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Prior to his work on "Star Wars" in 1977, actor and bodybuilder David Prowse had made a career playing goons, creatures, and bodyguards in high-profile movies. Prowse played Frankenstien's monster in the Hammer film "The Horror of Frankenstein," a role he had already played briefly in the 1967 version of "Casino Royale." He played a comedic torturer in "Carry On, Henry," the 21st "Carry On" movie. Most visibly, Prowse played the muscular bodyguard for the injured old Frank (Patrick Magee) in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange." He was the one who got to cradle Malcolm McDowell like a baby. This was easy for Prowse, who stood six-foot-six. 

The actor also played Darth Vader "Star Wars," "The Star Wars Holiday Special," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi" ... but only in the scenes wherein Darth Vader wore a mask. In "Jedi," when Vader finally revealed his face, Prowse was replaced by actor Sebastian Shaw.

We are prompting discussions with our new ‘opinion piece’ section titled Shock & Cheese and in this first article the discussion is on the zombie genre.

Yes, the Zombie genre “shot its load”. The Masters of Horror TV series episode titled “Clive Barker’s Haeckel’s Tale” directed by John McNaughton showed the Dead doing that on screen. The Zombie genre has been dead for a long time time. The carnivorous dead started by George Romero has always been about the ultimate consumer society be it consuming people or haunting a mall.

The Zombies of “Classic Horror” reflected the time as the term referred to those that “blindly” followed orders be it by signing up to fight a War, doing someone’s evil bidding or working in a sugar cane field.

Today, Zombies are self-made monsters anyone can costume themselves up as and walk about mindlessly. Zombies have lost their precociousness...

Veronica Carlson, the British actress and Hammer Horror Films star of such 1960s favorites as Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, died Feb. 27 of natural causes at her home in Bluffton, South Carolina. She was 77.

Her death was announced on her official Facebook page and by Hammer Horror Films. “A true Hammer legend and we loved her,” Hammer tweeted.

Born in Yorkshire, England, Carlson was a model when she began her acting career with uncredited or small roles in several 1967 films including Casino Royale. When producer and Hammer Films co-founder James Carreras saw a newspaper photo of Carlson wearing a bikini, he offered her the role opposite Christopher Lee in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968). Her performance as the vampire’s intended victim was the first of her trio of popular Hammer movies, and was followed in 1969 by Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed starring Peter Cushing...

Hi readers. I know I got lost in the weeds a bit in November. It's that damn International Feature Oscar race. It really brings out my Ocd qualities with those Oscar history overviews so I skimped on other stuff. Anyway, here are some of key posts of November in case you missed any. There's one day left but it's the holiday weekend so we're doing the wrap up early ;)

Highlights from the Month That Was

• Ethan Hawke at 50 -an appreciation. The definitive Gen X actor?

• Home for the Holidays -deserves to be a better remembered!

• "Gay Best Friend" -a delightful new series kicked off with My Best Friend's Wedding and Under the Tuscan Sun

• Netflix has too many Oscar contenders - considering the possibilities

• Nicole Kidman in The Undoing -giving us eyeball acting!

• Joan Crawford -Criterion's curated collection

• Cher in 1987 -how she ruled the world that year

• Gene Tierney -...

James Earl Jones may have lent his sonorous tones to Darth Vader’s iconic booming voice, but the onscreen performance itself came from former bodybuilder David Prowse. Legend has it that he didn’t know his lines would be dubbed over until he’d seen A New Hope for the first time, and it seems hilarious at this stage to imagine the most fearsome villain in the galaxy sporting the actor’s thick Bristol accent.

Following Prowse’s death at the age of 85, tributes have been pouring in from every corner of the internet. While Star Wars will rightfully define his career, there were many more strings to his bow. After making his big screen debut as Frankenstein’s Creature in the 1967 spoof version of James Bond novel Casino Royale, the newcomer quickly cornered a wide open gap in the market looking for very tall and physically imposing people to play various creatures and monsters.

