Hammer House of Horror: Carpathian Eagle starts as Detective Inspector Clifford (Anthony Valentine) has two almost identical murders on his hands, two men have had their hearts removed in a vicious seemingly motiveless ritualistic attack. By chance Clifford hears an interview on the morning radio where an author named Natalie (Suzanne Danielle) talks about her new book which focuses on a 100's of years old legend regarding a local Countess who used to remove the hearts of her lovers in identical fashion to the current crimes being committed. Clifford contacts Natalie because he thinks the book has become inspiration for a killer, can Clifford catch the maniac before they strike again?
Carpathian Eagle was episode 9 from the one & only season of this generally high quality British made-for-TV horror anthology series produced by Hammer studios, this originally aired during November 1980 here in the UK & was the third of three Hammer House of Horror episodes to be directed by Francis Megahy (Growing Pains & The House that Bled to Death were the other two) & I personally thought it was the worst instalment of the series I have seen so far. The script by Bernie Cooper & director Megahy feels more like a police detective show rather than a sinister horror flick, take out the ancient legend about the Countess & this could have been any 70's or 80's TV cop show, there's a decent enough twist at the end which sort of saves it but the preceding 45 odd minutes were too predictable & stale for my liking. There is the interesting notion of trying to get into a killer's head to understand their psyche & thoughts & taking it to ridiculous extremes but it's sort of lost in the overall feel of a dull crime drama. The script makes the huge mistake of revealing it's main secret & biggest potential twist less than halfway into itself & from that moment on it became a bit of a boring precession to the end, to be honest Carpathian Eagle isn't that bad I suppose but considering the excellence of the other episodes I've seen this comes across as a definite disappointment & a wasted opportunity.
Obviously shot on a tight TV budget the experience at Hammer helped a lot, shot on proper 35mm film this series really does look like a collection of short films that could have been released to cinemas they look so good. This episode was well made but has dated quite badly, just check out the killer's monstrous over-sized sunglasses in the bar! There is zero gore in this episode & just doesn't have any atmosphere or scares either. The acting is pretty good & a young future James Bond in the shape of Pierce Brosnan makes an appearance as one of the victims.
Carpathian Eagle is one of the weaker Hammer House of Horror episodes as far as I'm concerned, I'm sorry but it didn't really feel like horror at all & didn't really do anything for me.
Carpathian Eagle was episode 9 from the one & only season of this generally high quality British made-for-TV horror anthology series produced by Hammer studios, this originally aired during November 1980 here in the UK & was the third of three Hammer House of Horror episodes to be directed by Francis Megahy (Growing Pains & The House that Bled to Death were the other two) & I personally thought it was the worst instalment of the series I have seen so far. The script by Bernie Cooper & director Megahy feels more like a police detective show rather than a sinister horror flick, take out the ancient legend about the Countess & this could have been any 70's or 80's TV cop show, there's a decent enough twist at the end which sort of saves it but the preceding 45 odd minutes were too predictable & stale for my liking. There is the interesting notion of trying to get into a killer's head to understand their psyche & thoughts & taking it to ridiculous extremes but it's sort of lost in the overall feel of a dull crime drama. The script makes the huge mistake of revealing it's main secret & biggest potential twist less than halfway into itself & from that moment on it became a bit of a boring precession to the end, to be honest Carpathian Eagle isn't that bad I suppose but considering the excellence of the other episodes I've seen this comes across as a definite disappointment & a wasted opportunity.
Obviously shot on a tight TV budget the experience at Hammer helped a lot, shot on proper 35mm film this series really does look like a collection of short films that could have been released to cinemas they look so good. This episode was well made but has dated quite badly, just check out the killer's monstrous over-sized sunglasses in the bar! There is zero gore in this episode & just doesn't have any atmosphere or scares either. The acting is pretty good & a young future James Bond in the shape of Pierce Brosnan makes an appearance as one of the victims.
Carpathian Eagle is one of the weaker Hammer House of Horror episodes as far as I'm concerned, I'm sorry but it didn't really feel like horror at all & didn't really do anything for me.