Hi All,
Long have I meant to sit down and write an extended piece on this topic, so here goes:
Ironically enough three of my very favourite vampire flicks were released in the same year, that being 1979.
I am going to have a discussion on them in the order that I saw them:
Dracula (Dir John Badham, Frank Langella et al.)
This is the first Dracula film that I remember seeing, and it remains somewhat true to the original novel, yet there is a romance element to the story which was not present in the Bram Stoker text.
Having said that, the production design is fantastic and it contains some genuinely memorable visuals, which were terrifying enough to my young brain to cause me a sleepless night after viewing it for the first time.
Chief among the terrifying moments (in my humble opinion) were:
Jan Francis as Mina Van Helsing wandering around the mines underneath the graveyeard in her filthy burial robes, comes across her father (Abraham Van Helsing) She has been transformed from a lovely young woman to a totally repugnant form in her white pancake make-up and red-glowing eyes, at 56.27 she makes the plea:
‘Papa, come with me, come with me.’ As she is baring her fangs and reaching out for her father. That’s enough to scare any little kid!
What is ironic is that Jan Francis was best known for playing the part of ‘Penny’ in the BBC Sitcom (in the UK) ‘Just Good Friends’ two more eclectic roles I cannot imagine.
At 1.20.35 when Dracula (Langella) comes across Renfield (Tony Haygarth) Renfield - who has adopted a really disgusting diet of cockroaches – begs for his life. Dracula purrs to him ‘Renfield you disappoint me so.’ And proceeds to twist Renfield’s head 180 degrees the wrong way, as a speedy punishment for him. Renfield drops to the ground and blood spills from his dead mouth… yuck.
Dracula disappears as mist below the door and proceeds to kidnap his latest damsel (seduced and not in distress – Kate Neligan.)
For a kid those are memorable scenes and the stuff of a sleepless night.
Salem’s Lot (Dir Tobe Hooper, Reggie Nalder et al.)
OK, this movie almost doesn't bear discussion because many of us on the board here have passed so very many comments over such a long space of time. However, I will go ahead now.
I am sure that I did not see Salem’s Lot on it’s first run in the UK, simply because my older brother had already seen it the year previously and had told me (briefly) about some of the scenes involved.
That suggests to me that it must have been on it’s second (or possibly third run) by the time I saw it as a kid. Broadcast over two separate nights, it was instrumental in giving me nightmares over not one but several nights!
You must understand that it now has a special place in my heart…
OK, first off Ralphie Glick and his vampiric visits via windows. The little bugger managed to look horrifying and didn't utter a word as he floated around and made his attacks (for me he was scarier than his older brother Danny who DID talk)
Any scenes featuring the graveyard did have an impact on me, and I think I need to explain why:
I originally come from a small town, and it just so happens that there is a graveyard about a mile away from where I grew up. OK, so no big deal I hear you say… I'll be honest, it was for me!
In my kid’s (nightmare riddled) brain, I was able to take facts of what had happened in the fictional town of Salem’s Lot, and transpose them to my (very real) home-town, simply because there was a graveyard nearby, which (at the time) was very effective in transforming something that was simply nightmare inducing, into something like mild psychosis!
I’m enjoying a good laugh as I am writing this, but it’s like I said before the film of Salem’s Lot has a special place in my heart!
Other scenes that were noteworthy: During daylight hours both Eva and Nolly complain of dream filled-nights when (obviously vampirised) friends have come to see them. That stuck in my brain as well.
A very obvious one – I know this is a favourite of other posters on the board here – is the Jail cell scene where Barlow makes a first (terrifying) appearance.
All of the scenes in the Marsten house stuck in my mind (including the staking of Barlow) because they put me on the horns of a dilemma: What I mean is that I wanted to see the good guys vanquish the VERY bad guys, but because I liked the characters (Ben Mears, Mark Petrie) I was also tempted to tell them to simply run from the town so they could escape with their lives intact.
The broken bottle of holy water, exploding into blue smoke as a sign that evil was nearby stuck with me, and I gave a sigh of relief when Barlow was eventually destroyed, but not before a lot of tension of having the assorted vampires in the root cellar crawl their way towards Mark…
And then of course Susan turned up at the end, just for one final shock…
Great stuff indeed.
Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Dir Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski et al.)
I saw this movie later on and while I can’t say that I found it as scary or terrifying as the others I have mentioned, I have to say it has stuck in my mind as being a compelling beautiful, and haunting piece of movie-making.
At the time of it’s making, it was filmed twice (in the native German language with English subtitles) as ‘Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht’ and also with English dubbing as ‘Nosferatu: the Vampyre’ I only speak English and have never spoken German, however I prefer the original German version with the English subtitles as it seems to be slightly more true to form and better paced in the original dialect.
Around the one hour mark in the movie Nosferatu travels from Varna to Wismar, and there are shots of the boat travelling across the water and into the port, which are accompanied by choral music which I have to say are absolutely hypnotic and have remained with me for a very long time.
Later in the movie rats carrying the plague overrun Varna. There is the absolutely compelling image of people, dressed in all their finery, sitting down to eat sumptuous food at a banquet table. Lucy approaches them and they invite her to join them.
At 1.32.58 in the film they say ‘We have all contracted the plague. Let’s enjoy whatever time we have to live.’
Moments later they fade away to be replaced by rats who overrun the banqueting table. Like I say that’s compelling stuff, and reminds the viewer of just how transitory life can be. The scene is both melancholy and memorable in the extreme.
It was only when I saw the film years later that I realised that Lucy (played by Isabelle Adjani) had distracted Nosferatu from the day-beak – She was successful in destroying the vampire, but she had made the ultimate sacrifice by paying with her own life.
Did I say the movie was compellingly beautiful? Actually that goes for the actress Isabelle Adjani as well, she is extremely lovely in the role of Lucy here.
Honourable mention section:
Honourable mention has to go to two different movies here.
Count Dracula (1977 – Dir Philip Saville, Louis Jourdan et al.)
This particular production has already been mentioned on the thread here, and I don’t really remember it from its release as I was only a little kid at the time. However I saw it at the end of last year (2015) and have to say I think it is excellent for the amount of fidelity that it shows for the source material (i.e. The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.)
And also -
Off Topic:
The Omen (1976 – Dir Richard Donner, Gregory Peck et al.)
OK, lets be clear here: the 1976 movie ‘The Omen’ is NOT a vampire flick, so it should not be rightfully discussed here, it’s about the birth of the Antichrist. Which still DOES NOT make it a vampire movie.
It is getting a honourable mention here because it contains the most terrifying line of dialogue in a movie EVER.
The actor Patrick Troughton was well known in the UK for his portrayal of the character of ‘Dr. Who’ from the BBC. However, he makes an appearance in ‘The Omen’ as the character of the damned – as in destined for hell - priest ‘Father Brennan.’
At 41 minutes into the movie he has a discussion with the American Ambassador Robert Thorn (played by Gregory Peck.) who says to him: ‘I never want to see you again.’
Troughton at 41.43 in the movie uttered the most chilling line (in my opinion) in movie history: ‘You’ll see me in Hell, Mr. Thorn, there we will share out our sentence.’
If ever there was a single line in a film designed to inspire nightmares in a little kid and rob me of sleep it that one. ‘The Omen’ is not my favourite movie, but I love that scene to this day.
Well done, to the production crews all around, on all of the above mentioned moments. Those are some of my favourite movies now.
Please feel free to post with any thoughts.
Cheers for now.
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stones78
8 years ago
Regarding Langella's Dracula...he should've had fangs, but he didn't. I can't take that film seriously b/c of that omission. Salem's Lot will always be sentimental for me probably because of timing. I was a young Catholic boy back in 1979 when I saw it during the 1st showing, and I wasn't expecting dead vampire kids, and Barlow simply crushing the cross was too much to accept. Most friends, girlfriends, and family have heard me mention this film all the time. It never leaves me. Funny thing is I caught the trailer on CBS by accident back in '79, as my dad was changing channels on that fateful Saturday night, and we were both excited about that trailer. Good times!
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