Christopher Lee
Geoffrey Keen
Gwen Watford
Linda Hayden
Peter Sallis
Directed by Peter Sasdy
Three 'jaded' victorian businessmen are invited by a depraved peer to partake in a ritual involving the drinking of blood. During the ceremony the three men become frightend and beat the peer to death.
Dracula is a bit miffed that his servant has been killed and so he vows vengence on the three -they will die by the hands of their own children, but first Dracula has to put the bite on their sons and daughters, who then in-turn dispose of their frightened fathers. but one of the daughters has not become a vampire- and could be saved by her boyfriend - if he can reach her in time, well of course he comes face-to-face with the Count himself and in an exciting climax poor old Dracula's pride comes before a fall.
I never was a great lover of the Hammer vampire films but this one is very good It just never lets up, people bite the dust (or bite the neck) at a fair old lick, and those who like lashings of blood will go for the 'blood' ceremony - it's revolting!
After seeing this film I shall be most careful when the kids come up behind me at home.
To reduce the complicated original plot to 16 minutes. it has been necessary to jettison the start of the feature and pick up the plot much later, but it has not suffered at all by doing this, it's easy to follow and flows very well, containing as it does, all the very best moments of the complete film.
What appear to be the original front and end titles, are in fact very clever specially re-made credits in the original style, top marks for that as it's fooled most people who have seen this print, which is quite good quality, despite having been made off a projection print, the colour is reasonable with fairly good definition and sound.
Recommended to all lovers of Hammer horror films and drinkers of Bloody Mary's (a special Derann import).
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Distributed in the UK by: Derann
Films. |
The above review was printed in Super Eight Film Review issue
4. |
This page was last updated 02 Dec 2002