Double Feature: The House that Dripped Blood and Horror of Dracula

I'm watching and reviewing at least two horror movies a week to better enjoy my Halloween season. Since I put these posts up ahead of time, expect many more plus some thoughts on adapting to RPGs for the month of November.

I added another haunted house story and began my Hammer Horror watching this time around by seeing The House that Dripped Blood and Horror of Dracula respectively. Two films starring the great Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Warning: lots of spoilers!!

The House that Dripped Blood

This anthology horror movie features several well-known British actors: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Denholm Elliott, and Jon Pertwee. The four stories revolve around a strange house and the dooms that find each of the previous inhabitants.

Told by local constables and the owner who rents it out to an incredulous detective from Scotland Yard, each tale starts with a new tenant renting out the house, each falling victims to threats crafted to their particular temperament.

The first story "Method for Murder" involves an author, played by Denholm Elliott, haunted by the character of his new book, an insane strangler. His wife claims not see him lurking outside the house or sneaking about the room. He begins to doubt his own sanity. Things take an interesting turn as his creation turns out to both a fiction and oh so very real.

"Waxworks", the second story, stars the great Peter Cushing, as a retiree who remains haunted by memory of a woman he once loved. He discovers a compelling waxwork modeled on her in a local waxwork museum. Her former husband runs the establishment and explains she was executed as a murderess. Despite the temptation, he resists returning to see her until a friend of him visits, a friend who also tried to woo this mysterious beauty. The pair try to resist her lure only to learn the true secret of the waxwork and become permanent additions.

From the renter, Mr. Stoker, we hear the tale of "Sweets to the Sweet". Christopher Lee plays a father terrified of his young daughter. He isolates her, forbids her toys, especially dolls, and avoids talking of her mother. The tutor he hires for the girl slowly unravels the mystery however. Through her the child learns to overcome her fear of fire. Soon the child crafts herself a doll of wax and makes use of her gift of witchcraft to enact revenge.

Jon Pertwee is our final victim as the vanished actor the detective seeks. In the "The Cloak", this famed horror star decides to improve the shoddy costume for his newest (and lowest budget) film where he plays a vampire. He acquires an overly authentic cloak from a strange shop which he soon learns can turn him into a true vampire. As an expert in horror, he knows to avoid the cloak but it is already too late. It seems his fans want him to join them.

We end with the detective still unconvinced. He investigates the house himself that night and runs afoul of the previous occupants.

All in all I was surprised how good this film was. For a forty year old film the stories had more interesting twists than the majority of modern-day tales. The characters never act stupidly and often realize the danger they are in (though too late). The nature of the house also helps. It doesn't just punish people but instead responds to the character of its occupant. Imagined fears become real no matter their origins, regrets return to haunt one, and those seeking the authenticity find it at a tragic cost.

Gaming Ideas

Good horror is hard to do in a roleplaying game. Particularly the theme of this movie, that the house reflects personality of its occupant, is a difficult one to use in play. You really need to know both the player (to connect with them) and the character (to make the tale appropriate). It can be done but you need buy in from people you known for a while.

The individual stories of this film however suggest a few interesting ideas. "Waxworks" in particular suggests an interesting origin story for a Promethean, a Muse crafted from wax and the decaying remains of the creator's love. The character would have Striking Looks and appropriate powers of mesmerism. A nice twist would be to add some ghostly allies, former lovers of the original body now bound to the character in death.

"Sweets to the Sweet" could be a nice introduction to a morally complicated Hunter: the Vigil game. What do you do about a murderous child witch? Did her tutor take up the Vigil afterwards? Or perhaps the child became one of the Mad, an insane Mage whose powers threaten all?

"The Cloak" could also work well in a mortals against the darkness game, as a temptation to become one of the enemy in order to better destroy them.

Horror of Dracula

Finally we get a classic of Hammer Horror with a version of Dracula. Christoper Lee plays the menacing Count Dracula opposed by Peter Cushing's Van Helsing.

The Horror of Dracula takes many liberties with Bram Stoker's original novel. It swaps the characters of Lucy and Mina, casts Jonathan Harker as Van Helsing's secret partner, and apparently completely alters where the story is set. I'm willing to ignore all but the last alteration as the story flows well and moves quickly in the ever-shifting conflict with the Count.

We begin as Harker infiltrates Dracula's castle as a librarian. He gets caught up in a quarrel between the Count and one of his brides, eventually releasing her through death before succumbing to her master. Van Helsing puts his friend to rest after gaining directions from some very unhelpful townsfolk. Dracula however escapes.

Lee's performance as Dracula is amazing given how few lines he has. Through sheer body language he conveys the monster's predatory and implacable nature.

Castle Dracula is also quite grand. The other (later) sets, the graveyard and the Holmewood's home are equally well constructed. I noted that the air seem oddly chilled during the filming. You can see many of the characters' breaths in the cold air.

The rest of the film focuses on Harker's home town, which apparently is a night's hard ride from Castle Dracula. It raises questions, given the modern feel of much of the rest of the movie, why these comparatively local people are so insular. Also I'm not sure why it takes Helsing 10 days to tell the Holmewoods that Harker has died. He seems to find his partner at most a couple of days after his demise.

Retunring to the plot, we next watch Lucy, Harker's fiance, succumb to Dracula's attentions as in the novel. Seward makes an appearance as the family doctor is then never seen again. Helsing attempts to put protections in place to drive Dracula away but the nurse removes them at Lucy's request. Of course then she dies and returns as one of the undead.

It takes some convincing but eventually her brother Mr. Holmewood helps Van Helsing put her to rest. They then set to work of finding the Count. He however is always one step ahead of them, moving his coffin and moving on to Mina, Holmewood's wife. In the end they chase him back to the castle, rescue Mina and slay the monster by exposing him to sunlight.

My synopsis however doesn't do justice to the film as the last third of the movie is a rapid series of reversals as the heroes close in Dracula only to find he's already escaped. I thought the movie was excellent and well worth watching and re-watching.

Gaming Ideas

My first thought is the highly altered story could work well as a partially true retelling of Operation Edom's first attempt to secure Dracula as an operative for the British Empire. This of course would be a tie in for the Dracula Dossier, the mega adventure for Night's Black Agents.

Another interesting thing to note is when Harker first tries to kill Dracula and his Bride, the Count partially awakens and does something to speed the coming of night. Either he mesmerizes Harker (sans the traditional eye contact), speeds up time outside the crypt (or slows it within the crypt) or can obscure sunlight somehow. Let's disregard the first as uninteresting and the later for being inconsistent with how the film ends. If Dracula can manipulate time that hints at an even more unnatural monster. Perhaps his immortality comes only by extending his personal timeline (perhaps at the cost of cutting off others). It's an interesting idea for a monster at least.