The Vampire (1957)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

just watch it!

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Paul Landres directed this horror tale that stars John Beal as small town Doctor Paul Beecher, who is called to the home of a dying scientist who had been experimenting with the blood of vampire bats to make a new serum for his research, that he distilled in pill form. Paul takes a bottle of the pills from his pocket, and after he makes his report, forgets about them. Later, when he has a headache, he asks his young daughter to retrieve his aspirin from his pocket, but sadly takes the bat pills instead, which have the unfortunate effect of turning him into a vampire who must kill. Paul tries desperately to understand what happened, as the police close in... Good performance by Beal, some originality, and a most tragic portrayal of a reluctant vampire, though marred by a much-too abrupt ending that is most unsatisfying.

I continued my winter horror film viewings today with 'The Vampire'. A more descriptive name for it might have been 'Dr. Jeykll and The Vampire' or 'The Vampire Virus'. I'm kidding of course, yet it does borrow heavily from the Jeykll and Hyde story. Here a kindly small town Dr. accidentally takes an experimental drug. He becomes addicted to it. Each night at about 11PM it causes him to change into a hideous creature with a taste for blood. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It's right down my alley. The kind of movie that must have been shown on double features at 50s drive-ins. I can imagine it playing with 'Frankenstein's Daughter' on the marquee. Teenage boys probably loved it cause their girl would want to be hugged tight during the show. These horror films have a special place with me, they bring back childhood memories. I was too young to have seen it at theaters during its first run. It was the sort of movie I'd watch on the late night horror shows in the 60s and early 70s. Yet, I some how missed ever catching this gem. It's the type of late night movie my mom would complain "You're going to have nightmares if you watch that !". Of course I would watch it anyway if I could. The feature monster had silly yet scary makeup that looks like the boogeyman kids imagine in the bedroom closet. Kenneth Tobey gets a chance to once again hunt down the monster like he did in 'The Thing'. He makes a good no nonsense type tough-guy any self respecting monster should hide from on site. My only regret was we didn't wait till after dark to watch it. That would have been more fun than an afternoon viewing. If you are a fan of 50s drive-in horror films, and I sure am, you should love this. I give it a 6 out of 10 rating.

"The Vampire" is an overall decent entry if not overly spectacular.**SPOILERS**Hearing of an accident, Dr. Paul Beecher, (John Beal) takes over the practice of a recently deceased friend and begins to start treating patients. When several of them start dying from mysterious deaths, Police Detective Buck, (Kenneth Tobey) finds that an epidemic may be on their hands. Researching the dead doctor's work, they find that he was experimenting with a radical new pill that would control behavior in the subjects, although none of them can find the results of the experiments. When the series of deaths continue, they finally find evidence that a vampire is behind the murders, and soon race to bring the deadly creature down.The Good News: This is a mildly decent entry in the genre. This is mostly memorable for it's new and original approach to the genre. This is brought on not by an ancestral curse or anything else, but rather by taking experimental pills that bring about a regressed state. That is a new one, and that gives the this one a little extra. The fact that the several on-screen attacks five some entertainment is nice. The main one near the end, where the shadowy figure chases a victim home, attempts to break in and then turns attention to a lone figure walking nearby in the dark. This quite chilling scene is atmospheric, quite creepy and handled the right way for this type of scene. A later revelation scene in a cemetery has some great atmosphere as well, with the actual reveal being quite chilling and looking really creepy. The mystery about what's going on is competently done as well, as several clues lead up to a decent mystery in the film. This is quite nice, and a great way to make this a decent overall film.The Bad News: This wasn't terrible, but did have some really healthy flaws. The biggest is that this one changes around the vampire myth to a really unhealthy degree. Though the creature still sucks blood from the neck, this one still changes the lore around quite often. The creature doesn't need to be killed with a stake through the heart, as it is brought down with bullets. The vampire can walk around in broad daylight. There's even a transformation like a werewolf, which is quite terrible effects wise and what he transforms into is only laughable. Even the classic theory where those bitten by the vampire come back as minions of the one who turned them doesn't get used in this one. That one here is just a part of how many vampire rules aren't a part of the film. The last big flaw is that there's no real activity early on. It's endless set-up with nothing going on and everything that happens is the finding of what happened off-screen. That really makes the beginning quite aggravating and also really dull. These here make the film feel quite ordinary.The Final Verdict: While not that bad, it's generally unwillingness to follow normal vampire guidelines is a little hard to swallow for the die-hards. Recommended to those in the mood for campy fun or are willing to expand what a vampire film should be like, while those who are die-hard followers of the tradition will find a lot to take this one apart.Today's Rating-PG: Violence

Vampire, The (1957) *** (out of 4) Lightweight but entertaining horror film about a good natured doctor (John Beal) who turns into a vampire after mistakenly taking some mysterious pills. The title is a little misleading since this isn't your typical vampire film as it mixes in a lot of science fiction elements and towards the end the thing turns into another Jekyll/Hyde story, which it probably would have worked best as. Even the make up towards the end looks more like a Jekyll and Hyde thing rather than an actual vampire. This film is very minor and nothing special but Beal turns in a very good performance as the doctor and it's always nice seeing Keneth Tobey. The film runs smoothly at just around 75-minutes but I wish they would have shown the actual creature a tad bit more.