By Lee Pfeiffer

British actor David Prowse has died at age 85. Prowse was originally a bodybuilder before he turned to acting. His sizable physique and imposing presence gained him many bit roles, mostly in British films, beginning with an amusing "blink-and-you'll-miss-him" cameo as Frankenstein's monster opposite David Niven in 1967 spoof version of "Casino Royale". He would later appear in a small role in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange". His most notable role was that of Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. The role allowed Prowse to capitalize on his fame for decades, as he was a popular fixture at fan conventions and autograph shows around the world. However, he ran afoul of LucasFilm when he publicly griped about having had his voice for Darth Vader replaced by that of James Earl Jones. Prowse also implied he had been cheated out of royalties on the films due to "Hollywood accounting". LucasFilm,...

David Prowse, the British actor most widely known as the man in the Darth Vader suit in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, died on Saturday at the age of 85 after battling an illness.

“It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse MBE has passed away at the age of 85,” Prowse’s agents Bowington Management tweeted on Sunday.

Other fans and cast members took to Twitter to pay tribute to Prowse, including Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill (“He was a kind man and much more than Darth Vader”) to “Star Wars” superfan Edgar Wright, who wrote, “As a kid Dave Prowse couldn’t be more famous to me; stalking along corridors as evil incarnate in the part of Darth Vader & stopping a whole generation of kiddies from being mown down in street as the Green Cross Code man.

Tributes poured in on Sunday for David Prowse, the British bodybuilder-turned-actor best known for embodying Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” film trilogy. Prowse died at age 85, following a battle with prostate cancer.

Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the franchise, paid tribute to the actor early Sunday. “So sad to hear David Prowse has passed,” Hamill tweeted. “He was a kind man & much more than Darth Vader. Actor-Husband-Father-Member of the Order of the British Empire-3 time British Weightlifting Champion & Safety Icon the Green Cross Code Man. He loved his fans as much as they loved him.”

British writer-director Edgar Wright singled out Prowse’s role as the superheroic Green Cross Man in a TV ad campaign to promote pedestrian road safety in the 1970s and ’80s. “As a kid Dave Prowse couldn’t be more famous to me; stalking along corridors as evil incarnate in the part...

David Prowse, the British bodybuilder-turned-actor best known for embodying Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, has died at age 85.

“It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85,” his management team at Bowington Management announced on Sunday. Prowse had undergone treatment for prostate cancer two years ago, according to CNN.

Prowse was best known for his role in the “Star Wars” series, in which he embodied the villainous Sith lord Darth Vader — while American actor James Earl Jones’ voice was dubbed in to replace Prowse’s thick West Country accent.

The 6-foot-6-inch actor first rose to fame as a bodybuilder who competed for Great Britain in the Commonwealth Games in the early 1960s.

He landed his first film role, as Frankenstein’s monster,...

David Prowse, a one-time weightlifter and bodybuilder who became a film icon by playing Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died at age 85 after a short illness.

According to multiple reports, the British actor’s death was confirmed via Twitter by his management, which stated, “It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and millions of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85.”

It's with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85. #DaveProwse @starwars #DarthVader #GreenCrossCodeMan #iconic #actor #bodybuilder #MBE pic.twitter.com/dL2RmdIqg8

— Bowington Management (@BowingtonM) November 29, 2020

Although Vader was famously voiced by American actor James Earl Jones, it was Prowse’s massive six-foot, six-inch...

David Prowse, the British actor best known for playing Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, has died at the age of 85, his agents have confirmed.

Prowse died on Saturday after an illness.

“It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse MBE has passed away at the age of 85,” Prowse’s agents Bowington Management tweeted on Sunday.

It's with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85. #DaveProwse @starwars #DarthVader #GreenCrossCodeMan #iconic #actor #bodybuilder #MBE pic.twitter.com/dL2RmdIqg8

— Bowington Management (@BowingtonM) November 29, 2020

Prowse was born in 1935. He won the British weightlifting championship in 1962 and represented England in the weightlifting category at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane the same year.

Dave Prowse, the British former bodybuilder best known for playing Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died aged 85, his manager has confirmed.

“It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85,” tweeted Bowington Management.

It's with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85. #DaveProwse @starwars #DarthVader #GreenCrossCodeMan #iconic #actor #bodybuilder #MBE pic.twitter.com/dL2RmdIqg8

— Bowington Management (@BowingtonM) November 29, 2020

Prowse was cast as the iconic Vader for his imposing 6’6 frame, but the role was voiced by James Earl Jones.

Prowse made his screen debut in 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale playing Frankenstein’s Creature, a part he...

