10-17. The rest of my Cellar Club tweet-alongs to date
Onwards with the Cellar Club tweet-alongs... Films 6 to 9 of 2022 were a bunch of Hammer vampire rewatches connected with the live webcast I did about them, and I wrote those up separately at the time ( LJ / DW). So this entry covers 10 onwards.
10. Burnt Offerings (1961), dir. Dan Curtis, broadcast 18 February
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Evening, #TheFillmCrowd friends! Tonight's film sure sounds good on paper... let's see how reality matches up! #CellarClub
From my brief read of the Wikipedia page, I'm getting both Let's Scare Jessica To Death and The Shining vibes around the basic premise of a place / property possessing and consuming people. But I haven't seen this film, so no idea if that's fair. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I am also an absolute sucker for films about a bunch of people trapped in together in a place where horrible things are happening, which it looks like this will deliver on. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love to see a film capitalising on the uncanny potential of photographs. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Her... collection. Nothing to be concerned about, obvs. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like the street noise and sirens in the background of this scene. Gives a sense of what they're trying to escape which drives them to take up the Allardyces' offer. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like the street noise and sirens in the background of this scene. Gives a sense of what they're trying to escape which drives them to take up the Allardyces' offer. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
As a side-note, I've really watched way too many films with heroines called Marian(ne) lately. It's extremely confusing. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
'Ding-dongs'? The kid can see 'ding-dongs'?? A whole case of 'em? WTF does he mean? And why have we now got to wait until the end of the ad-break to find out? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I must admit I'm relieved... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
"Hey look, it's a graveyard!" Any film immediately improved by such a line. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, key detail there folks. The last Allardyce died in the 1890s. Hope you're taking notes. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Does HammerGothic know you get full-on Oliver Reed nipple action in this film? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love how Bette just stood there screaming, rather than e.g. diving in to try to help. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I said earlier on this had The Shining vibes! Now Ollie has a typewriter and is looking for something to do... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Just checked the dates. This film came out a year before the novel of The Shining, so genuinely could have fed in. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I would not have got back in that pool. With Oliver. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
PARTICULARLY with Oliver offering 'a little water-sport'! No thank you. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Glad that scene didn't actually go where it looked like it might have been for a moment. Still quite ick. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd [It looked a lot like Oliver Reed's character was going to rape his wife for a moment.]
Are we meant to see her refusal of him as a symptom of her becoming unhealthily possessed by the house / family? Or his animalistic desire as the way it is brutalising him? Or both? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I do really love the way everyone is fraying at the edges and losing their patience with each other at this stage. That's exactly what I look for in a good cabin fever movie. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Between that earlier scene with the Coors and the delirium tremens, and now this dialogue about martinis, it's difficult to shake the feeling that Oliver Reed was cast in this role in full knowledge of his alcoholism and in order to actively play on it. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Marian now adopting appropriate period dress to show her increasing identification with house and family. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I can't believe he's giving her the third degree over her treatment of Davey after his little performance in the pool earlier on! Has he totally forgotten about that? Has everyone? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Now THAT was good with the demented undertaker bursting through the door! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So, did they just bury her [Bette Davis' character] in the grounds, or what? And who were the other people at the funeral scene? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
For once, it's the man fleeing through the storm from the Gothic heroine, rather than the other way round. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Haha, you didn't think you'd escape that easily, did you? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
OK, literal autonomous vegetation... maybe a step too far... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Marian has emerged from the water reborn, and back in her modern clothes. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ah - maybe not entirely reborn, though... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Suddenly it's Psycho. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Superb! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd [This was my response to Oliver Reed plunging from a high window onto the windscreen of the family car while his kid was inside it.]
What cowboy put in THREE columns to support the pediment on the facade of that house?? Even numbers or #GTFO #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd #McMansion
Great ending, really enjoyed that. Just the utter disregard for Classical orders threw me off for a moment there at the end. Thanks for the tweetalong, everyone! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
11. Theatre of Blood (1973), dir. Douglas Hickox, broadcast 25 February
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
It's Friday again! I am loving how many tweets full of excited anticipation about this film I have seen today. I've got it on DVD, but haven't actually watched it for at least 15 years and am highly grateful to TalkingPicsTV for prompting me to revisit. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
I'm currently planning to stay up for Scream and Scream Again too, which I've seen once before and would quite welcome seeing again pre-armed with some modicum of a clue about what's going on. But a large glass of gin may ultimately say otherwise. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, I believe I know the Stephen Mosley who wrote this letter to Caroline! Not sure if he's on Twitter, but we are FB chums. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ah, the pathos of this music already! And the way these snippets of early films make us think straight away about how theatre and film relate to each other. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, that's a Prima Porta Augustus on the bureau behind Hordern! They get everywhere. Nice touch, actually in the Julius Caesar section. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Like the maeander pattern on the collar of his wife's dress, too. Nice little Classical touches without overdoing it. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
That plastic sheet is like a second screen. Which he then bursts through! Must have been very effective in the cinema. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Forgot Madeline Smith was in this! Look at that amazing collar. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
It is a long time since I've seen this, but I thought this film basically began with Price faking his own death and falling in with the gang of vagrants? It's starting to seem increasingly unlikely we're now going to see that in flashback. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Are we seeing a cut version which omitted that sequence? Certainly, he's already working with the vagrants and people seem surprised when they discover he's alive, but the backstory to that seems to be missing. #AmConfused #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Soundtrack doing great work again here, in the contrast between the romantic / sentimental music and the clinical, soon-to-be brutal actions. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, we're going to get a #DroppedTray! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
A staple of the Miss Marple stories, of course... but Joan Hickson wouldn't play her for another decade. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Love that labyrinth-design artwork on the wall. They think they are in control of the situation, but they don't know how deep in Price's web they are. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
So now we get the flashback I remember. Fascinating how we're allowed to hear his voice completely unimpeded in this moment, even through the plate glass. His final ('final') performance will not be denied. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Haha! 🎁♥️ #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
I wonder what kind of wine Vincent has in his cellar? A nice cask of Amontillado, perchance? #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
It's helpful, isn't it, how fencing masks obscure the face? Must have made life a lot easier for the stunt doubles here. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
So many shots through railings, grilles, stair-rods in this film. Everyone is trapped in a prison of their own making. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Getting a bit of a 'why do we even have that lever?' vibe from this scene... #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub [The hair salon sequence, when Vincent as 'Butch' is able to fry a female critic by just pulling a lever attached to an electricity box on the wall.]
This red velvet hat he's wearing now is beyond splendid! Deserves a credit all of its own. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Love how everyone on the hashtag agrees we've reached the highlight of the film here! (Denied by adverts, though - gah!) #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub [I believe this was about the advent of the poodle pies scene.]
