GL84 Growing bored with the current party scene, a youth drags a group of friends to an abandoned church in central London where they unwittingly resurrect Count Dracula through a supposed prank and forces the descendants of who destroyed him to do so again.For the most part this was an unnecessarily maligned and undervalued effort though it does have some minor problems. One of the film's best parts here is the fact that it manages to really capture a fantastic trend of mixing together the different styles employed at the time by offering the Gothic landscapes here alongside the more modern Mod trappings that were in fashion here. The Gothic markings here come from the rather grand church for their party as the supposedly abandoned effort comes complete with the broken-away and decayed landscapes, the absolutely chilling ceremonial hall where they manage to conduct their party in the middle of broken stained-glass paintings and crumbling pews makes for a truly enjoyable setting along the way here even if the best atmosphere is saved for the end with the battle in the church leads into the adjoining cemetery which is all sorts of Gothic fun, while the film's main issue of dealing with the direct lineage being in peril and the reawakening curse concepts come from the grandest stories of the genre's past being replayed to its fullest here. Even with all this good stuff here, the setting in concurrent-day London allows for the settings in the discotheques and dance stores that populated the scene which is all quite nicely brought in here to give this a solid mixture of the two worlds. Beyond this mixture, the fact of generating some solid action here is quite enjoyable with the opening carriage-top brawl between Dracula and Van Helsing in the past is so fast and frenetic the surprising location of the scene is fun enough while allowing for a marvelous opening. Likewise, the resurrection is truly unnerving and chilling with the entire thing pointed out to be a joke but it steadily grows into something more sinister as he continues on and the final appearance from the mist makes for yet another grand, stylistic entrance here for the Count as he makes his way through the church for his helpless victim. As well, the investigation into the deaths and the slow discovery of Dracula being alive come off really nicely here at generating enough interest to be enjoyable, while the multitude of fights here at the finale with the minions before the great showcase in the church with Dracula is highly enjoyable and ends this on a positive note. There's a few minor flaws here, mainly from the dated look and feel here by being mostly set at that specific point so there's a lot of goofiness here with the clothing, music and lingo used at the time that's just lame. Even still, there's little point here in Dracula being there with being relegated solely to the church for his brief appearances where his menace isn't as well-thought-out here and doesn't feel as strong as some of his other outings. Still, there's a lot to like here otherwise.Today's Rating/R: Violence, Language and drug use.

Nigel P In a move that seems to confirm the events covered in 1958's original 'Dracula' weren't the only time The Count fought his enemy Van Helsing, this updating of Hammer's vampire myth begins with a spectacular scuffle between Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee atop a speeding stagecoach. The grim and gruesome climax results in the death of both, revealing a continuity error – events covered in 'Dracula' happened in 1885, 13 years after this prologue. Perhaps the Van Helsing featured there was a relation of this one! The decision to move the Lord of the Undead into modern times has been lambasted over the years by horror fans, not least because the hip dialogue between the hippy gang was dated even then. The intervening years have been forgiving however – viewed now, this updating is now a period piece, and phrases like 'Dig the music kids' seems to be part and parcel with the overall 'flares and winged-collars' styles of the day.There's a knowing, pseudo-parody feel about this too. Describing a victim as 'a bit drained' and inviting someone to 'come in for a bite' evokes an atmosphere at odds with the grim and serious presence of Dracula and his various machinations, giving the impression Hammer weren't entirely confident about the direction in which this series should go. Their recent 'Horror of Frankenstein (1970)' was laced with similar comedy and was received very poorly.After bringing their vampire into the then present day, the writers then decide to keep him very much apart from it. All Dracula's scenes take place in or around a deconsecrated church, and any interaction with life in 1972 is left to Christopher Neame's enjoyably over-the-top Johnny Alucard. His fight with Van Helsing is a high-point (lots of nice directorial moments from Alan Gibson), but it does rob Dracula of screen-time, as usual.This is good fun though, in much the same way Universal's latter-day horrors were good fun – little in the way of actual horror atmospherics, but a fast-pace monster piece. And to its credit, the now traditional decomposition of Dracula in the finale is one of the most gruesome of the entire series.