When I was a kid, I somehow inherited an 8mm film projector and managed to convince my mom to buy me a handful of movies on the format. Now when I say “movies,” I mean these little spools of 8mm celluloid that basically took various motion pictures and condensed them down to silent 10-minute highlight reels, mostly in black and white.

They were in many ways the earliest precursor of home video, and one of the films I convinced my mom to purchase was Hammer Films’ Taste the Blood of Dracula. While the format really prevented me from making much sense of the narrative, certain imagery–Dracula’s face emerging from beneath a cracking caul of dust, two beautiful young women driving a stake into the heart of an older gentleman, a younger man drinking a cup of blood and choking as it poured out of his mouth–stayed firmly with me.

Courageous disc boutique Scream Factory takes on one of Hammer’s biggest embarrassments, that almost everyone connected to it would like to disown. I bailed from my first viewing around 1990 … yet this time around found it somewhat better than I expected. The girlie-show nudity is treated as a special effect, and the story at least hangs together. And like every Hammer horror, there’s a sizable, vocal cheering section out there that sings its praises.

Lust for a Vampire

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1971 / Color / 1:85 & 1:66 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date July 30, 2019 / 27.99

Starring: Barbara Jefford, Ralph Bates, Suzanna Leigh, Yutte Stensgaard, Michael Johnson, Helen Christie, Mike Raven, Christopher Cunningham, Harvey Hall, Pippa Steel, David Healy, Jonathan Cecil.

Cinematography: David Muir

Film Editor: Spencer Reeve

Original Music: Harry Robinson

Written by Tudor Gates, based on characters by Sheridan Le Fanu

Produced by Harry Fine, Michael Style

Directed by Jimmy Sangster

What? This column...

Now in its 12th annual year, Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is one of my favorite horror events of the year. Taking place in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, I always look forward to two nights of classic horror and sci-fi movies on the big screen, including vintage trailers, delicious drive-in food, special guests, and hundreds of horror fans.

While it's always been a treat to catch a Hammer horror movie at the drive-in, this year's event is an entire "Hammer Horror Weekend," featuring eight restored Dcp presentations. The Friday, September 7th lineup includes The Curse of the Werewolf, The Gorgon, One Million Years B.C., and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. On Saturday, September 8th, they'll be screening Scars of Dracula (!!), The Horror of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb.

Admission is $10 per person per night and, while you can drive up to the theater each night, they also...

New York's Quad Cinema got this summer off to a bloody good start with part 1 of their "Hammer's House of Horror" movie retrospective series featuring 32 films from the Hammer vault. On July 20th, the Quad Cinema team will continue the frights and fun with part 2 of their special Hammer horror screenings, and we've been provided with exclusive details on the second half of their retrospective series that's aptly titled "The Decadent Years."

From July 20th–August 2nd, Quad Cinema will screen a wide range of Hammer horror films from "The Decadent Years," including Dracula A.D. 1972, Countess Dracula, Twins of Evil, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, and many more! There will be 25 total titles shown (all of them from 1967–1976), with 20 of the films screened in glorious 35mm.

Below, we have the full list of titles screening as part of Hammer's House of Horror Part II, and to learn more about screening dates and times,...

Nick Harley Dec 12, 2017

Strongman will focus on the man inside of Vader's suit, bodybuilder David Prowse.

David Prowse’s connection to the Star Wars universe is impressive. Most impressive. As the man that physically embodied Darth Vader inside of that iconic black getup, Prowse was a part of a team including James Earl Jones, Sebastian Shaw, and Bob Anderson that brought one of cinema’s most famous villains to life in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Yet, Prowse’s “eccentric” behavior led to him being banned by George Lucas himself from attending official Star Wars conventions. Despite the controversy, Prowse will find himself as the subject of the upcoming biopic, Strongman.

Strongman was written by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb (The Well) and earned a spot on this year’s Black List, a Hollywood-curated list that chronicles the best unproduced screenplays of the year.

Chronicling his journey from champion weightlifter...

Gather your fright-loving family members, fill your cup to the brim with egg nog, and find a comfy spot around the TV (or computer) screen, because enough horror movies to fill Santa's sleigh are coming to the streaming service Shudder this December, including Rob Zombie's 31, Bob Clark's Black Christmas, and many more.

Press Release: This December, there’s oh so much under Shudder’s tree. But before you get unwrapping, let’s shake the boxes a bit… We have something special for everyone, inside.

