If you fast forward through all the garbage at the North Pole (and there is sadly a ton of it) and just watch the real world portions until the finale, this is a legitimately great holiday movie.
And, as Adam Riske of F This Movie has pointed out, Elizabeth Mitchell closing the curtains and then dropping onto the couch by falling over the back of it and smiling at the camera may just be the sexiest moment ever committed to film.
“That’s the last time I’ll try to make coffee in a strange house.”
Karloff is amazing in his limited screen time, his eyebrow game is ON POINT, and this is gorgeously shot (there’s one shot with a lit lamppost on a foggy street that is 100% the inspiration for the famous shot in The Exorcist). The main problem is that limited screen time for Karloff; I was never really invested in any of the other characters here.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #47
Lee makes a fantastic Dracula, and I love how much of a bad ass Cushing gets to be in this. Doesn’t take any huge leaps narratively, but doesn’t really have to. Plus, that finale is a banger.
Prince of Darkness may be my favorite Hammer Dracula movie, but this is a very close second.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #46
Robert Zemeckis needs to stop with the overladen CGI films and go back to making movies like this (even if I’ve liked some of those overladen CGI films).
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Hoop-Tober Extra #45
You’ve got to love the speed at which the sheriff gets to the bottom of the problem in this small town; not even 15 minutes in, and it’s “oh, it must be a werewolf”. 1950’s cops must have dealt with a ton of those to jump right to that conclusion.
The movie itself is a pretty standard feeling B-movie but the werewolf effects are solid. I had fun with it.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #44
Not a movie you’d expect Peter Cushing to star in, but he really works in it. Very, very Sixties in vibe (especially the score), and the ending is pretty damn entertaining. In the words of Austin Powers, this one is “groovy, baby”.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #43
Much odder than a typical Dracula movie (the first half leans more into spy movie tropes than horror movie ones), and Christopher Lee unfortunately doesn’t show up until this is well underway, but once Cushing arrives on the scene this definitely picks up, and he and Lee’s scenes together have a phenomenal energy. It has its moments, but overall this isn’t the strongest of the Hammer Dracula movies.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #42
One of the first anthology horror films, and still one of the best. I think I prefer 5 story anthology films (as opposed to 2, 3 or 4); keeps things interesting, and most stories don’t overstay their welcome. That’s the case here- 5 solid stories (even if the golf one seems out of place), one of which is an all time classic in the ventriloquist dummy, and a pretty great framing story as well. My only real complaint is that the music is a little off tonally, but that’s a minor quibble.
A classic.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #41
A beautiful naked woman gets out of a soapy bath in this and immediately puts on a bathrobe, and all I could think about is that isn’t how robes work, right? Like the inside of the robe would be all soapy... it’s a choice.
As for the movie, it’s a lot of fun.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #40
Rules I live by- #1... don’t stick your hands in a fucking hole in a wall in haunted house.
Watched this one last year for Hoop-Tober, but Joe Bob Briggs was showing it on The Last Drive In, so happy to jump in again. A lot of what I said last year still applies- the movie looks fantastic, the gore is great, and the ending completely subverts your expectations. Good stuff.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #39
A really clever (and actually quite funny) dissection of the found footage horror genre. Sure, what the evil turns out to be is pretty dumb, but I almost think that’s the point. Good fun.
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Hoop-Tober Extra #38
This had to be an inspiration for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, right? And maybe a little Rocky Horror Picture Show along with it?
Jill Banning rules in this, and I liked Chaney’s stoic, sane chauffeur among all the insanity. An odd mix of childlike goofiness and adult sexuality, and somehow it all (mostly) works.