Kiss of the Vampire B-Movie
Kiss of the Vampire’s poster alone is what makes it a unique entry into horror history. Most horror movies up through the 50s and 60s had women on posters depicted as prey, and British movies were no different. The main figure on the Kiss poster is a woman, about the deliver the titled vampire kiss, and she holds a prominent stance compared to the other figures in the poster. The male figure holds on tightly to a traditional female victim, but recoils in terror (or surprise) from the bats, which shows some weakness, and shifts the real power to the central female vampire instead. This is perhaps a striking motiff for 1964, and shows that the vampire and horror norms were being modified to fit the times. Kiss of the Vampire itself is a minor Hammer film that follows the usual studio pattern, with loud colors, shocks, and a strong, gothic tone and it struggles to build anything else.
Gerald and Marianne spend the night in an isolated village and stumble upon a vampire cult. Hammer skimps on sets and costumes by re-using some things but they are all still striking. The couple are invited to the local doctor’s mansion for dinner and the interior is Dracula’s castle from Horror of Dracula, just dressed up a little different. Dr. Ravna is played very blandly by the stoic Noel Willman. The good doctor has several adult children staying with him (or nearby) and they are a little bland too, but I think they are interesting with what little they add to the story. Barry Warren plays one of the Doctor’s sons and he plays the piano with a modern flair, another example of the shifting patterns used in vampire horror movies. The music is probably not something you would have heard in previous Hammer entries.
You can sorta telegraph the story at this point, and as the plot develops, you realize the couple are in danger. The doctor’s kids run off when the sun starts to come out, for example, so there’s no hiding the plot twists from the adept horror fan. Yep, all the doctor’s pals are vampires. The cult kidnap Marianne and try to make it seem as if she never existed. Of course, this is absurd and doesn’t work for very long to keep Gerald quiet. Up through this point in the movie, it’s a traditional Hammer horror romp, even with a gothic party and more dialogue. The roles are not as modern as promised on the poster though, because the female roles are still complementary or damsels in distress, not the powerful roles promised on the poster. There is more gender equality than most Hammer movies but that’s not saying much. Clifford Evans as Professor Zimmer stands in as a Van Helsing character, who helps Gerald save Marianne from the vampires but he has hardly any personality also.
Overall, I like this movie but it has its faults. It has the usual Hammer style and fails to go much further than that, but you can see them getting there. It’s just too bad the Marianne character falls into the usual tropes you might expect and none of the other female characters do much better leading the movie. The vampire kids are very small parts and hardly impact the story, which is disappointing. The ending is also crap. Professor Zimmer uses the mystic arts to summon a buncha rubber vampire bats to suck the other vampires dry I guess and kill them. Roll credits. Noel Willman tries to be charming with the few lines he has but he’s not given enough time to actually show any personality. An end confrontation would have addressed this issue but they copped out with the ending they went with because it’s like snapping your fingers to resolve the story. It just doesn’t work. Maybe that’s why they didn’t use that idea when it came up before with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Unfortunately, they needed the real deal to make this movie work.
This movie was shown on Svengoolie on Jan 14, 2023