Love clowns? Coming exclusively to Shudder is Rob Zombie’s latest, 31, a vicious and characteristically Zombie film. Which is to say it’s dirty, mean and, from the get, right up in your face.

Looking to stay in? We’ve got a very special Shudder exclusive in Shrew's Nest. Directed by Juanfer Andrés & Esteban Roel (and produced by Alex de la Iglesia), this elegant,...

Donald Pleasence, Joan Collins, and Caroline Munro co-star in The Devil Within Her, aka Sharon's Baby and I Don't Want to Be Born, a 1975 horror film featuring a violent baby that is coming to Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing.

Blu-ray.com reports that the folks at Scorpion Releasing are hard at work on a fresh 2K restoration of The Devil Within Her, and while an exact release date has yet to be revealed, the Blu-ray is expected to come out in early 2017.

We'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on special features announcements and release details. In the meantime, we have the official synopsis, trailer, and poster for the Peter Sasdy film:

Synopsis (via Blu-ray.com): "Hollywood legend Joan Collins teams up with cult stars Donald Pleasence and Caroline Munro in this terrifying tale of a demonic baby!

Lucy (Collins, Dynasty, Land Of The Pharoahs) is a former dancer, having moved...

The Frankenstein Monster is arguably the greatest monster in all fiction. There have been a few genuinely excellent films made about him, but all too many of them are pretty bad. While the latest attempt in Victor Frankenstein falls flat, Cinelinx looks at the film history of Frankenstein to see which of them worked and which of them didn’t.

The Frankenstein Monster was the invention of 18 year old Mary Shelly (wife of poet Percy Shelly) who was vacationing in Switzerland with her husband, their close friend Lord Byron and John Polidori. Incessant rain left them housebound and reading ghost stories to each other. This led to a challenge from Byron, daring them all to create the scariest story ever told. Mary Shelly seemed outclassed by her literary companions until she heard legends of a crazy scientist named Conrad Dipple who performed illegal experiments using parts of dead bodies and electricity.

By Hank Reineke

Perhaps it is only fitting that area meteorologists would forewarn ominously that the Mahoning Drive-in Theater’s “Christopher Lee Tribute” might take place on a cold and dark and stormy night. After all, it was the villainous film legacy of the actor – who passed away at age 93 on June 7th of this year – to have frightened generations of moviegoers in such a bleakly nightmarish rain-soaked setting. As it happened, while the shivery autumnal chill on Saturday night was undeniable, there was – happily - nary a sprinkle of precipitation to obscure one’s windshield view of the drive-in’s massive CinemaScope screen.

The Mahoning Drive-in, located amidst the Pocono Mountains surrounding Lehighton, Pennsylvania, is – quite frankly – an anomaly amongst the anomalies of surviving drive-in theaters. Whilst most remaining drive-ins have been forced to move cautiously and expensively to digital projection systems or else suffer their screens going dark,...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

London Film Convention

The 80th Anniversary of Hammer!

Saturday November the 8th ( 10am – 6pm )

Venue : Central Hall Westminster.

Storey’s Gate, Westminster, London SW1H 9Nh

Celebrates in a one-off special event one of the worlds longest running film production companies Hammer’s 80th anniversary.

Founded by William Hindes and James Carerras in November 1934!

The company very much dominated the world market from the 1950’s to the 1970’s in comedies but above all their now classic horror films.

Now very much back in production with several successful films over the past years.

With a sequel to their film version of the play “ Woman In Black “ that starred Daniel Radcliff due for release in 2015 “ Woman In Black : Angel Of Death “ .

The show is also a celebration of the British film industry and of the past and present creative film making in...

Dynasty actress Kate O’Mara died on Sunday at a southern England nursing home. She was 74.

Kate O'Mara Dies

Mara passed away following a brief illness, according to her agent, Phil Belfield, reported Variety.

After falling ill earlier this month, O’Mara had tweeted a thank you message to her followers that were concerned over her health.

Hello all - thank you so much for your kind tweets. It's both humbling and completely overwhelming to read all of your messages. Much Love x

— Kate O'Mara (@KateOmara_) March 17, 2014

During the 80s, O’Mara, in one of her best-known roles, starred in Dynasty as Cassandra “Caress” Morell. Caress was the sister of Joan Collins’ character Alexis Colby. The popular show, which won five Golden Globes during its nine seasons, also starred John Forsythe, Linda Evans and Gordon Thomson.

