cinema history class: captain kronos — vampire hunter

Session: It's Not Just One of Those -- Very Unusual Vampires, Week 3
Movie: Captain Kronos — Vampire Hunter (1974)
Directed by Brian Clemens

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Plot:
Captain Kronos, his sidekick Grost and the lovely Carla (who has been known to dance on Sundays) set to the task of ridding an 18th century village of its vampire. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:

Keith explained that this movie was supposed to be the first in a series featuring Captain Kronos and Grost as they went about hunting vampires. I note that at the outset because some of what follows is written with that context in consideration. At any rate, the film did poorly at the box office, so the expected sequels were never created. And that's kind of a shame, because this was actually a very engaging film.

This was beautifully shot. Lots of well-framed camera angles where we see people emerge between trees, or through arches. It was really great to see.

There was some great slapstick humor thrown in, with sequences that made me think of Bugs Bunny and other Merrie Melodies characters.

And they really did leave the best for last. The one-two punch of the big reveal of just who was the vampire, followed by the climactic sword fight. The latter was a great bit of choreography.

One of the peculiar conceits of the movie is that different vampires have different vulnerabilities. So there's the challenge, after identifying the vampire, of figuring out just how to kill it. Stake through the heart? Nope. Hanging? Nope. And so on. This makes for a scene that's more interesting and more enjoyable than it should be. But I suspect it was created for the greater purpose of setting up for an interesting series. If vampires all have the same vulnerabilities, then a series of movies in which they all die the same way could get pretty repetitive. And this little angle could have saved the series.

I was disappointed in one aspect of the ending -- the fact that Carla stayed behind rather than travel on with Kronos and Grost. I suppose that was done with an eye toward the hoped-for series. Each movie could have a new love interest for Kronos -- sort of like David Banner from TV's The Incredible Hulk. Of course, I think the trio had a good dynamic, so I'm not convinced that the new-girl-in-each-installment would have been better. I think it would have been better to see the trio in each installment.

Alas, we'll never know.

Ratings

Me: 8

Bob: 8.5

Christina: 9.9

Ethan: 9