Hammer's New Blood

God in the form of the Bible-wielding Puri- tan Weil or the combined force of the town’s officials and schoolmaster, to the usual gory Hammer climax, the action never loses pace. The air of seriousness with which the stories are told also helps to wash away any lingering disbelief felt by the audience. The casts of Twins of Evil and Vampire Circus, particularly Cushing, who attacked every role as though he were playing Hamlet at the Old Vic, clearly believed in what they were doing, and their obvious relish makes the viewer forget (for the most part) the pre- posterousness of the proceedings. In Twins of Evil and Vampire Circus, these dual elements of originality and pac- ing, a common thread throughout Ham- mer’s films, may just be their saving grace. Twins of Evil (1971; Hammer Film Produc- The lovely Collinson twins (Madeleine and Mary), as Maria and tions - The Rank Organization) Director: Frieda Gellhorn, arrive in the village of Karnstein to stay with their HAMMER’S NEW BLOOD John Hough. Producers: Harry Fine, Michael uncle Gustav Weil in 1971’s Twins of Evil. (Courtesy of Photofest) Style. Screenplay: Tudor Gates. Cinematog- By Cleaver Patterson which the studio consistently returned. of production designer Bernard Robinson, rapher: Dick Bush (director of photography). Indeed, except for a couple of exceptions, whose skill at making something from Cast: Peter Cushing, Kathleen Byron, Mad- “Since Helen passed on I can’t find bloodsuckers became their mainstay before nothing, along with the deft touch of cin- eleine Collinson (billed as Madelaine in the anything; the heart, quite simply, has they disappeared completely with Cybill ematographer Jack Asher, created some of credits), Mary Collinson, Damien Thomas, European village of Karnstein is terror- the thrill-seeking Frieda into a vampire. gone out of everything” (Peter Cushing, Shepherd in The Lady Vanishes (1979). early Hammer’s most memorable environ- Dennis Price, and Roy Stewart. ized by a group of puritanical clergymen When Weil and his fellow Brother- The Radio Times, 1972). Two notable entries in the early 1970s ments on a par with Universal and RKO’s called the Brotherhood. Led by the austere hood members discover Frieda feasting Though the master of horror was talk- that fell into this bracket made no mention Golden Age during the 1930s. WHICH IS THE VIRGIN? Gustav Weil, they patrol the village and its upon a victim’s still warm body, he im- ing about the loss of his beloved wife a year whatsoever of Dracula, though an alterna- Unfortunately, though suitably creepy, WHICH IS THE VAMPIRE? surrounding forests for people they believe prisons his vampire niece. But Karnstein earlier, to the British television listings mag- tive title of Twins of Dracula was at one point even chilling in parts (the angular staircase –tagline to be practicing witchcraft. Their ultimate abducts Maria and frees Frieda, leaving azine The Radio Times, Peter Cushing could mooted for Twins of Evil (1971). This lack of that Cushing’s Gustav Weil ascends to his goal is to capture the evil Count Karnstein, the innocent twin to face the fate meant as easily have been summing up the state reference to the Count may have been the niece’s bedroom in Twins of Evil is reminis- In the late 17th century, the small east whose mountaintop fortress casts a sinister for her undead sister. Fortunately, Maria’s of the company with which his career had film’s downfall. Compared with the mistake cent of that from Baron Frankenstein’s cas- shadow over the village. paramour, Anton, discovers the deception become so intrinsically entwined. By the of transferring the Count to contemporary tle in Son of Frankenstein (1939)), what mo- Twins Maria and Frie- in time and races to save Maria from the early 1970s, Hammer Studios, the scion of London, as the studio later did with Dracula ments of magic there are, are few and far da Gellhorn arrive to stay stake. Explaining how Karnstein switched British filmmaking during the late 1950s AD 1972 (1972) (later re-titled Dracula Today between and cannot hide the fact that the with their uncle, Gustav the twins and is really the perpetrator of and 1960s, was hemorrhaging. Lee’s Count when aired on CBS in 1981) and Count Dracu- work of Twins of Evil production designer Weil, after the death of their the evil, Anton leads the Brotherhood and and Cushing’s Baron were mere shadows of la and His Vampire Bride (1978; released in the Roy Stannard