Prepare to be hammered by Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter. He's a swashbuckling, brooding, silent type who cavorts across the countryside with his assistant, Prof. Grost, who is a hunchbacked sort of Dr.-Watson-Meets-Hephaestus. As you will learn well into the storyline, Kronos's family was attacked by vampires, so now he has to repay the "species" a thousandfold by hunting them down in the, well, dead of day, actually, and learning along the way that vampires are a varied species that must be snuffed in a multitude of ways as no one set of rules works for all of them(a nice twist).
The score is adequate, and in some places, rousing. Acting is somewhat of "Horst of another color." Janson is tolerable as Cap'n Kronos, sometimes delivering his lines very well, other times you might groan. If I were to cast a remake, I'd lovingly place Dave Mustaine in the lead with John Hurt as his quasimodo-in-tow. Anyway, I know plenty of horror fans dig this film and there is a lot to be said for it 35 years later. Part of its appeal would lie in when you watched the movie, though. If you are a geezer like me and waited until you were older to see this, it certainly won't have the same attraction as it might for a kid in high school in the 70's. This is not to say it's a bad film or even really dated. You just have to be in the right mindset when you start watching or you'll end up being too critical. Personally, I'd have preferred more swordplay and a few more vampiric slayings. The swordfight in the cemetery is beyond pathetic and at least the cinematographer was able to clean up the shortcomings a bit with fast camera-work. However, the sword fight at the end is considerably better and will make up for the one previously derided.
There are a bevy of beauties in the film, including the delicious Caroline Munro, so there's no shortage of flesh, although nudity is kept in the shadows. If you are a careful viewer, and I know you are, you'll spot the main baddie rather early on, but that doesn't necessarily spoil things. Perhaps the best thing about this movie is not so much the action or dialogue as the uber-creepy vampire moving about the countryside, mainly in the forests, donning a black shroud and sucking the youth out of the fair maidens. The fact the vampire's face is not shown until the end greatly helps the film, which has little in the way of effects or gore.
Today, we have Van Helsing and the late-in-coming Solomon Kane as a sort of modern cinematic Captain Kronos, but that doesn't mean his character couldn't live on in more stories. I'm sure there are enough fans of this film to warrant his resurrection.
The score is adequate, and in some places, rousing. Acting is somewhat of "Horst of another color." Janson is tolerable as Cap'n Kronos, sometimes delivering his lines very well, other times you might groan. If I were to cast a remake, I'd lovingly place Dave Mustaine in the lead with John Hurt as his quasimodo-in-tow. Anyway, I know plenty of horror fans dig this film and there is a lot to be said for it 35 years later. Part of its appeal would lie in when you watched the movie, though. If you are a geezer like me and waited until you were older to see this, it certainly won't have the same attraction as it might for a kid in high school in the 70's. This is not to say it's a bad film or even really dated. You just have to be in the right mindset when you start watching or you'll end up being too critical. Personally, I'd have preferred more swordplay and a few more vampiric slayings. The swordfight in the cemetery is beyond pathetic and at least the cinematographer was able to clean up the shortcomings a bit with fast camera-work. However, the sword fight at the end is considerably better and will make up for the one previously derided.
There are a bevy of beauties in the film, including the delicious Caroline Munro, so there's no shortage of flesh, although nudity is kept in the shadows. If you are a careful viewer, and I know you are, you'll spot the main baddie rather early on, but that doesn't necessarily spoil things. Perhaps the best thing about this movie is not so much the action or dialogue as the uber-creepy vampire moving about the countryside, mainly in the forests, donning a black shroud and sucking the youth out of the fair maidens. The fact the vampire's face is not shown until the end greatly helps the film, which has little in the way of effects or gore.
Today, we have Van Helsing and the late-in-coming Solomon Kane as a sort of modern cinematic Captain Kronos, but that doesn't mean his character couldn't live on in more stories. I'm sure there are enough fans of this film to warrant his resurrection.