Upon learning of O’Mara’s death, Collin’s took to Twitter to express...

British actress Kate O’Mara, who was known to many Americans during the 1980s as Joan Collins’ sister Cassandra Morell on ABC‘s Dynasty, died in Sussex, England this morning. She was 74. A TV vet since the 1960s with credits that included such cult British shows as The Saint and The Avengers, O’Mara was coveted for her portrayal of alluring, pungent personalities, such as The Rani in Doctor Who from 1985-86 and the ruthless businesswoman Laura Wilde in the BBC drama Howards’ Way. Born in Leicester, UK, O’Mara was the daughter of actress Hazel Bainbridge (The Family Way) and John Carroll. Originally, O’Mara pursued a career as a speech therapist, but she caught the acting bug and made her stage debut at 24 in a production of The Merchant of Venice. After breaking in TV, O’Mara caught the attention of Hammer Studios which cast her in the...

Born in Leicester on August 10, 1939, Frances M Carroll would go on to become a screen idol under her chosen stage name of Kate O'Mara.

The daughter of actress Hazel Bainbridge and Raf flying instructor John F Carroll, O'Mara followed a stint at boarding school with enrolment at art school, before achieving her goal of becoming a full-time actress.

Making her stage debut in a production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in 1963, O'Mara soon moved into the popular world of television. Throughout the '60s, she appeared in such iconic series as Danger Man, The Champions, The Saint, The Avengers and Z-Cars.

Moving into the 1970s, O'Mara also found success on the big screen – starring in two Hammer Horror outings, The Vampire Lovers and The Horror of Frankenstein – but it was a return to television for BBC drama The Brothers that made her a household name.

Playing the leading role of tough businesswoman Jane Maxwell,...

Martine Beswick (One Million Years B.C., Slave Girls and Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde), Caroline Munro (Captain Kronos and Dracula A.D.72), Kate O'Mara (Horror of Frankenstein and The Vampire Lovers) and Maddie Smith (Vampire Lovers and Frankenstein and the and Monster from Hell). (Photo: copyright Mark Mawston, all rights reserved.)

Saturday 9th November 2013

Report by Adrian Smith

On Saturday in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, amidst the power-hungry elite of Whitehall and Downing Street, gathered an even more sinister and corrupting influence. Darth Vader rubbed shoulders with evil twins, corrupted children, vampires, zombies and even Jack the Ripper. Overseeing this evil conclave were directors whose films were so depraved that sometimes sick bags were supplied to the audience.

Horror film buffs were of course overjoyed at the fantastic selection of stars at this Hammer and Horror Film event. Representing the Bond girls were Caroline Munro, Caron Gardner, Martine Beswick and Madeline Smith.

Hammer and Horror Film Day!

Saturday November the 9th ( 10am – 5pm )

Central Hall Westminster.

Storey’s Gate, Westminster, London SW1H 9Nh

UK’s longest running film fair and convention.

Now in it’s 40th year!

The Convention presents dealers from all over the UK, Europe, Us ,

Canada and South America.

Specialising in rare original film memorabilia and collectables.

Taking place six times a year these are truly unique events for anyone with an interest in films!

With actors and director’s signings, illustrated talks, retrospectives and film screenings taking place through out the day.

Items covering the history of cinema can be found. From the silents to the present.

From rare items of the 1920’s to new releases and the latest heart throb.

Among the many different field of cinema covered at the show is – Classic Hollywood, horror films, sci-fi, the best of British and European cinema as we as cult tv!

Get Hammered! week continues at Trailers from Hell with director Brian Trenchard-Smith introducing the Brit horror studio's "The Horror of Frankenstein," which Trenchard-Smith says is "generally considered the nadir of the Hammer Frankenstein series." This campy replay of The Curse of Frankenstein misfires in a variety of directions. As fate would have it, it went out on a Us double bill with The Scars of Dracula, itself the low point of Hammer's Dracula series. Brian Trenchard-Smith created this trailer and is considerably more forgiving of the movie's low rent aspects. But magic-marker scars do not a monster make.

