NEWS: Quatermass 2 Ltd Collector's Edition

Hot on the heels of their recent 'Quatermass Xperiment' release Hammer are now taking pre-orders for Nigel Kneale's alien invasion masterpiece 'Quatermass 2'.

As with the other release it's a mouth wateringly enticing selection bursting at the seams with extras.

From the website (and subject to the possibility of change)...

This limited collector's edition comprises:

• Five discs in a stylish digipak, including two UHD and three Blu-ray, with the Hammer content duplicated across both formats. The BBC content is presented in Standard Definition on Region B formatted Blu-ray disc.
• Three iterations of Quatermass 2: the widescreen 1.66:1 UK Theatrical Version, the fullscreen 1.37:1 As-Filmed Version and the widescreen 1.85:1 US Theatrical Version re-titled Enemy from Space.
• Additional German and Italian audio for all three versions. English, French, Italian, Spanish and German subtitles on all versions of the film.
• Rigid inner box featuring new artwork by cult favourite artist Graham Humphreys.
• Double-sided poster of original one-sheets.
• Eight art cards featuring facsimiles of the original US cinema lobby cards.
• 176-page booklet featuring new and reprint articles and reproductions of original publicity.
• 60-page comic featuring a reprint of the comic strip from legendary 1970s magazine The House of Hammer.

The discs feature:

• The Legend of Nigel Kneale: Enemy from Space. Toby Hadoke continues his investigation into the truth behind the legend, in part two of a brand-new two-part documentary.
• Doubling Down: Uncovering Quatermass 2. A close look at the making of Quatermass 2, with contributions from Jon Dear, Stephen Gallagher, Toby Hadoke, Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray and Stephen Volk.
• Quatermass II: All six episodes of the landmark 1955 BBC serial.
• Man of Action: Author and Hammer expert Stephen Laws and author/biographer Derek Sculthorpe examine the life and career of Brian Donlevy.
• Quatermass Crew: Candid reminiscences from the making of Quatermass 2 with 3rd assistant director Hugh Harlow and special effects assistant Brian Johnson.
• A Question of Character: Nigel Kneale famously hated Brian Donlevy’s performance as Quatermass. Jon Dear, Stephen Gallagher, Toby Hadoke, Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray and Stephen Volk offer their own perspectives.
• Quatermass and the Hammer Experience: Interviewed by Ted Newsom in the early 1990s, Val Guest discusses the films he made for Hammer.
• Val Guest 2003 interview from original UK DVD release of Quatermass 2.
• Reviving Quatermass 2: A look behind-the-scenes at how the new 4K restoration of Quatermass 2 was made.
• Original trailers, foreign titles, Super 8 cut-down version and the original BBFC censor cards for Quatermass 2.
• Extensive image gallery of stills and publicity material, alongside tracks from James Bernard’s score.
• New commentary with actor and comedian Toby Hadoke, Nigel Kneale’s biographer Andy Murray and Stephen R. Bissett, artist and film historian.
• New commentary with writer/academic Brontë Schiltz and author/producer Jon Dear.
• Archive commentary with director Val Guest, recorded for laserdisc in 1998.
• Archive commentary with writer Nigel Kneale and Hammer expert Marcus Hearn, recorded for laserdisc in 1998.
• Archive commentary featuring sections of both laserdisc commentaries, edited for DVD in 2003.
• Archive commentary featuring documentarian and Hammer expert Ted Newsom, recorded for Blu-ray in 2019.
• Archive commentary with filmmaker and Hammer expert Constantine Nasr and writer/producer Dr Steve Haberman, recorded for Blu-Ray in 2019.

The booklet features:

• New article on the making of Quatermass 2 by Bruce Hallenbeck.
• New article by Andrew Pixley where he takes a look at the production of the second BBC series and its impact on the viewing public.
• New article by Andy Murray that takes a look at that most complicated of relationships: Nigel Kneale vs 1950s Sci-Fi.
• Archive article from Picturegoer magazine where Edith Nepean visits the Danziger’s Studios during the filming of Quatermass 2.
• New article from writer Stephen Laws, who takes a personal look at Brian Donlevy and his place in the pantheon of Quatermass actors.
• New article from Jon Dear, who investigated why New Towns are often portrayed on film and television as sinister monuments to trauma.
• Archive interview with Barry Lowe, who featured in both Quatermass films as well as several other Hammer productions
• New article by Hammer expert Wayne Kindey, who unpicks the differences between the TV series, the draft scripts and the final film.

