Rating: 2.5/5
Hooptober 7.0 | 27/32 | Non-Dracula Hammer
Margaret (Valerie Leon) tosses in her bed.
From the night sky, the camera pulls back to expose a cliff face. Into the cliffside, we go to see Queen Tera (Valerie Leon) passed out and dressed in the horniest Egyptian garb imaginable.
A priest drips a black substance into her nose, putting her into a state of suspended animation. They remove her hand and take it outside to feed to wild dogs. The priests lay the cover on her sarcophagus. The hand escapes the dogs, crawling along the sand, the red ring on its finger shimmering in the moonlight.
Once the priests leave and seal the tomb, a strong wind blows, tearing into their necks like animal bites and killing them.
Margaret startles awake. Her father, Professor Julian Fuchs (Andrew Keir), comes in to comfort her — the same nightmare comes to her every night. After she dresses and comes down the stairs, her father gives her an early birthday gift — Queen Tera’s red ring.
Little does he know the power the ring has. The ring pulls Margaret into the sway of an ancient evil that threatens to break free after centuries of dormancy.
This movie was such a disaster during production.
Because of his wife’s diagnosis of emphysema, Peter Cushing had to leave after one day of filming. Andrew Keir stepped in to do his best Cushing imitation, which is honestly pretty good.
Original director Seth Holt died of a heart attack during the shoot. Michael Carreras, Hammer producer James Carreras’s son, stepped in and found that the footage was a mess — this is likely because of Chris Wicking’s script, which Seth Holt had to rewrite as they filmed.
Thankfully, Hammer was over twenty years in and could apply their signature gothic style to hide the unsightly seams. I wouldn’t call this an inspired movie, but it scratches an itch that only Hammer films seem to scratch.