Hammer and Gothic Horror

My favorite Frankenstein from Hammer is Frankenstein Must be Destroyed. Peter Cushing is just so brutally evil in it. And the scene with the body in the garden...awesome. But all the Frankenstein films they did are great. The ones with Peter Cushing anyway: I haven't seen the Ralph Bates one. Horror of Frankenstein I think. I like Ralph BAtes well enough, but he is not Peter Cushing and anybody else in that role is unacceptable. Although, I would say Mr. Cushing's best role for Hammer was not as Dr. Frankenstein/Stein/Fenner whatever, but rather as Dr. Sherlock Holmes in Hound of the Baskervilles.

I feel the same about Chris Lee. I love the Dracula series, despite what he thinks of it, but I think his best role for Hammer was Rasputin the Mad Monk. In my highest fantasies the final battle for the future of mankind is a staring contest between Chris Lee as Rasputin and Sam Jackson as Jules from Pulp Fiction. Horror of Dracula is probably my favorite of the series. Scars of Dracula has the best vanquishing scene. The lightning and the metal rod and all that. I don't know what other devices will do this, but when I watch Prince of Darkness on my PlayStation it lets me slow the movie down to half speed and it still plays the audio too. If you're able, you should do this during the scene when Barbara Shelly is menacing her sister and Dracula shows up to run her off. It makes the scene so much more intense. It makes his growling and hissing really deep and guttural. It's awesome.

Two of my favorite Hammer flicks that seem to get passed over are Captain Cronos: Vampire Hunter and Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures. Cronos has Caroline Munro looking as good as she ever did and Clegg has probably the meatiest role they ever gave to Michael Ripper. For anyone who doesn't know; Michael Ripper was a character actor who has the distinction of appearing in more Hammer films than anybody. He was never the star, but always the support. The innkeeper, the farmer, the coffin maker etc etc etc.

/r/horror Thread