Photo Guide To Military Odyssey

Our favourite living history display of the day

On Bank Holiday Monday, Rachel, Alice and I attended Military Odyssey at the Kent County Showground, as we usually do.

Once again I had the benefit of a hired mobility scooter to get around (often with Alice riding in my lap) but poor Rach put in thousands of steps keeping up with us.

As ever, the show was a magnificent blend of historical periods, from the ancients to modern warfare (although with the ever-present bias towards the Second World War), represented by talented and knowledgeable reenactors, all more than happy to talk about their area of expertise.

In our enthusiasm to get there we'd forgotten that Alice absolutely hates the (near-constant) sound of gunfire at the event, so we've assured her that if we come back next year she can spend the day with Rachel's parents - which she would much prefer.

She was only really settled when we popped into covered café area for dinner, where there was old time music and dancing going on.

Our "small" selection of pictures can't do the event justice, and don't even include the many, many stalls selling militaria, action figures, army surplus, antique swords and guns, books, artwork etc

ANCIENTS

JAPANESE DRUMMING & WEAPONS

ALL-IMPORTANT ICE CREAM BREAK

LUNCHBREAK

Sadly, the only time of the day when Alice wasn't stressing out 

OUR FAVOURITE DISPLAY

The display by Hell-and-Back was so impressive, a Second World War medical unit had taken over a crumbling, derelict building. The delightful man - who could have stepped out of the pages of a vintage war comic - that we spoke to, for ages, explained how it was all assembled from flatpack and scavenged items. And we talked about dogs (of course).

OTHER WORLD WAR II DISPLAYS

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT GEESE

Because why wouldn't you? 

Rachel says I can't have an emotional support goose

MISCELLANEOUS

Alice was confused by the tiny people in tanks

THE OLD WEST

PURCHASES

Three sale purchases covering a good spectrum of my interests

Hammer's New Period Horror Will Chill You To The Bone

Twelve years in the making. This is Ithaqua: the wind with teeth.

A remote 1800s fur-trade outpost is plagued by an ancient evil with an insatiable hunger for flesh. The cold is the least of anyone's problems…

Directed and written by Casey Walker and starring Luke Hemsworth, Leenah Robinson, Kevin Durand, Craig Lauzon and Michael Pitt. This is a haunting folk horror experience where isolation, hunger and myth collide.

Hammer Presents is proud to bring Ithaqua to UK screens, premiering at FrightFest last weekend, ahead of its full release in early 2027.

Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974)

How have I gone this long without seeing this wonderful little film? Especially as Rachel bought me the Blu-Ray for Christmas several years ago and it's just sat on my shelf waiting for the right moment.

Clearly an influence on a variety of other monster-hunting shows from Buffy The Vampire Slayer to The Witcher, and the Ravenloft setting in Dungeons & Dragons, the mythology presented in Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter suggests a wider world and the adventure we witness in this film is obviously just a single episode in his storied life.

Liberating stunning gypsy girl Carla (Caroline Munro) on the way - locked in the stocks for "dancing on a Sunday" - former Imperial Guard captain-turned-professional vampire hunter Kronos (Horst Janson) and his hunchbacked companion, Professor Hieronymous Grost (John Cater), respond to a summons to investigate a suspected vampire attack.

We learn that there are many varieties of vampire, beyond the accepted stereotype, and the one operating here appears to drain life rather than blood.

However, Kronos and Grost need to investigate further, to uncover its weaknesses.

At a later point this involves a darkly humorous sequence when one of their allies falls foul of the vampire and they struggle to find the right method of execution.

The film doesn't really make too much of an effort to conceal the mystery of who the vampire is, but still manages to slip in a few surprises in the wake of the "big reveal" in the final act.

Wearing its '70s pedigree on its sleeve, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter takes place in one of those peculiarly Hammer, vaguely Central European, pseudo-nineteenth century settings where 90 per cent of the women look like glamour models.

The dashing swordsman and his posse

And Munro's Carla is there mainly to take the role of dogsbody, vampire bait, and the Captain's booty call.

But casual sexism aside, this is a well-paced, swashbuckling-horror from writer-director Brian Clemens (the main scriptwriter of hit '60s spy-fi show, The Avengers, and screenwriter of Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, amongst many other achievements on his CV), that really would have worked as a serial.

Janson plays the deadpan Kronos straight, showing that the war hero is clearly damaged, not just from losing his family to vampires, and that's what makes the katana-wielding, Chinese herb-smoking swordsman all the more intriguing.

Then on top of the layered central character (we learn very little about Grost except that he's an expert on vampire lore and he's insecure about his appearance) we are treated to a number of his peculiar, folktale-inspired, tricks to unearthing the undead.

I was particularly fond of the dead toad gimmick (this is something I need to work into an RPG).

"If a vampire should bestrode / Close to the grave of a dead toad / Then the vampire life shall give / And suddenly, the toad shall live."

There's a minimalist look about the movie as well (no doubt down, in part, to the budget), where scenes - regardless of the size of the set - feature very few characters, which reminded me of my beloved Hawk The Slayer.

Light-weight and well-lit, compared to many of the more Gothic Hammer vampire flicks (as these vampires don't sizzle in sunlight), Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter is a unique film in the Hammer vaults - which is a shame, because there's obviously many more adventures to be had with these characters.