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NEWS: The Quatermass Xperiment Ltd Collector's Edition

Nigel Kneale's magnificent science fiction classic 'The Quatermass Xperiment' is available for the first time in 4K UHD and Blu-ray on June 9th with pre-orders from 25th April from Hammer Films.

According to the website (and subject to possible change) the release includes...

• Five discs, including two UHD and three Blu-ray, with the Hammer content duplicated across both formats. English, French, Italian, Spanish, German subtitles on all versions of the film.
• The existing episodes from the original BBC television series. 
• Three iterations of The Quatermass Xperiment: the widescreen 1.66:1 UK Theatrical Version, the fullscreen 1.37:1 As-Filmed Version and the widescreen 1.85:1 US Theatrical Version re-titled The Creeping Unknown.
• A rigid inner box featuring new artwork by cult favourite artist Graham Humphreys. 
• A double sided poster of original one-sheets
• Eight act cards featuring facsimiles of the original UK cinema lobby cards.
• 180 page booklet featuring new and reprint articles and reproductions of original publicity. 
• 56-page comic featuring a reprint of the comic strip from legendary 1970s magazine The House of Hammer.

The discs feature:

• New commentary with actor and comedian Toby Hadoke, Nigel Kneale’s biographer Andy Murray and Wayne Kinsey, writer of numerous books on Hammer. Stephen R. Bissette, artist and film historian, filmmaker and Hammer expert Constantine Nasr and writer/producer Dr Steve Haberman plus archive 2003 commentary with director Val Guest and Hammer expert Marcus Hearn.
• The Legend of Nigel Kneale: The Creeping Unknown. Who was Nigel Kneale? Toby Hadoke investigates the man and his influence in part one of a brand-new two-part documentary.
• Unstoppable: Unleashing The Quatermass Xperiment. A close look at the making of The Quatermass Xperiment, with contributions from Jon Dear, Stephen Gallagher, Toby Hadoke, Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray and Stephen Volk.
• Patient Zero. Award-winning actor and writer James Swanton, who played Carroon in the live, 70th anniversary production of The Quatermass Experiment, examines the life and career of Richard Wordsworth.
• Monstrous! Stephen R. Bissette talks briefly about Phil Leakey and the make-up effects used in the film, for a section trimmed from the audio commentary.
• The Eric Winstone Bandshow. A musical short from Hammer that played alongside The Quatermass Xperiment at the August 1955 UK premiere.
• The Kneale Tapes. A 2003 BBC documentary that explores the career of Nigel Kneale, arguably one of the most significant writers of the post-war generation.
• Cartier and Kneale in Conversation. From the 2005 BBC DVD. Writer Nigel Kneale and producer Rudolph Cartier reminisce about their work on the seminal Quatermass series.
• Making Demons. From the 2005 BBC DVD. An interview with Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie, visual effects pioneers at the BBC.
• Val Guest 2000 interview from the Festival of Fantastic Films archive.
• Val Guest 2003 interview from original UK DVD release of The Quatermass Xperiment.
• Exhuming The Quatermass Xperiment. A look behind-the-scenes at how the new 4K restoration of The Quatermass Xperiment was made.
• Original trailers, foreign titles, Super 8 cut-down versions and the original BBFC censor cards for both The Quatermass Xperiment and The Eric Winstone Bandshow.
• Extensive image gallery of stills and publicity material, alongside tracks from James Bernard’s score.
• Quatermass and the Pit Omnibus Titles. From the 2005 BBC DVD. The bespoke titles used for the omnibus repeat edition of the third Quatermass TV series.
• TV Series Photo Gallery. From the 2005 BBC DVD. Rare photos of the original BBC productions.

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The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb

Having located the lost tomb of Ra-Antef the team of archaeologists and Egyptologists (Jack Gwillim, Ronald Howard & Jeanne Roland) bring the plundered remains back to Britain where their brash American financier (Fred Clark) plans to exhibit the mummy as part of a touring show.  Unfortunately there is the inevitable curse and their journey home is dogged by murder, mayhem and an enigmatic stranger (Terence Morgan) all of which they seem to take entirely in their stride.

