Terence Fisher
19 connections found
Filmography
Frankenstein Created Woman 1967 
Dracula 1958 
The Devil Rides Out 1968 
The Curse of Frankenstein 1957 
Dracula: Prince of Darkness 1966 
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell 1974 
The Curse of the Werewolf 1961 
The Stranglers of Bombay 1959 
The Hound of the Baskervilles 1959 
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed 1969 View:
Connections, in both directions
The references extend from the 1931 Boris Karloff version of Frankenstein to 1965’s Gamera to Burton’s past work, and they invade every aspect of the film: the black-and-white color palette, character designs, scenes, shot setups, gags, dialogue, casting, and even a sequence where the protagonist’s parents watch the Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee feature Horror Of Dracula on TV.
The film also tosses in visual references to dozens of vintage horror and sci-fi pictures, from the Universal Studios classics of the 1930s to monster flicks of the ’50s and ’60s (and at one point, Victor’s mom and dad cuddle on the couch as they watch Christopher Lee in Horror of Dracula).
Whatever the explanation for this burst of "Creature Features" nostalgia, it's unlikely any upcoming "monster kid" movie will be as devoted to the genre as "Frankenweenie," a work that interrupts the animation only to share a live-action clip of Christopher Lee stalking a neck in Hammer's "Horror of Dracula" (1958).
When Victor sneaks into the house after disinterring Sparky, his parents are watching Horror of Dracula of their own accord, contently.
Based so loosely on Bram Stoker's novel that it performed the seemingly impossible task of making Tod Browning's classic look positively faithful, Hammer's Dracula was nevertheless a smash hit.
Lee's Dracula also evokes hidden desires within his victims, collapsing those British ideological barriers of repressive sexuality and good taste.
Peter Cushing carries most of the ho-hum script as Dr. Van Helsing, though the well-lit color photography, central to the Hammer formula, can't compare with the shadowy magnificence of Nosferatu (1922) or Dracula (1931).
Horror of Dracula (also known simply as Dracula) marks Lee’s first turn as the Count, as well as Peter Cushing’s initial performance as the indefatigable vampire hunter Van Helsing, and it’s likely the most tantalizingly creepy entry in this series of cinematic nightmares.
But Rick Baker's werewolf design - a combination of his own "American Werewolf in London" morphing and Roy Ashton's makeup for Oliver Reed in "The Curse of the Werewolf" - is quite wonderful.
Generally speaking, the Hammer films were not remakes of the 1930s and ‘40s Universal horrors, though Fisher’s The Mummy (1959) borrowed liberally from The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), and Don Sharp’s The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) reworked elements from The Black Cat (1934).
And, while other versions, such as the 1931 Bela Lugosi interpretation or the 1958 Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing Horror of Dracula, have their adherents, none can match the Murnau edition for atmosphere and eerieness.
Generally speaking, the Hammer films were not remakes of the 1930s and ‘40s Universal horrors, though Fisher’s The Mummy (1959) borrowed liberally from The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), and Don Sharp’s The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) reworked elements from The Black Cat (1934).
Frankenstein (2025)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced by The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Visuals Plot
…some of Del Toro’s nods to the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), also here in abundance, and not just in the Creature design itself…
After so many versions of this story that dwell on the monstrous aspects, including Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and other offerings, or even those that attempt to give the Creature dimension, such as Branagh’s zippy Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), most feel surface-level at best.
…the notorious 1957 Hammer revision The Curse of Frankenstein…
Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein…
Adapting broadly from Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel, James Whale’s 1931 classic horror film, and even cribbing some aesthetic inspiration from the 1950s Peter Cushing Hammer films, del Toro’s take on Frankenstein continues his knack for melodrama amidst the macabre.
This adaptation also borrows a few aspects from other versions, including Nick Dear’s 2011 play and the 1957 Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (fans of that movie will note an unmistakable, much-appreciated visual reference in one scene).
Peter Cushing carries most of the ho-hum script as Dr. Van Helsing, though the well-lit color photography, central to the Hammer formula, can't compare with the shadowy magnificence of Nosferatu (1922) or Dracula (1931).
The cast of combatants is essentially the same, including the architect, Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons), who presides over convocations of the building’s elites in a penthouse apartment accessible only by mise-en-abyme elevator where the amenities include a rooftop garden landscaped like the Grand Trianon grounds; Richard Wilder (Luke Evans), a bluff and brawny television producer who decides to make a cinema vérité documentary as chaos begins to envelop the building and has something of the quality of Oliver Reed in The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), turning more lycanthropic as the film goes on; and Charlotte (Sienna Miller), Laing’s single-mother upstairs neighbor, with whom he carries on a curt, somewhat formal affair.
The stapled suture gives star Noomi Rapace a monstrous aspect; perhaps this is why she strips down for her Caesarean into the same type mummy-bandage bikini underwear that Susan Denberg modeled in publicity photos for 1967's "Frankenstein Created Woman ."
The comic-book Constantine is a blond Brit based in Liverpool (think Sting by way of Christopher Lee in Terence Fisher ’s The Devil Rides Out).
Fisher had previously worked on Gainsborough melodramas, editing the sexually teasing The Wicked Lady (1945) and co-directing So Long at the Fair (1949), a film that warned innocent English people about the danger of venturing abroad anticipating Tony Blair and George Bush by blaming the French for their problems.
To the best of my knowledge it was kept breathing through B-movies like Jacques Tourneur's excellent Curse of the Demon (1957), but it wasn't fully resurrected until the British studio Hammer began doing their versions of the monsters, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, etc. Their most influential film was Terrence Fisher's Horror of Dracula (1958).
The Wind Rises (2013)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
influenced by Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
Themes
It has the elegiac feel of other career-twilight movies, such as John Ford's "Cheyenne Autumn," Akira Kurosawa's "Madadayo," Ingmar Bergman's "Saraband," Terence Fisher's "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" (yes) and Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion," a movie literally haunted by an angel of death, albeit an attractive one ( Virginia Madsen ).
It's no Horror of Dracula or Near Dark, but it's recommended.
Crimson Peak (2015)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced by The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958)
Visuals
It’s a throwback to the Hammer studio films of the 1950s and ’60s (“Horror of Dracula,” “The Curse of Frankenstein”), and a good one.
It’s a throwback to the Hammer studio films of the 1950s and ’60s (“Horror of Dracula,” “The Curse of Frankenstein”), and a good one.
In the 1970s, vampires were something that only marginal weirdos who went to science-fiction bookstores and watched Hammer films like “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” knew about.
The film's original title La Maschera Del Demonio was a play on the Italian release title of Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein La Maschera di Frankenstein (1957) which had been a box-office sensation a couple of years earlier.
It’s largely pointless to compare Horror of Dracula with the old Universal Dracula.
As such, however, Terence Fisher�s 1958 Horror of Dracula stands as the most faithful screen adaptation of Stoker�s novel to date, while Murnau�s classic Nosferatu remains unchallenged as the very best.