A look into the archetypes of Hammer Horror films, foreign vampire films, and comedic films.
The uproar of vampire cinema hit a wall after the Universal Studio monster madness began to die down in the early 1950’s. While the idea of sexual, blood sucking night stalkers still brought fear to movie goers, the idea became stale. A new look was needed to give vampires some fresh blood. Luckily for vampire enthusiasts, the mid-fifties brought a revival for the genre.
El Vampiro Saves Vampire Films
Starting with Fernado Mendez’ 1957 adaptation, El Vampiro, the world was reintroduced to the hypnotic nature of vampire cinema. The film, which is about a young girl who returns to her native town only to find her family dead and the townspeople under the trance of a vampire, really accomplishes a lot in terms of furthering vampire horror cinema. To begin with, El Vampiro was the first film to introduce the devilish trick of vampires spelling their names backwards in order to live among the public. Essentially, Count Karol de Lavud (the vampire), is known as Mr. Duval to the townspeople. Another archetype developed in this film was the cinematic use of the vampire’s fangs. In previous films, the vampires teeth were either hidden (in the case of Bela Lugosi) or in the case of Nosferatu, the incisors were shown instead. However, while these two archetypes were huge additions to vampire cinema, it was the connection between Universal Studio’s monster movies and Hammer Productions that brings El Vampiro its fame.
Hammer Films Revives Dracula
Hammer Productions had been around making monster and science fiction films since the 30’s. But it was their heralded reincarnation of Frankenstein that led to the rebirth of monster films and the next incarnation of Dracula. However, reproducing and distributing Dracula proved to be a tedious task. Because of ongoing legal battles between Hammer and Universal Studios, Dracula remained unreleased until 1958, after it had been shot for over a year.
Once arrangements for distribution were settled, Dracula was released and received rave reviews. Christopher Lee (Lord of the Rings, The Wicker Man) played the part of Dracula, and is often considered to be the best in this role. The film, which follows Stoker’s plot closely, became a hit due to its adverse sexuality and over-the-top gore. The film became noted as a pioneer for the genre by combining excessive amounts of fantasy with the manic blood shed.
The film does, however, deviate from Stoker’s legacy as it features both Dracula as a shape shifter, and being killed by sunlight. Because of the connotations between bats and vampires as children of the night, these two archetypes have become beacons in vampire cinema.
Fortunately, because viewers loved Dracula, Hammer licensed it for several sequels. Lee only returned for three of the sequels, but is most noted for his performance in Dracula: Prince of Darkness, which Lee received no speaking parts, but hissed instead for the whole film.
The Comedic Vampire
The style of turning a serious, horror movie to a comedic romp had been around for a while. Starting with Abbot and Costello in 1948, the gothic idea of vampires was spun into something of comedic genius. However, it was in 1967, as Hammer vampire films were fading out, that Roman Polanski released his cult favorite, The Fearless Vampire Killers. Now, Polanski himself is an icon in cinema history, but his vampire film is more of a conundrum. It follows the path of Professor Abronsius and his apprentice as they hunt vampires in Transylvania. After witnessing a kidnapping, the pair track down the culprit to castle filled with seduction, sexuality, and death. The viewer is bombarded with familiar archetypes and a fantastic score. What this film adds are comedic undertones, sarcasm, and irony. The viewer is forced to deal with a subversion of humanity in the form of negligent hunters.
