Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Overrated

Captivating movie !

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Brian Clemens directed this unusual vampire swashbuckling adventure that stars Horst Janson as Captain Kronos, the vampire hunter of the title, who is now in a small village plagued by mysterious deaths of young women who were found drained of youth, rather than blood, though they die soon after. Turns out an aristocratic family is responsible, and Kronos vows to kill them all, and cleanse the land of this evil. Intended as the first in a series of Kronos films, this proved to be a box office failure, reflecting the declining fortunes of Hammer studios. The film itself is interesting to a point, and costar Caroline Munro is most appealing, but sadly this film comes up short.

Saw this during a night of insomnia and liked it a lot. I know nothing of Hammer Films history or the horror genre generally. But I liked so many of the details and I'm sure I missed as many as I saw. Crooked candelabras, odd camera angles, spooky lighting and bombastic proclamations by overconfident undead built atmosphere and period. Though what period, I'm not too sure. Hints and suggestion substituted for budget: example; the special chapel cross. The borrowed/re-purposed/homage/stolen (pick one) scenes from other styles: Greek mythology: Medusa can't deal with a mirror. Western: The bar scene where the wronged lass is avenged by the heroic fighter. Kung Du: The simple ten against one fight in the cemetery where the minions respectfully wait their turns to be clocked by the leading man. The payoff sword fight wasn't much of a surprise and the vampire had a bad-guy sword; one that can only inflict minor cuts on the hero, nothing mortal despite several opportunities. The hyper-speed that I'd been using as an explanation for the Captains successes was not in evidence or maybe I missed it. The local villages must have been pretty special places. Their population seems to not have included any ugly maidens. However after this movie, there may not be any maidens left at all. They sure got rid of a lot of them. All in all, definitely entertaining and worth a watch.

If you buy boxes of Hammer you almost never come across this flick. It's not very known and I guess the reason is simple, it doesn't have Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing in it although regular Caroline Munro is in it. But back then Caroline wasn't a big name, she made it a few years later with a few horrors. She did appear in earlier hammers like Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972). The acting was rather good and the effects used were very simple but where this flick do fails a bit is the fact that we don't see that often the vampires. It's more a story about Kronos himself, played by Horst Janson. You surely will recognize a few popular faces like Shane Briant and Ian Hendry.Was it scary? No it never was although we do see severed arms and heads but it is low on the horror factor for the year it was made. If you look at The Exorcist (1973) then this flick here is a big laugh. It's also made at the end of the Hammer era. They tried to move further from the Gothic horror and this here shows but they failed. During the late 1960s and 1970s the saturation of the horror film market by competitors and the loss of American funding forced changes to the previously lucrative Hammer-formula, with varying degrees of success. The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) was a big flop and even To The Devil A Daughter (1976) failed too. In 1979 they stopped with a remake of Hitchcocks The Lady Vanishes. In fact Rosemary's Baby (1968) started a new era in horror.Still, it's worth watching for the typical Hammer effects and for Munro going full frontal in one scene. Gore 0/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Wow, was Hammer Studios going in a different direction with this film! While it is once again a horror film (the bread & butter for this film company), it's so unlike all their other films! While it's a vampire film, you see no trace of Christopher Lee or even Peter Cushing--and the style is so totally unlike their films. Instead, the film stars a very hot guy (Captain Kronos) and he always seems to have a hot lady in tow. This vampire hunter, however, is NOT to be confused for Dr. Van Helsing. Not only does he look nothing like Cushing, but how he kills the vampires and the types of vampires are all-new! These vampires are not so much blood drinkers but creatures that suck the youth out of people--and you then see them age rapidly when they fall prey to these new vampires. And, since the vampires are different, so is killing them. Many different ways are used--some of which are wacky and new--such as impaling, hanging and burning one (wow--he was tough to kill!!). And, finally, the story is just so very different.According to IMDb, Hammer was planning on a new series of Kronos films but canceled it due to the poor reception this film received. I can't really understand it, as the film was quite good and sexy--and an invigorating change--with a wild ending!