Rating: - 70's Drac Attack
I just caught this movie on the late late show at 3am. Its a Hammer production so I had high hopes. Then I saw the names of legendary Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (the two stars in this review are for them only.) The movie went downhill after the opening credits. There is the usual Satanic ritual going on which shows how popular the Devil was in the 70's. But what really didn't work for me was the modern setting. Seeing Van Helsing walking around in London without all the old style gothic settings of past Hammer films didn't sit with me. It reached the point of being absurd when Van Helsing is sitting at a desk with a dark figure speaking to him and then the figure is revealed to be Lee as Count Dracula. Seeing Dracula in a corporate setting lost all crediablilty to me. The other problem is the waka cha waka cha disco soundtrack. I know Hammer was trying to appeal to a young audience in swinging London, but ... Read More
Rating: - Dracula...Shaken not Stirred.
Almost everyone comments on how this Dracula movie is a bit like a Bond Film. It is in a way, and I have to say I like it. It adds another level of fun and excitement. And we get to see "Mod" Britain. And although some people say Dracula lives through the ages because he is undead, I think the real reason is that he, or rather his collaborators reinvent him as needed. This is a Drac for the 70's. The traditionalists will always have "Horror" and "Brides" and other great movies and modernizing the Count won't take anything away from those movies. But if anyone knows about surviving by keeping up with the times it's a guy who's revenge "reaches through-out the centuries", to paraphrase the Count.
I really enjoyed seeing a different type of Drac movie. I liked the intrigue and subterfuge, the high-ranking powerful members of gov't involved in a horrific Doomsday plot. Epic stuff. And considering it was ... Read More
Rating: - Christopher Lee throws in the cape
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (belatedly released in a cut version as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride in the US) was the swansong of the Hammer-Lee Dracs, and while not a classic it is a much more interesting attempt to do something new with the material in a modern-day setting than it's predecessor, Dracula AD 1972. Here Dracula is a reclusive Howard Hughes-like tycoon weary of immortality but determined to take the world with him when he goes by unleashing a new and improved Black Death, developed with the help of key government figures who think it's just a bargaining chip to create a new world order. Pitted against him are a couple of British secret service agents whose own boss is one of Dracula's Four Horsemen of the new Apocalypse, a special branch officer and the grandson of Van Helsing and his own granddaughter. The low budget is apparent, but the ideas go some way to compensate (certainly Drac's plan is ... Read More
Rating: - "What's this then...............?"
........asks an amused British police inspector when shown a slide of a barren doorway where there should have been a figure of a man, but that of course is not possible when that man is the spectral presence Count Dracula. The slides are of 4 prominent men who have been to Pelham House wherein curious lurkings have been exposed. A dossier is promptly ordered and secretary Jane is set forth to meet her fate.
I did not think i was going to like "Satanic Rites..." as much as I've come to. I thoroughly enjoyed Dracula A.D. 1972 and reading that "Satanic Rites..." was a sequel I rushed out and watched it but it didn't seem to have the same spark as "..A.D..."
And then I gave it another shot when I rented it again by accident. And this time I couldn't put it down, so to speak.
The film opens with a vast panning shot of Trafalgar Square (?) in central London with an ominous shadow of the Count hovering ... Read More
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- 70's Drac Attack
- Dracula...Shaken not Stirred.
- "What's this then...............?"
