#Period Horror

[esqueletosgays]

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964)

Director: Roger Corman Cinematography: Nicolas Roeg

[lyeofhell]

NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979)

It’s the silence that gets me in this scene; you can hear everything - his apprehension, their breaths, her moans. And the way he lifts her dress and looks at her in awe, the way he kisses her neck before every bite, the way he grips her breast, and the way she urges him back to her when he starts to leave. Shockingly intimate.

[theersatzcowboy]

Gothic (1986)

Ken Russell’s 5 star fan fic about the Geneva story contest between Lord Byron, Percy and Mary Shelley, John William Polidari, and Claire Clairmont openly depicts Byron’s venomous bisexuality.

Director: Ken Russell

Cinematographer: Mike Southon

Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Natasha Richardson, Timothy Spall, Julian Sands, and Myriam Cyr.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"WHATEVER DID IT, IT WAS BIG, HAD CLAWS, AND DIDN'T MIND A LOAD OF BUCKSHOT."

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a promotional image of the Wolfman, from the American period horror film "The Wolfman" (2010), directed by Joe Johnston. It was a remake of the classic Universal film "The Wolf Man" (1941).

"It was about twenty-five years ago now. My pa found him: Quinn Noddy and all his flock. Brains, guts and God-knows-what lying across the moor. And the look on Quinn's face. Like he'd been eaten alive. Whatever did it, it was big, had claws, and didn't mind a load of buckshot. After that, me father went home. He melted down my ma's wedding spoons, and cast silver bullets off 'em. He wouldn't leave the house on a full moon from then on."

-- MACQUEEN (played by British actor Clive Russell), screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker & David Self

Sources: www.pinterest.com/pin/818036719796690661 & IMDb.

[schlock-luster-video]

On February 2, 1984, The Beyond debuted in Mexico.

Here's some new Catriona MacColl art!

[ourdarkerangels]

Tumbbad (2018) Dir: Rahi Anil Barve

An Indian horror story about a cursed treasure and how far a man will go to possess it.

[am-i-a-boy-or-a-crybaby]

There is a part of me that I don’t let you see

🦂🌹🫧🥩💡☎️🪞🌡️

[halloweenhundreds]

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a stupid stupid movie. I’m not saying there aren’t things in this movie that are cool enough action sequences that I’d like to airlift them into another movie but man. Movies have been stupid before this but this is just remarkable. Do see this movie if you can see it just streaming drunk.

[horrorpatch]

Official Trailer - Period Horror Film BREATHING IN!

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Vampire Circus (1972)

Vampire Circus (1972)

Rated PG

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2023/10/review-vampire-circus-1972.html>

<CW: antiziganism/anti-Roma content>

Score: 3 out of 5

One of the last good films made by Hammer Film Productions during the famed British horror studio's latter period, Vampire Circus delivers exactly what it promises: a creepy circus run by vampires. It makes smart use of its premise, it has an engaging and alluring villain, and it has exactly the mix of bloodshed, sex appeal, and period glamour that make Hammer films at their best feel dangerous and classy, at least to me. Is the supporting cast a mixed bag? Are there way too many unfortunate stereotypes of Romani people in how the circus is portrayed? Yes and yes. But when the finished product works as well as it does, I can push all that to the side and enjoy what is still an entertaining vampire flick.

The film takes place in the Eastern European village of Stetl in a vaguely 19th century time period where, fifteen years ago, the locals, led by the schoolmaster Müller, murdered the nobleman Count Mitterhaus after learning that he was a vampire responsible for the disappearance and death of numerous local children. Before he died, he cursed the town, telling them that their children will die to bring him back to life. Meanwhile, his mistress Anna, Müller's wife and a willing servant of the Count, escapes into the night to meet up with the Count's cousin Emil, who runs a circus. Now, a plague is laying waste to Stetl, which has caused the local authorities to block all the roads out of it. Somehow, the traveling Circus of Nights got through the blockade to come to the town; the locals aren't too inquisitive about how they made it through, not when they're eager to just take their minds off of things. The circus has all manner of sights to show them, and what's more, the beautiful woman who serves as its ringmaster looks strikingly familiar.

This isn't really a movie that offers a lot of surprises. Even though she's played by a different (if similar-looking) actress, the movie otherwise makes it obvious that the ringmaster is in fact an older version of Anna even before the big reveal. I didn't really care, not when Adrienne Corri was easily one of the best things about this movie, making Anna the kind of (pardon the pun) vampish presence that it needed to complete its old-fashioned gothic atmosphere. She made me buy the villains as a dangerous force but also as a group of people and vampires who would seduce the townsfolk into ignoring their crimes, enough to more than make up for Anthony Higgins playing Emil, her partner in crime and the main vampire menace for much of the film, far too over-the-top for me to take seriously. The circus itself also made creative use of how the various powers attributed to vampires in folklore and fiction, from animal transformations to superior strength and senses, might be used to put on a flashy production of the sort where those watching might think that what they're seeing is all part of the show. And when push came to shove in the third act, we got treated to the circus' strongman breaking down the doors of people's homes, the dwarf sneaking around as a stealthy predator, and the twin acrobats (played by a young Robin Sachs and Lalla Ward) becoming the most dangerous fighters among the villains. It exploited its premise about as well as you'd expect from a low-budget film from the '70s, which was more than enough to keep me engaged.

Beyond the circus, however, the townsfolk generally weren't the most interesting characters. Only Müller had much depth to him, concerning his relationship with his lost wife Anna that grows increasingly fraught once he realizes who the ringmaster really is. With the rest of the cast, I was waiting for them all to get killed off by the vampires, as none of them left much of an impression otherwise. It was the circus that mostly propped up the movie. I also can't say I was particularly comfortable with the old-timey stereotypes that this film relied on in its depiction of the Roma. Notice how I'm calling Anna the "ringmaster" throughout this review. The film itself never uses that word, but instead uses a rather less polite anti-Romani slur to describe her, and it only gets worse from there, with the villagers using that word to describe the circus as "vermin" who need to be exterminated. This is why I've never been a fan of modern vampire fiction that, in trying to portray its vampires sympathetically, invokes the real-life history of persecution of marginalized groups (True Blood being one of the more famous examples). Given the history of both vampire legends and bigotry, especially that of real-life blood libels, pogroms, and hate crimes, it is a subject that can easily veer into suggesting that certain groups really are preying on people in unholy ways, especially when you bring children into the equation as this film does. Yes, Anna originally came from Stetl and isn't actually Romani, and for that matter, neither is the Count. But it's a subtext that this film, by invoking those parallels with a decidedly villainous portrayal of vampires, lays bare, and it had me feeling queasy at points in ways I'm sure the film didn't intend.

The Bottom Line

It's a movie that's very "of its time" in a lot of ways, and has problems fleshing out its supporting cast. Fortunately, it's buoyed by some great villains and that trademark Hammer horror mix of sex appeal and gothic flair. It's easily one of the better films to come out of their late period.

[claypigeonpottery]

can’t sleep, carving instead

[esqueletosgays]

RAVENOUS (1999)

Director: Antonia Bird Cinematography: Anthony B. Richmond

[didanagy]

CRIMSON PEAK (2015)

dir. guillermo del toro

[godsplatter]

soldat

[schlock-luster-video]

On April 22, 1966, Onibaba debuted in West Germany.

Here's some new art inspired by the horror classic!

[lochlot-moved]

guyysss they don’t call it a curse for nothinnnn