''Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter'' is a 1974 British swashbuckling

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

, written and directed by

Brian Clemens Brian Horace Clemens (30 July 1931 – 10 January 2015) was an English screenwriter and television producer. He worked on the British TV series '' The Avengers'' and created '' The New Avengers'' and '' The Professionals''. Early life Clemen ...

, produced by Clemens and Albert Fennell for

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classi ...

, and starring Horst Janson, John Carson, Shane Briant, and Caroline Munro. The music

score SCORE may refer to: *SCORE (software), a music scorewriter program * SCORE (television), a weekend sports service of the defunct Financial News Network *SCORE! Educational Centers *SCORE International, an offroad racing organization *Sarawak Corrido ...

was composed by Laurie Johnson, supervised by Philip Martell. Shot in 1972, but belatedly released on 7 April 1974, the film was intended as the first in a series focused on the title character and his companions. Due to the film's violence and sexual subtext, ''Captain Kronos'' was rated R in North America. This was Clemens' only film as a director.

Plot

Dr. Marcus calls in Captain Kronos, an old friend from his war service, to his village which is plagued by deaths marked by highly accelerated aging. Kronos and his companion, the

hunchback Kyphosis () is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can ...

Professor Hieronymus Grost, are professional

vampire hunter A vampire hunter or vampire slayer is a fictional occupation in folklore and fiction which specializes in finding vampires, and sometimes other supernatural creatures. A vampire hunter is usually described as having extensive knowledge of vampir ...

s. Grost explains to the initially skeptical Marcus that the dead women are victims of a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

who drains not blood but youth, and that there are "as many species of vampire as there are beasts of prey". The discovery of another victim confirms Grost's explanation. Along the way, Kronos and Grost take in a local Romani girl, Carla, who was sentenced to the

stocks Stocks are feet and hand restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law de ...

for dancing on the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...

. She repays the duo by helping them hunt the vampire and later becomes Kronos's lover. Grost and Kronos conduct a mystical test that indicates the presence of vampires. Their findings are contradicted by an eyewitness who claims to have seen "someone old, very old", whereas a youth-draining vampire should appear youthful. Marcus visits the family of his late friend, Lord Hagen Durward, and speaks with Durward's son, Paul, and his sister Sara. He must leave before speaking with the bed-ridden Lady Durward. While riding through the woods, Marcus encounters a cloaked figure that leaves him shaken, and he finds blood on his lips. At a tavern, Kronos defeats thugs led by Kerro, who were hired by Lady Durward's coachman to murder him. Kronos, Grost, Marcus and Carla set up a network of alarm bells in the woods to announce the passage of vampires. Meanwhile, a bat attacks and kills a young woman. Marcus realises that he has become a vampire and begs Kronos to kill him. After various methods (including impalement with a stake and hanging) fail, Kronos accidentally pierces Marcus's chest with a cross of steel that Marcus had been wearing round his neck. Having thus determined the vampire's weakness, Kronos and Grost obtain an iron cross from a cemetery. They are accosted by angry villagers, who believe that they murdered Marcus. Grost forges the cross into a sword, while Kronos conducts a knightly vigil. After seeing the Durward carriage flee the scene of a vampire attack, Kronos suspects Sara as the vampire. Carla seeks refuge at Durward Manor to distract the household while Kronos sneaks inside. The "bedridden" Lady Durward reveals herself as the newly youthful vampire, and she hypnotises Carla and the Durward siblings. Lady Durward has raised her husband Hagen from the grave. She offers the mesmerised Carla to her husband, but Kronos erupts from hiding. Kronos uses the new sword's mirrored blade to turn Lady Durward's hypnotic gaze against her. He kills Lord Durward in a duel, and then destroys Lady Durward. The next day, Kronos bids Carla goodbye, before he and Grost ride on to new adventures.