callanvass In 1872, Count Dracula is defeated in a vicious battle with Prof. Lawrence Van Helsing, by a stake from a wooden wheel. Van Helsing dies along with Count Dracula. Both are buried, but a servant of Dracula gathers up Dracula's ashes and the ring. 100 years later, the great- grandson of the servant, Johnny Alucarda manages to coerce everyone into joining him for a satanic ritual. It turns out that Johnny Alucarda has brought back Dracula from the dead. Johnny and Dracula work together so Dracula can get his long-awaited revenge on the Van Helsing's. He decides to start with Jessica, the grand-daughter of current vampire hunter, Abraham Van HelsingMeh. At least this beats the follow-up to this movie, Satanic Rites of Dracula. It never truly bored me, managed to keep my attention as well. But this series was beyond stale at this juncture. After an exciting opening that is tragically short, it goes downhill. I appreciate that they tried to reinvigorate this series by setting this movie in a contemporary setting. It doesn't fully work, but it was an audacious idea that I appreciated. One thing that works against the contemporary setting, is the lack of lavish set-pieces. That was one of the main things that made a couple of the earlier films so enjoyable. Hammer was beginning to falter, this was a failed attempt at reviving a series that became infamous for Hammer. It throws in English dialog, such as "Gagger, bloody" , among other things. The trouble is, it feels like nothing really changed. It's the same stale series set in a contemporary setting. Watching Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee battle is always a treat. I did feel they could have upped the intensity for such a personal battle. Cushing is his reliable self in a subtle way. He has essentially played two Van Helsing's in this series. Lee is menacing as Dracula, but he looks tired of the role. Stephanie Beacham is OK as Jessica, certainly better than most of the dames in this series. Christopher Neame is OTT in a fun way as Johnny. I rather enjoyed himOverall thoughts.It's not a movie you'll regret watching, but think of it as leftovers on the third day. It's stale, it's boring, but it gets the job done in an adequate way. Avid Dracula fans will probably wanna give this a look, but don't expect much5.4/10

Boba_Fett1138 Modern horror movies love to place classic horror icons and characters in modern times and people love to hate modern horror movies for that! However, it really isn't something that's new, as this 1972 movie clearly demonstrates. It take the classic Hammer Dracula character and puts him into a 'modern' 1972 setting, no doubt also in an attempt to modernize and update the Dracula series, hoping this would boost the franchise again. It didn't really worked out though, since its one of the final Dracula movies from the Hammer studios but in all truth and honesty; I still quite liked it! Lets face it, all of the older Dracula movies set in more classic settings were starting to get extremely repetitive. All of the movies were being more or less the same, with very little variety to them. And while in essence this movie is also really being the same as any other classic Dracula movie story-wise, it still manages to feel like a breath of fresh air, due to its difference in style and settings.It definitely feels like a more modern movie, though of course in today's light, it still is a very outdated movie. It's really a product of its time, with some funky '70's clothing, music and type of characters. You could complain about it that this movie doesn't have enough vampire action in it, since this is definitely true but in all honesty, the same can be said for a lot of Dracula movies, also those from the Hammer studios. Blame Christopher Lee for that, since he was the one who was done with the character pretty early on already but agreed to still appear in Dracula movies as the count, probably just because it was quick, good money for him. But he always made sure his role was being as limited as possible and also his dialog always needed to be cut down to a minimum. But how can you be mad at Christopher Lee for that? after all, he's still an awesome and very charismatic Dracula, in every movie in which he plays the character.Also good news about this movie is that Peter Cushing returns in it, as professor Van Helsing. Or well, a decedent of him of course. It had been 12 years and 5 Dracula movies ago he starred opposite Christopher Lee. And he was truly missed in the 4 Dracula movies which that he didn't appeared in. Not just because he was a great actor but also really since he has just as much screen-presence and charisma as Lee and was capable of counterbalancing him. All of the Dracula movies without him basically lack a good and strong enough lead, that besides was being a memorable and likable enough character.You could argue about it if it truly adds something that this movie got set in 1972, since Dracula himself doesn't even ever get outside I believe but it does bring some originality and more creativity to the series, while still maintaining a good and typical Hammer studios horror style to it.7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/