A Górgona

This is an enjoyable rather forgotten movie from the Hammer studio's, staring both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee again.

I particularly liked the atmosphere of the movie. Unlike many other Hammer movies, this one actually got creepy, which was mainly due to its mysterious build up and overall atmosphere. The first appearance of Megaera is a great horror moment and surprised me quite a bit at how greatly it was done.

But no, unfortunately the movie is a whole isn't among the best the Hammer studios ever provided. The actual story fails to become really interesting and the character treatment isn't the greatest. It took me a while into the movie to realize that Peter Cushing was going to be the 'bad' guy in this and Christoper Lee the good guy. Normally those roles are always turned around. Besides that, Christopher Lee doesn't really get featured until the movie is already halve way through. His character after that also makes a redundant impression and the movie could had easily done without him. He's first billed but don't be fooled, he really isn't the main character in this. It also isn't Christopher Lee's finest acting moment. At times he's just downward horrible. His silly looking make-up and wig also doesn't help much to make his character a good one. Peter Cushing also gets make-up applied. In some sequences he looks so much different than he did in real life! It also takes a while for the movie to introduce its real main character, Paul Heitz.

The story flow also isn't the greatest. The movie gets stuck at times, when the mystery doesn't get explained and not enough is happening in the movie, even though the actual story itself is in its core quite a good one, that's filled with lots of potential, that doesn't really get ever exploited in this movie.

The movie obviously didn't cost a lot to made. Like I said before, the make-up effects aren't the greatest but more distracting are the obvious fake backgrounds and sets. Nevertheless, this has now of course become part of the charm of Hammer horror movies.

Greatly enjoyable to watch for the Hammer fans.

6/10

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The Gorgon ranks among Hammer's very best. Its premise is daring and imaginative - a female spectre so hideous that all who gaze on her are turned to stone, a power even more unnerving than the physical ferocity of lycanthropy or vampirism.

It boasts a wealth of Hammer expertise: Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are at their peak; John Gilling scripted lucidly; James Bernard's score is one of his finest, the familiar overwrought strings underlaid with a spectral organ effect; and Michael Reed's pathecolor photography defines the Hammer ‘look', all sombre interiors and gorgeous autumnal forests. But the triumph is finally director Terence Fisher's.

The film begins beautifully with the credits superimposed against the twilit battlements of Castle Borski. Other touches fleetingly capture the mood of gothic-romantic literature. Professor Heitz beguiled into the forest by the Gorgon Magaera's distant siren-call. Her reflection glimpsed through the dead leaves floating on a mill pond. The encounter by moonlight in the graveyard between Richard Pasco and Barbara Shelley.

The Gorgon is certainly one of Hammer's most pessimistic entries. The setting is turn-of-the-century Middle Europe and the production-design more Teutonic than ever (Hammer, ever economical, transposed the monster of Greek classical myth to their familiar Germanic milieu). When we join the story the village of Vandorf has been under Magaera's baleful spell for seven years. Much of the action takes place in a repressive asylum. And Castle Borski is not the richly appointed seat of other Hammer films but a broken windswept ruin.

Characterisation is equally unrelenting. Cushing's Dr Namaroff is a more ruthless and maniacal variation of Van Helsing. Lee's Professor Meister , though gruffly benevolent, is overbearingly fatalistic. Meanwhile the most sympathetic characters - Carla, Paul, his father and brother - are all killed.

OK, inevitably the Gorgon's makeup is weak (though it scared me when I first saw it at age 11). The sickly green palor and spidery wrinkles are good, but the snake-hair just looks like she washed it the night before and couldn't do a thing with it. Half-glimpsed, her first appearance is remarkably effective, though. Her graceful tiptoe from behind the cobwebs in ghastly counterpoint to what we know will be her terrible visage. A sudden shock close-up and she disappears - almost glides - back into the shadows in long shot, a sequence as well done as anything Fisher has ever constructed. Alas, audience expectation (something Hammer usually deferred to) demanded a full-facial exposure at the end.

The temptation would be to say that The Gorgon might have worked better in black and white - but that would be to deny Michael Reed's disciplined use of colour. Perhaps only today's enhanced computer-graphics could properly pull off the effect required.

