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I'm a pretty big fan of the Hammer Dracula films. Lee did his own NSNA during that time by playing the Count for a different company in a Jess Franco film COUNT DRACULA.
There he plays Dracula as physically described in the novel with the long white mustache and hair. Pretty much the only film to get the Count's look accurate. The film itself, while reasonably faithful is pretty indifferent and extremely low budget. Klaus Kinski makes a good Renfield, though.
Dracula (1974), Director: Dan Curtis. Writer: Richard Matheson.
Stars: Jack Palance, Simon Ward, Nigel Davenport. Palance at the near exact time he was considered for the Scaramanga role in The Man With the Golden Gun. Worth seeing, definitely.
I love the Palance version.
Horror Of Dracula rules. Prince Of Darkness is righteous. Has Risen rocks. AD 1972 is groovy. I has spoken. ;)
Well said. I couldn't agree more. :)
They nearly never 'scared' me either- they were all about atmosphere & mood... I saw AD 1972 in the theatre at 12 years old, and it creeped me, but I really didn't freak out... a year later at 13 Blacula elicited a few 'whoa's out of me... but I think the bar for 'scary' had been set with Legend Of Hell House much earlier...
Another disturbingly scary moment was Freddie Jones dragging the screaming Peter Cushing into the burning building in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED.
I still love those films and watch them fairly often.
Nice! I remember thinking the guillotine scene was intense. I saw it on television when I was about seven. It aired after the BBC Henry VIII series which had also featured a be-heading scene, so I got to see two films with be-headings that night.
The Satanic Rites Of Dracula is my favourite, I like almost all of the others in different ways. The only one that I straight up dislike, is the final film, The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires.
I am going to check it out.
This is a top three.
Lee is great in SATANIC RITES. He even has a little fun doing a Lugosi homage while in Howard Hughes/Willard Whyte mode. It the only Lee Hammer Dracula to feature a scene in which he doesn't wear his cape.
7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES, stands apart from the rest. John Forbes Robertson's Dracula make up is laughable and insulting to the previous entries which made Lee look so good. In addition his dubbed voice is pretty awful. However, Peter Cushing again elevates the films and makes it enjoyable for what it is.
I used to not like this one much, but has since grown on me considerably. Pity they never followed it up with their planned KALI: DEVIL BRIDE OF DRACULA.
The other one off entry BRIDES OF DRACULA is quite excellent with Cushing again as Van Helsing and David Peel as the blue cloaked Baron Meinster. My only minor quibble with this one is the absence of James Bernard to do the score. IMO, James Bernard was the John Barry of the Hammer horrors.
Captain Kronos was always a favourite of mine as well.
Cool film that featured a heroic vampire slayer long before the likes of Blade and Buffy!
Could have been a good series as well.
Rather poignant watching from a post-9/11 perspective.
This Jesse Franco film from 1970 was all right, but nothing special. as with sp many of these adaptations, the best part is at Dracula s castle. I think I have actually seen this before.
A LOVE LETTER
by the D-virus
If you had asked me in 2002 how I felt about RESIDENT EVIL, I probably would have said, "decent film, will spawn one or two crappy sequels and then they'll pull the plug." Five years later, I would have eaten those words like a T-virus infected person eats the living.
Where do I start? I had never played the games, but I did know who Paul W.S. Anderson was. His 1997 sci-fi horror EVEN HORIZON had sent 15 year old me through some delicious nightmares. For a short while, I called him my hero, believe it or not. I also knew who Milla Jovovich -- it's pronounced "Mia Yoyovitch", folks -- was because Besson's THE 5TH ELEMENT was (and still is) one of my favourite 'goofy' sci-fi fantasies. Colin Salmon needed no introduction, obviously, and Michelle Rodriguez had just popped up on my radar. Also, zombies. Yes, I'm one of those people. RESIDENT EVIL features zombies. Get over it, so we can go on.
In 2002, I was getting seriously "infected" by zombies; I watched Romero's trilogy -- remember when it was still just a trilogy? -- like a madman, I had heard of a Danny Boyle zombie film soon to be released, and certain video games were giving me the pleasure of shooting up some undead brains. Heaven. So when I saw that first RESIDENT EVIL film in theatres, I loved it. The underground claustrophobia of the Hive, combined with zombie people, and zombie dogs, and zombie other creatures, gave me all the thrills I was looking for. And it had scantily clad women kicking some serious zombie butt. It certainly wasn't anything "ultraspecial", but it was good, and I had a good time. RESIDENT EVIL was one of the more solid video game adaptations we'd gotten so far. In your face, Uwe Boll!
