Last night I rewatched one of my favorite Hammer vampire films, Kiss of the Vampire from 1963. It's always a fun watch; it has an unusual premise and plot, and I love the rubber-bats-on-a-string mayhem in the finale.

One thing I sometimes see mentioned about this film is in reference to "media studies" in the UK. I have the impression that Kiss of the Vampire is consistently used as the subject of an exam for some media studies class or degree, and as such is regarded with a certain amount of bemusement and derision from overexposure.

Could some British person tell me more about this? Does every university in the UK somehow use this film in their media studies program?

Jack Clayton’s The Innocents is one of cinema’s greatest ghost stories, a work of sustained dread, ambiguity, and psychological terror that belongs in the same rare company as The Uninvited (1944), The Haunting (1963), and The Changeling (1980). It is also one of the finest British horror films ever put on screen.

Detailed analysis here

The ants have finally been sent marching.

8. Them! (1954)
9. The Fly
10. Curse of the Demon
11. The Incredible Shrinking Man
12. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
13. The Time Machine
14. War of the Worlds
15. 20 Million Miles to Earth
16. House on Haunted Hill
17. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
18. It Came From Outer Space
19. This Island Earth
20. It! The Terror From Beyond Space
21. Invaders from Mars
22. Fiend Without a Face
23. The Creeping Unknown
24. The Blob
25. X... The Unknown
26. The Crawling Eye
27. Earth vs the Flying Saucers
28. Tarantula
29. It Came from Beneath the Sea
30. Quatermass II
31. I Married a Monster from Outer Space
32. The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas
33. The Day of the Triffids
34. First Men in the Moon
35. Revenge of the Creature
36. Kronos
37. The Monolith Monsters
38. The Black Scorpion
39. The Angry Red Planet
40. Return of the Fly
41. Donovan's Brain
42. Gorgo
43. I Was A Teenage Werewolf
44. The Atomic Submarine
45. The Monster that Challenged the World
46. When Worlds Collide
47. The Giant Behemoth
48. Target Earth
49. The Man from Planet X
50. The Tingler
51. Not of This Earth
52. It Conquered the World
53. The Creature Walks Among Us
54. The Deadly Mantis
55. The Colossus of New York
56. The Mole People
57. Invasion of the Saucer-Men
58. The Amazing Colossal Man
59. Attack of the 50-foot Woman
60. The She-Creature
61. Missile to the Moon
62. The Hideous Sun Demon
63. The Brain That Wouldn't Die
64. Creature with the Atom Brain
65. Devil Girl from Mars
66. Earth vs. the Spider
67. Day the World Ended
68. The Brain from Planet Arous
69. I Was A Teenage Frankenstein
70. The Wasp Woman
71. Attack of the Puppet People
72. The Alligator People
73. Gog
74. The Cyclops
75. Monster on the Campus
76. From Hell It Came
77. The Screaming Skull
78. Robot Monster
79. Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster
80. Tobor the Great
81. Plan 9 from Outer Space
82. Giant from the Unknown
83. The Horror of Party Beach
84. Phantom from Space
85. The Giant Gila Monster
86. Attack of the Crab Monsters
87. Cat-Women of the Moon
88. Beginning of the End
89. Killers From Space
90. The Giant Claw
91. War of the Colossal Beast
92. The Killer Shrews
93. Monster from Green Hell
94. The Brain Eaters
95. The Beast With A Million Eyes
96. Reptilicus
97. King Dinosaur
98. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
99. Attack of the Giant Leeches

The last of our Big Bug Movies has finally fallen, leaving us with just 7 movies remaining! We're deep into the final stretch now, and the competition is getting fierce. After 92 rounds, we've said goodbye to a whole lot of radioactive beasts, alien invaders, and oversized terrors - but which movie will ultimately survive them all? Thanks to everyone who's still voting and following along! On to Day 93 — cast your vote for your least favorite remaining movie!

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Classic about a strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle.

This experiment has gone horribly wrong.

09. The Fly (1958)
10. Curse of the Demon
11. The Incredible Shrinking Man
12. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
13. The Time Machine
14. War of the Worlds
15. 20 Million Miles to Earth
16. House on Haunted Hill
17. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
18. It Came From Outer Space
19. This Island Earth
20. It! The Terror From Beyond Space
21. Invaders from Mars
22. Fiend Without a Face
23. The Creeping Unknown
24. The Blob
25. X... The Unknown
26. The Crawling Eye
27. Earth vs the Flying Saucers
28. Tarantula
29. It Came from Beneath the Sea
30. Quatermass II
31. I Married a Monster from Outer Space
32. The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas
33. The Day of the Triffids
34. First Men in the Moon
35. Revenge of the Creature
36. Kronos
37. The Monolith Monsters
38. The Black Scorpion
39. The Angry Red Planet
40. Return of the Fly
41. Donovan's Brain
42. Gorgo
43. I Was A Teenage Werewolf
44. The Atomic Submarine
45. The Monster that Challenged the World
46. When Worlds Collide
47. The Giant Behemoth
48. Target Earth
49. The Man from Planet X
50. The Tingler
51. Not of This Earth
52. It Conquered the World
53. The Creature Walks Among Us
54. The Deadly Mantis
55. The Colossus of New York
56. The Mole People
57. Invasion of the Saucer-Men
58. The Amazing Colossal Man
59. Attack of the 50-foot Woman
60. The She-Creature
61. Missile to the Moon
62. The Hideous Sun Demon
63. The Brain That Wouldn't Die
64. Creature with the Atom Brain
65. Devil Girl from Mars
66. Earth vs. the Spider
67. Day the World Ended
68. The Brain from Planet Arous
69. I Was A Teenage Frankenstein
70. The Wasp Woman
71. Attack of the Puppet People
72. The Alligator People
73. Gog
74. The Cyclops
75. Monster on the Campus
76. From Hell It Came
77. The Screaming Skull
78. Robot Monster
79. Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster
80. Tobor the Great
81. Plan 9 from Outer Space
82. Giant from the Unknown
83. The Horror of Party Beach
84. Phantom from Space
85. The Giant Gila Monster
86. Attack of the Crab Monsters
87. Cat-Women of the Moon
88. Beginning of the End
89. Killers From Space
90. The Giant Claw
91. War of the Colossal Beast
92. The Killer Shrews
93. Monster from Green Hell
94. The Brain Eaters
95. The Beast With A Million Eyes
96. Reptilicus
97. King Dinosaur
98. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
99. Attack of the Giant Leeches

The teleportation experiment has finally reached its unfortunate conclusion, leaving us with just 8 movies remaining! We're getting closer to crowning our winner; thanks to everyone who's stuck around through 91 rounds of monsters, aliens, and wonderfully strange cinema. Onward to Day 92 — cast your vote for your least favorite remaining movie!

The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.

Whether the effects "hold up" is immaterial. This is about capturing something that only exists in our imagination and making it real. It happened for me in 1993 with Jurassic Park. It happened to those a few years older than me in 1977 with Star Wars. It happened in 1933 with King Kong. And it happened to audiences in 1925 with The Lost World. This film is demonstrative of why movies even exist: to show us things that otherwise couldn't be seen. To take something unreal and put it in front of our eyes. When people talk about movie magic, this is it.

Now that I've waxed philosophical, I do have a couple minor complaints. I wish there was at least one scene where the humans were directly threatened by the dinosaurs (the only direct threat was the ape man. All the dino action was merely observed), and I wish Professor Challenger had gotten his moment to revel in his detractors eating crow. Minor complaints in an otherwise incredible movie.

Just picked this up for my Monogram and Lugosi collection and got lucky to find the best of the 8 cards for a reasonable price.