Review of Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter

Introduction

Among Hammers least known yet more unusual offerings stands Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. Unlike traditional Hammer vampire flicks this one was unusual to say the least. At times verging on a parody of other Hammer flicks this tells the tale of Captain Kronos and his quest to destroy vampires after they kill his mother and sister while he`s away during a war. These aren`t you`re traditional vampires however, they don`t drink blood, instead they drink the life force of the young women, they walk in daylight and staking them often doesn`t work. Just as well Kronos has his rather nifty sword then…

Video

Visually the film is fairly average, the picture is relatively free of dirt and grain however it`s not terribly crisp but that can mostly be attributed to the age and quality of the original masters. It should also be noted that when testing the film on my laptop I ran into quite a few problems with WinDVD 4.0, the film constantly caused it to crash.

In terms of setting the film seems oddly out of place, it`s meant to be set in the early 19th century but for the most part it never quite seems to be defined clearly. There`s a nice selection of locations however ranging from the deep forests to the usual large, lush mansions etc.

Audio

Sound quality is quite poor, a standard DD2.0 fare with nothing special at all about it really. For its age though it is reasonable enough. The music is extremely dated though but then it`s cheesy in the classic Hammer way really.

Features

The extras included on the disc are the obligatory trailer and also a Hammer Special which takes a look at Vampires, female ones in particular. As with the main feature, when trying to view the Hammer Special on my laptop I ran into quite a few problems however it played fine on my normal DVD player. Once I finally got it working though I found it to be a quite interesting look at the Hammer archives though it seemed apparent that this was originally part of a TV series.

Conclusion

The poor visual and sound quality (admittedly due to its age) belies one of the more interesting films in Hammers collection. The whole idea of vampires has been turned on its head in the film which leads to some interesting moments as not all vampires can be killed the same way. It`s a slightly more surreal take and you can tell it`s directed by the person who then went on to direct the Avengers.

The DVD itself isn`t the best quality but then the film itself makes up for it somewhat. The extras are somewhat lacking again though the documentary was one of the more interesting ones largely due to my interest in classic horror movies.