Superb usage of the fly-overs in that chase scene. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
And there's your money shot! 🐩🥧🐩🥧 #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
TBH, compared to my memory of it, that scene was actually underplayed. I could have used more sense of self-disgust from Morley's character at realising what he'd done. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, the theatre itself speaks, saving Devlin by blocking the sandbag via the statue! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Once again, Price's voice is supernaturally audible for those on the ground over the noise of the burning theatre. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
And that's a wrap! Magnificent work. Thanks to TalkingPicsTV and the thefilmcrowd gang for the company. So - who's staying up for Scream and Scream Again? #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Oh, there was the thefilmcrowd shout-out which we were told Caroline was filming a few weeks ago! I see we're going to have to change our name, though... #TheFilmCrowd #TheFilmClub #CellarClub
12. Scream and Scream Again (1970), dir. Gordon Hessler, broadcast 25 February
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Decided to start a new thread for Scream and Scream Again. I hope Cape apples paid handsomely for that fine piece of product placement in the opening titles. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
"The movie's structure is fragmented, as it alternates between three distinguishable plot threads" sez Wikipedia on this. It sure is. I was hoping to come to this second viewing remembering how they all fit together, but I think I have already forgotten. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
And Vincent Price walks in! It's genuinely confusing after his dominance in the previous film. Hard to grasp that he is a completely different character - especially after he was playing so many roles in the last one. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Gratuitous nipple shot! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Honestly the sheer numbers of former or future Hammer stars in this film is silly! I'm conscious of five (Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Peter Sallis, Christopher Matthews, Yutte Stensgaard), but I bet there's more #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
I mean, I know that's just what happens when you have a critical mass of British(-based) actors in a film of this era, just as with Doctor Who, but still. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, I'd forgotten this had a club scene! Love me a vintage club sequence. Always good for drooling over the fabulous fashions. Sometimes good for music too but I think not on this occasion. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
"I am utterly appalled!" Cushing's opinion on the film so far? 😉 #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Well, hope you enjoyed him while he lasted. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, and now things really look up as Sir Lee arrives! The highlight of this entire film is him strutting up and down Whitehall looking extremely sharp in his trilby and swinging an umbrella. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
We're back in the club, and it's a little hard to believe that any actual music was playing while the extras were jiving around on the dancefloor. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
I have to say, Michael Gothard's shirt in this scene is a thing of absolute glory and splendour! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
This car chase isn't too bad, to be fair. Some interesting glimpses of vintage suburbia along the way, too. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Like that shot just then of the sports car cresting the top of the hill. Actually quite dynamic and suspenseful. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Nice use of this abandoned industrial building, too. Good framing shots, footage looking up at people on ledges and down from high vantage points. Again, quite dynamic and suspenseful. Pretty colours with the sky, too. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
OK, interesting that he survived fine in the industrial building, but it was basically nature (the cliff) that caused his downfall. I'll avoid spoilers, but I think they were genuinely trying to do some Symbolism there. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
You didn't wanna put your hand in there, mate! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, I think that clay head in the foreground is trying to tell us something, too. OK, so yes, it is possible to get something more out of this film on a second viewing, though I wouldn't overstate how much. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Christopher Lee alert! We're coming up to the best scene in the film here, so pay full attention, especially if your name's miss_s_b. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Sorry, probably spoke too soon there. Should be after this ad break anyway. It's just him walking up and down Whitehall, but in a film like this it's a real highlight. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ah, there we are! Now that is some fine strutting, and in a very nicely-fitted suit too. He sure looks like he means business. #SirLee #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Lovely sinister performance here from Price. He is loving every minute of it! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
"Well, yes. But not an EVIL super-race!" Brilliant line. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Yes, of course this has a vat of acid, actually. It's essentially a Frankenstein film. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Hehe, of course everything's under control now Christopher Lee has arrived! It could never be otherwise. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Say what you like about this film - did any other movie put Vincent Price's best insane obsession up against Christopher Lee's best icy authority like that, even if just for a few seconds? #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
And we made it! Terribly, terribly flawed in so many ways, but it does have its moments. With that, I am gracefully retiring. Good luck to anyone sticking it out for The Dunwich Horror! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
13. Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), dir. Bob Kelljan, broadcast 11 March
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Very happy to be back in the #CellarClub this evening for Count Yorga Vampire, after missing last week's installation due to gallivanting about the place in Oxford. I have seen this film a couple of times, but not for 25 years now, so looking forward to revisiting. #TheFilmCrowd
So far - these are great establishing shots, but I wish the camera-work were steadier. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'd like to get a closer look at that apparently-Classical relief scene over the fireplace. Haven't been able to see it well enough to work out what it is yet. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ah, I see - he's already had the mother and is now going for the daughter. And it seems a lot like we're going to meet the uncremated mother in vampire form before long. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like how the modern setting is allowing this film to play around knowingly with horror tropes, because its characters can reasonably be expected to know them too. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The two characters now stuck in their camper-van with howling wolves all around know they're living out a horror cliche, but that very knowledge is only making them edgier. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The unsteady camera-work is more effective in this scene, where it gives the impression of a stalker's point-of-view. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The Count's appearance in full vampire-mode there made him look a bit too much like he had specifically put on spooky make-up to go out hunting. It made me think of the scene in Martin where John Amplas gets similarly made-up to wind up his cousin. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Yep, that scene with the kitten was one of the main abiding memories I'd retained of this film from when I last watched it 25 years ago... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Dialogue like "Does this have anything to do with those marks on your throat?" is bumping perilously close to the perennial problem of a modern vampire story. These characters know their horror tropes, but don't seem to recognise a case of vampirism. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So, yes, we have to have the scepticism scene when the problem is named. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
This scene of Erika inviting Yorga into her bedroom definitely seems to have retained something of the original p0rn concept which Caroline mentioned in her introduction... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting! I'd been thinking for a while that Donna was present in the scene but had no dialogue; then Yorga explicitly drew attention to it - "You're very quiet." #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Perhaps some hint of an idea here that what makes her vulnerable to Yorga is the way the human men in her life are constantly talking over and past her. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
This discussion about the prospect of actually killing Count Yorga is another one that's making me think ahead to Martin (1978). It really confronts what it might mean to stake someone based on a misconception. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, it's time for antiquarian vampire tomes! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
"Tonight is mine" - dialogue borrowed from Stoker, there. ("Tonight is mine. Tomorrow night is yours!", addressed by Dracula to his brides.) #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Seems like it was borrowed with a full knowledge of the context, actually, given that it was followed immediately by Hayes getting massacred by Yorga's own brides. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, loved the silent tension there before Yorga starting his death-gurgles! Actually, I'd have preferred to skip the gurgles and just have the silence, TBH. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, and a superb final shot there! Love a paranoid ending, especially where vampires are concerned. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Overall verdict - pretty good for its budget and probably doing more original things than it's easy to see now, but I couldn't help but keep thinking of other better takes on the same ideas, like Martin (1978) and Dracula père et fils (1976). #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
14. The Vampire Lovers (1970), dir. Roy Ward Baker, broadcast 18 March
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Just settling myself down ready for this evening's #CellarClub screening of The Vampire Lovers. There is chocolate and there is whisky. Really looking forward to hearing Caroline's pre-film interview with maddysmith007. #TheFilmCrowd
The film itself… isn't one of my favourite Hammer vampire movies. I love the Sheridan Le Fanu novella, and on paper the film replicates almost everything in it, albeit with a few names and actions switched between characters and the narrative reordered. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
But for me the effect comes across as like painting by numbers, without emotive weight. I've been put off in the past by too many (and thus under-developed) characters, over-lighting, unconvincing performances and of course the tacky sexploitation. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
However. This evening I'm going to watch with an open mind and try to see what people obviously like about it. I'm in a good position at the moment to think about how it relates to some of Hammer's earlier vampire films, which should be fun in itself. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Caroline and maddysmith007 are absolutely adorable together, and I love Maddy's sparkly top! Maddy says she was an innocent convent girl, didn't know what a lesbian was, and was convinced by producers that nudity would only be for the Japanese market. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting - maddysmith007 also says she felt like a daughter to Ingrid Pitt. Maddy is very polite about the age-gap - it was actually more like 10 years, not a couple. So not surprising Ingrid seemed more like a mother-figure to her. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
That age-gap certainly gives a different dynamic to the relationship between Carmilla and her victims from in the novella. But perhaps the imbalance it creates is quite a good way of capturing her much greater actual age, as a centuries-old vampire? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Three cheers for maddysmith007 saying she has no regrets when people ask her about the film! I'm so glad she enjoyed it and is still enjoying having done it. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
[At this point the interview ended and the actual film began.]
