Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter

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Actionized Sequel: Kronos, Grost and Carla fight more Vampires in the first issue than in the entire first movie combined. Marcus visits the family of his late friend, Lord Hagen Durward, and speaks with Durward's son, Paul, and his sister Sara. He must leave before speaking with the bed-ridden Lady Durward. While riding through the woods, Marcus encounters a cloaked figure that leaves him shaken, and he finds blood on his lips. To the film itself. Dr Marcus enlists the help of old army comrade Captain Kronos when local girls are found drained not of blood, but of youth, and left to die as ravaged old crones. Kronos and his assistant, Grost, arrive with sultry Caroline Munro (Carla - token crumpet and sex object) and begin their investigations - much to the chagrin of the local mob and secretive arbitrary gentry (the Durward family). It doesn't take a genius with a slide-rule to figure out who is responsible for what. Even in the waning years of the studio’s prominence, the vampire remained the life-blood of Hammer’s cinematic yield. As the 1970s dawned, the studio’s ownership was in the process of changing hands and the horror genre was dramatically shifting toward the kind of graphic exploitation fare that Hammer neither embodied nor understood. So it was that risks were taken and the studio heads, like Michael Carreras, were willing to tweak those formulas which had so often led to success in the past, the vampire included. Another wrinkle in the mystery of the dark goings on in the small village is the wealthy Durward family, consisting of bedridden Lady Durward and her two androgynous adult children Paul and Sara, played by Shane Briant and Lois Diane respectively. Oddly close and constantly professing their insecurities regarding aging and ending up like their decrepit matriarch in the upstairs suite, Paul and Sara frequent the film as something of a disconcerting shadow hanging over the town. Probably the most in-line with Hammer’s typical output, the family represents the wealthy aristocracy, perched, as it always is, precariously above its subjugated class.

Having insisted on helming the film as well as writing, Clemens landed his first directing job, a budget Carreras acquired through a return on a loan from the National Film Finance Corporation and approximately 8 weeks to shoot the picture. Clemens storyboarded the entire film, hand drawing 1300 frames well before any celluloid ran through a camera and, as a result, ushered in an energetic, efficient set that ultimately wrapped production well under the time allotted.The result was Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) a beautifully constructed, strikingly grounded story that fit right in line with Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name trilogy, even if it didn’t exactly match the energy of the Hammer subgenre it was intended to embody. Michael Carreras, having paid little attention to the project until its final edit, was dissatisfied. Unhappy with the film’s unique approach, he labeled Clemens inexperienced and opted not to put the usual weight behind the film’s release and advertising campaign. It was released alongside Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1974) with little fanfare and fell by the wayside shortly thereafter. Marcus visits the family of his late friend, Lord Hagen Durward, and speaks with Durward's son, Paul, and his beautiful sister Sara. He must leave before speaking with the bed-ridden Lady Durward. While riding through the woods, Marcus encounters a cloaked figure that leaves him shaken, and he finds blood on his lips. But Munro’s big acting break, in 1972, was thanks not to such screen work but her continuing efforts for booze and seamen. James Carreras, head of Hammer horror, had also been transfixed by a Lamb’s Navy Rum billboard. As a result, she became – like Ingrid Pitt, Joanna Lumley, Kate O’Mara – fated to spend aeons being nibbled by gaunt men with false teeth. This certainly includes Horst Johnson, Captain Kronos himself, whose confidence and bravado bears a hint of showmanship; Ian Hendry, whose small supporting role as a sleazy tavern goon is complete with an overly dramatic death; and Shane Briant, who in his role as Paul Durward exhibits a level of untrustworthy smarm that oozes through our screens.