That flaw apart, The Gorgon survives as an early Hammer classic that can stand alongside Dracula, Brides of Dracula and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

One of the mythological gorgons(Megeara) is haunting a small village, and everyone in the village literally turns their faces away from the sporadic murders that occur when the moon is full. All this is discovered when a father of a dead man tries to protect his son's reputation, and is greeted with silence and hatred from the villagers. In his quest to find the truth...he does...the stone-cold truth. This is a fine Hammer film, not overly scary, but incredibly atmospheric with its swirling mists, huge cavernous palatial sets, and wonderful direction and casting. Terence Fisher does a first-rate job showing us the conspiracy going on in this village. Peter Cushing is the town's primary culprit of hiding the truth and gives his customary good performance. The film, however, belongs to Lee, who play an eccentric, gruff scholar helping the other son of the newly killed father. Lee is absurd yet brilliant in his caricature. A fine addition to the Hammer cycle.

As mentioned by many, the Gorgon is not your typical scare-fest horror film. It's driving force is its atmosphere, its lore and understanding various subplots. Cheaply made, the film has no doubt turned some to stone-cold hysterics with its campy effects and home movie-like makeup of the creature. While the story has wonderful elements of mystery and lure, it never reveals certain motivations. For example, why has the Gorgon's spirit returned to earth? What is the Cushing character's intentions? Many of the story's characters know the myth behind the murders (how many variations are there to a creature turning a man to stone with her gaze?), so controlling the creature was no revelation. But all that aside, the film's theme is captivating. If you don't expect a monster movie, but view this film as a mystery based on folklore and with a haunting backdrop, you too will be delighted with this hidden gem. There is a scene in castle, when Mageara first appears and we catch glimpses of her peeking out at a prospective victim. It's a tantalizing prelude to the terror to come. But the scene that had me mesmerized , and that singularly crystalizes the Gorgon's chilling presence is when she has turned a character with her demonic stare, then seemingly drifts back into the shadows. It is a strangely beautiful scene. The Gorgon, called the Mageara, is a true mystery. She has no emotion, no true motivation, and she is not shown stalking her prey. Like a black widow in human form, she merely waits for (perhaps even lures) innocent souls to come to her parlor. Mageara seemingly in incapable of harming man, except for her petrifying gaze; she quietly floats about the castle. If I were to remake this film, I would tell the story from the perspective of the female host, and the struggle to understand her curse. There is sheer tragedy in what Hammer has presented, and I find myself looking upon many of the story's characters with sense of sadness and doom. Finally, I want to say that I wish the stone victims could have turned quickly, like those poor souls in the film "Thief of Baghdad," with Steve Reeves. Oh well, just a last thought.

The Gorgon may not be a personal favourite from Hammer, but it is still a film well worth watching, and along with Curse of the Werewolf it's among Hammer's most under-appreciated.

Admittedly, the story is absurd and occasionally could have been more eventful. The ending felt rushed and abrupt. And while the Gorgon was scary at first, by the end she did look rather cheaply made-up and more goofy and menacing. The snakes agreed did look fake, and the true identity of the Gorgon was made a bit too obviously too early.

On the other hand, the Gorgon aside, The Gorgon is quite well-done visually, with splendidly Gothic sets, sumptuous period detail, shadowy and bold lighting and beautiful and atmospheric photography. Fisher, the most frequent of Hammer's directors and for me their best, directs with a fine sense of atmosphere and dread, some parts are incredibly suspenseful, while not forgetting to make things fun too. Hammer regular James Bernard provides a music score that's jaunty but also booming with hauntingly thrilling effect, a highly effective score that fits with the mood like a glove.

The script is poetic and thought-provoking, with a number of funny and menacing lines from Meister that don't feel out of place (Meister's line about using long words and his answer to Heitz's 'I've been ill' did get a good laugh). It also didn't feel too talky, like some Hammer films can do, and the suspense level is never dropped too much. As silly and absurd the story can be, it very rarely harms the atmosphere which is tense and unnerving and didn't feel too predictable. While the characters are not the most well-developed, they are ones that are not too hard to care for.

It is because of the great performances from a talented cast that play a large part of as to why that is. Peter Cushing's dignity and restraint was very much appreciated and Christopher Lee performs with terrific gusto, and relishes his dialogue. Richard Pasco has fun too, Prudence Hyman horrifies as the Gorgon and Barbara Shelley has got to be Hammer's best ever femme fatale. Patrick Troughton, more than just a cameo this time, is great as well.

All in all, The Gorgon is not flawless but it's a good film with a lot of merits, and has to be one of Hammer's most under-appreciated. 7/10 Bethany Cox