Some nice mourning stationery there for ladylugosi! I'm sure she'll be able to tell us the precise connotations of a gap between the black lines and the edge of the mourning card. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
A nice touch to start with a written account, then seguing into dramatisation of Hartog's first-person report, too. It's material which comes at the end of the novella, but the spirit of a framing narrative is VERY Le Fanu. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Also, in fairness, all this fog with wandering shrouded spirits is very atmospheric and dreamlike, and it's quite effective cross-cut with the cheerful scenes in the inn. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Fascinated by the choice of green text for the opening credits. Red was such established Hammer branding, so departing from that is a pointed choice. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
And so we zoom in to Styria... Doesn't The Cush look fab in his military dress uniform? I'm getting slightly mixed messages from the costuming, but there's a broadly Napoleonic feel about it I guess. Shall we say c. 1820? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Starting with a ball is instant #HammerGlamour. And viewers familiar with Hammer's vampire films would recognise Ingrid Pitt's red dress as a strong visual cue that she's a vampire. (As the original audience would have known from the posters anyway.)#CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Fascinating dialogue between Laura and Carl as they dance about who's looking at whom - especially Marcilla. Strongly recalls the same interest in Kiss of the Vampire. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting that we never heard Ingrid speak at the ball - it was all just about what she looked like and who she was looking at. Once she does speak, though, her accent works quite well in marking her out as Other. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Laura's dream sequence was quite effective, as was that fade through the wall from Marcilla's room to hers. Everything is skipped over so quickly, though. We don't have time to take these things in and absorb the atmosphere. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Oh lord, this lime-green dress is the biggest horror in the film! Matches the lettering in the credits at least. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm sure the General Medical Council doesn't normally recommend that doctors ensure nipples are exposed in order to listen to the heart. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
These sequences with the blowing autumnal leaves and Marcilla flitting through the graveyard after Laura's death are the kind of atmosphere I felt was missing earlier. They get enough screen-time to work this time. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Good POV shaky-cam for this chase through the forest. An effect to use sparingly, but there it worked well. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
You've got to wonder how sustainable the Karnstein model of placing Carmilla / Marcilla / Millarca in all the local aristocracy's houses is, given that they inevitably know each other. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Already, she's only able to be placed successfully into the Morton household because they happen to have left the ball early. In fact, it was pretty unwise for her to show up at that ball at all. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, Carmilla telling Emma that her dress is for a country girl and lending her a more sophisticated one also recalls the Ravnas lending Gerald and Marianne their fine clothing for the ball in Kiss. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
By agreeing to let Carmilla clothe her, Emma gives her power over her. True Blood used the verb 'to glamour' to describe vampires hypnotising / enthralling their victims, and these are its roots. Carmilla is literally glamouring Emma. #HammerGlamour #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I mean, obviously it's primarily an excuse to make Emma get naked and for Carmilla to frolic around on the bed with her… But it does tell us something about the relationship between the characters too. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Kate O'Mara actually looks stunning in her empire-line dress. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
It's not so much that this film is consistently over-lit, as I'd remembered, but that the lighting levels vary too much. Cutting between Mlle Perrodot on one side of the room, and Carmilla / Emma on the other, the lighting was completely different. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Overall, though, the lighting is definitely better than my memory had made it. Ingrid flitting though the fog there after the scene in the hut was lit just right. This could all come down to different prints, of course. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Carmilla being able to go around in the day but finding the sun too bright for her is from the novella, but also reminiscent of the Ravnas in Kiss of the Vampire. Grounds to suggest that they're afflicted by the same strain of vampirism? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like the echoing distortions on the funeral chant, showing its psychological effect on Carmilla. Another good surreal / dreamlike touch. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm sorry - in her cat dreams, Emma feels its fur in her mouth? Did Carmilla perhaps leave her razor at Castle Karnstein? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd #QueerHammer
Eh up, Carmilla is up to a bit more glamouring, this time via a brooch. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Mlle Perrodot's distracted manner over breakfast suggests she had quite a night. And now she's working for Carmilla, making sure Carl doesn't get in and realise what's afoot. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The sudden prominence here of Renton the butler is symptomatic of this film's 'too many characters' problem. We're suddenly focused entirely on him, and expected to follow along with his concerns and actions, but we've barely met him before this point. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The music in the pub abruptly cutting off as soon as he mentions the word 'vampire' is great, though! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love seeing Hammer's collection of Piranesi prints nicely displayed on the stairs, there! Also seen in Van Helsing's hotel room in Dracula, on the castle walls in Scars, and I'm sure countless other contexts I've forgotten now. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
We've definitely got two gendered camps in opposition to each other by this point - Carl, Morton, the doctor and Renton representing decisive male authority versus Mlle Perrodot, Carmilla, Emma and the maid representing corrupt female deviance. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Never noticed that horse was called Jupiter before! He's said it about five times, though, so it's definitely for real. A touch of the Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water there, too, with Ingrid's figure reflected in the stagnant water. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, a little borrowing from one of the Dracula films there in the score! I think Scars, but could have been Risen. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Oh dear, Carmilla has worked her wiles on Renton! One up to #TeamLadies. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Wait, how did Hartog work through the night staking vampires in their graves? Isn't that the sort of thing you're supposed to do during the day? Or are these vampires not merely able to stand the sun but entirely diurnal? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I have to say it - this scene between Carmilla and Renton means this is not a lesbian vampire film, but a bi vampire film. #QueerHammer #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Mlle Perrodot's jealousy as Carmilla takes Emma away and Carmilla reacting by killing her recalls the fate of Zena in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The way Carmilla fades away when Carl banishes her and throws the dagger at her is a little like Nosferatu - but of course she's not dead yet. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The interior of Karnstein Castle is the church from Taste redressed, and would later become the castle in Scars. The ever-vigilant HammerGothic spotted yesterday that they also reused this stained glass window. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting that Carmilla didn't scream when staked - only Emma on her behalf. Suggests something about how her whole undeath has been lived out vicariously through her victims. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
'It's over' - but we didn't see the Countess (Dawn Addams' character) or the Man in Black (John F-R) staked. So it's a paranoid ending. As soon as Hammer showed you could resurrect Dracula, none of their vampire films could really have secure endings. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I enjoyed watching that IMMENSELY. It does have too many characters and it is a sexploitation flick. But the lighting is better than I remembered, it manages atmosphere (if not consistently), and it's fun seeing where it sits in Hammer's vampire canon. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Thanks to TalkingPicsTV for screening it, maddysmith007 for making it, and thefilmcrowd for another great tweet-along. Here's to next Friday! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
15. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972), dir. Curtis Harrington, broadcast 25 March
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
What's that Twitter? It's #CellarClub time again? Well count me the heck in! I know nothing at all about this film other than what Wikipedia says, but I am ready and raring to go. #TheFilmCrowd
Caroline's ear-rings this week are absolutely ENORMOUS! My ear-lobes are hurting in sympathy... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
OK, this is already establishing a context of differing perspectives and unreliable narrators by showing us the daughter first according to Auntie Roo's perception and then in reality (or is it?) #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd [She appeared at first to be merely sleeping, but then a second view showed her as a decaying corpse.]
The Wikipedia page hinted at some of that, so it's nice to see it confirmed so early, and I suspect will be the most interesting aspect of this film. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
OK, hadn't picked up that it was co-written by Jimmy Sangster until I saw his name there in the credits either. Doesn't necessarily guarantee quality of course, but it's another point of interest. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Good editorial cut there from the agonised mother desperately trying to bring back her dead child to the very real noise and activity of a playground full of living children. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm getting a bit of a Dickensian feel about this now. Christopher reminds me visually of Oliver Twist, and then there was all that talk about not cheating orphans out of their Christmas dinner. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
For that matter, Auntie Roo is a bit like Miss Havisham, but stuck mourning the arrest of another stage in a woman's traditionally-defined life trajectory - motherhood rather than marriage. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So, does this qualify as a Christmas film? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ad-break time. It's not bad so far. The way the Victorian era and the 1970s are bumping up against each other in the production design is sort of weird, but I'm open to it as a way of creating a surreal, dark fairytale-like quality to the story. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Hmm - I wonder if that was how Katharine 'really' died, or part of Auntie Roo's delusions? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd [We saw her falling over the stair bannister after trying to slide down it.]
