In the Beginning, There Was Hammer…
But what is perhaps most startling is the amount of precedent Hammer vampire films contain.
Perhaps someone else would have initiated this trope, at least in time. But the fact remains Hammer began it. Even Dark Shadows, with its gothic love story of Barnabas Collins and Josette Dupres, did not show a vampire and human falling in love. Rather, that was a case of a human becoming a vampire and retaining their love. A different thing altogether, but one now common enough vis-à-vis Nicholas/Natalie, Buffy/Angel, Vicky/Henry, Sookie/Bill, Mick/Beth and Oskar/Eli!
Likewise, in both Vampire Circus and Kiss of Evil, Hammer films introduced yet another trope that has since become pervasive—namely, the portrayal of vampires as having a society. In the first, this would appear to be little more than a family. Count Mitterhouse arranges for his human lover Anna to go to his cousin where they shall plot revenge against the villagers who have dared attack him. The societal aspects appear far more clearly in the latter, wherein Dr. Ravna and his children clearly lead an entire cult who actively seek adherents. A slightly similar notion was hinted on in the earlier film Brides of Dracula. But up until these films, vampires had always been portrayed as solitary creatures that might have the equivalent of a harem hanging around, but certainly with nothing akin to social activities. Yet since Hammer, the idea of a covert undead civilization has gained legs to be the basis of a popular role-playing game, as well as a central tenet of the Underworld and Blade films, not to mention such television programs as True Blood and even Young Dracula.
One must also give Hammer credit for creating the idea of the professional vampire slayer. Whereas those hunting down Bela Lugosi or John Carradine were amateurs who stumbled into the wake of vampires’ activities, Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing in the Horror of Dracula was actively seeking to destroy the undead. Even more obviously this was the central premise behind the aptly named Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter. Surely here is the precursor to Buffy, Blade, the central characters of John Carpenter’s Vampires as well as the brothers of Supernatural! One might also point out that Cushing’s Van Helsing, with his racing across the border and leaping across rooms, is a fairly obvious antecedent to Hugh Jackman’s performance of the same character.
Most commentators who acknowledge Hammer’s influence focus on the “effects” with which the studio told its tales of the undead. While fangs and heaving bosoms, Technicolor blood and hints of incest get plenty of press, other aspects hardly get any mention at all. What Hammer did was more fundamentally groundbreaking than showing off women’s nipples. Their writers genuinely took the genre into a new direction, introducing fresh story elements that have clearly stood the test of time.
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by D.MacDowell Blue (aka “Zahir”)
