52 for '22: Dracula A.D. 1972

Movie: Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

Method: HBOMax

Not the only sucking in this movie!

Why Did I Watch This?

You know, I feel like as I go on this question is going to be harder and harder to answer. Listen, I have tried to get more into the Hammer horror films of the '50s, '60s, and 70s, and I have seen a couple like The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), but I'm always looking to expand my cultural knowledge. I follow @HorrorHammer1 on Twitter and watch Chris Lee and Peter Cushing clips all the time. They're both in this. It was leaving HBOMax at the end of January so I had to strike!

What Did I Know?

I know that Lee played Dracula quite a few times and Cushing played Van Helsing quite a few times. Just from the campy title, my guess was that this would be set in the modern day. Err...uh...1972. That's probably bout it.

How Was It?

In many ways it's exactly as you'd expect. It's not quite a B movie but definitely trends that line. Cushing and Lee deliver of course, but they aren't really in the film for long stretches, which is unfortunately. The film opens on Dracula's death in 1872 in a terrible wagon accident. I had figured this was a clip from some Hammer film I hadn't seen, but...apparently it has no connection anywhere and it literally just starts mid-carriage chase. The plot is then that a toadie of Drac's steals his ashes and commits a blasphemous ritual 100 years to the day later so that Dracula can get revenge on the Van Helsing descendants.

But that's not all. There is an extended party scene to open the film, which seems to just be a weird showcase for the band, Stoneground. They play two full songs as a bunch of hippies dance and freak out some stodgy British upper class twits. This may sound jarring, but that's only because it definitely is. It again just starts in media res without any context. In some ways this is freeing and I guess we can figure it out. It's a party, it doesn't have to make sense.

The modern-day descendent of the toadie, who seems like a Renfield-type, then gathers his friends for a Black Mass. He frames it as a lark, and it's an interesting study in how we can get folks to go along with massive evil if it just feels like a joke. From there, Dracula rises again, Van Helsing eventually figures it out because all these dead people with bite marks on their neck start showing up, and then he uses a shovel to push Dracula on to a bed full of stakes. It's fun for the whole family.

The big twist here seems to be that it's set in the then-modern age. Which is somehow fifty years ago. This obviously impacts the characters and general trends, updating from the Victorian era, but it never really pushes the story in a unique way. Not like Blade Trinity (2004) or any other great updated film. Dracula just kind of stays in his desecreated church and Van Helsing solves it like any other detective in the ancient era would. I mean...it's fine, it's still entertaining and there is lots of blood, but there's ultimately no fish-out-of-water or surprising conflict for either of them to overcome. Plus, they're both barely in this. It mostly seems to deal with Jessica Van Helsing trying to fend off modern Renfield, who is like, a good friend but DEFINITELY straight up evil. It's...a little bizarre.

I had fun with this, it drags a bit, the cinematography and shot choices are baffling at times, but it's really the acting of two horror legends that elevates the material.

52 Movies in 2022

Ladies and Gentlemen, as I was putting together my list of movies watched in 2021, as I have done for the past six years, I started thinking about all the films that have been burning holes in my queues for literally going on twelve years now (having gotten Netflix in 2010 that is).

I also thought about how much I like talking about random movies that I see for the first time in any given year. I wanted to both get this need out as well as offer myself some motivation. So, I present to you a list of 52 films I will watch and write-up every single week in the Year 2022. Some of these are films I just think are interesting, others have been burning through my list for a long time, others I know next to nothing about. Still others are just obscure gaps in artists' oeuvres that I want to complete. Others are obscure or hard to find and I need some motivation to become a true cinephile and track these bastards down.

You'll find a wide range. Failed blockbusters, old favourites, cult movies, terrible movies, critically lauded movies. Recent films, old films, long films, short films. Westerns, documentaries, comedies, animation, horror, drama, sci-fi. There's not a ton of rhyme or reason to the list, just all things I thought were interesting and made it on to my list one way or another.

Now, if you are keen-eyed you will notice that there are only 42 movies listed here. That's simply because I decided to give myself room for 10 more that may come across my brain over the course of the year. Or maybe I'll see something else interesting by happenstance and want to write it up. Regardless, every Friday there will be a new movie write-up waiting for you.

Needless to say, I don't think these will actually go in order (there are a handful leaving HBOMax Jan 31 that I am going to prioritize). I am going to keep this as the Master List and include links to each film's write-up.