They are not exactly being subtle about the Hansel and Gretel analogy are they? Mind you, it's all coming from Christopher, so arguably is about showing us his own twisted obsession, not just hammering home abstract parallels. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Nice pointed contrast there between a real child's lack of gratitude and what Auntie Roo evidently imagined, and is presumably constantly projecting onto Katharine. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, another example of conflicting perspectives there! What _was_ in the cabinet - Christopher or a skeleton? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
That whole sequence in amongst all the magician's props was great actually. All about who the kids could trust. Each other? Reality? Neither? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Katy playing Auntie Roo like a pro, there. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
There is some truly bad fake snow on those lawns. Also, what was with that tiny car following after the large one? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Liking the butler suddenly turning on his employer. No-one can quite be trusted to stick to what seemed to be their original roles. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
This is where the conflicting perspectives really come to fruition. Who's right about Auntie Roo? Katy that she can provide a nice life for her complete with a teddy bear, despite being a bit unhinged? Or Christopher that she's a witch who'll eat them? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Good question from the medium when Auntie Roo says she now knows the truth: "Which truth?" There's a lot of them competing in this film. He still doesn't believe Christopher, though. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
That's got to have been a copy of Mrs Beeton she was just flicking through? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So... did the original Katharine actually die, or run away as Auntie Roo just said? Like, is the corpse even real, or did it just crumble like that because even it was fake? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, it's going a bit The Shining here! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
And indeed very The Wicker Man. We've seen a lot of (self-)deception in this film, and we don't really know who's in the right, but we _do_ now know which side has ended up committing murder. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
That might be a bloody good fire, but it won't bring back your damn apples! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting that the closing words are Christopher's, still framing everything in terms of Hansel and Gretel. I take that as a pretty strong cue that he's been distorting the narrative all along. She may have been disturbed but wasn't going to eat them. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Anyway, that's that for another week! Worked quite well as a creepy Christmas film, I think. The sort of thing you could well enjoy with low expectations and a stomach full of turkey. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The conflicting perspectives and unreliable narrators were indeed the most interesting aspect, exactly as the Wikipedia page hinted. Thanks, TalkingPicsTV and thefilmcrowd, and see you all next week! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
16. The Return of Count Yorga (1971), dir. Bob Kelljan, broadcast 1 April
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
It is time! I'm in my usual spot on the sofa, all ready for The Return of Count Yorga! Like the first film, I have seen this one before, but a good 25 years now, which I think hardly counts at this point. So it's a journey of discovery for me tonight. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Certainly, it hits a nice balance between the mould of the grave and the allure of the night. I'm pretty sure it has frankincense and sandalwood in it; not sure what else. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So, the film! Liking the stillness of these opening shots so far. I don't think we've seen any motion except flames flickering yet. Creates a nice sense of anticipation, and an interesting contrast with the shaky-cam I grumbled about in the first film. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
These revenant-creatures rising from the graves are definitely blurring the lines between zombies and vampires. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm already only half-sure - did we have similar revenant-ish beings in the previous film? Vampires, but without the intellect and self-awareness of Count Yorga? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
What's that? We can't be attractive AND bitter? Seems unfair. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love how much fun Yorga is having, standing right there in front of Baldwin (I think he was called?) while he insists no-one has ever seen a vampire. I would definitely play those sort of games if I were a vampire. It'd be half the point. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, Yorga has a collection of ancient busts! I think I spotted Aristotle, but didn't really get long enough to look at the details while typing at the same time. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love a proper massacre! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Yorga is now hypnotising Cynthia via the power of the voice, rather than telepathically via the eyes as e.g. Lee's Count Dracula does it. I'm pretty sure he did that in the first film too. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love this silent screaming from Yellow Nightdress Lady. A very effective way of conveying her utter shock - and then relieved by the scream of the car tyres. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I liked that sequence of shots of San Francisco. Now it is time for them to meet the Savant. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Nice light in those woods. A Midsummer's Eve-like atmosphere. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
These two on the boat seem to be a re-run of the couple in the camper-van from the first film. Love the use of surreal reflected images in the water of Yorga attacking the guy for all that it 'breaks' traditional vampire lore. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Many, many locked doors. "You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the doors are locked, where of course you will not wish to go. There is reason that all things are as they are..." #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Good use of lens distortion (was it fish-eye?) there to convey Cynthia's disturbed mind and loss of grip on normality. Followed up with similar auditory effects - whispering, echoes, reverberations. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Can't really blame Jennifer for laying the slap down on little Tommy there. There's some pretty pointed social commentary in the way she, a disabled adult woman, is doubted against the word of a child. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ah, a Hammer connection here! Count Yorga is watching The Vampire Lovers, but apparently in a Spanish-language dubbed version. Perhaps just what was showing on the local San Francisco networks? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
A nice little intertext, anyway, acknowledging the connection with Hammer's films - a reciprocal one, since the Yorga films are supposed to have spurred Hammer's decision to bring Dracula into the 20th century. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
It perhaps sits alongside Yorga knowingly playing with people who insist vampires aren't 'real' earlier in the film. He likes to keep up to date with current vampire films so he can play around effectively with people's beliefs. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
And it was certainly supposed to set the context for the sequences of vampire ladies in long colourful shrouds / nighties advancing alluringly on their human menfolk which followed. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, Yorga has a large antique globe in his mansion as well, just like Hammer's Dracula. And a tapestry, for that matter, though not the exact same one which Hammer kept reusing. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Now we're making a big point about Yorga not showing up in photos, but it's a bit at odds with us seeing his reflection in the water earlier. Love the human characters arguing whether the absence of anything in the picture is evidence, too! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I think this scenario of suspicious human characters arriving at Yorga's house late at night and apologising for disturbing him at such an hour is pretty much replicated from the first film, too. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Will that priest turn out to be swigging holy water, do you think? Like a ruse so that he can catch Count Yorga off guard and throw it at him? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Oh, no, I guess not. He was far from being that clever... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Unleash the Brides! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
It's Chekhov's mace! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
There's a good sense of tension and peril in these climactic chase scenes, helped along by camera angles, coloured flashbacks and unsettling silence followed by pulsating music. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like people falling off towers in principle, but that one felt weirdly anticlimactic. Loved David being the one who turned out to have become a vampire at the end, though! A nice inversion of the previous film, where it was the woman. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
And with that, it's all over, and Tommy and his yellow football plays on... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
17. The House of the Long Shadows (1983), dir. Pete Walker, broadcast 15 April
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Lovely to be settling down for the #CellarClub once again! I was in Rome last Friday, which was obviously awesome in itself, but did mean I missed last week's screening. #TheFilmCrowd
I have seen The House of the Long Shadows before, so my expectations are calibrated accordingly... but I know our #TheFilmCrowd tweet-along will be superb! #CellarClub
"Full of things better not spoken of - yes, I saw the movie." This film is trying to lean self-referentially into its cliches, and it will sort of pay off later. Just a pity it's so lacklustre along the way. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
He's written one sentence and he's letting himself get distracted with the state of the housework already! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Finally he's typing again! He needs to knock out at least 2000 words an hour to have anything approaching a novel-length manuscript before his time runs out. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Enter the Cush! Things are looking up. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
OK, just seeing Price enter portentously and say "I have returned" makes this film worthwhile. In fact all his dialogue so far seems to come from a different league that everybody else's. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Three theories for why Price's lines seem so much better than anyone else's: 1) his clear established star image provided an easy template for writers to emulate, 2) his enunciation is somehow elevating trashy lines, 3) he rewrote his own dialogue. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, a bit more typing! And glad to see he obviously brought sarnies and a thermos flask. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
'Tis the Lee! With nice dramatic up-lighting for his opening appearance. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm now entertaining the theory that the older stars' dialogue in this film is actually generally quite good. The problem is how long we spend hearing prosaic dialogue delivered badly by the younger stars (as AllkinsDavid observes) before we get to it.
