British 70s Horror Films

[Princess of Hearts]

I am a fan of those cheap and cheerful British 70s horror films.   My favourites are Blood on Satan's Claw(1971) and The Wicker Man.    The Christopher Lee version not the remake.   Do you like these types of film?

[JungianZoe]

Oh, some of those are hysterical!   But I'm not sure whether I'd really consider the original version of The Wicker Man to be a horror.  Maybe?  Who knows... I yawned through The Exorcist and didn't find it even remotely interesting.

But The Wicker Man (the original, not that crappy remake) is one of my favorite movies of all time.

[SandraJane]

Now you're talking Princess! Hammer Studio's, how many Dracula renditions? Saw where Ingrid Pitt died several months ago, she was a Hammer Horror Queen. Never saw the Wicker Man, either one though.

Just a triva tidbit...I used to live several miles from where Tobe Hooper shot the ORIGINAL...TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE!
I can still quote lines..."You kids want some good Barbeque?"..."You knap haired Idiot, I told ya never to leave yer Brother alone"..."You boys go get yer Grandpa"...

[JungianZoe]

Just a triva tidbit...I used to live several miles from where Tobe Hooper shot the ORIGINAL...TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE!
I can still quote lines..."You kids want some good Barbeque?"..."You knap haired Idiot, I told ya never to leave yer Brother alone"..."You boys go get yer Grandpa"...

Saw that in the theater when I was 6!   My mom and I were in Florida visiting my aunt and had just gone to see Ghostbusters (yes, this was 1984).  On the way back to my aunt's house, mom noticed a theater in which Texas Chainsaw Massacre was playing.  She said, "do you want to go see it?"  I nodded enthusiastically.

Yes, my mom was (and is) a strange parent.

[SandraJane]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is basically an Institution in Texas (or escaped from one...). A right of passage for Texas Teens!

Correction on one of the quotes..."You knap haired Idiot! I told to quit hanging around those graveyards! I told you never to leave your Brother alone"...

What made it worse was that it came out a year after the death of Dean Coril, The Candyman, and the 26 or so Teenage bodies his 2 Teenage helpers lead the Police to...Coril was a REAL LIVE MONSTER!

[Padma]

The Masque of the Red Death was an amazing Hammer film, Vincent Price at his best. I recently saw Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde, a trans-themed take on the Jekyll/Hyde story where he drinks his potion and turns into a sexy but amoral babe (who naturally comes to a sticky end, this being the old-fashioned fate of powerful women - oh well, and she was kind of evil as well as sexy!)

My all-time favourite, though, is Quatermass and the Pit, for unrelenting spookiness, and amazing sound effects too. I saw it when I was quite little and it scared the hell out of me. Probably also because it's set in London, where I was growing up.

Oh, alright, two of these are actually 60's horror films - but I saw them in the 70's so nyah.

[SandraJane]

It appears Hammer Films is up to its old tricks again, thought they had faded into the darkness...

http://www.hammerfilms.com/

[Pica Pica]

I like these, always watch them when they come on TV.
Wicker Man is of course great, but my favourite one was Witchfinder General.

[Princess of Hearts]

I like these, always watch them when they come on TV.
Wicker Man is of course great, but my favourite one was Witchfinder General.

Witchfinder General is a favourite of my as well.   I have read that the director of that film didn't want Vincent Price to play Matthew Hopkins and he was rude and confrontational to Price throughout the filming.   Quatermass and the Pit is certainly a good picture, perhaps it is a bit too science fiction for me that is why it isn't higher on my list.    I am surprised that no one as mentioned The Satanic Rites of Dracula and the quirky Psychomania.  I read yesterday that the star of that film Nicky Henson thought that the picture was 'terrible' and he is amazed that people still ask him about it 40 years later.

SJ  I have never seen Chainsaw.   The Wicker Man was filmed only about 50 miles from my home.   If you haven't seen Blood on Satan's Claw I heartily recommend it.   It is a wonderfully shot and enigmatic film, the only thing that stops it from being my all-time favourite film is the fact that the actors playing the children are at least 10 years older than their characters and it unfortunately shows.


P.S There was a portmanteau film from the early 70s Starring Joan Collins amongst others that creeped me out.  I think that it was called Tales from the Crypt.   I also really like that Vincent Price Diana Rigg film in which Price plays a hammy Shakespearean actor who murders his critics in ways derived from his beloved Shakespeare.

[SandraJane]

SJ  I have never seen Chainsaw.   The Wicker Man was filmed only about 50 miles from my home.   If you haven't seen Blood on Satan's Claw I heartily recommend it.   It is a wonderfully shot and enigmatic film, the only thing that stops it from being my all-time favourite film is the fact that the actors playing the children are at least 10 years older than their characters and it unfortunately shows.

P.S The was a portmanteau film from the early 70s Starring Joan Collins amongst others that creeped me out.  I think that it was called Tales from the Crypt.   I also really like that Vincent Price Diana Rigg film in which Price plays a hammy Shakespearean actor who murders his critics in ways derived from his beloved Shakespeare.

I wonder what the location of the "Wicker Man" looks like now? The "Chainsaw" location is now unrecognizable, just within the town of Round Rock, TX along Texas 40, now a tollway, skirted by a Mega Non-Denominational Church on one side, and Abbot Labs with their plot of pasture land out front.

   

The Price and Rigg movie you mentioned was "Theater of Blood", I remember the surreal scene of the Gourmet TV show, where Price first cooks and stuffs his victims beloved Poodle, then kills him by plunging the cooked Poodle down his throat...eecck!




Watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its sequel,  Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, also by Tobe Hooper with the late Dennis Hooper (he always livens anything up, remember he's the one that get's blown away after flippin' off the Rednecks in Easy Rider!). This film revived the horror genre, much like Hitchcock's Psycho revolutionized the Slasher flick, and horror in general.  Also Wes Craven...the original Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes and The People Under the Stairs (a favorite, reminded me of The Addams Family).

[Princess of Hearts]

Here is a link to the locations used in the film.  The webpage contains photographs.

http://www.scotlandthemovie.com/movies/fwickerman.html

[SandraJane]

Princess, try modifying the post, the link didn't appear.

SJ

[Princess of Hearts]

Princess, try modifying the post, the link didn't appear.

SJ

That was because I forgot to post the link.   

[SandraJane]

Well...what are you waiting for

[susan_jackson]

The Masque of the Red Death was an amazing Hammer film, Vincent Price at his best.  I recently saw Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde, a trans-themed take on the Jekyll/Hyde story where he drinks his potion and turns into a sexy but amoral babe (who naturally comes to a sticky end, this being the old-fashioned fate of powerful women - oh well, and she was kind of evil as well as sexy!)

My all-time favourite, though, is Quatermass and the Pit, for unrelenting spookiness, and amazing sound effects too. I saw it when I was quite little and it scared the hell out of me. Probably also because it's set in London, where I was growing up.

Oh, alright, two of these are actually 60's horror films - but I saw them in the 70's so nyah.

Forgive me for picking up on an old post, but you are wrong Padma.  Vincent Price never appeared in any Hammer Films.  'The Masque of the Red Death' is actually a Roger Corman/AIP film from 1964