Review of Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) by Thomas T — 24 Jan 2010

Regarded by many as the least good entry in the Hammer Dracula cannon but really it's not that bad-in fact there's parts of it that are pretty good. And it's got Peter Cushing back as Van Helsing and his descendant so that's something right? And I thought Lee's Dracula would have a very small part but his presence isn't as minimal as you think.

This film makes you feel like you missed a Dracula movie in between-it doesn't flow from the last film like the others did, instead it creates a phantom Dracula film in which Van Helsing kills Dracula with a broken wheel from a carriage, but dies himself.

Some young Dracula disciple scoops up the Count's ashes and buries them outside consecrated ground in the very church Van Helsing is buried in-insult to injury:) Cut to-BAM airplane overhear Yeah! IT'S 1972! Swinging London-bell bottoms "Free love" and rock and roll! In this atmosphere a bony pale teenager named Johnny Alucard (you know he;s evil 'cause his name is Dracula spelled backwards:) convinces his buddies to join him in a black mass at a abandoned church (yep same church) for kicks and stuff-wherein, yes they raise Dracula from the dead in a blood ritual.

It sounds lame but the ritual scene itself is pretty creepy and trippy it has a real Manson family vibe about it. This time The Count decides to get revenge on Van Helsing's great-great-great-great grand daughter and her grandfather by.

..well you know. It's not nearly as gory or sexually charged as "Taste the Blood of Dracula" but the outfits these girls wear are pretty skimpy even for now (its rated PG but nowadays it would be a hard PG-13), so yeah be aware of that.

But it is fun and Cushing carries the movie along (and if you like 60s or 70s period fashions boy you got it here), and Lee is pimp-tacular as usual, but the biggest if there is one is that other then the black mass scene the movie isn't scary-and it's due in large part to the super trendy-hipness of the piece and the STUPID wildly inappropriate music during chase scenes! I swear it sounds like a bad version of the Pink Panther theme! But it's not bad and the emphasis on the Latin phrase on Van Helsing's tombstone gives the film a sense of finality.

BUT GUESS WHAT-yep Hammer made one more Dracula movie with Lee and Cushing called "The Satanic Rites of Dracula" in 1973, in which Dracula (I guess somehow rises from his wooden bungee stick grave) becomes a modern day business man(!) and leads a Satanic cult bent on releasing a plague to destroy the world.

..yea, I'm not sure I wanna see it either. Hammer then made one more Dracula movie with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing called "The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula" and no it's not a musical in which the count tries to kill all the Seven Brides Seven Brothers, no it's a Kung Fu movie! Yea also known as "The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires" critics regard IT as the worst Dracula movie Hammer ever made.

There's also one in between "Taste," and "1972" called "The Scars of Dracula" Which is supposed to be really good, so maybe I'll check that one out. So yeah, glut on blood and remember a time when vampires were scary and blood glowed orange, and see these classics I've reviewed (or near classics) for yourself!