I swear I saw Humpty from Play School on the mantelpiece in Wodewick's room. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
"He must have heard her singing" - first line that's genuinely made me laugh in the film so far. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
"Destiny and retribution are often interrelated aren't they... brother?" It's twist time! Price's little jump of realisation beautifully played.#CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Fantastic murder scene between the two of them, too, set off very well by the use of shadows and cuts between their action and the dispassionate portraits on the walls. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Should've just let Christopher Lee run around wreaking havoc with a bloodied halberd much earlier, TBH. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Twist #2! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The revelations here wipe away a lot of sins. Dodgy special effects? They were meant to be like that! Second-rate acting? All part of the game. But there's a lot to get through before you reach the pay-off. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Oh, and here's Twist #3 - there was never anyone there at all and he just sat there, wrote his novel, and got incredibly immersed in the story as he did so. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Well, I said the first time I watched that film that I would probably never do so again, but this evening I still did. Perhaps that really is enough now. Thanks to everyone for the tweeting which made it bearable! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
YES I DID IT! 🥳 I am now up to date on my film write-ups. Just a honkin' great pile of books to tackle... 😬
10. Burnt Offerings (1961), dir. Dan Curtis, broadcast 18 February
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Evening, #TheFillmCrowd friends! Tonight's film sure sounds good on paper... let's see how reality matches up! #CellarClub
From my brief read of the Wikipedia page, I'm getting both Let's Scare Jessica To Death and The Shining vibes around the basic premise of a place / property possessing and consuming people. But I haven't seen this film, so no idea if that's fair. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I am also an absolute sucker for films about a bunch of people trapped in together in a place where horrible things are happening, which it looks like this will deliver on. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love to see a film capitalising on the uncanny potential of photographs. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Her... collection. Nothing to be concerned about, obvs. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like the street noise and sirens in the background of this scene. Gives a sense of what they're trying to escape which drives them to take up the Allardyces' offer. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like the street noise and sirens in the background of this scene. Gives a sense of what they're trying to escape which drives them to take up the Allardyces' offer. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
As a side-note, I've really watched way too many films with heroines called Marian(ne) lately. It's extremely confusing. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
'Ding-dongs'? The kid can see 'ding-dongs'?? A whole case of 'em? WTF does he mean? And why have we now got to wait until the end of the ad-break to find out? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I must admit I'm relieved... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
"Hey look, it's a graveyard!" Any film immediately improved by such a line. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, key detail there folks. The last Allardyce died in the 1890s. Hope you're taking notes. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Does HammerGothic know you get full-on Oliver Reed nipple action in this film? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love how Bette just stood there screaming, rather than e.g. diving in to try to help. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I said earlier on this had The Shining vibes! Now Ollie has a typewriter and is looking for something to do... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Just checked the dates. This film came out a year before the novel of The Shining, so genuinely could have fed in. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I would not have got back in that pool. With Oliver. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
PARTICULARLY with Oliver offering 'a little water-sport'! No thank you. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Glad that scene didn't actually go where it looked like it might have been for a moment. Still quite ick. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd [It looked a lot like Oliver Reed's character was going to rape his wife for a moment.]
Are we meant to see her refusal of him as a symptom of her becoming unhealthily possessed by the house / family? Or his animalistic desire as the way it is brutalising him? Or both? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I do really love the way everyone is fraying at the edges and losing their patience with each other at this stage. That's exactly what I look for in a good cabin fever movie. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Between that earlier scene with the Coors and the delirium tremens, and now this dialogue about martinis, it's difficult to shake the feeling that Oliver Reed was cast in this role in full knowledge of his alcoholism and in order to actively play on it. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Marian now adopting appropriate period dress to show her increasing identification with house and family. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I can't believe he's giving her the third degree over her treatment of Davey after his little performance in the pool earlier on! Has he totally forgotten about that? Has everyone? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Now THAT was good with the demented undertaker bursting through the door! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So, did they just bury her [Bette Davis' character] in the grounds, or what? And who were the other people at the funeral scene? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
For once, it's the man fleeing through the storm from the Gothic heroine, rather than the other way round. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Haha, you didn't think you'd escape that easily, did you? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
OK, literal autonomous vegetation... maybe a step too far... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Marian has emerged from the water reborn, and back in her modern clothes. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ah - maybe not entirely reborn, though... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Suddenly it's Psycho. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Superb! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd [This was my response to Oliver Reed plunging from a high window onto the windscreen of the family car while his kid was inside it.]
What cowboy put in THREE columns to support the pediment on the facade of that house?? Even numbers or #GTFO #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd #McMansion
Great ending, really enjoyed that. Just the utter disregard for Classical orders threw me off for a moment there at the end. Thanks for the tweetalong, everyone! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
11. Theatre of Blood (1973), dir. Douglas Hickox, broadcast 25 February
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
It's Friday again! I am loving how many tweets full of excited anticipation about this film I have seen today. I've got it on DVD, but haven't actually watched it for at least 15 years and am highly grateful to TalkingPicsTV for prompting me to revisit. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
I'm currently planning to stay up for Scream and Scream Again too, which I've seen once before and would quite welcome seeing again pre-armed with some modicum of a clue about what's going on. But a large glass of gin may ultimately say otherwise. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, I believe I know the Stephen Mosley who wrote this letter to Caroline! Not sure if he's on Twitter, but we are FB chums. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ah, the pathos of this music already! And the way these snippets of early films make us think straight away about how theatre and film relate to each other. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, that's a Prima Porta Augustus on the bureau behind Hordern! They get everywhere. Nice touch, actually in the Julius Caesar section. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Like the maeander pattern on the collar of his wife's dress, too. Nice little Classical touches without overdoing it. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
That plastic sheet is like a second screen. Which he then bursts through! Must have been very effective in the cinema. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Forgot Madeline Smith was in this! Look at that amazing collar. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
It is a long time since I've seen this, but I thought this film basically began with Price faking his own death and falling in with the gang of vagrants? It's starting to seem increasingly unlikely we're now going to see that in flashback. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Are we seeing a cut version which omitted that sequence? Certainly, he's already working with the vagrants and people seem surprised when they discover he's alive, but the backstory to that seems to be missing. #AmConfused #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Soundtrack doing great work again here, in the contrast between the romantic / sentimental music and the clinical, soon-to-be brutal actions. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, we're going to get a #DroppedTray! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
A staple of the Miss Marple stories, of course... but Joan Hickson wouldn't play her for another decade. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Love that labyrinth-design artwork on the wall. They think they are in control of the situation, but they don't know how deep in Price's web they are. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
So now we get the flashback I remember. Fascinating how we're allowed to hear his voice completely unimpeded in this moment, even through the plate glass. His final ('final') performance will not be denied. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Haha! 🎁♥️ #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
I wonder what kind of wine Vincent has in his cellar? A nice cask of Amontillado, perchance? #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
It's helpful, isn't it, how fencing masks obscure the face? Must have made life a lot easier for the stunt doubles here. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
So many shots through railings, grilles, stair-rods in this film. Everyone is trapped in a prison of their own making. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Getting a bit of a 'why do we even have that lever?' vibe from this scene... #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub [The hair salon sequence, when Vincent as 'Butch' is able to fry a female critic by just pulling a lever attached to an electricity box on the wall.]
This red velvet hat he's wearing now is beyond splendid! Deserves a credit all of its own. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Love how everyone on the hashtag agrees we've reached the highlight of the film here! (Denied by adverts, though - gah!) #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub [I believe this was about the advent of the poodle pies scene.]