Charismatic star of Polanski's Macbeth and Hitchcock's Frenzy

In the 1970s, it seemed a sure bet that the actor Jon Finch, who has died aged 71, would become a durable film star of some magnitude. He had the dark good looks, the voice, the charisma and the opportunities. At the beginning of his film career, he played the title role in Roman Polanski's The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971) and starred in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). Around the same time he was offered the chance to replace Sean Connery as James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973). The fact that Finch turned the part down stupefied many commentators.

That Finch never achieved the level of stardom that was anticipated may be attributed to his dislike of the kind of media publicity that goes with it and his self-proclaimed lack of ambition. "I never wanted to be a big star," Finch once said.

His two most famous film roles were as the man wrongly accused of being the ‘necktie strangler’ in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972), the director’s last great film, and the title role in Roman Polanski’s MacBeth in 1971. He may be best known for the role he turned down: that of James Bond when Cubby Broccoli was looking for a handsome British actor to replace Sean Connery for 1973′s Live And Let Die. Earlier in his career, actor Jon Finch had appeared in the Hammer horror films The Vampire Lovers and The Horror Of Frankenstein. He also starred in the end-of-the-world sci-fi saga The Last Days Of Man On Earth (1973) from cult director Robert Fuest (The Abominable Dr. Phibes). He was married for several years to Catrinoa MacColl, who worked regularly with director Lucio Fulci in films including The Beyond and House By The Cemetery. Finch’s final role was...

By Michael Juvinall, More Horror.com

Another Hammer Film has been rescued from the vaults and is making its way to Blu-ray courtesy of the fine folks over at Scream Factory, the horror film division of distributor Shout Factory. They have announced that The Vampire Lovers (1970) is headed to Blu-ray sometime in 2013.

The film is directed by Roy Ward Baker (Scars of Dracula, And Now the Screaming Starts!) and stars Peter Cushing (Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein), Ingrid Pitt (Countess Dracula, The House that Dripped Blood), Kate O'Mara (The Horror of Frankenstein), and Madeline Smith (Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell).

The independent distributors are yet to reveal the technical specs and supplemental features that will be included on this release.

Buxom vamps and bloodthirsty beauties abound in this horror thriller showcasing the netherworld's most voluptuous vampire! Traveling the countryside searching for victims, Carmilla quenches her thirst for blood with...

On October 8, way back in 1970, Hammer Films released a double bill of The Horror of Frankenstein and Scars of Dracula.

Horror of Frankenstein is one of many Hammer frankenfilms and falls into the mon-com category (monster comedy). Co-written and directed by Jimmy Sangster, Horror of Frankenstein stars Ralph Bates as Victor Frankenstein. Bates was cast to give the movie “youth appeal” and is portrayed as the young, sexy-pants version of the old standard. Kate O’Mara of Hammer’s The Vampire Killers, plays his housekeeper/bed warmer. David Prowse who is best known as Darth Vader in Star Wars portrays the square-headed, muscle-bound monster, who could easily be a WWF star today. He played Frankenstein for Hammer one more time, in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.

The general gist of the story is when Victor Frankenstein isn’t killing neighbors to piece together his monster, he’s frolicking with his maid.

Voluptuous vampire vixens, high society diabolists, meandering mouldy mummies, rapacious reptiles, and zillions of zombies… Sound like fun? Well the new Hammer Horror Halloween season on Horror channel will be most definitely for you then! Showing on the channel from October 1st to October 31st, the Hammer season is introduced by author, broadcaster and critic Kim Newman.

The line-up includes:

Sat Oct 1st | 23:10 | Scars of Dracula (1970)

Christopher Lee’s fifth Dracula picture and was directed by Roy Ward Baker who was determined to do it in as gory a style as possible. The film’s greatest innovation, however, was to present a surprisingly verbose Count as Lee had been given very little dialogue in the previous Dracula movies, Bereft of an American pre-sale, Scars of Dracula and its support feature, The Horror of Frankenstein, were both produced on relatively low budgets

Sat Oct 8 | 23:10 |

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) One of...

Screenwriter behind Hammer films such as Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein

In 1957, Hammer Films revived gothic horror – in abeyance in a decade that offered nuclear or cosmic horrors which made the classic monsters seem tame – with The Curse of Frankenstein, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. To hear him tell it, Jimmy Sangster, who has died aged 83, wrote the script because no one else would, and simply typed it out and turned it in.

