Directed by:
Don SharpScreenplay:
Anthony HindsCinematography:
Alan HumeComposer:
James BernardCast:
Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza, Jennifer Daniel, Noel Willman, Virginia Gregg, Dolly Read, Brian Oulton, Carl Esmond, Olga Dickie, Peter Madden, Isobel Black (more)Plots(1)
Honeymooning in Bavaria, Gerald and Marianne Harcourt experience car trouble and are forced to spend a few days in a small remote village. Soon Doctor Ravna, owner of the impressive chateau that sits imposingly above the village, invites them to dinner and the couple are persuaded to go.Their association with Ravna and his charming beautiful family is to prove disastrous as they become unwittingly embroiled with this company of vampires who seek to initiate them into thier diabolical creed. When the pair attend a masked ball at the chateau a few days later things start to go eerily wrong when Gerald begins to feel faint and Marianne disappears only to later return in front of a ceremony of gowned vampires and announced as their new disciple. (Shock Entertainment)
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Reviews (1)
How is it that some Hammer flicks are better than the weaker ones when they have the same production values (sets, costumes, music, etc.) and every time it’s rather more an aesthetic and nostalgic experience than a terrifying horror movie? The difference is in the characters and the actors who play them, as well as in the screenplay and directing, which sets up and coordinates all aspects of the story in a dramaturgically functional whole. Everything works as it should in this Hammer production directed by Don Sharp. Though it’s not a scary horror movie, you feel the quiet fear of the local residents troubled by darkness, respect the aristocratic lead vampire, experience the helplessness of the main characters and rely on the local “Van Helsing” to help them. Even though he’s a drunk, he is the most human, most determined and least fearful of all the characters.
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Photo © Universal Pictures
