The Devil against Christopher Lee

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

Next movie in the Hammer Collection is Christopher Lee's personal favourite Hammer film. It's also one of the few movies where Christopher Lee plays a hero and not the villain. It's a story set in the early 20th century where Duc de Richeleau, played by Lee, and his friend Rex, played by Leon Greene find out that their young charge has been posessed by the devil. They save him from being baptized into the service of evil and end up getting the devil himself after them channeled by an evil priest Mocata. The cast is absolutely brilliant, Lee of course doing a great job but Charles Gray as Mocata is just as good if not better. The movie is a great Brittish gothic horror full of thrills and suspension. Hammer mood at it's best, despite it not being the usual Hammer movie. Sure the effects are dated and time hasn't been kind to it on some parts, but still it's surprisingly effective even today. One of my favourite Hammer movies and definitely worth watching if you crave for some proper horror that doesn't rely on cheap scares but to a striking suspension building. The picture quality on the DVD is good and again there's no subtitles and only a trailer as an extra.
86%

The doctor should know not to play with the dead

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

The Hammer Collection returns to horror after two "historical" action adventures. This time dr. Frankenstein has refined his work so it's no more bits and pieces of bodyparts with hideous scars all around it. He creates a beautiful young woman. But him being Frankenstein, things of course don't end up too well for his "monster". It's a shame he put a soul of a wrongly executed man with some temper problems in the woman's body and the "creature" is out for blood again. This was actually surprisingly good even though it's not that much horror except the last 20 minutes or so. The 3 bullies reminded me of A Clockwork Orange (1971) and wouldn't be surprised if they have taken some references from this movie to that. The cast is quite good and Peter Cushing is always great. I liked the fact that they took the usual Frankenstein story away from the monster on a rampage while mobs with pitchforks and torches are out for justice. The movie actually has some nice remarks for those and kind of makes a dark comedy out of that. So it's not the usual story and for that I quite like it. The picture quality on the DVD was ok and there were no subtitles or extras on the disc.
77%

The count with the sharp teeth

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Third film from the Hammer Collection is also the third movie in the series of Dracula films from Hammer. To me Dracula is not Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman or Frank Langella, it is and always has been Christopher Lee. The very first Dracula movie I saw was a Hammer Dracula, don't know which one it was as I was so little that I can't remember. But Christopher Lee with his red eyes burned down into my memory so deep that he is the one that first comes to my mind when ever someone mentions Dracula. So this was a nostalgia trip for me. The story of this one is that two English couples end up into Dracula's castle, no matter how many times they were warned not to go there. The creepy servant called Klove uses the blood of one of them to resurrect the count and there we go again. The movie looks quite brilliant as most Hammer horror movies and the mood is spot on perfect. Christopher Lee has said that the lines given to him were so bad that he decided not to speak at all in the movie. So the Dracula only hisses and screams. Not a bad thing actually, gave it a bit more weirdness and made it more menacing. What I love about the Hammer Dracula is that it's not as finesse as the usual ones. It's quite straight forward, this dracula doesn't walk through doors, he kicks them in. The rest of the cast is quite ok and the story even though it's a bit cheesy at parts works well enough to keep the interest up. Can't say this is a masterpiece, but it's quite a great movie none the less. The DVD had no subtitles but there was a very good documentary on the disk called The Many Faces of Christopher Lee.
78%