DVD Review: Daughters of Darkness (1971)

If you're anything like me, you probably stayed up way past your bedtime and watched the late night horrors...at least until you fell asleep on the sofa or got dragged to bed. I saw the opening half hour of an endless number of movies, some I've caught since, while others have eluded me. One such movie is Daughters of Darkness.

I'm guessing it was a late night showing on Channel 4 in the 80s, this 'erotic' (or 'arty') horror probably wouldn't make the cut for ITV or the BBC, both of which preferred a bit of Hammer for their late slots. Either way, all these years on, the opening 20 minutes of this English language Belgian horror, the work of director Harry Kumell, was instantly familiar to me. I think that says something.

DVD Review: Blacula (1972) / Scream Blacula Scream (1973)

Many years ago, I saw a TV documentary on blaxploitation that described the Blacula movies (rather aptly) as 'the final nail in the genre's coffin'. Well, over 30 years on since they first shocked and amused audiences, the movies are still as popular as ever - and now back with a bite on DVD.

With a plot even Hammer would be ashamed of, Blacula somehow manages to tie the original Count Dracula to the slave trade. When tribal leader Mamuwalde (William Marshall) goes over to Transylvania with his wife Luva (Vonetta McGee), he falls foul of the Count, finding himself under a vampire curse, confined to a coffin for eternity. Fast forward 200 years and two camp interior designers from L.A. are buying up the castle's fittings for 'kitsch value', unwittingly shipping over Blacula to cause mayhem on US streets.

Indeed, his lust for (mainly) black blood sees a trail of victims including a taxi driver, several policemen, a photographer, a doctor and the two designers, all left in a zombie-like state to clock up their own body count. But there's a couple of twists - Blacula's wife Luva has been re-incarnated in the city as Tina - with Blacula desperate to get her back. And local pathologist Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) is on his trail. Can he stop the vampire? Will Tina fall for Blacula's charms? Or will she be his downfall? All will be revealed in an action-packed final few minutes.

Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974)

I've said it many time before and I'll continue to say it - Hammer's latter day output is some of its finest. Why? Well, because it had to keep up with the competition. And that meant taking chances and following perceived trends. The cinema-goers and critics of the era might not have been keen on the new approach, but the early-to-mid 70s output is certainly some of the most watchable and least-aged today. And that output is headed up by Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter.

It's deep in Hammer territory, but this is miles away from the classic Cushing/Lee Hammer flicks. That's down to the writer/director, Brian Clemens, a man associated with some of the best British action/adventure of the 60s and 70s (Avengers, Adam Adamant, Protectors, Champions etc) as well as one of my favourite cult horror films, And Soon The Darkness. Clemens took the classic Hammer scenario of vampires stalking the peasants, but adding one extra ingredient - the comic book hero.

Vampyres (1974)

A caravanning holiday in the English countryside in the 1970s isn't the typical scenario for a horror movie, but that is the case with José Ramón Larraz' Vampyres.

In stark contrast to the peaceful setting, Vampyres is the film Hammer were never quite able to make, with the blood letting more realistic and the eroticism in excess of what the British censor would have been comfortable with in 1974. In essence, it's a Euro horror, but set in the UK with a mainly British cast.

DVD Review: Nosferatu (1922)

Nosferatu - one of the most famous horror movies of all time and featuring one (if not more) of the most iconic scenes in film history. But how many people have actually sat through the entire movie? Less than you might think, not least because a definitive version of F.W. Murnau's silent classic hasn't been available to buy. Until now that is.

The two-disc release of Nosferatu by Eureka, as part of its Masters of Cinema series, is pretty much as definitive as any release can be, featuring a fully-restored version of the movie, the original score by Hans Erdmann, a full-length commentary, a detailed documentary on both the movie and Murnau and an equally-exhaustive 80-page book. More on these additions later.

The film itself loosely follows Bram Stoker's Dracula novel, carefully avoiding any direct references, but with enough similarity for Bram Stoker's widow to successfully sue the Prana company and insist all copies were destroyed. Thankfully for us, numerous copies of the movie had already been distributed - with this restored release based on a French archive print from 1922, with other prints used to fill in the gaps. Missing storyboards have also been recreated using the same font as the original movie. Which means for the first time in over 80 years, we can sit back and watch what the director intended.