My first experience with this title came in the form of a comic book I picked up a few years ago. Titan comics put out a 4-issue miniseries that charmed the hell out of me, and the title stayed in the back of my mind until now. A newly converted Hammer Pictures fan, I decided to watch this “swashbuckling horror film.” Will this continue my 70s vampire craze, or put an end to it?
Synopsis:
A master swordsman and former soldier and his hunchbacked assistant hunt vampires.
IMDb: 6.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 60%
Tagline: Evil Ends Here.
Originally conceived as a potential franchise, the poor box office and financial trouble of Hammer Film Productions put a halt to these plans, though, the character has lived on in 3 comic book adaptations and sequels in 2017, 1976-1977, and 1978.
Hammer royalty Ingrid Pitt turned down a cameo role in the film, and it went to Wanda Ventham in her last motion picture role for 28 years. Horst Janson played the role of Captain Kronos, but his German accent was deemed too thick to be properly understood, so Julian Holloway was hired to loop all his dialogue. Hammer vets John Carson and Shane Briant as well as 80s scream queen Caroline Munro (Maniac, The Last Horror Film, Don’t Open Til Christmas, Slaughter High and both Dr. Phibes films) round out the cast.
A terrific opening scene sees two young girls down by the water and one of them gets attacked, her blood drained until she is an old woman. Then comes the fun music and the main titles. The music is incredibly fun, composed by Laurie Johnson, a big band and swing musician, and supervised by Hammer maestro Philip Martell. The score is very pirate-esque, I could totally see it being played as pirates stormed a ship, swords bared, just about to score some booty.
They had previously saved a gypsy woman, Carla (Munro) who decides to stay with the duo and help them with their vampire hunting ways. She also keeps eyeballing Kronos and thinking about unsheathing his mighty sword. When she finally is able to grab him by the scabbard, the shadows conceal the first lovemaking exploits of Carla and Kronos, but one can only imagine the lustful night they had in the hay that night. They did things that the other animals only dreamt about.
In every good action movie, there’s that scene where the good guy steps into the bar for a drink, and the asshole patrons try and act tough, doing assholish things and attempting to pick a fight with the hero. This movie is no different. Only it’s about 100 years ago or so and Special K goes all Roadhouse on some unlucky dudes. And the name calling is absolutely hilarious! Ratface! Big Mouth! Fatty! The entire sequence with the 3 brutes slowly falling over after being sliced and diced by our stud, while the other bar patrons cower, watching in fear and awe, is incredible!
I absolutely love the two characters Kronos and Grost. One is the dashing young swordsman, while the other is the horribly disfigured yet classy intellectual. They play against each other like Holmes and Watson, and the addition of the beautiful Carla adds not only a bit of eye candy to the equation, but youthful innocence and naivete. She isn’t part of their world, but joins them anyway, unaware of what they will face, but ready to contribute in any way. I hated that Kronos was a little rough with her during lovemaking, leaving her with a bloody lip, but she didn’t seem to mind, so it must have been consensual. But it kind of lessened her strong womanly presence in the movie. Today, though, he might get canceled. We might even see #CancelSpecialK trending worldwide!
This could be my favorite of the Hammer films that I have seen to date. It’s fun. It’s different. It’s more of an adventure movie than a horror film. The music is great. The directing is competent. The acting is top notch, especially from the 3 leads. And the story is very engaging. The 90-minute film flies by in a whirlwind of beautiful women and swashbuckling mayhem.
I truly wish that this had been the next big franchise for Hammer, or that someone could have come along and revived it, but I fear that in today’s climate, a film like this would inevitably bomb, and I would be heartbroken. I will now have to buy this film on Blu-ray and add it to my collection. Damn me for not being a rich lawyer with an entire floor in my mansion dedicated to my movie collection!