1. The Elephant Man (1980)

2. Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

3. The Dark Tower (2017)

4. Dracula AD 1972 (1972) 

5. The Square (2015)

6. King Arthur (2004)

7. Swamp Thing (1982)

8. Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

9. Soylent Green (1973)

10. Canadian Bacon (1995)

11. The Sugarland Express (1974)

12. Double Team (1997)

13. Five Easy Pieces (1970)

14. Swingers (1996)

15. Where the Buffalo Roam (1980)

16. Open Range (2003) 

17. The Legend of Tarzan (2016)

18. Drive Angry (2011)

19. The Mighty Quinn (1989)

20. Grey Gardens (1975) 

21. Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

22. Baahubali: The Beginning (2015)

23. Mongol (2007)

24. The Fog of War (2003)

25. Ned Kelly (2003)

26. The Sound and the Fury (2015)

27. Freddy Got Fingered (2001)

28. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) 

29. The Hidden Fortress (1959)

30. Strangers with Candy (2005)

31. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

32. The Hours (2002) 

33. The Fog (1980)

34. Persepolis (2007)

35. 8 1/2 (1963)

36. Hollywood Shuffle (1987)

37. The Night of the Comet (1984)

38. Lost Highway (1997)

39. Krull (1983)

40. Haxan (1922)

41. House (1977)

42. Re-Animator (1985)

43. The Seventh Seal (1958)

44. Domino (2005)

45. Gods and Monsters (1998)

46. Dolemite (1975)

47. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

48. The Last Tycoon (1976)

49. Marty (1955)

50. Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

51. Cosmopolis (2012)

52. Greed (1924)

This will hopefully be a very fun exercise for this year, or at least until I become busy and exhausted. Enjoy!

2018 Movie Watching Retrospective

This is one of my favorite times of the year, people. It's that moment where I tally up my insane movie-and-tv-tracking mission and see what I did over the past year. For the original big list, check this out:

2018
2017
2016
2015

This is getting a little out of hand. Luckily we have graphs.

-->

	2015	2016	2017	2018
Movies	198	220	224	249
First-Time Viewings	n/a	117	133	157
First-Time View Percentage	n/a	53.2%	59.4%	63.1%
Streaming	n/a	55	81	157
Streaming Percentage	n/a	25.0%	36.2%	63.1%
TV	86	84	55	10
TV Percentage	43.4%	38.2%	24.6%	4.0%
Theater	10	11	12	16
Theater Percentage	5.1%	5.0%	5.4%	6.4%

In 2015 I didn't keep track of first-time viewings and lumped both Netflix Streaming and Netflix DVD together as "Netflix" for some reason. It was such a childish time. So while we don't have great data for that, we can see some other dramatic changes here. My first-time viewings have improved dramatically, which is good to see. In a truly staggering complete coincidence, I also streamed exactly 157 movies this year - I swear! I didn't quite realize how many movies I...didn't stream in years past. Even since 2017 I nearly doubled my streaming.

Check out movies on TV. I got rid of cable half-way through 2017 and you can see the results. Nearly a 90% drop in three years. My theater watching has been steady and I don't really get out as much as I should, but I happily watched the most movies in theaters than I ever have since I started keeping track of this!

Repeat viewings this year are almost exclusively Marvel Films. There's something just so easy about throwing it on Netflix a few months after watching. They just go down easy, and that's sort of the point. I saw THOR: Ragnarok (2017) three times, almost exclusively because my friends' kids were really into it. Ditto with Infinity War (2018). Other repeats were Black Panther (2018) and Step Brothers (2008).

Let's break down 2018 a little more:

By Media:

-->

Medium	Number	Percentage
Amazon Prime	1	0.40%
BluRay	2	0.80%
Digital Download	2	0.80%
DVD	16	6.43%
Hulu	36	14.46%
Kanopy	17	6.83%
Netflix DVD	46	18.47%
Netflix Streaming	95	38.15%
Roku	1	0.40%
Theater	16	6.43%
TV	10	4.02%
Vimeo	1	0.40%
YouTube	6	2.41%
Total Streaming	157	63.05%

Last year I streamed 74 movies on Netflix and exactly 1 on Hulu. I did not know that Kanopy existed. My TV Channel breakdown used to be epic. Now it is not, but:

