Doc Rotten's 666 Revelations: Movie Monsters of 1971

Horror movies in 1971 get busy. A remarkable number of horror flicks make their way to screens and drive-ins in the U.S., England, Japan and across Europe. Werewolves, Frankenstein Monsters and Vampires are everywhere. Hammer continues their Karnstein trilogy with Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil, they introduce Countess Dracula, shake up Dr. Jekyll's world with a cross-gender twist in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, and tackle Jack the Ripper with Hands of the Ripper. Godzilla returns in a flick that reflects current ecological issues in a way only the Seventies could produce with Godzilla vs. Hedora. Count Yorga returns and Vincent Price delivers Dr. Phibes. From Spain, Amando de Ossoria unleashes the Knights Templar in Tombs of the Blind Dead. Also from Spain, Paul Naschy returns as Waldermar Daninsky, the werewolf and battles Countess Wandesa Darvula de Nadasdy. Witches, zombies, ghosts and talking apes, 1971 has them all. Below are six of these monsters that made an impact on horror cinema.

DR. ANTON PHIBES in THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES

For his 100th film, Vincent Price creates his greatest horror character, the abominable Dr. Anton Phibes. Spectacular make up, a delightful campy and smart script, and a series of Grand Guignol style deaths combine to make a modern classic. Dr. Phibes, horribly scarred in an car crash, plots revenge on those responsible for the death of this wife. Dr. Phibes takes inspiration from the ten plagues of Egypt to eliminate the doctors he deems incompetent: boils, bats, frogs, blood, hail, rats, beats, locust, first born and darkness. The design for the scarred organ player is inspired, his face is burned and scarred beyond recognition, with no lips to hide his teeth, no nose and no ears, he is very skull like. Creatively, he fashions a mask to restore his appearance near to his old self, and must use a device to speak through. His character is as much his actions and surroundings as the scars he bears, the odd decor, the costumes and even the music define what makes Dr. Phibes an impressive and lasting monster. Dr. Phibes would return in 1973 with Dr. Phibes Rises Again.

COUNTESS ELIZABETH BATHORY in COUNTESS DRACULA

The historical equivalent to Vlad Dracula, Countess Elizabeth Bathory bathes in the blood of virgins instead of drinking their blood. Not a vampire by definition, but still very much a similar monster, Bathory kidnaps and murders local girls to retain her youth and beauty - to become immortal. The Countess tricks the castle steward, Captain Dobi, to do her bidding and takes her daughter's identity when her youth is restored. As she continues to seduce Lt. Imre Toth, her appetite for blood increases. Soon she must face a monstrous decision when her daughter finally returns home. Countess Dracula is a very different type of monster, much different than Hammer's vampires, or even their other female creatures, the Gorgon and the Reptile. She is equally as villainous, and deadly, as the aged Countess as she is as the youthful imposter.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

In the early Seventies, the modern flesh eating zombies have yet to catch on and wouldn't in earnest until 1978 with Dawn of the Dead and 1979 with Zombi. Romero's Night of the Living Dead would introduce the modern age zombie to horror fans across the globe. In 1971, Spain and director, Amando de Ossorio, would introduce a variant to the theme with Tombs of the Blind Dead and the Knights Templar, referred to in the titles as the Blind Dead. Ossorio's zombies are more mummy-like, slow, and blind and hunt by sound. They are also more cognizant than traditional Romero or Italian flesh-eating creatures, and they seem to drink the blood of their victims more than savagely devour them. Their cadaver-like visage sets them apart from all other zombies prior and since and Ossorio presents them in glorious slow-motion giving them much needed mood and atmosphere. The Blind Dead would return in three more films: Return of the Blind Dead, The Ghost Galleon and the oddly titled Night of the Seagulls.

HEDORA, THE SMOG MONSTER in GODZILLA vs. HEDORA

A product of its time, but no less relevant today, Hedora is a alien creature nurtured by sludge and pollution and as it grows it feeds on smog, sucking on smoke pouring from factory chimneys across Japan. Hedora's eating habits may have to change slightly if it were unleashed today, but it would still have little trouble finding sustenance to devour. One of the more charismatic characteristics of Hedora is its many shapes. Since it is a composite of millions of smaller organisms, Hedora shifts its appearance as necessary: in the ocean, it resembles a giant tadpole; walking on land, it is a four-legged pile of sludge; for flying, it looked like a round bat; and to battle Godzilla, Hedora takes a humanoid shape. In each incarnation, it has large red eyes turned on their side; it could vomit sludge balls, spray surfuric acid and fire crimson energy beams. Hedora is one of the most formable foes to ever face Godzilla.

WALDEMAR DANINSKY, THE WEREWOLF in WEREWOLF SHADOW

First introduced in Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror (1968), Paul Naschy’s Waldemar Daninsky returns in Werewolf Shadow, also known under the more colorful title Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman. Daninsky appears in over a dozen loosely related films. In Werewolf Shadow, arguably the most famous and accessible of these films, the werewolf is revived when a mortician removes a silver bullet from Daninsky’s dead chest. Once he becomes the beast again, he encounters and battles the Countess Wandesa Darvula de Nadasdy, the Vampire Woman from the U.S. title.

TRUCK in DUEL

Director Stephen Spielberg and writer Richard Matheson introduce the Killer Machine to the lexicon of horror movie monsters only hinted at in terrors past. In Duel, a massive tractor-trailer truck terrorizes David (Dennis Weaver) Mann while he travels on a long, lonely stretch of two-lane highway. The driver of the truck is never truly seen and only implied; the truck becomes the monster. Loud, overpowering and menacing, the truck embodies evil just as much as Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster or the Wolfman ever could, perhaps more-so as the threat was more real, more possible. In future machine driven horrors, such as The Car (1977) and Christine (1983), the monstrous vehicles would lose the driver altogether, no longer needing even a hint of a human behind the wheel.