31 Days of Horror Day 23 Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter

Title-Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
Source-Paramount DVD

Some of y'all might have noticed I rarely mention Hammer films. Mostly cause there is so few of the classic Hammer films I enjoy. As a kid I would read about the Hammer horror films in various books and magazines,but I never saw them on TV or for rent at the video store. It wasn't until early 90s that I started seeing most of the Hammer horror films. And it didn't take long for me to figure out I am just not a big fan of Hammer's horror movies.

I had been hearing for years how Captain Kronos was the best of the Non-Lee/Cushing vampire films. So in 2004 when I found this DVD for $5 I grabbed it. Figuring I would watch it at least twice.Two times cause it has a commentary. After the first viewing I enjoyed it enough to keep it. Then after listening to the commentary I knew I was going to keep the DVD.

A village has been hit by a rash of strange deaths. People keep aging faster than normal. So Dr Marcus calls in his Army friend Captain Kronos. Kronos and his assistant Grost show up. They are professional vampire hunters. After reviewing the evidence Captain Kronos figures out it is a vampire causing the deaths. But not your normal type of vampire,this one drains youth instead of blood.

After another attack,the Captain and his hunchback sidekick head off to investigate. On their way they run into Carla,a young Gypsy woman. Carla is played by Caroline Munro. And she joins our duo in their fight against this youth draining vampire.

Our heroes learn that since this isn't your normal type of vampire the normal methods of killing a vampire will not work. So they have to figure out a way to kill this powerful creature.

From my research this movie was suppose to be the start of a new vampire franchise from  Hammer. And it is  one I wish had happened. Sadly the film didn't do that well and not long after it Hammer was having money problems.

Thankfully in 2017 Titan comics published a 4 issue Captain Kronos comic. I read the first issue and it is pretty good. Now I just gotta find a trade collecting the series.

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter gets a C+.

31 days of horror year 2 day 23

Elvira's Movie Macabre The Satanic Rites of Dracula


I just finished watching this weeks episode of the new Elvira show. I have seen SRoD at least 2 times before and haven't ever really enjoyed it. Well even Elvira her cleavage and her witty quips couldn't save this shitstorm of a film. First off I am not a huge fan of the the various Hammer horror movies. Really the only one I enjoy is "Curse of the Werewolf" and that is more cause I am a huge fan of the late Oliver Reed. This is the second to last of the Hammer vampire movies. It is set in the current day of the 70's. A satanic cult is loose in England and sacrificing various nude women. The police find out and call on Peter Cushing as Van Helsing to help out. What really sucks about the movie is it is at least a third of the way in before we get to see Christopher Lee as Dracula. And he really doesn't have much to do in the film. I was kinda nice to see a young Joanna Lumley in this film. But even she couldn't save the us from horrible acting and a bad script. By it's self SRoD gets a D- but with the few bits from Elvira it goes up to a C-.

i love a good movie trailer comp

For me at least with some movies the best thing is the trailer. So I have always loved compilations of various movie trailers. And within the last few years the great company Synapse has released 5 volumes of 42nd Street Forever. 42nd street back before NYC was "cleaned" up,was the street that had piles of what are known as grindhouse theaters. These theaters usually had double or triple bills,cheap prices. And showed a wide genre of films. Sadly nowadays most of these films are forgotten or have become lost. But at least with some the great trailers still survive. Each volume of this must buy series runs about 2 hours. And the trailers are grouped by genre,IE Martial Arts films,then some Horror films,etc. One thing I love about volumes 3-5 is that they now have a group commentary for the collections. This is a good way to not only learn more about the films the trailers are advertising but also lots of interesting trivia about this era of film history. Most of the film trailers used on this series are in decent shape,but you will get a few per volume that have all the speckles and other hints of damage. But when you consider that most of the companies that released these trailers/films were first off very low budget and second went out of business many years ago,it is surprising how good 90% of the trailers look. One thing I have always done when watching each volume is keep a pen and piece of paper nearby cause I always end up seeing a trailer for a film that I feel the urge to track down. Sometimes I get lucky and the film is out on a nice anamorphic digitally remastered DVD. But then with a large percent of these films ,you will either have to find an old vhs release or acquire the film from one of the many "grey market" dealers that are on the Internet. One quick word of warning before I finish this review,I you are easily offended by nudity,violence,gore,or stuff that is just un PC avoid these DVDs at all cost. But if your taste in film runs more to Sonny Chiba and Jim Kelly give one of these great compilations a try. I give the 5 volumes and counting a well earned A+.