-->

Channel	Movies
AMC	2
Comedy Central	2
Comet	2
Freeform	1
FX	1
HBO	1
SyFy	1

These channels are bizarre. Let's get into the years:

By Decade:

-->

Decade	Number	Percentage
1930s	2	0.80%
1940s	1	0.40%
1950s	3	1.20%
1960s	8	3.21%
1970s	18	7.23%
1980s	22	8.84%
1990s	28	11.24%
2000s	47	18.88%
2010s	120	48.19%

Getting a film from every decade going back to the 1930s was a big goal of mine. In 2017 my 2000 and above sat around 80%. We're around 67% this year. The 70s tripled, 60s quadrupled, and 80s and 90s also boosted. 70s almost matched the 80s after the 80s and 90s were largely equal last year. These are all positive developments.

Oldest Film: Dracula (1931)

Most Recent Film: VICE (December 25, 2018)

By Year:

-->

Year	Number	Percentage
1939	1	0.40%
1944	1	0.40%
1958	2	0.80%
1959	1	0.40%
1960	1	0.40%
1962	1	0.40%
1963	1	0.40%
1968	3	1.20%
1969	2	0.80%
1970	1	0.40%
1971	2	0.80%
1972	1	0.40%
1973	1	0.40%
1974	2	0.80%
1975	3	1.20%
1976	2	0.80%
1977	2	0.80%
1978	1	0.40%
1979	3	1.20%
1980	1	0.40%
1981	1	0.40%
1982	1	0.40%
1983	3	1.20%
1984	2	0.80%
1985	2	0.80%
1986	2	0.80%
1987	3	1.20%
1988	6	2.41%
1989	1	0.40%
1990	1	0.40%
1991	4	1.61%
1992	2	0.80%
1993	4	1.61%
1994	3	1.20%
1995	3	1.20%
1996	1	0.40%
1997	2	0.80%
1998	5	2.01%
1999	3	1.20%
2000	2	0.80%
2001	2	0.80%
2002	3	1.20%
2003	3	1.20%
2004	5	2.01%
2005	3	1.20%
2006	7	2.81%
2007	4	1.61%
2008	9	3.61%
2009	9	3.61%
2010	5	2.01%
2011	5	2.01%
2012	5	2.01%
2013	4	1.61%
2014	5	2.01%
2015	7	2.81%
2016	12	4.82%
2017	34	13.65%
2018	43	17.27%

It was a huge goal of mine to hit every year dating back to 1970. That was way harder than it seems. I ended up snagging every year back to 1968, which is pretty cool. I may not decide to do that again, but it was a good accomplishment and really made me realise how hard it is to search for these specific things. I also weirdly saw a lot of 1988 movies.

In terms of watching films that actually came out that year, in 2015 I had 27, then 35, 39, and this year 43. Good things!

By Month:

These are the films I saw in each month. I'm wondering if this is a worthwhile breakdown. It's still kind of fun I guess.

-->

Month	Number
January	15
July	15
September	16
June	19
December	21
February	21
November	21
May	22
April	23
October	24
August	25
March	27

Average: 20.75 per month.

There's no rhyme or reason to this. March was my least movie month in 2017 and January was my most. Straight up. I'm not sure there's much use in keeping track for trends, but it's kind of fun.

Repeat Viewings

Films I saw in both 2018 and 2017 include:

-->

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Mad Max: Fury Road

Skyfall

The Departed

The Last Jedi

THOR: Ragnarok

Wonder Woman

Films I saw in both 2018 and 2016 include:

-->

The Witch

22 Jump Street

Jackass 3.5

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

JAWS

Sausage Party

I decided not to include films in both 2018 and 2015, because things will soon get exponentially ridiculous. I will say, however, that I've seen Step Brothers in 2016, 2017, and twice in 2018, meaning at four times it ties THOR: Ragnarok, which I've seen four times since 2017. I also have watched A Christmas Story every year for the past three years, but not in 2015.

And of course there's only one film I've seen every year since 2015 (since 2014, actually), which is The Interview. I need to keep up this streak for sure. I really like how this list is mostly popular comedies or big superhero movies but also The Witch (2016) in there.

This is a lot. I have some more thoughts about this year, such as my strong amount of Terry Gilliam films, all three Godfather movies, and a lot of Clint Eastwood that I ended up seeing. I think a more qualitative analysis deserves its own post. DON'T YOU?!

What does your movie watching look like? Is it totally insane? Are you totally insane? Movies!