Rounding out the core trio is Caroline Munro as Carla, a gypsy woman Kronos frees in the opening moments of the film. She brings an understated humanity to the proceedings, evolving from passenger to admirer to lover as the story progresses and providing a more honest perspective to the narrative’s goings on than a hero like Kronos is able to reflect. Also of note is John Carson’s Dr. Marcus, town leader and old friend of Kronos. Carson brings the appropriate level of restrained respectability and gradually seeping vulnerability that makes his character feel like a fleshed out human being as opposed to a wooden part of the set dressing, as is sometimes the case in narratives of this sort. Kronos, Grost, Dr. Marcus and Carla go about setting up tests to figure out if they are dealing with a vampire. This brings them into interactions with the local nobility of the Durwards. The son is Paul (Shane Briant), daughter Sara (Lois Daine) and their mother Lady Durward (Wanda Ventham). She is irate with Dr. Marcus as she blames him for the death of her husband, who was a renowned soldier. We also meet the Sorells who are a family of peasants in the area. They've already lost a daughter and mother to whatever creature is roaming these woods. Can Kronos and his team figure out what is happening before it is too late? No matter. Munro became a Bond girl. She talks enthusiastically about sharing memories with fellow members of that elite club on the festival circuit. “The roles are getting better for women. When you think about it, the most iconic Bond girl is Judi Dench.” They talk about how the bottom fell out for studios like AIP, Amicus and Hammer with the abandonment of US financial partners. They discuss the pull towards overt sexuality in an attempt to change with the tides and a new “try anything” mentality that led to an infusion of kung fu, bikers, sword-fighting and anything else producers could think of to get audiences in seats.Incest Subtext: Strongly (and, according to writer/director Brian Clemens, intentionally) hinted at between Paul and Sara Durwood. Horst Janson, John Carson, Caroline Munro, John Cater, Shane Briant, Lois Daine, Wanda Ventham, William Hobbs, Ian Hendry Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter is written and directed by Brian Clemens. It stars Horst Janson, John Cater, John Carson, Caroline Munro, Shane Briant, Lois Daine and Wanda Ventham. Out of Hammer Film Productions, music is by Laurie Johnson and cinematography by Ian Wilson. Running Gag: Someone cursing and Kronos/Grost/Carla deadpanning "Language." (often in the middle of a battle) is a running joke throughout, occurring at least once per issue.

Grost and Kronos conduct a mystical test that indicates the presence of vampires. Their findings are contradicted by an eyewitness who claims to have seen "someone old, very old", whereas a youth-draining vampire should appear youthful. Retcon: In the film, Kronos and Grost leave Carla behind, but in this storyline she's become part of their group and has take very well to their escapades.Slobs Versus Snobs: The fancy but shady Elders of Serechurch want Kronos to kill Slake and his vampires, who are essentially ragged undead, giving it a bit of a class warfare vibe. Particularly when it's revealed the Elders are also Vampires and this is merely a Vampire civil war of sorts. Captain Kronos ( Horst Janson) rides across nineteeth century Europe accompanied by his associate Professor Grost ( John Cater), seeking out evildoers. His travels lead him to the hamlet of his old army friend Marcus ( John Carson), who tells him that local girls are being found mysteriously drained... not of blood, but of youth. Kronos and Grost immediately suspect a vampire, but how to destroy it? And who is the vampire, anyway?

In the end, the hero prevails— at a cost— and must move on. For a man like Captain Kronos, evil is his burden to eradicate. His is a calling that no creature, no town and no woman can halt, and his stories are destined to be as much myth as they are truth. Wherever there is innocence being stalked in the woods, drained of its essence or terrorized by those vile things which dwell in the dark, Captain Kronos will be there. And so he rides, a familiar theme rising on the horizon as the sun settles below the hilly greens.Intensity jumps a few notches by treating The Crazies like 28 Days Later or other “Rage Virus” films. Eisner produces an infinitely scarier version of The Crazies on a purely visual level. Ogden Marsh’s “crazy” residents almost look zombified as they skewer, roast, and commit heinous acts of violence against their neighbors, fitting the 2000s need one-up what’s shown during weekday news segments. Eisner is going for the full-on horror experience, from righteous jump scares in sudsy car washes to gnarly killing blows in mechanic bays, if only to emphasize what Romero established years prior. He’s able to retain the anger in Romero’s themes while adding post-millennium angst and pulse-pounding tension, staying true to the original’s conspiratorial themes with a deeper bite. Freudian Excuse: When Carla wonders why Kronos is so rough in bed (at the time, he's left her with a bleeding lip, although she doesn't seem very upset). He gives a excuse about his family becoming vampires, and kissing therefore having ugly implications for him.