By the mid 60s Hammer Films were releasing around half a dozen movies a year so it's inevitable that there's some slippage in quality amongst them.  The studio's second mummy movie, bereft of Hammer's A-team of Cushing and Lee who've been replaced, for the most part, with a cast of unremarkable, jobbing actors, is a mess of cliches and contrivances that bumbles along entirely forgetting to unleash the Mummy until well over halfway through the film.  Indeed, 'The Curse...' is such a stinker that the absurdity of the revelation in the final act is entirely predictable and it almost never fails to make me laugh every tme I get to it but it has some nice set pieces and the finale in the sewers is effectively done offering an unusual grandeur and a much needed change of setting.  

Mummy movies are a tricky prosect to pull off - implacable, shuffling, encroaching murder monsters work so much better as a zombie hoard - and it takes some real filmic flair to pull it off which this movie has very little of as it's as slow, lumbering and wheezy as its monster but still, for all it's many faults, I like it and it's long been a rainy day movie at Wyrd Manor. 

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Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood

Made in 1987 a long time after the studio's heyday this is an affectionate look at the golden years of Hammer Film Productions - the later TV work is ignored.  

Featuring some of Hammer's greats alongside the behind the scenes folks who made them so and lots of rare footage of them all working at Bray studios it makes for an engagingly nostalgic watch.

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The Satanic Rites of Dracula

Regular Wyrd Britain readers may have noticed that I have a soft spot for the late 60s and early 70 horrors where the gothic was melded with the modern and dusted with a sprinkling of (usually poorly understood) groovy, countercultural cool.  So, it'll probably come as no surprise when I tell you that I'm a fan of Christopher Lee's final two Dracula movies that were made and released in the early 70s, 'Dracula A.D. 1972' and 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' (presented below with it's awful US title) despite their well deserved reputations.

Written by 'Doctor Who' ('Inferno', 'The Mind of Evil'), 'Ace of Wands' and future 'Sapphire and Steel' writer Don Houghton, who'd also written the previous movie and who would subsequently write the following one,'The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires', the film incorporates distinct spy-fi elements - giant computers, tiny tape recorders and weaponised plagues - mixed with ostentatious occult dialogue - "Evil rules, y'know - it really does! .. Nothing is too vile; nothing is too dreadful - too awful; you need to know the terror, the horror, Lorrimer; to feel the threat of disgust - the beauty of obscenity!" - in an attempt to revitalise the series, it didn't work. 

Dracula, for me at least, works best on a human level as a man who's just looking for love and lunch and so this version of him as the enigmatic head of a genocidal global cabal seems odd and Lee made a much more likely world dominating villain as Scaramanga in the following years' 'The Man with the Golden Gun' and had made his disatisfaction with the movie known long before release.  Peter Cushing, reprising the role of Lorrimer Van Helsing, is, as always, perfect and it's always a treat to see him and Lee together even in the scene where one of them is doing a terrible Bela Lugosi impersonation but the stand-out scene is with Freddie Jones who, in his brief appearence as Dr. Julian Keeley, delivers the lines quoted above to a Cushing who's slowly realising the depth of his friends madness.

You have to admire Hammer and Houghton's ambition but the film just doesn't have the necessary spark to do what they wanted it to and has the feel of an ambitious but overlong TV pilot along the lines of 'Baffled!' or 'Spectre'. Shorn of his gothic trapping the Count looks a little silly and much of the plot feels entirely pointless but there's an overabundance of energy with the likes of Joanna Lumley, Michael Coles, Richard Vernon and William Franklyn fighting bikers, snipers and biters whilst fashioning improvised stakes and crosses before the movie ends with the single most novel (note I didn't say good) take on a Dracula staking ever filmed, death by prickly thorns (and fence).   But as I said at the start, I kind of love it.  For me what it is far outweighs what it isn't and what it is is fun, not at all horrifing or terrifying or even suspenseful and it is, in so many ways, just bad but I still love it.

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Quatermass 2

Released by Hammer in 1957, 2 years after both the release of their first Quatermass movie and the showing of the original 6 episode TV series, Quatermass 2 (or II if you're feeling slightly Roman) is perhaps the least regarded of the three Hammer Q movies which I think is a real shame even if I do mostly share that opinion.

