Welcome to Horrorview.com!: Captain Kronos Region 2 DVD

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
(aka: Kronos)
(Spanish "Manga Films" Region 2 dvd)
(1973)
review by Billion$Baby

I've got this strange hit and miss attitude towards Hammer's horror films. As a child and drunken teenager I watched absolutely loads of these films on British television but now the titles are all hazy in my
mind. Luckily I have a friend called John who's Hammer horror crazy so when I asked him to identify this atypical studio outing, he had no difficulties at all. Personally I think I've only seen several of these films to date that I could really recommend or desire as dvd purchases. This and the early Lee/Cushing Dracula outings are my faves but if I had to choose just one Hammer film to own or watch, Captain Kronos would win hands down. Why?

Well, the film is a comedy horror where the conventional vampire genre rules no longer apply. Horst Janson plays Captain Kronos, the handsome vampire hunter with a heavy cannabis habit, who is partnered up with the hunchbacked Professor Hieronymos Grost (played by John Cater). Professor Grost seems to be an "Igor" type character at first glance but you soon learn that he is not only both intelligent and likeable, but he's also an especially valued friend and companion to Kronos. Grost is also the vampire expert. As Kronos puts it when describing the Professor, "What he doesn't know about vampirism wouldn't fill a flea's codpiece."

The vampires in this film walk in broad daylight and rather than stealing blood, they steal youthfullness from their victims, taking beautiful young women and then turning them into extremely unattractive old crones in a matter of minutes only. Professor Grost
tells us that "There are as many species of vampire as there are beasts of prey. Their methods and motives for attack can vary in a hundred different ways. " Ditto with their means of destruction. A different killing technique must be employed for each different type of bloodsucker which leads up to one of the film's highlights, a sequence where Kronos and Grostare trying to discover how to destroy one of these age sucking creatures by utilising different methods. They eventually kill the unfortunate creature by accident!

Another big highlight is a sequence where three outlaw types have been paid to provoke Kronos. He ignores their jibes until they cruelly insult and poke funat Grost's hunched back. As Kronos himself puts it,"To make sport of a physical affliction is both impolite and cruel." I won't tell you what his next line of delivery is because it's just too damn funny to hear when you're watching the film!! I'd really hate to spoil it for you. Funny as this sequence is, it's very touching to observe Kronos' concern for his friend as it also is to later listen to an understandably upset Grost talking about how they made sport of him and questioning the ugliness of his unfortunate deformity.

This film is a breath of fresh air to the vampire genre. To further illustrate my point, just how many vampire films have you seen which climax with a swashbuckling style swordfight at the end? (Of course the film was made years before Blade). The film's closest comparison would be Polanski's equally wonderful and far more expensive Fearless Vampire Killers (and maybe the Man With No Name films or Dellamorte Dellamore because of Kronos' always cool and witty behaviour under extreme circumstances), but Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter has a very British sense of humour and many original ideas of it's own. Kudos to the director Brian Clemens who also wrote the film. This is one of Britain's most original and finest comedy horrors and it's a treasured part of my dvd collect
ion.

This reviewed version is a Spanish region 2 dvd released by "Manga Films" (an odd dvd company title considering what they've released here). Looking at an included inlay, I note that they've released 20 different Hammer titles to date. The anamorphic print is impressive but there is a small amount of graininess evident in the night-time scenes. Unfortunately there's also the occassional "hair" that appears for a short while but I'm still pleased with the overall quality. At first I was worried that I wouldn't be able to remove the subtitles but luckily it's not a problem. You just have to select the English track (2.0 sound) with Spanish subtitles, start the film, and then re-enter the menu again to select the no subtitles option before returning back to the feature.

As well as a very cool poster postcard contained within, Manga Films provide some good (but not great) extras. Mind you, I really don't want or need picture galleries that merely show us paused moments from the feature, that's completely pointless. But as well
as a trailer and the filmographies, you get a 25 minute episode of the World Of Hammer television series narrated by Oliver Reed. Presumably, Manga will be offering one of these episodes on each of their 20 Hammer dvds. The enjoyable episode on this disc is called "Vamp" and it concentrates on the female vampires in Hammer's horror output.

So Manga Films are offering a pleasing enough package and treatment for one of Hammer's finest films and one of the 1970's very best comedy horrors.