Surprisingly enough I skipped APOCALYPSE (2004) and EXTINCTION (2007) in theatres, fearing they might let me down as so many sequels in so many horror series so often had. But I caught them on video and was positively surprised to say the least. By 2010 though, I figured it was getting swan song time. Milla started to get up there in years (35 isn't old at all but few female stars were known, at the time, to still do some kick ass superhero stuff on screen at that age) and I had no idea where the post-apocalypse setting of EXTINCTION could possibly take us next. Yet AFTERLIFE once again proved me wrong in my lack of confidence. It made more money than the previous three had, and it gave us an open ending, suggesting more was to come. RETRIBUTION (2012) and THE FINAL CHAPTER (2016) have since then closed the book on the series.
But in a good way. A cumulative budget of 290 million dollars and a cumulative box office take of 1.223 billion dollars make the Resident Evil film series one of the more profitable for sure. The series has taken its time -- 14 years for 6 films -- but sometimes "steady" is the way to go (thank you, Jar Jar Binks.) One of its true strengths is that it always sought out new subgenres for its next instalment. This could be read as a series not quite having found its footing yet, but I'm willing to see things positively. We move from the "confined spaces" underground horror of RESIDENT EVIL to an urban outbreak of the T-virus with action in churches, on rooftops, in large squares, ... and all of it against the blackest of night. After that, we proceed to a sunlit Western survival horror film and next we have a greyish down-town prison and a large, white, high-tech boat. Then comes a Matrix type of what-is-real-and-what-isn't-flick and finally we see an expensive end-of-the-world climax full of city ruins, dragons and hungry zombies. Watching all six movies in one marathon, one is never in any danger of growing bored of seeing the same things over and over again.
Continuity tends to be a little shaken, as subtle retcons are often needed to allow the story to progress in more agreeable territory. I am, however, perfectly willing to accept that, as there's something charming about a series taking most of its output one step at a time, rather than James Wanning this thing up the wazoo, with details about the 6th film already written while the second film hasn't even wrapped up shooting yet. The Resident Evils were more careful about that, which means that some continuity errors are almost inevitable but certainly not problematic. Overall, the series has come up with a fairly cohesive story, very much outside the established video game world building by the way.
I want to give special praise to two people in particular. The first is Milla. Despite some interesting pop culture names in the supporting casts (Rodriguez, Salmon, THE MUMMY's Oded Fehr, HEROES' Ali Larter, TOMB RAIDER's Iain Glen, ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK's Ruby Rose, ...) they have never overshadowed Milla. Her closest spotlight competition may have been Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine, a character straight from the video games, but even she never stole any screen time from Milla. Now to be fair, Milla Jovovich is no Sigourney Weaver or Scarlett Johansson. Her acting is of a very modest quality. But the good thing is that our demands for Shakespearean talent aren't very high in a series where women have to shoot guns, throw punches and ride motorcycles. And that is something Milla has done exceptionally well for six movies. Remember THE 5TH ELEMENT? Well, twenty years later and she's still bringing that physicality to the screen. I profoundly respect how beautiful, fit and strong she has remained since the mid 90s. So next time anyone complains that no female centric superhero films have yet been made, I will give them a list of 6: RESIDENT EVIL one through six to be more precise. Milla Jovovich's Alice is up there with Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Black Widow and Wonder Woman, except that she has been the focal point of no less than six films. I'd say the others can hit the showers while Milla gets to do some more hitting. Katniss who?
My second "star" of the series is Paul W.S. Anderson himself. Fine, he made AVP and some people want to punch him in the face for that. I, however, tend to be very forgiving towards the man. He wrote all 6 Resident Evil films and directed 4 of them. It's probably a good thing that he dated (and eventually married) his lead star. I bet he got a lot out of Milla, and she out of him, leaving the best results for us to enjoy. Whatever Anderson does next, his Resident Evil films command respect, if for no other reason, then at least because he was smart enough to close the curtains on the series when it was still going strong.
Three Japanese animation films which play closer to the video games and have nothing to do with the Anderson films, are definitely worth checking out too. And it appears that James Wan is working on a reboot, which also has my interest. But wherever these endeavours go, Anderson's series will remain an underrated treasure. Consistently targeted by critics, never once earning more than a 50% approval on certain review websites or from Rogert Ebert, these films have nevertheless kept going, staying true to their own brand of "logical nonsense". And they have brought in good money, kept Milla Jovovich from disappearing in the post-25 actress jail and allowed for some adrenalised zombie horror that doesn't necessarily have to teach us about sociology, consumerism or world politics.
Simple, indulgent, fresh and cool; all the ingredients for popcorn entertainment are here. Having just sat through a Resident Evil marathon, I noticed all of these qualities, gave the critics the finger and decided to share my love for this series with you all, hoping that you can one day agree with me. ;-).
My name is Dimi. And I'm coming for you...
Edit: And now one is coming. ;)
Did I mention Milla Jovovich?
Oh christ, don't tell the wife. *sheepishly backs out of thread*
Multipass...
I bought this film almost a year ago and still have not watched it, I really enjoyed Birdman by the same director.