Horror Classics Muhahaha

[Charney]

Here's what I recently acquired: Horror Classics DVD for 8 C$
It features three classic horror films:
Jack the Ripper
The Satanic Rites of Dracula
Horror Express

Can't wait to watch them. I never saw such oldies except two Boris Karlorff ones: Frankenstein and the first half of the mummy

[Tobias Blackburn]

If you canm check out the Universal Legacy collections. about 4-5 classic monster movies that have been remastered.

Best two are Frankentsein and The Wolfman!

The collections they have are:

Dracula (4 movies)
Frankenstein (5 movies)
The Wolfman (4 movies)
The Mummy (5 movies)
The Invisible Man (5 movies)
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (3 movies, but all three with commentary and stuff)

Each have specials, trailers commentary and movie images

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Yep, there are alot of horror classics out now, but I can't afford them just yet I also want all the Laurel & Hardy dvd's, but that is me being a fan of classic comedy (now if only they would release some Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd).

If the horror classics were out for rent in my area I would definately rent them out, just to see them all over again

[Steve Miller]

"Horror Express" is one of my all-time favorite horror films. I hope you enjoy it!

"Satanic Rites of Dracula" is noteworthy because it has the most embarrassing death scene that I think Dracula has ever been subjected to. On the other hand, the basement scene is one of the creepiest scenes in a Hammer Dracula flick. (I think you'll know what I'm reerring to when you see it.)

[Brandi]

"Satanic Rites of Dracula" is noteworthy because it has the most embarrassing death scene that I think Dracula has ever been subjected to.

Sadly, I found Satanic Rites, for all of its plot elements about Satanism, vampires, conspiracies, and plague, pretty damn dull.

That death scene, while interesting from a folkloric standpoint (hawthorne was considered a good anti-vampire measure even pre-Christianity; plant it on a grave and any rising body will get snagged and damaged) just had me thinking that Christopher Lee was thinking "One more take and I will KILL this director."

Scars of Dracula is almost as bad, though, with a stock Lee scream looped at least 5 times all through the finale as well as fake bats that would've looked bad in a 40s Monogram film....

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

That death scene, while interesting from a folkloric standpoint (hawthorne was considered a good anti-vampire measure even pre-Christianity; plant it on a grave and any rising body will get snagged and damaged) just had me thinking that Christopher Lee was thinking "One more take and I will KILL this director."

Hawthorne may have been an established Christian vestment before the folklore of vampires really took route in Europe and the other areas where Christians used Hawthorne in their service. However, there are some arguments that say otherwise. I am likely to believe that hawthorne was already in use and was applied as a method for destroying vampires as it was seen as a holy symbol (taken form the crown of thornes, based on books on early christian theology at a library I read through once). Early Christain (living) Saints wore a crown of hawthorne, which was also used as in depictions of them, though I suspect the halo was introduced to replace it sometime later. At least going by early Christianity in Britain and other (at the time) Cetic areas of Europe.

Many places that suspected vampires would bury a corpse at a crossroads face down in the dirt. Sometimes they would stake them (anywhere, it didn't have to be the heart) and decapitate them, but not always.

[AdamGarou]

Relating to Wiccy's statement, anyone else laugh out loud at the prescribed ways to kill vampires?

"Stake through the heart, fill the mouth with holy water/communion wafers, cut off the head, burn the head and body in separate places and scatter the ashes."

Yep, that oughtta make the vampire dead... along with anything and everything else.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

The most humourous method of killing a vampire I have come across is the Chiang Shi, leave a pile of rice in front of them, they must count ever last grain. If the sun comes up while it is still counting the exact number of rice grains, the vampire is destroyed.

[Reginald de Curry]

Didn't you know that vamps are obsessive-compulsive?

[Brandi]

Relating to Wiccy's statement, anyone else laugh out loud at the prescribed ways to kill vampires?

"Stake through the heart, fill the mouth with holy water/communion wafers, cut off the head, burn the head and body in separate places and scatter the ashes."

Actually, that's *several* prescribed ways to kill vampires, combined.

Honestly, you must all find and read Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber. These various methods of destroying vampires are not so much 'killing' as rendering the corpse inert and unusuable as a vessel (vampires were often seen to be a sort of demon-possessed body). Burning was certainly the best way, and also the most difficult in the days before gas-powered crematoriums. The holy wafer thing is a Christian add-on, as you might guess; in general, you either want to pin the body in place so it can't get up (staking) or destroy its integrity (often just decapitating the body and putting the head in a separate place was sufficient; also, destroying the heart, either by stake or by removal, was considered effective).

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

I would like to add tha tthe first written record of a vampiric creature is the Upir Lichy from Russia, this record dates form the 600's AD. |One of the recommended methods to kill them was to cut their heads off or rn them through with an icicle. When the Christian church entered Russia, the decapitation was replaced with hawthorn to paralyse the creature and impaling it with a stake of rosewood.

I bought Vampires, Burial and Death some time back but my copy was stolen before I got to read it, I never got round to replace it

Adam garou's prespribed method of slaying vampires may appear a little excessive, but it is a prespribed method dictated for some time, even though each element is enough to slay a vamire from various origins.

Another vampire slaying method, this time for the Assassabonsam from west Africa:

Bury the creatures head in the earth while it is attached to the body, wait until you see the sunrise and he spirit of the creature will leave the body, once this is done, cut the creature to pieces and scatter the parts.

The only problem with that prescribed method is that in most legends, the Assassabonam can burrow underground, lol.

[Gemathustra]

The most humourous method of killing a vampire I have come across is the Chiang Shi, leave a pile of rice in front of them, they must count ever last grain. If the sun comes up while it is still counting the exact number of rice grains, the vampire is destroyed.

An almost identical thing is done in parts of the Balkans, in that, legend has it that if one scatters mustard seeds in front of a vampire, it is suddenly possessed of an urge to stop whatever it's doing and count them all, even if it means staying out until sunrise.

According to Mayan legend, the god of death and disease, Yum Cimil, and/or his minions would possess corpses and masquerade as people during the day. At night, he, and or they would cast off their flesh, much in the manner one sheds one's clothing, and transform into hideous skeletal monsters that spread disease and pestilence with miasma-like breath. However, the surest way to defeat Yum Cimil and his minions would be to find the shed flesh, and urinate on it. Thus contaminated, Yum Cimil, nor his minions would be able to resume human form, and their bodies would be destroyed by the light of the dawn, thus forcing their spirits back into the Underworld.
For the time being.

[Corrupted_Loremaster]

The only problem with that prescribed method is that in most legends, the Assassabonam can burrow underground, lol.

What are you supposed to do then? Piledrive him into the dirt, then hold on to his legs for dear life till sunrise?

[Reginald de Curry]

The most humourous method of killing a vampire I have come across is the Chiang Shi, leave a pile of rice in front of them, they must count ever last grain. If the sun comes up while it is still counting the exact number of rice grains, the vampire is destroyed.

An almost identical thing is done in parts of the Balkans, in that, legend has it that if one scatters mustard seeds in front of a vampire, it is suddenly possessed of an urge to stop whatever it's doing and count them all, even if it means staying out until sunrise.

These two sound like the X-Files comedic vampire episode. Mulder used sesame seeds, however.

[Steve Miller]

I think we can take the ending of "Satanic Rites of Dracula" as proof that what works in folklore doesn't always work on film.

(I can see a dramatic scene being made of the vampire needing to rice or sesame seeds [in a funny kind of way]... but having *seen* a vampire wrestle with a bush and some vines... let me assure that there's nothing dramatic about it. )