Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) - Soundtrack

Although ignored and dismissed by audiences, critics, and even its own production company at time of release, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter would survive to become a minor cult classic. One that, after I managed to catch up with it, became one of my favorite latter day Hammer Film offerings.

Randall D. Larson's liner notes for this limited edition release offers a detailed history of the film's genesis, production, and release, before focusing on Laurie Johnson's excellent score.

"The title sequence of any film," Johnson explains in the liner notes, "is really furnishing a house for a guest to come in to." No surprise that the film's Main Title serves as an auditory introduction to the film's narrative themes.

First is a rousing motif for trumpet that is countered by an energetic theme for violin. This melody characterizes Kronos's heroic purity and nobility. A second theme is then introduced. This darker and less melodic section represents the vampiric menace Kronos will be battling.

While those three themes serve as the foundation and backbone of the score, with variations on them weaved throughout the film, there is another that is pointed out that is worth mentioning. A low-end bassoon is used to create a rumbling texture that introduces and underplays during vampiric attack scenes.

This is a terrific score for a wonderful "little" movie that tried, but failed, to birth a new heroic horror movie icon. Which is too bad, because the potential displayed in this introduction is just breath-taking.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 1, 1986

Having recovered from the stinging rebuke of 1982's The Thing, John Carpenter suffered yet another stinging rebuke with the disastrous under performance of Big Trouble in Little China.

As much as I was looking forward to seeing this on the big screen, I was unable to. I believe I might have been overseas at the time, in Hong Kong, visiting family when it opened. By the time I returned to the United States, Big Trouble in Little China, having sunk like a stone at the box office, had vanished from theaters. So it goes.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #65

Missing

The "missing" poster was first posted in Burkittsville toward the end of October, 1994. Almost exactly a year later, it was redistributed with the discovery of the students' footage. "It's strange that (something) always happens in a fifty-year pattern," commented Bill Barnes, director of the Burkittsville Historical Society. "She (the Blair Witch) always surfaces, or something surfaces that leads to her..."