Vampire lord count Meinster hypnotises a young teacher and invades the school she’s teaching at. With Peter Cushing. 85min imdb
Movie 103min
Trailer
Recap:
So there is this young teacher on her way to a boarding school for girls, and she meets poor count Meistner who is chained by his evil mother. She frees him, and now the count who is indeed a vampire has access to a hypnotised teacher and an entire girl school. Good thing that van Helsing is on his way.
No Dracula in this one, no Christopher Lee, a quite nice movie for everybody who loves vampires, Hammer or Peter Cushing, but absolutely nothing special. Especially since the only version I found is of not so good quality, image wise.
Classic Dracula movie directed by Terence Fisher for the Hammer Studios. With Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. 82min imdb
(VPN:D)
Recap:
Basically, this is the battle of Grand Moff Tarkin versus Count Dooku. Spoiler: the one with the cooler Star Wars movie wins.
Okay, let me try again. This is a Dracula movie, this time Harker is a vampire hunter who tries to kill Dracula but fails, but he kills the bride of Dracula, so Dracula bites him and then goes for Lucy.
Also, this is quite an international movie: the innkeeper has a very blonde (and maybe Swedish?) maid called Inga, and the country where van Helsing resides cannot be England which shares borders only with Scotland and Wales, because in this movie they cross the border with a carriage, and along the border you see on the buildings’ walls German words like Zollamtshaus and Friederickstrasse.
All in all this is a priceless historical document. It’s such a pleasure to see skilled actors working for a skilled director, the sets are not exactly big budget but they look so much better than the nobudget stuff that is shot on location nowadays. I guess that there’s pretty much blood for a 50s movie, and I guess that the faces Lucy and Mina make when they expect Dracula may have been quite suggestive back then. Yet I must say that in my personal opinion the movie today is not as overwhelming as it may once have been. But it’s still great to watch anyway.
Peter Cushing and John Carradine in a movie about underwater nazi zombies. 84min imdb
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Review:
John Carradine is the captain of a small very old ship with a crew of two and a four tourists on board. Eventually they are hit by a huge ghostship and find themselves stranded on a forgotten island with a hotel that has been abandoned by everybody but Peter Cushing. During World War 2 he had been in charge of a ship full of underwater nazi zombies, and when the war was lost he just sank the ship and retired to said hotel.
What’s not to like about those blonde underwater nazi zombies with their awesome dark goggles? Often it’s really badass when they come out of the water. And, well, that’s where it starts with what I don’t like about them: sometimes they just kneel in the shallow water until they stand up. I wonder why and that sometimes ruins my immersion. And wait until you find out how you can kill an underwater nazi zombie. Spoiler: it’s not about destroying their brain. And while we’re at it: yes, this is a zombie movie, but, no, this is by no means a gore movie. Every single kill is unbloody and some even happen off camera, which is a bit untypical for that kind of film.
Oh yes, this movie has it’s moments, and I sure like the extra twists they add towards the end just to make you feel a little extra miserable. And as I mentioned above, the zombies in many scenes are quite badass.
So all in all this is a very watchable movie. It’s not a masterpiece, it doesn’t keep some of its promises, but it’s very, very watchable.
⭐⭐⭐ 88min British anthology movie with Peter Cushing, written by Robert Bloch
Recap:
All right, so there is this shrink who wants to work in a madhouse. During the job interview he’s told that the actual head of the asylum is upstairs and mingles with the inmates. To get the job he needs to talk to the patients and find out who the actual professor is. This is the envelope for several short stories.
This is obviously a “could watch”. You don’t have to watch it, but if you do you will not regret it, especially if you like old-fashioned brit horror and/or anthology movies and/or Peter Cushing.
Arkham TV 