MONSTER FROM HELL in FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL
Hammer Films produces their final entry into their Frankenstein series with Peter Cushing returning as Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell. For the creature, Hammer hires David (Darth Vader) Prowse once again, this time to portray the hulking beast, the Monster from Hell. The story follows a young doctor, Simon Helder (Shane Briant), who is following in Dr. Frankenstein’s footsteps, performing similar experiments in life after death. The superstitious locals don’t take too kindly to his practice and judge him criminally insane, institutionalizing him to the local asylum. Upon arriving at the asylum, Simon discovers to his amazement that Victor Frankenstein is also a patient there, but has managed to take over the asylum controlling the director’s every action. Together they pick up Frankenstein’s experiments, using body parts from deceased mental patients. Things go wrong and they create a misshapen monstrosity. The monster’s design, while not as successful as the creature from The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), is more grotesque than the creatures found in other Hammer Frankenstein films such as Evil of Frankenstein (1964), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) and Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969).
BABY DAVIS in IT’S ALIVE
Perhaps the most innocent of film characters is a child and what better way to corrupt the innocence of traditional horror than turning an infant baby into a nightmarish, blood-thirsty creature. Larry Cohen transforms the fears of every expecting parent into a B-Movie monster movie classic with It’s Alive when the newborn baby of the Davis family is revealed to be a murdering, ferocious beast. In a shocking scene, the delivery room is turned into a blood bath leaving only the mother alive and the child missing. Rick Baker’s classic monster baby design is kept hidden from view for most of the film and is only seen in flashes and never for a prolong time, a fanged mouth here, a claw swiping across the screen there and a full figure glimpse form time to time. The sounds and implications of the monster’s actions are more disturbing left to the imagination, as in most cases, if the monster would have been seen in full view it would have become silly and ineffective. However, the monster’s simple design remains one of the more frightening visages of a child monster the cinemas have ever seen.
LIVING DEAD in LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE
In 1968, George Romero introduced Pennsylvania, US Cinemas and the World to the flesh eating ghoul variation to the zombie mythos with Night of the Living Dead. The film’s success and influence takes some time to be recognized in horror cinema. In Europe, director Jorge Grau crafts a disturbing tale of the walking dead with Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, also known as Don’t Open the Window and The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue. In Grau’s film, the dead are brought to life by a experimental machine being used by the government to control the spread of insects. The zombies in Manchester are gut munching creatures that feast on living humans, much like Romero’s zombies, presented for the first time in full color. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is a relatively tame movie when compared to the zombie classics to come, but it is not without its share of graphically shocking scenes where a number of zombies feast on fresh kills. It does not make a huge impact and is considered by many to be an overlooked classic. It would take George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Lucio Fulci’s Zombie (1979) to make the modern zombie a cinema horror staple.
THE FREAK in THE MUTATIONS
In a cross between freak human mutation and mad-scientist experimentation rogue biologist Professor (Donald Pleasence ) Nolter genetically engineers his victims into plant-like monsters in Jack Cardiff’s The Mutations. Instead of creating a monster from the parts of other humans like Frankenstein, Nolter begins to alter the DNA of his victims theorizing that he can accelerate the natural selection of evolution. These are very modern twists to the standard themes found in horror films of its time. Unfortunately the film fails to live up to the promise of its themes and becomes sloppy and awkward in its pacing. The creature effects are striking, however, blending plant like qualities into human like features. Along with these monstrosities, the film also features a number of human oddities straight out of Ripley’s Believe It or Not and Tom (Dr. Who) Baker as a deformed man from a local carnival freak show. Gone are the man-monster creations of Frankenstein, forever replaced by more disturbing blending of man and beast with gene-splicing, cloning and other modern science marvels.
LEATHERFACE in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
Alfred Hitchcock stunned audiences with Psycho (1960) and, with Norman Bates, helped create the madman/serial killer movie monster. Others would follow, but not many make the impact that Tobe Hooper achieves with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While the film has an entire family of deranged killers, it’s the chainsaw wielding threat of Leatherface that makes the lasting impression. His towering height and face covered with the leathered flesh of past victims, Leatherface storms onto the screen in a shocking display of violence, suddenly attacking one of the protagonists entering into the kitchen, hammering him into submission and slamming the kitchen door shut. There is no blood; but the sudden appearance of the killer, combined with a barrage of sounds, creates a rush of fear and chaos. Later, Leatherface trades the meat-tenderizer for the titular chainsaw and solidifies his position in horror history. Tobe Hooper and Gunnar Hansen (as Leatherface) pave the way for future killer madmen such as Michael Myers in Halloween (1978), Jason Voorhees in the Friday the Thirteenth series and Freddy Kruger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
VAMPIRES in LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES
Hammer Films produces their final entry into their Dracula franchise with Legend of Seven Golden Vampires. For this film, Hammer teams up with the Hong Kong film company Shaw Brothers, blending European horror with Kung Fu action. Christopher Lee refuses to return as Dracula and the character is reduced to appearing in bookend set pieces now played by John Forbes-Robertson. Thankfully, Peter Cushing returns as Van Helsing. The focus, for most of the picture, is shifted to the Asian hopping-vampire variations known here as the Seven Golden Vampires. Their appearance is very different from the classic vampires, looking nothing like the gothic, romantic Count Dracula. Their faces are rotting and zombie like, mostly seen beneath their elaborate ceremonial masks, and they are seen riding horses and hopping around in slow-motion. And they know Kung Fu – sort of. Cushing’s aging Van Helsing, along with a team of seven Kung Fu brothers (and one sister), defeats the vampires and their zombie horde and then confronts Count Dracula for the final time.
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