Superb usage of the fly-overs in that chase scene. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
And there's your money shot! 🐩🥧🐩🥧 #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
TBH, compared to my memory of it, that scene was actually underplayed. I could have used more sense of self-disgust from Morley's character at realising what he'd done. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, the theatre itself speaks, saving Devlin by blocking the sandbag via the statue! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Once again, Price's voice is supernaturally audible for those on the ground over the noise of the burning theatre. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
And that's a wrap! Magnificent work. Thanks to TalkingPicsTV and the thefilmcrowd gang for the company. So - who's staying up for Scream and Scream Again? #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Oh, there was the thefilmcrowd shout-out which we were told Caroline was filming a few weeks ago! I see we're going to have to change our name, though... #TheFilmCrowd #TheFilmClub #CellarClub
12. Scream and Scream Again (1970), dir. Gordon Hessler, broadcast 25 February
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Decided to start a new thread for Scream and Scream Again. I hope Cape apples paid handsomely for that fine piece of product placement in the opening titles. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
"The movie's structure is fragmented, as it alternates between three distinguishable plot threads" sez Wikipedia on this. It sure is. I was hoping to come to this second viewing remembering how they all fit together, but I think I have already forgotten. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
And Vincent Price walks in! It's genuinely confusing after his dominance in the previous film. Hard to grasp that he is a completely different character - especially after he was playing so many roles in the last one. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Gratuitous nipple shot! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Honestly the sheer numbers of former or future Hammer stars in this film is silly! I'm conscious of five (Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Peter Sallis, Christopher Matthews, Yutte Stensgaard), but I bet there's more #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
I mean, I know that's just what happens when you have a critical mass of British(-based) actors in a film of this era, just as with Doctor Who, but still. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, I'd forgotten this had a club scene! Love me a vintage club sequence. Always good for drooling over the fabulous fashions. Sometimes good for music too but I think not on this occasion. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
"I am utterly appalled!" Cushing's opinion on the film so far? 😉 #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Well, hope you enjoyed him while he lasted. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, and now things really look up as Sir Lee arrives! The highlight of this entire film is him strutting up and down Whitehall looking extremely sharp in his trilby and swinging an umbrella. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
We're back in the club, and it's a little hard to believe that any actual music was playing while the extras were jiving around on the dancefloor. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
I have to say, Michael Gothard's shirt in this scene is a thing of absolute glory and splendour! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
This car chase isn't too bad, to be fair. Some interesting glimpses of vintage suburbia along the way, too. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Like that shot just then of the sports car cresting the top of the hill. Actually quite dynamic and suspenseful. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Nice use of this abandoned industrial building, too. Good framing shots, footage looking up at people on ledges and down from high vantage points. Again, quite dynamic and suspenseful. Pretty colours with the sky, too. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
OK, interesting that he survived fine in the industrial building, but it was basically nature (the cliff) that caused his downfall. I'll avoid spoilers, but I think they were genuinely trying to do some Symbolism there. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
You didn't wanna put your hand in there, mate! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ooh, I think that clay head in the foreground is trying to tell us something, too. OK, so yes, it is possible to get something more out of this film on a second viewing, though I wouldn't overstate how much. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Christopher Lee alert! We're coming up to the best scene in the film here, so pay full attention, especially if your name's miss_s_b. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Sorry, probably spoke too soon there. Should be after this ad break anyway. It's just him walking up and down Whitehall, but in a film like this it's a real highlight. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Ah, there we are! Now that is some fine strutting, and in a very nicely-fitted suit too. He sure looks like he means business. #SirLee #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Lovely sinister performance here from Price. He is loving every minute of it! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
"Well, yes. But not an EVIL super-race!" Brilliant line. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Yes, of course this has a vat of acid, actually. It's essentially a Frankenstein film. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Hehe, of course everything's under control now Christopher Lee has arrived! It could never be otherwise. #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
Say what you like about this film - did any other movie put Vincent Price's best insane obsession up against Christopher Lee's best icy authority like that, even if just for a few seconds? #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
And we made it! Terribly, terribly flawed in so many ways, but it does have its moments. With that, I am gracefully retiring. Good luck to anyone sticking it out for The Dunwich Horror! #TheFilmCrowd #CellarClub
13. Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), dir. Bob Kelljan, broadcast 11 March
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Very happy to be back in the #CellarClub this evening for Count Yorga Vampire, after missing last week's installation due to gallivanting about the place in Oxford. I have seen this film a couple of times, but not for 25 years now, so looking forward to revisiting. #TheFilmCrowd
So far - these are great establishing shots, but I wish the camera-work were steadier. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'd like to get a closer look at that apparently-Classical relief scene over the fireplace. Haven't been able to see it well enough to work out what it is yet. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ah, I see - he's already had the mother and is now going for the daughter. And it seems a lot like we're going to meet the uncremated mother in vampire form before long. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like how the modern setting is allowing this film to play around knowingly with horror tropes, because its characters can reasonably be expected to know them too. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The two characters now stuck in their camper-van with howling wolves all around know they're living out a horror cliche, but that very knowledge is only making them edgier. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The unsteady camera-work is more effective in this scene, where it gives the impression of a stalker's point-of-view. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The Count's appearance in full vampire-mode there made him look a bit too much like he had specifically put on spooky make-up to go out hunting. It made me think of the scene in Martin where John Amplas gets similarly made-up to wind up his cousin. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Yep, that scene with the kitten was one of the main abiding memories I'd retained of this film from when I last watched it 25 years ago... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Dialogue like "Does this have anything to do with those marks on your throat?" is bumping perilously close to the perennial problem of a modern vampire story. These characters know their horror tropes, but don't seem to recognise a case of vampirism. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So, yes, we have to have the scepticism scene when the problem is named. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
This scene of Erika inviting Yorga into her bedroom definitely seems to have retained something of the original p0rn concept which Caroline mentioned in her introduction... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting! I'd been thinking for a while that Donna was present in the scene but had no dialogue; then Yorga explicitly drew attention to it - "You're very quiet." #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Perhaps some hint of an idea here that what makes her vulnerable to Yorga is the way the human men in her life are constantly talking over and past her. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
This discussion about the prospect of actually killing Count Yorga is another one that's making me think ahead to Martin (1978). It really confronts what it might mean to stake someone based on a misconception. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, it's time for antiquarian vampire tomes! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
"Tonight is mine" - dialogue borrowed from Stoker, there. ("Tonight is mine. Tomorrow night is yours!", addressed by Dracula to his brides.) #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Seems like it was borrowed with a full knowledge of the context, actually, given that it was followed immediately by Hayes getting massacred by Yorga's own brides. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, loved the silent tension there before Yorga starting his death-gurgles! Actually, I'd have preferred to skip the gurgles and just have the silence, TBH. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, and a superb final shot there! Love a paranoid ending, especially where vampires are concerned. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Overall verdict - pretty good for its budget and probably doing more original things than it's easy to see now, but I couldn't help but keep thinking of other better takes on the same ideas, like Martin (1978) and Dracula père et fils (1976). #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
14. The Vampire Lovers (1970), dir. Roy Ward Baker, broadcast 18 March
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Just settling myself down ready for this evening's #CellarClub screening of The Vampire Lovers. There is chocolate and there is whisky. Really looking forward to hearing Caroline's pre-film interview with maddysmith007. #TheFilmCrowd
The film itself… isn't one of my favourite Hammer vampire movies. I love the Sheridan Le Fanu novella, and on paper the film replicates almost everything in it, albeit with a few names and actions switched between characters and the narrative reordered. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
But for me the effect comes across as like painting by numbers, without emotive weight. I've been put off in the past by too many (and thus under-developed) characters, over-lighting, unconvincing performances and of course the tacky sexploitation. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
However. This evening I'm going to watch with an open mind and try to see what people obviously like about it. I'm in a good position at the moment to think about how it relates to some of Hammer's earlier vampire films, which should be fun in itself. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Caroline and maddysmith007 are absolutely adorable together, and I love Maddy's sparkly top! Maddy says she was an innocent convent girl, didn't know what a lesbian was, and was convinced by producers that nudity would only be for the Japanese market. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting - maddysmith007 also says she felt like a daughter to Ingrid Pitt. Maddy is very polite about the age-gap - it was actually more like 10 years, not a couple. So not surprising Ingrid seemed more like a mother-figure to her. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
That age-gap certainly gives a different dynamic to the relationship between Carmilla and her victims from in the novella. But perhaps the imbalance it creates is quite a good way of capturing her much greater actual age, as a centuries-old vampire? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Three cheers for maddysmith007 saying she has no regrets when people ask her about the film! I'm so glad she enjoyed it and is still enjoying having done it. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
[At this point the interview ended and the actual film began.]
