Most exteriors for the Hammer horror movies were shot at Black Park, near Iver Heath, as it was close to the company’s production base at Bray (and also near Pinewood Studios) so if you see Dracula’s coach bowling along a gloomy forest road it’s almost certainly at Black Park. Film and TV companies continue to use it, and I’ve been an extra there too.
Irrelevant side note, but for those like me who’ve watched many Dracula movies, and especially this classic 1958 version, you’ll appreciate the hilarious satire Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) (with Leslie Nielsen as the infamous Count) if you haven’t seen it already!
Besides the comedic genius of Nielsen as Dracula, Peter MacNicol is great as his slavishly devoted but incompetent assistant Renfield, that role parodied from the 1931 film with Bela Lugosi.
Also recommended: Love at First Bite (1979) with George Hamilton (who notoriously sun-bathed) as the Count, Arte Johnson as hilarious Renfield, Richard Benjamin as Von Helsing (Shoots Dracula with a silver bullet. Dracula: No, no. Silver bullets are for werewolves!; Von Helsing: Are you sure?) and Susan Saint James as the love interest. Treats the classic lines briliantly:
Dracula: Children of the night! — Shut up!
Dracula: i do not drink…wine. And I do not smoke…shit.
Love at First Bite is hilarious and incredibly quotable, although some of the “ethnic humor” is a little uncomfortable today. It’s also surprisingly deep in Dracula lore, with Renfield at one point calling him “Dracula, son of Dracul,” and knowing that his given name was Vlad (even though they make it Vladimir).
You say this like it’s a bad thing! ![]()
I mean, I own Twins of Evil on DVD somewhere. The best eroticism-tinged vampire film starring twin sisters Hammer ever made! It’s just I have to acknowledge that as lizard-brain entertaining as I somehow find that film (some of it is pure nostalgia from my youth watching it on Creature Features), that on a certain level it’s kinda trashy
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Of course my favorite Hammer film isn’t Hammer at all, I just once thought it was because it is yet another very Hammery film with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (AND Telly Savalas!) - Horror Express. I have DVD of that somewhere as well. But I should have realized it wasn’t Hammer because it was a 1972 horror film with no nudity. Not very Hammery, that
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Oh, I can’t forget Ingrid Pitt from such gems as The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula. Those of you who didn’t watch a lot of horror movies, Pitt also appeared in Where Eagles Dare playing Heidi.
She got the job by pretending she was really German, though she was actually Polish.