Treading similar ground to 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', which was released in the intervening year, we find the Professor and the members of The British Experimental Rocket Group investigating a meteor shower that falls on the isolated location of Winnerden Flats where he finds an industrial complex eerily similar to his own proposed moon base staffed, it soon transpires, by people under the control of little alien blob things that had arrived in cute little rocket shaped meteors and which planned to transform themselves into very large alien blob things.

Compared to the first there's a notably bigger budget on display here and director Val Guest (who had also directed Xperiment) keeps the pace high but allows Kneale space to explore some of his favourite themes of totalitarianism, of indifference and incompetence amongst the British classes and the rejection of rational science characterised by the downtrodden but dogged Professor.

Returning to the role of Quatermass (the only actor to do so) Brian Donlevy plays him as a notably less abrasive character here than he was in Xperiment cowed perhaps by his failure with Victor Carroon but certainly by his dealings with British governmental bureaucracy.  As with his first appearance in the role Donlevy's performance is often clumsy and his delivery less than perfect a result no doubt of his alcoholism but he's supported by a very capable cast of recognisable character actors including Bryan Forbes, William Franklyn and Sid James who was also appearing at that time in his breakthrough TV role in Hancock's Half Hour whose presence lighten the load.

The film concludes with a finale that while undoubtedly spectacular with it's 200ft tall blob monsters is somewhat of a let down after the intrigues of the film and leaves something of a bitter aftertaste that it was just another monster movie but that aside it is a movie with a solid premise, reasonably well executed and with an intriguing message at it's core that perhaps deserves to be better regarded than it is.

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The Gorgon

1964 and with not a toga in sight Hammer plucked The Gorgon from Greek myth and handed her to veteran director Terence Fisher who had a penchant for the classic monsters - 'Dracula', 'The Curse of Frankenstein', 'The Mummy', 'The Curse of the Werewolf'.  In Fisher's vision the creature, named 'Megaera' (actually the name of one of the Erinyes or Furies), has long haunted the woods and ruined castle of the German town of Vandorf and has been responsible - most recently - for seven deaths over the previous five years that are being hidden behind scapegoats and excuses from the world at large.  It takes the father (Michael Goodliffe) and brother (Richard Pasco) of one of those scapegoats along with a handy Professor of Folklore (Christopher Lee) to finally bring the town's curse to an end.

With a stately pace and some great set design and music Fisher's movie - one of his personal favourites - is classic gothic Hammer and with a cast that alongside Lee includes Hammer legends Peter Cushing & Barbara Shelley along with Patrick Troughton (two years away from being cast as The Doctor) and Jack Watson you know you're in for a treat.

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The Quatermass Xperiment

It was only a matter of time before we got to the film that launched - well, revived - a studio and created countless cinematic legends and so here we are in the company of the venerable Professor Bernard Quatermass.

When Hammer released 'The Quatermass Xperiment' in 1955 it was a familiar commodity to the British public with Nigel Kneale's creation having been made as a six part serial by and shown to great success on the BBC just two years earlier.

The story follows the return of the sole survivor of the rocket ship launched by Quatermass' 'The British Experimental Rocket Group' and of the alien parasite that takes over his body leading to one of the most iconic endings in movie history.

Director Val Guest tweaking a screenplay by Richard Landau from the original script by Kneale does a masterful job of building the suspense ably assisted by a sympathetic performance from Richard Wordsworth (great-great-grandson of William) as the doomed astronaut Victor Carroon, a gently comedic performance from Jack Warner as Inspector Lomax and a slightly lumpen but enjoyably brusque performance in the title role from Brian Donlevy, an American brought in to help sell the movie to the US.

The end result is a movie whose impact, beyond the rejuvenating of Hammer studios and the myriad films and careers that flowed from it, still resonates today.

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The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll

Between 1957 and 1964 Hammer director Terence Fisher worked his way through pretty much all the great monsters of horror - 'The Curse of Frankenstein' (1957), 'Dracula' (1958), 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' (1959), 'The Mummy' (1959), 'The Curse of the Werewolf' (1961) 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1962), 'The Gorgon' (1964) - and in 1960 he brought Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' to the screen from a screenplay by Wolf Mankowitz ('The Day the Earth Caught Fire' & 'Casino Royale') but with considerably less success than he did those earlier movies.