and Vampire Circus’s direc- parents. They receive a the villagers to Karnstein’s castle to end their original aristocratic selves, though still U.K. as The Satanic Rites of Dracula in 1974), tor of photography Moray Grant lacked cold reception from Weil, his reign of evil. Though the vampires are managing to shamble through several more Twins of Evil and Vampire Circus (1972) are the detail and depth that imbued Robinson who sees their city finery destroyed and Maria is saved, it comes at bloodless outings in the early years of the surely atmospheric; however, they are by no and Asher’s bleak landscapes with their as disrespectful to the some cost, as the overzealous but well in- decade. It must have been obvious to any- means classics when compared with Ham- brooding realism and believability. memory of their parents. tentioned Weil falls during the fray. one with any say at the studio (not the least, mer’s vampire films from a decade earlier. However, what Twins of Evil and Vam- That night Frieda over- Michael Carreras, who had increasingly Even after 50 years, there is an un- pire Circus lack in style, they more than hears her uncle talking Hough’s decrepit castle interiors taken over executive responsibility from his deniable charm about the studio’s early make up for with fast-paced originality. of the debauched, devil- and foggy forests give the film a lush- father James) that something had to be done vampire films; despite their clearly having Analyzed today there is a disturbing, if not worshipping Count Karn- ness that’s more incipiently erotic. if the studio was to survive. been made with a minimal budget, they downright distasteful, underlying theme stein and decides she must –ferdyonfilms.com, Hammer’s main fare, apart from simply ooze class. From Christopher Lee’s common to both films—namely, that of meet this intriguing man. Roderick Heath gothic horrors, were psychological thrillers first appearance as Count Dracula in Hor- child molestation. In Twins of Evil, Gus- That same evening in such as Scream of Fear (1961; U.K. title, Taste ror of Dracula (1958), when he welcomes tav Weil’s twin nieces, Maria and Frieda his castle, Count Karnstein Death With Conviction of Fear) and historic adventures like She John Van Eyssen’s Harker to his home, to Gellhorn, are mere teenagers when Count prays to Satan and offers Hammer produced three films in the (1965) and Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion the castle of Baron Meinster in The Brides of Karnstein seduces them; in Vampire Circus it up a girl for sacrifice, re- early 1970s that could loosely have been animation spectacular One Million Years Dracula (1960), with its ramparts, candlelit is the children of the village whom the per- sulting in the resurrection considered a trilogy: The Vampire Lovers B.C. (1967). Notwithstanding the success great hall, and hidden terraces where the petrators of evil attempt to corrupt, thereby of his long-deceased ances- (1970), Lust for a Vampire (1971), and Twins of of these movies, and despite importing unfortunate Meinster is chained up by his extracting revenge upon their parents. tor Mircalla Karnstein. The Evil were based on the author Sheridan Le Hollywood stars like Bette Davis for such paranoid mother, they had a certain chill Both films, particularly Twins of Evil, vampiric Mircalla wastes Fanu’s vampire tale, Carmilla. Of the three genuinely unsettling shockers as The Nan- that was missing in the later films. The also rollick along. From the opening scenes no time in inducting the films, Twins of Evil was the least like the ny (1965) and the downright bizarre black atmosphere of gothic decay shrouding in which the Devil, appearing as sexually Peter Cushing as Gustav Weil in Hammer’s Twins of Evil. In the count into the family of the novel, though it is sometimes considered a comedy The Anniversary (1968), it was the Dracula’s castle and, later, that of Baron charged members of the nobility lording it film, Weil is the leader of a group of puritanical clergymen called undead, nor does Karnstein prequel to The Vampire Lovers, as the set and the Brotherhood. (Courtesy of Photofest) old Hammer stalwart of the vampire to Meinster, was brought to life by the genius over the local townsfolk, is pitted against waste time in transforming costumes have a strong eighteenth century 56 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #30 SPRING 2012 57.

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