Some nice mourning stationery there for ladylugosi! I'm sure she'll be able to tell us the precise connotations of a gap between the black lines and the edge of the mourning card. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
A nice touch to start with a written account, then seguing into dramatisation of Hartog's first-person report, too. It's material which comes at the end of the novella, but the spirit of a framing narrative is VERY Le Fanu. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Also, in fairness, all this fog with wandering shrouded spirits is very atmospheric and dreamlike, and it's quite effective cross-cut with the cheerful scenes in the inn. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Fascinated by the choice of green text for the opening credits. Red was such established Hammer branding, so departing from that is a pointed choice. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
And so we zoom in to Styria... Doesn't The Cush look fab in his military dress uniform? I'm getting slightly mixed messages from the costuming, but there's a broadly Napoleonic feel about it I guess. Shall we say c. 1820? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Starting with a ball is instant #HammerGlamour. And viewers familiar with Hammer's vampire films would recognise Ingrid Pitt's red dress as a strong visual cue that she's a vampire. (As the original audience would have known from the posters anyway.)#CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Fascinating dialogue between Laura and Carl as they dance about who's looking at whom - especially Marcilla. Strongly recalls the same interest in Kiss of the Vampire. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting that we never heard Ingrid speak at the ball - it was all just about what she looked like and who she was looking at. Once she does speak, though, her accent works quite well in marking her out as Other. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Laura's dream sequence was quite effective, as was that fade through the wall from Marcilla's room to hers. Everything is skipped over so quickly, though. We don't have time to take these things in and absorb the atmosphere. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Oh lord, this lime-green dress is the biggest horror in the film! Matches the lettering in the credits at least. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm sure the General Medical Council doesn't normally recommend that doctors ensure nipples are exposed in order to listen to the heart. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
These sequences with the blowing autumnal leaves and Marcilla flitting through the graveyard after Laura's death are the kind of atmosphere I felt was missing earlier. They get enough screen-time to work this time. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Good POV shaky-cam for this chase through the forest. An effect to use sparingly, but there it worked well. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
You've got to wonder how sustainable the Karnstein model of placing Carmilla / Marcilla / Millarca in all the local aristocracy's houses is, given that they inevitably know each other. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Already, she's only able to be placed successfully into the Morton household because they happen to have left the ball early. In fact, it was pretty unwise for her to show up at that ball at all. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, Carmilla telling Emma that her dress is for a country girl and lending her a more sophisticated one also recalls the Ravnas lending Gerald and Marianne their fine clothing for the ball in Kiss. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
By agreeing to let Carmilla clothe her, Emma gives her power over her. True Blood used the verb 'to glamour' to describe vampires hypnotising / enthralling their victims, and these are its roots. Carmilla is literally glamouring Emma. #HammerGlamour #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I mean, obviously it's primarily an excuse to make Emma get naked and for Carmilla to frolic around on the bed with her… But it does tell us something about the relationship between the characters too. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Kate O'Mara actually looks stunning in her empire-line dress. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
It's not so much that this film is consistently over-lit, as I'd remembered, but that the lighting levels vary too much. Cutting between Mlle Perrodot on one side of the room, and Carmilla / Emma on the other, the lighting was completely different. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Overall, though, the lighting is definitely better than my memory had made it. Ingrid flitting though the fog there after the scene in the hut was lit just right. This could all come down to different prints, of course. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Carmilla being able to go around in the day but finding the sun too bright for her is from the novella, but also reminiscent of the Ravnas in Kiss of the Vampire. Grounds to suggest that they're afflicted by the same strain of vampirism? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like the echoing distortions on the funeral chant, showing its psychological effect on Carmilla. Another good surreal / dreamlike touch. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm sorry - in her cat dreams, Emma feels its fur in her mouth? Did Carmilla perhaps leave her razor at Castle Karnstein? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd #QueerHammer
Eh up, Carmilla is up to a bit more glamouring, this time via a brooch. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Mlle Perrodot's distracted manner over breakfast suggests she had quite a night. And now she's working for Carmilla, making sure Carl doesn't get in and realise what's afoot. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The sudden prominence here of Renton the butler is symptomatic of this film's 'too many characters' problem. We're suddenly focused entirely on him, and expected to follow along with his concerns and actions, but we've barely met him before this point. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The music in the pub abruptly cutting off as soon as he mentions the word 'vampire' is great, though! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love seeing Hammer's collection of Piranesi prints nicely displayed on the stairs, there! Also seen in Van Helsing's hotel room in Dracula, on the castle walls in Scars, and I'm sure countless other contexts I've forgotten now. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
We've definitely got two gendered camps in opposition to each other by this point - Carl, Morton, the doctor and Renton representing decisive male authority versus Mlle Perrodot, Carmilla, Emma and the maid representing corrupt female deviance. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Never noticed that horse was called Jupiter before! He's said it about five times, though, so it's definitely for real. A touch of the Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water there, too, with Ingrid's figure reflected in the stagnant water. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, a little borrowing from one of the Dracula films there in the score! I think Scars, but could have been Risen. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Oh dear, Carmilla has worked her wiles on Renton! One up to #TeamLadies. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Wait, how did Hartog work through the night staking vampires in their graves? Isn't that the sort of thing you're supposed to do during the day? Or are these vampires not merely able to stand the sun but entirely diurnal? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I have to say it - this scene between Carmilla and Renton means this is not a lesbian vampire film, but a bi vampire film. #QueerHammer #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Mlle Perrodot's jealousy as Carmilla takes Emma away and Carmilla reacting by killing her recalls the fate of Zena in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The way Carmilla fades away when Carl banishes her and throws the dagger at her is a little like Nosferatu - but of course she's not dead yet. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The interior of Karnstein Castle is the church from Taste redressed, and would later become the castle in Scars. The ever-vigilant HammerGothic spotted yesterday that they also reused this stained glass window. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting that Carmilla didn't scream when staked - only Emma on her behalf. Suggests something about how her whole undeath has been lived out vicariously through her victims. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
'It's over' - but we didn't see the Countess (Dawn Addams' character) or the Man in Black (John F-R) staked. So it's a paranoid ending. As soon as Hammer showed you could resurrect Dracula, none of their vampire films could really have secure endings. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I enjoyed watching that IMMENSELY. It does have too many characters and it is a sexploitation flick. But the lighting is better than I remembered, it manages atmosphere (if not consistently), and it's fun seeing where it sits in Hammer's vampire canon. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Thanks to TalkingPicsTV for screening it, maddysmith007 for making it, and thefilmcrowd for another great tweet-along. Here's to next Friday! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
15. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972), dir. Curtis Harrington, broadcast 25 March
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
What's that Twitter? It's #CellarClub time again? Well count me the heck in! I know nothing at all about this film other than what Wikipedia says, but I am ready and raring to go. #TheFilmCrowd
Caroline's ear-rings this week are absolutely ENORMOUS! My ear-lobes are hurting in sympathy... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
OK, this is already establishing a context of differing perspectives and unreliable narrators by showing us the daughter first according to Auntie Roo's perception and then in reality (or is it?) #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd [She appeared at first to be merely sleeping, but then a second view showed her as a decaying corpse.]
The Wikipedia page hinted at some of that, so it's nice to see it confirmed so early, and I suspect will be the most interesting aspect of this film. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
OK, hadn't picked up that it was co-written by Jimmy Sangster until I saw his name there in the credits either. Doesn't necessarily guarantee quality of course, but it's another point of interest. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Good editorial cut there from the agonised mother desperately trying to bring back her dead child to the very real noise and activity of a playground full of living children. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm getting a bit of a Dickensian feel about this now. Christopher reminds me visually of Oliver Twist, and then there was all that talk about not cheating orphans out of their Christmas dinner. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
For that matter, Auntie Roo is a bit like Miss Havisham, but stuck mourning the arrest of another stage in a woman's traditionally-defined life trajectory - motherhood rather than marriage. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So, does this qualify as a Christmas film? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ad-break time. It's not bad so far. The way the Victorian era and the 1970s are bumping up against each other in the production design is sort of weird, but I'm open to it as a way of creating a surreal, dark fairytale-like quality to the story. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Hmm - I wonder if that was how Katharine 'really' died, or part of Auntie Roo's delusions? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd [We saw her falling over the stair bannister after trying to slide down it.]
