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Reviews
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
A slow burn
This is Hammer's only werewolf film. It is not a terrible movie but it suffers from a number of structural, narrative, and pacing problems.
First off the first 30 minutes of the film are spent giving us the back story of the main character, almost all of which is totally unnecessary. Virtually all of the events and characters introduced here have no impact on the rest of the film.
After that we are subjected to roughly another 30 minutes of sheer boredom, during which nothing significant occurs. After the first hour of so the film does pick up and becomes a true werewolf film. The ending is decent and the acting is solid, so it does pay off.
The plot can be a bit silly at times such as how he became a werewolf and how to "cure" him. Both of which break with traditional werewolf lore.
Overall if you can get past the slowness and the fact that the first 30 minutes have nothing to do with the last 60 you will probably enjoy this film.
The Hamiltons (2006)
A poor attempt at an artsy horror flick
This was one of the films from the After Dark Horrorfest and like most of them it was incredibly poor. The film is painfully slow. It might have worked as a 30 minute short but as a feature film it bored the hell out of me. The film tries to set up this mystery as to what it is they are doing and why they are doing it but by the time it was revealed I had already lost interest in the story.
Also, the acting in this film is incredibly poor, especially the older brother, who at times is laughable. This film was obviously made on a low budget but I can forgive the low production values. You work with what you've got, lots of great films have been made on a tiny budget (night of the living dead). However, what I can't forgive is a lack of talent. The writing and acting were downright horrible and if that's the case then the budget is irrelevant because the film is going to suck. They were clearly trying to make this an art house film but instead they just made a stinker that will put you to sleep before the first hour.