, quite a lot. There were, I feel, more interesting ideas in several of these shorts than in most full length horror films. One of the most interesting segments, Terror, is presented as if it’s the home videos of an extreme right wing neo-Nazi group, as they prepare for a terrorist attack.
First Patriots Movement Militia, comically inept but also disturbingly real. Grim goings on at the compound.
These Trumpist/MAGA style lunatics are as comically inept as they are morally bankrupt. But their nefarious plans go bloodily awry. Does it make any sense? We see the same man executed repeatedly by different members of the group. Does it ‘mean’ anything? From exploding bunnies to a freaky monster; I’ve no idea right now.
Ironically one of the weakest stories, Holy Hell, is the one that’s spliced up and used as a recurrent ‘back to the story’ type glue, framing all the other threads, and starting and finishing the whole set. Or perhaps it feels disjointed and less effective because it’s chopped up, where the others are complete?
Holy Hell, my least favourite of the segments.
Anyway, better than a lot of much better funded mainstream stuff, and, in my view, worth watching. Especially for the Subject and Terror segments.
We watched this movie – in part or whole? I forget now – once before. Here we are watching it again. As we approach Hallowe’en it seems there’s a bit of a Hammer-fest going on round here!
I’m not naturally a massive fan of these hammy technicolour schlock-horror sorts of movies. But Teresa is gradually indoctrinating me in the ways of Hammer and similar stuff.
Jennifer Daniel as Marianne Harcourt.
None of the cast are familiar to me, except perhaps Jennifer Daniel. And even then I’m not sure I’ve really seen her before (other than the last time we watched this).
To enjoy these things one has to either have some degree of susceptibility to the superstitious, or else suspend all pretence at any idea of rational integrity. The world these supernatural or paranormal stories inhabit is, well, frankly really rather silly.
Noel Willman’s Dr Raven…… despite the fangs, lacks bite.
But if you can settle into the silliness – I can’t be bothered to synopsise the typical haunted castle pretty dame horny ol’ vampire schtick – then there is here an alternate ‘reality’ in which one can revel in a whole bouillabaisse or witches brew of nuttiness.
If one knows and loves Cushing, Lee et al, as we do, their charisma can help make even the most excessively camp nonsense more palatable. Surprisingly, perhaps, the B-list cast of Kiss of the Vampire are actually okay, on the whole. Within the formulaic corridors of this rather tawdry hallucinatory world this isn’t so bad.
Teresa loves her Hammer horror movies. We tried one called The Black Glove, about a ‘jazz trumpeter’, wrongfully accused of murder. But she didn’t like the look of it. So she picked this Bavarian adaptation of an Edgar Allen Poe story instead.
Lilian and Roger, look great, but are wooden.
The soundtrack has the feel of being dubbed very poorly into English, with very questionable choices of music. Only some of the Germanic locations (oh, and the fulsome boobies, I guess!) save the film from being utterly dire. It’s a pretty bizarre but lame film. Very stilted, but very Hammer-esque.
Not enough Lee!
Christopher Lee is hardly in it, just at the beginning and end. Pity! Perhaps his fee was so big they could only afford him briefly? The Poe pit ‘n’ pendulum stuff also appears, but to no real effect. Pretty poor, overall, frankly.
But it has a vibe closer to what Teresa wanted, so she’s happy. I was less enamoured of it.