Cast

* Horst Janson as Captain Kronos ** Julian Holloway as the voice of Captain Kronos * John Cater as Professor Hieronymus Grost * Caroline Munro as Carla * John Carson as Dr. Marcus * Shane Briant as Paul Durward * Lois Daine as Sara Durward *

Wanda Ventham Wanda Ventham (born 5 August 1935) is an English actress with many roles on British television since beginning her career in the 1950s. Ventham played Colonel Virginia Lake in the 1970s science-fiction television series '' UFO'' and had a rec ...

as Lady Durward * Ian Hendry as Kerro * William Hobbs as Hagen *

Paul Greenwood Paul Greenwood (born 2 August 1943) is a British film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as PC Michael "Rosie" Penrose in the sitcom ''The Growing Pains of PC Penrose'' and its successor ''Rosie (TV series), Rosie'', ...

as Giles * Lisa Collings as Vanda Sorell * Brian Tully as George Sorell * Robert James as Pointer * Perry Soblosky as Barlow * John Hollis as barman * Susanna East as Isabella Sorell * Stafford Gordon as Barton Sorell * Elizabeth Dear as Ann Sorell * Joanna Ross as Myra * Neil Seiler as priest * Olga Anthony as Lilian * Gigi Gurpinar as blind girl * Peter Davidson as big man * Terence Sewards as Tom * Trevor Lawrence as Deke * Jacqui Cook as barmaid * B. H. Barry, Michael Buchanan, Steve James, Ian McKay, Barry Smith, Roger Williams as villagers * Linda Cunningham as Jane * Caroline Villiers as Petra

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "Neither straightfaced horror nor consistent send-up, it touches on too many conventions – Western, Grand Guignol, comic strip, movie serial – too quickly for the question of exact tone or proper genre ever really to be raised. (...) The film works best when the action is just allowed to barrel along, given the occasional nudge by an absurd line of dialogue." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that the film "features a lot of kinky plot lines but never follows through. More bohemian audiences may find all manners of turn on, but the whole is an uneven tease ..." ''The

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

Guide to Films'' Alan Jones gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "a bright and breezy blend of horror, comedy, swashbuckler and Italian western (...) A fun fear-frolic that became an instant Hammer cult."

Leslie Halliwell Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...

called the film a "lively horror yarn with amusing asides."

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

called the film "one of the last great Hammer Films productions".

Novelisation

A novelisation of the film, written by Guy Adams under the title ''Kronos'', was published in 2011 by Arrow Publishing, in association with Hammer and the

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

Group.

Comic book adaptations

* '' The House of Hammer'' #1-3 (Oct. 1976-Jan. 1977), by Steve Moore and Ian Gibson — a "sequel" rather than an adaptation * '' Hammer's Halls of Horror'' #20 (May 1978), by Steve Moore and

Steve Parkhouse Steve Parkhouse is a comics creator, writer, artist and letterer who has worked for many British comics, especially ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' and ''Doctor Who Magazine''. Biography Parkhouse has worked in comics since 1967, when he drew the ...

* ''Captain Kronos — Vampire Hunter'' #1-4 ( Titan Comics, Oct. 2017 - an.2018), by

Dan Abnett Daniel P. Abnett ( ; born 12 October 1965) is an English comic book writer and novelist. He has been a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and has worked on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since ...

and

Tom Mandrake Tom Mandrake (born 1956) is an American comics artist, perhaps best known for his collaborations with writer John Ostrander on several series, including ''Grimjack'' (from First Comics) and ''Firestorm (comics), Firestorm'', ''The Spectre (DC Comi ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter 1974 films 1974 horror films 1974 directorial debut films 1970s historical fantasy films 1970s historical horror films 1970s fantasy adventure films 1970s action horror films 1970s exploitation films 1970s supernatural horror films British historical horror films Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios Hammer Film Productions horror films British fantasy adventure films British action horror films British vampire films Films shot in England Films set in England Films adapted into comics Films set in country houses British historical fantasy films Films scored by Laurie Johnson British exploitation films British supernatural horror films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films Films about rapid human age change English-language action horror films English-language fantasy adventure films English-language historical horror films