They are not exactly being subtle about the Hansel and Gretel analogy are they? Mind you, it's all coming from Christopher, so arguably is about showing us his own twisted obsession, not just hammering home abstract parallels. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Nice pointed contrast there between a real child's lack of gratitude and what Auntie Roo evidently imagined, and is presumably constantly projecting onto Katharine. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, another example of conflicting perspectives there! What _was_ in the cabinet - Christopher or a skeleton? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
That whole sequence in amongst all the magician's props was great actually. All about who the kids could trust. Each other? Reality? Neither? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Katy playing Auntie Roo like a pro, there. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
There is some truly bad fake snow on those lawns. Also, what was with that tiny car following after the large one? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Liking the butler suddenly turning on his employer. No-one can quite be trusted to stick to what seemed to be their original roles. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
This is where the conflicting perspectives really come to fruition. Who's right about Auntie Roo? Katy that she can provide a nice life for her complete with a teddy bear, despite being a bit unhinged? Or Christopher that she's a witch who'll eat them? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Good question from the medium when Auntie Roo says she now knows the truth: "Which truth?" There's a lot of them competing in this film. He still doesn't believe Christopher, though. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
That's got to have been a copy of Mrs Beeton she was just flicking through? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So... did the original Katharine actually die, or run away as Auntie Roo just said? Like, is the corpse even real, or did it just crumble like that because even it was fake? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, it's going a bit The Shining here! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
And indeed very The Wicker Man. We've seen a lot of (self-)deception in this film, and we don't really know who's in the right, but we _do_ now know which side has ended up committing murder. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
That might be a bloody good fire, but it won't bring back your damn apples! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Interesting that the closing words are Christopher's, still framing everything in terms of Hansel and Gretel. I take that as a pretty strong cue that he's been distorting the narrative all along. She may have been disturbed but wasn't going to eat them. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Anyway, that's that for another week! Worked quite well as a creepy Christmas film, I think. The sort of thing you could well enjoy with low expectations and a stomach full of turkey. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The conflicting perspectives and unreliable narrators were indeed the most interesting aspect, exactly as the Wikipedia page hinted. Thanks, TalkingPicsTV and thefilmcrowd, and see you all next week! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
16. The Return of Count Yorga (1971), dir. Bob Kelljan, broadcast 1 April
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
It is time! I'm in my usual spot on the sofa, all ready for The Return of Count Yorga! Like the first film, I have seen this one before, but a good 25 years now, which I think hardly counts at this point. So it's a journey of discovery for me tonight. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Certainly, it hits a nice balance between the mould of the grave and the allure of the night. I'm pretty sure it has frankincense and sandalwood in it; not sure what else. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
So, the film! Liking the stillness of these opening shots so far. I don't think we've seen any motion except flames flickering yet. Creates a nice sense of anticipation, and an interesting contrast with the shaky-cam I grumbled about in the first film. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
These revenant-creatures rising from the graves are definitely blurring the lines between zombies and vampires. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm already only half-sure - did we have similar revenant-ish beings in the previous film? Vampires, but without the intellect and self-awareness of Count Yorga? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
What's that? We can't be attractive AND bitter? Seems unfair. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love how much fun Yorga is having, standing right there in front of Baldwin (I think he was called?) while he insists no-one has ever seen a vampire. I would definitely play those sort of games if I were a vampire. It'd be half the point. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, Yorga has a collection of ancient busts! I think I spotted Aristotle, but didn't really get long enough to look at the details while typing at the same time. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love a proper massacre! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Yorga is now hypnotising Cynthia via the power of the voice, rather than telepathically via the eyes as e.g. Lee's Count Dracula does it. I'm pretty sure he did that in the first film too. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Love this silent screaming from Yellow Nightdress Lady. A very effective way of conveying her utter shock - and then relieved by the scream of the car tyres. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I liked that sequence of shots of San Francisco. Now it is time for them to meet the Savant. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Nice light in those woods. A Midsummer's Eve-like atmosphere. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
These two on the boat seem to be a re-run of the couple in the camper-van from the first film. Love the use of surreal reflected images in the water of Yorga attacking the guy for all that it 'breaks' traditional vampire lore. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Many, many locked doors. "You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the doors are locked, where of course you will not wish to go. There is reason that all things are as they are..." #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Good use of lens distortion (was it fish-eye?) there to convey Cynthia's disturbed mind and loss of grip on normality. Followed up with similar auditory effects - whispering, echoes, reverberations. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Can't really blame Jennifer for laying the slap down on little Tommy there. There's some pretty pointed social commentary in the way she, a disabled adult woman, is doubted against the word of a child. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ah, a Hammer connection here! Count Yorga is watching The Vampire Lovers, but apparently in a Spanish-language dubbed version. Perhaps just what was showing on the local San Francisco networks? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
A nice little intertext, anyway, acknowledging the connection with Hammer's films - a reciprocal one, since the Yorga films are supposed to have spurred Hammer's decision to bring Dracula into the 20th century. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
It perhaps sits alongside Yorga knowingly playing with people who insist vampires aren't 'real' earlier in the film. He likes to keep up to date with current vampire films so he can play around effectively with people's beliefs. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
And it was certainly supposed to set the context for the sequences of vampire ladies in long colourful shrouds / nighties advancing alluringly on their human menfolk which followed. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, Yorga has a large antique globe in his mansion as well, just like Hammer's Dracula. And a tapestry, for that matter, though not the exact same one which Hammer kept reusing. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Now we're making a big point about Yorga not showing up in photos, but it's a bit at odds with us seeing his reflection in the water earlier. Love the human characters arguing whether the absence of anything in the picture is evidence, too! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I think this scenario of suspicious human characters arriving at Yorga's house late at night and apologising for disturbing him at such an hour is pretty much replicated from the first film, too. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Will that priest turn out to be swigging holy water, do you think? Like a ruse so that he can catch Count Yorga off guard and throw it at him? #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Oh, no, I guess not. He was far from being that clever... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Unleash the Brides! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
It's Chekhov's mace! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
There's a good sense of tension and peril in these climactic chase scenes, helped along by camera angles, coloured flashbacks and unsettling silence followed by pulsating music. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I like people falling off towers in principle, but that one felt weirdly anticlimactic. Loved David being the one who turned out to have become a vampire at the end, though! A nice inversion of the previous film, where it was the woman. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
And with that, it's all over, and Tommy and his yellow football plays on... #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
17. The House of the Long Shadows (1983), dir. Pete Walker, broadcast 15 April
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Lovely to be settling down for the #CellarClub once again! I was in Rome last Friday, which was obviously awesome in itself, but did mean I missed last week's screening. #TheFilmCrowd
I have seen The House of the Long Shadows before, so my expectations are calibrated accordingly... but I know our #TheFilmCrowd tweet-along will be superb! #CellarClub
"Full of things better not spoken of - yes, I saw the movie." This film is trying to lean self-referentially into its cliches, and it will sort of pay off later. Just a pity it's so lacklustre along the way. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
He's written one sentence and he's letting himself get distracted with the state of the housework already! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Finally he's typing again! He needs to knock out at least 2000 words an hour to have anything approaching a novel-length manuscript before his time runs out. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Enter the Cush! Things are looking up. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
OK, just seeing Price enter portentously and say "I have returned" makes this film worthwhile. In fact all his dialogue so far seems to come from a different league that everybody else's. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Three theories for why Price's lines seem so much better than anyone else's: 1) his clear established star image provided an easy template for writers to emulate, 2) his enunciation is somehow elevating trashy lines, 3) he rewrote his own dialogue. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Ooh, a bit more typing! And glad to see he obviously brought sarnies and a thermos flask. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
'Tis the Lee! With nice dramatic up-lighting for his opening appearance. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
I'm now entertaining the theory that the older stars' dialogue in this film is actually generally quite good. The problem is how long we spend hearing prosaic dialogue delivered badly by the younger stars (as AllkinsDavid observes) before we get to it.
I swear I saw Humpty from Play School on the mantelpiece in Wodewick's room. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
"He must have heard her singing" - first line that's genuinely made me laugh in the film so far. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
"Destiny and retribution are often interrelated aren't they... brother?" It's twist time! Price's little jump of realisation beautifully played.#CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Fantastic murder scene between the two of them, too, set off very well by the use of shadows and cuts between their action and the dispassionate portraits on the walls. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Should've just let Christopher Lee run around wreaking havoc with a bloodied halberd much earlier, TBH. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Twist #2! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
The revelations here wipe away a lot of sins. Dodgy special effects? They were meant to be like that! Second-rate acting? All part of the game. But there's a lot to get through before you reach the pay-off. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Oh, and here's Twist #3 - there was never anyone there at all and he just sat there, wrote his novel, and got incredibly immersed in the story as he did so. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
Well, I said the first time I watched that film that I would probably never do so again, but this evening I still did. Perhaps that really is enough now. Thanks to everyone for the tweeting which made it bearable! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd
YES I DID IT! 🥳 I am now up to date on my film write-ups. Just a honkin' great pile of books to tackle... 😬