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| SCARS OF DRACULA (1970) |
This was the first Hammer horror that I was consciously aware of. I must have been 10 or 11 years old, and staying at my maternal grandparents’ house one summer. There were several boxes of VHS tapes which I picked and choose my way through. Seeing Dracula scrawled in ink on the side of this tape was enough to pique my interest and I stuck it on. From the prologue with the vampire bat attack in the church, with the vivid ‘Kensington Gore’ I was hooked. Seeing the name ‘Hammer Films’ in blood red lettering caught my attention to the point where I recall asking my parents about what ‘Hammer Films’ were (I’m sure they were bewildered at the time). Patrick Troughton’s presence in the cast captured my attention too – I was already a Doctor Who fan, and Dennis Waterman must have been a welcome face from tv’s Minder.
The slight titillation from the sight of beautiful women demi-clad, and the stylised horror started me on a path of exploration. Within a short space of time I was regularly sitting up past the witching hour watching British horror films from a bygone era on Channel 4 and the BBC and self-educating myself in the genre.
Scars comes in for much stick these days as the ‘worst’ in the Dracula series, but it has a certain charm. Some iffy production design aside, and a not-very-convincing female vampire (Anouska Hempel), this has some great imagery. Dracula and Klove’s relationship is fascinating, with Dracula reaching new depths of cruelty, and Troughton giving a very human portrayal of the manservant.
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