The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

Film of 2012 #26
No Spoilers

This film is the last Hammer film to star both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and is also the last film for Christopher Lee to play Dracula. It is a sequel of sorts to some of the earlier Dracula films but at the time I watched it I was not aware of any of the history, though the film itself clearly references previous stories and battles. Peter Cushing plays Lorrimer Van Helsing and his niece is played by Joanna Lumley who I did not recognise to begin with but later in the film you can clearly see that it is her. 

The film starts quite confusingly with a ritual and a prisoner escaping and through the main characters finding out what happened you are brought up to speed. Scotland Yard are investigating a group of influential individuals who appear to be up to no good and within their investigations they discover that the group are headed up by Christopher Lee. He turns out to be Count Dracula resurrected from the dead as Van Helsing had killed him two years previously. This film is one of those older films that just accepts supernatural goings on, you have a case when someone known to the main characters is turned and they shout she is a vampire and there is simple acceptance of this fact as it is normal everyday goings on in the Hammer world. 

This was really a very enjoyable film, there are some issues around the pacing of it and I think that modern audiences would struggle with it as it moves at it's own pace. It is a good vs evil story and you know where it is going. a big plus point is that it is near the end of the Hammer films as there are plenty of b**bs on show and there is still some tension built up so a three star film for me, very enjoyable.

Horror Hotel:City of the Dead (1960)

Film of 2012 #21
Some Spoilers

The latest Public Domain film that I watched was Horror Hotel, also known as the City of the Dead starring Christopher Lee is a story of witches and it opens with the burning of a witch and goes from there. This is a film from 1960 that I as not aware of before getting it for nothing and gave it a look as I thought I had heard of it before but did not really know anything about it. You meet Christopher Lee as Professor Allan Driscoll who is teaching a college class about witches and his star pupil is looking for information to be able to research this further and he recommends that she goes to Whitewood to look up Elizabeth Selwyn who was the witch we saw being burned at the start of the film. 

Based on the title and the nature of the film having seen so many films it is actually fairly easy to see where this film goes but it was an interesting idea and back in the time of release i think it would have had a greater impact than it would on toady's market. Probably my favourite part is the acceptance of all involved when things get weird, films from the 50's and 60's seem to just accept that strange things happen and that you do not need to question it. I think when addressed by the fact that there are witches they just decide they have to figure out how to kill them. The difference being in the remake of Fright Night the main character while he comes around to the idea that his neighbour is a vampire he has to be convinced in the beginning and does not believe his friend. I think that this is the more modern look at the world. I think we are all so much better informed that we would question it however much we want to believe in witches and vampires we are all geared towards the fact that they do not exist how they do in the movies. 

Overall this film is not an essential view it is interesting and a bit creepy and is an interesting snapshot of films at the time and I did enjoy it, however will not have to see it again in the near future. Overall this is a weak 3 stars and is well worth watching if you are exploring what is available in the Public Domain, interesting to see a young Christopher Lee as well. 

Season of the Witch (2011)

So I saw this film on a Sunday afternoon when the GF was working, what a serious disappointment, I saw the trailer afterwards so went in thinking, Girl suspected of being a witch, everybody wants her dead, along comes Nic Cage and sees the good in her. Well if you saw the trailer it destroys that illusion straight away and half way through the film without the trailer you know something is going on.

It is a really simple story that has 10 minutes of violent set up that does nothing to develop the lead roles and it is a total church bashing without any redemption for the main characters in defence of what they do. There are couple of interesting points in the story but based on how the film was sold to me the way the film went made no sense whatsoever. I came away from the film thinking, really what was the point.

Nicholas Cage seems to have decided he is going to do as many films as possible just to get paid, he phoned this performance in and was nothing special the whole film is not worth seeing so a 1 star stay away from this piece of nonsense.