In 'The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll'  we find Paul Massie, a Canadian actor with a short history of appearances in British movies of this time, labouring under some ridiculous fake facial hair, as the driven and slightly deranged Dr Henry Jekyll attempting to "free the creature within" at which he succeeds with, for those around him at least, terrifying results unleashing his suave and utterly sociopathic alter ego Edward Hyde.

Massie, as Jekyll, is a bit of a ham but comes alive with wide eyed malice as Hyde whilst those around him, including Dawn Addams ('The Vampire Lovers') as Kitty Jekyll, Christopher Lee as the scrounging, caddish Paul Allen and David Kossoff ('The Mouse That Roared') s Dr Littauer, flounder against an uninspired script that despite some typically garish nightclub scenes and a tour of the lowlights of London never really manages to elicit much of a spark from neither cast nor director.

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The Silent Scream

The seventh episode of Hammer Studio's and ITC's 1980 television series 'Hammer House of Horror' sees a newly released convict with the action movie name of Chuck Spillers (Brian Cox) taking a job with the man who had visited him in prison, Martin Blueck (Peter Cushing).  The job entails helping him look after the wild big cats in his basement zoo that he's using in his experiments to create a prison with no bars.  Unfortunately, temptation soon proves too much for Spillers and Blueck's true nature and plans are revealed.

Cushing, in his last role for Hammer, is, of course, as brilliant as ever and plays both aspects of Blueck's nature - the facade of banality that conceals the psychopathy underneath - to perfection whilst Cox is perfectly cast opposite him as the incorrigible and fairly hapless jailbird and as an actor of note in his own right able to hold his own aganst the Hammer legend in full flight.  Being more of a psychological thriller than the outright horror that either the venerable studio or the lead actor is famed for it's great fun to see, even at this late stage, their take on something different and as such it's always been one of my favourite episodes from the series.

Buy it here - UK /  US 

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The Witches

Whilst Nigel Kneale will always, thanks to the success of Quatermass, be most strongly remembered for his science fiction stories throughout his career he would regularly return to stories of a more supernatural bent where he could explore the intersection between the rational and the supernatural such as the brilliant 'Murrain', in episodes of his TV series 'Beasts' such as 'Baby' and, in 1966 for Hammer Studios, in 'The Witches' his adaptation of Norah Loft's novel 'The Devil's Own'.

Recovering from a breakdown following a traumatic incident with an annoyed witch doctor in Africa, Gwen Mayfield (Joan Fontaine) takes a job as headmistress at a small school in the village of Heddaby. There she encounters local bigwigs, writer Stephanie Bax (Kay Walsh) and her brother Alan (Alex McCowen) who has a penchant for dressing as a vicar because "...it gives me a sense of security." 

On the surface Heddaby seems idyllic if a little on the insular side but the discovery of a headless, pin stuck doll and the sudden illness of her star pupil Ronnie (a teenaged Martin Stephens - 'The Innocents' (UK / US) & 'Village of the Damned' (UK / US)) brings her to the conclusion that there's a witch at work in village potentially in the form of the sadistic cat whispering and grand-daughter mangling Granny Rigg (Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies).

Intended as a vehicle for reinvigorating Fontaine's flagging film career the movie's poor reception instead marked its end and it's not particularly surprising as despite having had a fairly glittering and Oscar winning career (for Alfred Hitchcock's 'Suspicion') she's a personable but largely ineffective lead here overshadowed by Walsh and most everyone else.  

For most of the movie director Cyril Frankel manages a convincing air of escalating unease but following a dramatic scene shift midway through the movie which could have and should have marked the beginning of the climax it all seems to somehow get away from him and the movie culminates in what is essentially an extended dance routine.  There are shades here of 'Night of the Eagle' and it uses much of the now familiar 'folk horror' template but 'The Witches' is little more than a flawed curio but entertaining in its own idiosyncratic way.

Buy it here - UK / US.

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Kiss of the Vampire

Hammer's third vampire movie - following 'Dracula' (1958) (UK / US) and 'Brides of Dracula' (1960) (UK / US) - was the first without the D word in the title and indeed without any links to the Transylvanian count. Made by first time horror director Don Sharp for whom it would mark the beginning of a long lasting love of the genre and a career that would include a couple more for Hammer ('The Devil-Ship Pirates' (1964) & 'Rasputin, the Mad Monk' (1966) (UK / US)), the first two Fu Manchu movies with Christopher Lee, 'The Thirty Nine Steps' (1978) with Robert Powell and the great 'Psychomania' (1973) (UK / US) it offers a slight twist on the mythology.

