☆ ☆ ☆
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) – B. Clemens
Nicely produced in
that familiar Hammer Horror way but more chaste than some of their other early ‘70s
fare (despite the presence of sultry Caroline Munro from the Golden Voyage of
Sinbad). There’s a folk-horror feel (also common to this era) with many shots
in the grassy woods outside the typical rustic British village. Alas, those
stalwarts of Hammer, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, are nowhere to be found
but the latter is replaced by the titular Captain (Horst Janson) and his
sidekick Professor Grost (John Cater) who enter the area searching for
vampires. Kronos is a bit underwhelming but more swashbuckling than van Helsing
ever was. The villain, however, is seen only in a black hooded cloak, remaining
a mystery – which quickly turns the narrative into a sort of whodunit (there
are a handful of suspects). The necessary
twist on the genre is that rather than merely sucking blood from the victim,
the vampires also suck out their very life-force, rendering the young, suddenly
old. Neither Hammer’s best, nor their worst – an easy-going outing to a
familiar land.
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