Yet Sangster came up with a new story – owing as little to Mary Shelley's novel as to James Whale's earlier film – and a radical depiction of Frankenstein as a determined, charming yet corrupt dandy who could still chill in an era of nuclear proliferation. Sexually amoral (he uses his monster to murder the maid he has impregnated), rigidly dividing his life (making a bloody hash in the laboratory...

The unstoppable philistine known as Death claims another Trailers From Hell patron saint.

Horror legend Jimmy Sangster has died, which should — in your exploration of genre classics (or just watching through the numerous trailers for films that feature his name) — mean something to you. If it doesn’t, Tim Lucas has an all-encompassing reminder of why it should:

After his first screenwriting credit (Joseph Losey’s A Man On The Beach, 1955), Sangster’s list of screenplay credentials form an impressive overview of Britain’s contribution to fantastic cinema over four decades:

X – The Unknown (1956), Blood Of The Vampire (1958), The Mummy (1959), The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), The Hellfire Club (1959), Jack The Ripper (1960), The Terror Of The Tongs (1960), Taste Of Fear (aka Scream Of Fear, 1961), The Pirates Of Blood River (1961), Maniac (1963), Paranoiac (1963), Hysteria (1964), The Devil-ship Pirates (1964), The Nanny (1965, his personal favorite), the Bulldog Drummond adventure Deadlier Than The Male (1967), The Anniversary...

Jimmy Sangster, the man who wrote the screenplays for Curse Of Frankenstein, and Dracula, for Hammer Studios, has passed away at age 83.The two aforementioned versions of the venerated classics not only saved the archaic production house from imminent collapse, but turned it around on it's heel  almost overnight, and into an immediate hit factory.Sangster wrote many of my personal favorites in the classic Hammer horror cycle, including The Mummy, Brides Of Dracula, and Dracula: Prince Of Darkness.Later, he donned the monocle and stepped up behind the camera as a director, helming the Horror Of Frankenstein, and Lust For A Vampire.The horror-meister also came to the USA and wrote for some of our most beloved genre shows, such as The Night Stalker, Ghost Story...

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Jimmy Sangster today, at the age of 83. While Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing may be the first names Hammer Horror fans think of, Sangster was just as influential when it came to the success of Hammer’s films in the 50′s and 60′s.

Having written The Mummy, Horror of Dracula, and The Curse of Frankenstein, Jimmy Sangster was one of the men responsible for the creating some of Hammer’s most beloved films and horror franchises. After the success of those films, Sangster worked consistently with Hammer as a writer on dozens of films in the 60′s, including Dracula: Prince of Darkness. In the 70′s, Sangster tried his hand at directing and took on The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust For a Vampire.

Jimmy Sangster was married to his longtime wife and actress Mary Peach and they lived together in London.

This week’s Must Read is actually a series of articles. Cineflyer is reprinting and transcribing articles from the first 2007 edition of The Moose, the newsletter of the Winnipeg Film Group. Here’s a scan of the cover. The issue included movie reviews by Darryl Nepinak and Mike Maryniuk’s top 10 Wfg films. Plus, there’s filmmaking tips by Cecilia Araneda and Heidi Phillips. An article by King of the Internet, Jaimz Asmundson. Guy Maddin interviews his favorite filmmaker, Guy Maddin.Heavy Metal Parking Lot hits the big time with a profile in the Wall Street Journal, of all places!Did you know Chicago’s Facets had a Tumblr blog? We didn’t, but now we do. Go bookmark.Plus, on the Facets blog, Gregory Hess reviews Steven Soderbergh’s “lost” film Kafka, which is only available on VHS. That’s weird.Speaking of Chicago, the Tribune spotlights two homegrown...

As horror fans know better than anyone, the best way to beef up a film's mood and atmosphere is through the use of music, and few did that better than the composers who worked for Hammer Films in its heyday. Which is why we're thrilled to pass on the news that three new compilations of Hammer film soundtrack music will be made available through Silva Screen on March 28th.

Released as part of The Hammer Legacy series, "The Vampire Collection", "The Frankenstein Collection", and "The Science Fiction Collection" will feature some of the best music from the likes of Hammer composers Tristram Cary, Harry Robinson and James Bernard.

According to the official Hammer website the downloadable soundtracks will be available through iTunes and other digital retailers.

The complete track listing is below:

The Hammer Legacy: The Vampire Collection

1. Kiss Of The Vampire - Opening Credits (James Bernard)

2. Kiss Of The...