Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter – Original Soundtrack Selections

For a composer who came up with some of the most memorable and well-loved theme tunes of the sixties and seventies, Laurie Johnson has long been spectacularly poorly served in terms of actual commercial availability of his music. A couple of more recent and more considered compilations aside – and plenty more that just feature a random assortment of easily licensable tracks with cover art of a ‘dolly bird’ doing a faux-Cathy Gale pose and oddly-spaced nods to a vague approximation of the concept of ‘flower power’ – the choices were for many years as limited as Mike Gambit’s direct involvement in any given episode of The New Avengers In Canada. Other than assorted single versions turning up on post-Tarantino ‘cult themes’ compilations with three quarters of a second of silence at the start and mastering that shoved them about seventeen percent in the direction of the right hand speaker, there was that The Avengers (Theme From The A.B.C. Television Series) And Other Favourites album that usually changed hands for twenty odd smackeroos despite its budget label origins, largely on account of the Steed and Emma-heavy front cover as the actual contents included two The Avengers-related tracks and a load of big band shuffles to presumably represent the ‘favourites’, or surprisingly proliferate re-recordings of ‘selections’ from his soundtrack work ‘with’ The Stuttgart Symphony Concert Radio Orchestra or variants thereof, invariably boasting one lone exceptionally out of tune instrument taking the place of no wah-wah guitar on whatever they had done to The Professionals. Most conspicuous by its absence, however was his staggeringly good score for 1974’s Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter.

Written and directed by Laurie Johnson’s longtime collaborator Brian Clemens, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter was arguably the most successful at least in an artistic sense of an increasingly adrift Hammer Films’ attempts to find a fresh direction in the early seventies. In an intentional contrast with the more outrageous extremes that horror cinema was pursuing elsewhere at the time – tellingly, it was awarded an ‘AA’ certificate, essentially the equivalent of a present-day ’15’, with no cuts – it fused standard vampire cinema lore with swashbuckling adventure and elements of sword and sorcery and also went against prevailing trends with its triumvirate of lead characters, with the tall and handsome science-meets-superstition toting vampire hunter of legend accompanied by the equally intuitive and combat-adept free-spirited Carla and their technical facilitator Grost, reputed to be a minor royal disowned on account of his disability but who found a more ready source of respect and acceptance in his neck biter-trouncing travels. Had the movie proved a hit, there were plans for the Captain and company to recur in different time periods in future adventures, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to steer the ailing Hammer back on an even course, and that is more than likely a large part of the reason why Laurie Johnson’s dynamic galloping score never found an official accompanying release.

Various aspects of the Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter soundtrack have of course found release in various configurations and permutations since then, but now at long last Hammer have assembled a full soundtrack album from the original tapes and issued it as a limited edition double coloured vinyl set. As well as Laurie Johnson’s score in all of its galloping glory, you also get a sleevenote from me looking at the story behind the Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter soundtrack and its possible influences – some of them a good deal less horror-adjacent than you might expect – and the history of Laurie Johnson and Brian Clemens’ incredibly successful working relationship. It’s a great lost soundtrack album from a great composer and this is the release it has always deserved. Get it now even if only because Rat-Face, Fatty and Big Mouth won’t!

You can find more about the Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter soundtrack and how to get hold of it at Hammer’s website here, or on their Instagram feed – which is well worth following anyway – here.