Hammer Horror Films 101 | Dracula (1958) | Rasputin - The Mad Monk (1966) #135

Queen is Dead - A Film, TV and Culture Podcast

In our third Halloween-themed episode this month, Varun (playing podcast host) and Dhruv discuss a sub-genre of British horror films best characterized as a cross between classy and exploitation horror. (Think, as Varun says, "somewhere between the B-movie camp classics made by the Ramsay Brothers and Edgar Wright's "Last Night in Soho").

Treating this episode as our introduction to this sub-genre of films produced under the Hammer Production banner (which gives it the name - Hammer Horror!), we first talk about the origin of their horror films in the 50s. Then, we specifically talk about two films (out of a gazillion) that they made in their glory days of the late 50s and 60s.

The first, actually very good one is Terence Fischer's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, titled "Horror of Dracula" in the U.S; the second is Don Sharp's rudderless "Rasputin - The Mad Monk," which both Varun and Dhruv call one of the most "boring" horror films you could make on a character whose life is so full of incident and excitement.

Listen to the full episode to hear us talk about why one of them works while the other doesn't and what exactly is the appeal (and limitation) of Hammer Horror films today!

TIMECODES

The History of Hammer Productions - [00:00 - 11:32]

Dracula (1958) - [11:33 - 47:51]

Rasputin - The Mad Monk (1966) - [47:52 - 01:17:18]

Outro & B'wood Nonsense - [01:17:19 - 01:24:48]

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Audio Excerpts are taken from the trailers (promotional material) of Dracula (1958) and Rasputin - The Mad Monk (1966).

Ajay Devgn's voice is taken from the Vimal Pan Masala ad on YouTube.

Satish Shah and Makrand Deshpande's bit is taken from Sarabhai vs Sarabhai Ep. 39, which is also available on YouTube.