Gerald (Edward de Souza - 'The Man' in Sapphire and Steel's final assignment (UK / US)) and Marianne Harcourt (Jennifer Daniel - 'The Reptile' (UK / US)) are honeymooning in Bavaria when Marianne falls into the clutches of the sinister Dr Ravna (Noel Willman - 'The Reptile') and his decadent cult of sanguinary socialites and has to be rescued with the aid of boozy loner Professor Zimmer (Clifford Evans - Number Two in The Prisoner episode that doesn't have Patrick McGoohan in it 'Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling' (UK / US)). 

Writer (and producer) Anthony Hinds (the man responsible for Hammer buying the rights to Quatermass and arguably launching the studio's golden years) gives us a script that's spare and direct and plays hard and fast with the well worn vampire tropes which the director pairs with vivid and opulent visuals,  some effective shocks and set pieces and an ending that is as inventive as it is, unintentionally, funny. 

Buy it here - UK / US - or watch it below.

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Tom Chantrell

Whilst his work has never been properly acknowledged in the hallowed halls and his name is missing from books detailing the works of the great artists of 20th century Britain here at Wyrd Britain we would like to take a moment to acknowledge and tip our hats to a man who's art thrills me as much as an adult as it did as a child, Tom Chantrell.

If, like me, you grew up watching horror and science fiction movies then there's every chance you are as familiar with Chantrell's work as with any other artist you could care to name.  

In a career as a graphic designer and poster artist that spanned some six decades Chantrell was responsible for painting many of the most iconic images in movie history, from the 'Carry on...'films, to 'One Million Years BC', from 'Death Race 2000' to 'Come Play With Me', from 'Dawn of the Dead' to that film with the annoying robots and the shiny sword things as well as producing unforgettable book covers like the one that adorns Dennis Gifford's 'A Pictorial History of Horror Movies' and album covers for the various Geoff Love movie theme collections.

His long standing relationship with the Hammer studio meant that they would often sell a movie to potential investors based solely on a title and a Tom Chantrell poster design before even a word of the script had been written.

We at Wyrd Britain think it's high time that the work of this amazing artist was celebrated more widely and we are very happy to able to share with you this rather lovely documentary made at the end of last year featuring his family and various fans that celebrates an artist of rare talent.

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The Vampire Lovers

The first installment in what's known as Hammer's 'Karnstein Trilogy' - followed by 'Lust For A Vampire' (buy it here)with The Vampire Lovers) and 'Twins of Evil' (buy it here) - 'The Vampire Lovers' is an adaptation of Sheridan le Fanu's novella 'Carmilla'.

In both the novella and the movie the vampire Mircalla Karnstein (Ingrid Pitt), using the subtly cunning pseudonyms of 'Marcilla' and 'Carmilla' and whilst wearing a ruby necklace in the shape of a drop of blood, preys on the young women she befriends (Pippa Steel & Madeline Smith) as part of a ruse whereby her accomplices manipulate events so that she is left in the keeping of an aristocratic family; seemingly using them as a long drawn out meal whilst snacking on the local village girls and assorted servants (including the Rani herself  Kate O'Mara). Ranged against her are the combined forces of Peter Cushing, Douglas Wilmer, Minder's George Cole and The Final Programme's Jerry Cornelius Jon Finch who travel to her ancestral home to finally end her murdery ways.

le Fanu's story is the perfect source material for Hammer, the novella's lesbian subtext allowed the studio to help their ailing fortunes by getting lots of pretty young actresses to take their clothes off - for art's sake obviously.  It's sumptuously made and the sets, like the cleavages, are extravagant and displayed to maximum effect but the film does drag.  The source material, as good as it is, just doesn't have the scope and with Mircalla / Carmilla / Marcilla employing the same tactic with both families it does feel like we're treading water slightly the second time around.

It is though, in many ways, classic Hammer, embracing the subject matter and the style that made their name but amping the eroticism up to the max in a move that was to define the next few years for the studio.

Buy it here - UK /  US - or watch it below.

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