Today, I thought we'd take a look a some Hammer posters. This set is a little one-sided, 80% Dracula, 20% Frank. Rasputin and The Reptile will just have to wait.
Dracula Has Risen From The Grave - This poster is way to cutesy and makes it seem like a wacky comedy - it would've been a great Love At First Bite poster - but something about this poster intrigues me. I think it's the pink band-aids. Yeah, that'll work.
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell - The top half of this image was featured on my site's most popular banner. In fact, posting this one makes me kinda miss that banner. I lost the original file when I made the old blogger to new blogger transition, but I think I might have to do it over.
The Satanic Rites of Dracula - This stunning Japanese (see, told you they were good) poster would have to be in my top 5 favorite pieces of Hammer artwork. In fact I am in the middle of making a DVD cover using this poster. If it turns out okay, I'm sure I'll probably feature it here at some point.
Dracula AD 1972 - Another brilliant Japaneser here. When I become loaded (in the rich sense, not like drunk loaded) these two are essential purchases for me.
Dracula AD 1972 - Yes, another Drac AD72 poster - titled Dracula 73 on the poster.I hope everyone is enjoying the new year so far. Things have been okay for me this first week. But I have had two sad losses so far. 1) Taco Bell is no longer making the Volcano Taco. Just as soon as they'd introduced this delightful red-shelled monstrosity to me they've taken it away. This not 3 months after I discover my favorite chips of all time - Fiery Habanero Doritos - have been taken off the market due to poor sales. It's a bad time to be a fan of hot.
2)My Zune has officially bitten the dust. I got a refurbished first generation model on Woot.com for $80. I loved the big bulky brown bastard. I even stuck up for it when people asked "what the hell is that thing, some kind of wallet?" But I'm looking at it right now, completely in pieces after an ill-advised attempt to repair it myself. I knew it was totally dead before I actually opened it up. Otherwise I wouldn't have actually done it. I tried the "open it up, look for something that came uplugged" approach. If it works with my car, why not my Zune? Oh well, I got 15 months out of it, not bad for a refurbished, out of date MP3 player.
As you might've noticed with the semi-frequent posting, I'm trying to get this site up and running properly again. I'm trying to post more, and different kind of stuff to keep the site interesting. I've even got a few little projects for the site I'm working on:
A Double Feature cover song compilation
A New Werewolf compilation (bands who play songs named after movie titles)
An attempt at a Podcast (Idea swiped from Cosmobells) -
The first two things should've been done some time ago, but I'm a slacker, so they are still in the "being worked on" phase. The Podcast, not going too well. I've gotten like 30 minutes, but I'm not happy with it. I like the song choices, not too obvious, but not pretentiously obscure. But it's just not going together too well. I don't know if I'll actually finish this thing up.
2)My Zune has officially bitten the dust. I got a refurbished first generation model on Woot.com for $80. I loved the big bulky brown bastard. I even stuck up for it when people asked "what the hell is that thing, some kind of wallet?" But I'm looking at it right now, completely in pieces after an ill-advised attempt to repair it myself. I knew it was totally dead before I actually opened it up. Otherwise I wouldn't have actually done it. I tried the "open it up, look for something that came uplugged" approach. If it works with my car, why not my Zune? Oh well, I got 15 months out of it, not bad for a refurbished, out of date MP3 player.
As you might've noticed with the semi-frequent posting, I'm trying to get this site up and running properly again. I'm trying to post more, and different kind of stuff to keep the site interesting. I've even got a few little projects for the site I'm working on:
A Double Feature cover song compilation
A New Werewolf compilation (bands who play songs named after movie titles)
An attempt at a Podcast (Idea swiped from Cosmobells) -
The first two things should've been done some time ago, but I'm a slacker, so they are still in the "being worked on" phase. The Podcast, not going too well. I've gotten like 30 minutes, but I'm not happy with it. I like the song choices, not too obvious, but not pretentiously obscure. But it's just not going together too well. I don't know if I'll actually finish this thing up.
6 comments:
I love me some Hammer horror. I preferred the Dracula films as a kid, but would rather watch the Frankenstein films today. Not only have they aged better, but vampires have gotten so overexposed that I can't stand the sight of them anymore. Miss Jones dragged me to see Twilight ... I spent the whole film wishing Blade would make an appearance.
- Simon
"dracula has risen from the grave" poster is incredible, i'd never seen it before. LOVED this post!
I discover The Manchester morgue at the times of the "Frankenstein..." banner. Since then I always come back, your work is incredible, so that banner will always be the best to me. The japanese poster of "Satanic rites..." is awesome!
What's with the "(obviously)" caption on the "dracula has risen from the grave"? It makes it look like they're taking the piss out of the film & horror films in general, because the film is not a comedy.
Tom Chantrell's art for Hammer posters is good, there's an interview on the web with him where he mentions a Dracula poster he did, but he had no pics of C Lee to work fom, so he looked in the mirror & drew his own face instead! I think that was for "risen from the grave". I think he used his wife as a model for a poster aswell.
In fact, according to wikipedia, his wife posed in their back garden with a plastic sword as Princess Leia for the poster art for "Star Wars"!
I actually prefer Hammer's vampire series to others because it strikes a forgotten balance between the - pardon my obvious pun - anemic Dracula of Bela Lugosi and the twinkling idiots that dot today's vamp-tastic lineup. Christopher Lee's Dracula is an apex predator not a figure of romance. He played it straight as long as he could but the series like the studio ran out of juice. The transition to more adult elements proved popular but only on a short term basis. Predatory vampires and heaving cleavage but only sexual suggestiveness and deep color saturation - blood red preferred - created the Hammer look that if they left well enough alone would be alive and well and making Gothic classics today.
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