Captain Kronos - Vampire hunter is a film from Hammer House of Horror. Filmed in 1972 and released in 1974 it stars Horst Janson as Kronos, John Cater as Professor Hieronymus Grost, John Carson as Dr. Marcus, Caroline Munro as Carla, Shane Briant as Paul Durward, Lois Daine as Sara Durward, Wanda Ventham as Lady Durward, and William Hobbs as Lord Durward.
Written and Directed by Brian Clemens ( writer and or producer of: Avengers, Adam Adamant Lives! New Avengers, The Professionals,Remington Steele, Bergerac) it was originally meant to be the pilot for a T.V. series. After budget cuts at Hammer the film was shelved before being released in the cinema. The film itself has possible links with the Hammer 'Karnstein Vampire Series' and shares many attributes with those films.
Unlike many of those films, however, it has equal appeal to both sexes. The handsome, swashbuckling hero of Captain Kronos provides ample titillation for female fans as does the buxom gypsy Carla--Kronos rescues her from a stockade as the travel in search of Vampires--for male fans. It also suffers from slightly better writing than most of the films from this series and from this time period.
The story takes place in the typical Hammer limbo of history. It's sometime between the 17th and 19th centuries in an indistinguishable european country. In a rural village young girls are being attacked by a cloaked figure in the forest. They are often found staring into space, their lips kissed with blood, then they began to age horribly until all the life and youth is drained from them completely. Dr. Marcus, who lives locally, calls on old friend Captain Kronos (a former Captain if the Imperial Guard) and his sidekick Professor Grost to help him investigate. No details of either Kronos and Marcus's relationship, nor how Kronos hooked up with Grost, who which Imperial guard Kronos served in are ever given.
Professor Grost acts as a sort of Van Helsing character using various methods (such as dead toads) to determine the presence of a Vampire. At one point he employs a not very effective alarm system by hanging bells on red ribbon in the forest where the cloaked figure has been known to attack. When Dr. Marcus is attacked himself Kronos and Grost apply all their knowledge and experience to turn him back. Grost also fashions Kronos a special steel sword complete with crucifix handle and mirror inset for his final showdown with the Vampires.
The interesting thing about their methods is that they basically have to use trial an error. They know what has worked in the past, but apparently not all vampires are the same. It is only after Marcus is pierced by a steel crucifix that he returns to his former self and Kronos and Grost realise to fight these particular vampires they need steel. They go to the local graveyard and remove a large iron cross, but not before they are attacked by angry villagers believing the pair have killed Dr. Marcus after one of them witnessed all the terrible things they did to him to remove the vampire curse (it's pretty brutal).
Most of the films in this series are little more than male generated fantasies of lesbians/bi-sexual women having it off with one another, using the metaphor of the vampire bite as very loose cover for pornography. Clemen's film still uses some of those tropes, but with a bit more sophistication. As the main vampire, Lady Durward, not only seeks to restore her youth and beauty by taking the lives of young women--you never see any damning flesh--she is also on a mission to restore her dead husband Lord Durward. She is not motivated by lust or blood thirst, but by love.
The idea that the Vampire Hunters are making it up as they go along, making them imperfect heroes goes a long way to cure the ills of the Hammer soft-porn Vampire flick. There are some quite stunning moments in this film that have halmarks of classic spine tingling horror.There is one particular compelling and actually quite chilling scene when a young woman parts from her lover. The young man watches the woman walk toward the safety of home through the woods. She disappears from view for only a moment only to emerge having been accosted by an unseen assailant and dies in his arms.
This film and it is not as overly clichéd or kitschy as you would expect. No doubt due to Clemens's writing. Of course it still has it problems. For instance, Kronos is quite typical in his broody, lone wolf persona. When he is done killing the Vampires he's done with bed-fellow Carla and leaves her behind to pine for him. Strangely he also tosses away the spiffy sword made for him by Grost.
What would have been cool if Carla suddenly got wise, picked up the sword and became her own kind of Vampire Hunter.
I think Captain Kronos would have found a cult audience had it remained a series, even just as a few one off films. If Vampires and cheesy horror flicks are you thing than this is worth a rent of from your DVD vendor of choice. Be prepared though, it's action is quite daring-hero-with-a-sword classical versus bright red bloody.
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