
Director’s cut of
Crucible of the Vampire
now streaming
by Ellis Reed
A new cut of 2019’s Crucible of the Vampire – the retro gothic thriller from Ghost Dog Films – is now streaming on multiple platforms.
You might remember the film as a retro gothic thriller with shades of Hammer Horror, featuring Neil Morrissey, which landed nicely with the target audience. Starburst gave it 8/10 (‘a captivating and well-made film’), Nerdly gave it 4.5 stars (‘succeeds tremendously’), and M.J. Simpson called it an ‘enjoyable gothic potboiler of the sort they don’t make anymore.’
Shropshire-based indie Ghost Dog Films was founded in 2014 by Iain Ross-McNamee (directing) and Amanda Murray (producing), who’ve now released a director’s cut of the film to multiple streaming services. Ross-McNamee explained the new version as follows:
‘When Crucible of the Vampire was released in 2019 I realised not everyone was understanding the tone of the film. Lockdown was a great opportunity to go back and rework it in a way that explained the story more clearly.
As well as re-cutting the picture edit, I wanted to go further with the atmosphere by changing the colour grade on several scenes to create a far moodier feel for the film. We’ve also pushed the emotion with an overhauled soundtrack and mix that features additional music from my frequent collaborator, Michelle Bee.
There are various other tweaks and enhancements, including two entirely new scenes and other additional footage and effects. This is my preferred version of the film which I feel brings a much better energy and flow to the story.’
You can catch the new version on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Plex, and Google TV. There’s also a new trailer, which you can watch below.

Ellis Reed
Ellis Reed is the News Editor for Horrified. He also wrote some ghost stories during lockdown, which you can read for free on his blog.
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