Review of Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) by Adam E — 02 Nov 2010

Christopher Lee returned to the screens as Count Dracula in this Hammer movie of the 1960s. It is a fairly gruesome tale and has all the things you expect of Hammer with one notable exception. No Peter Cushing. True, he appears in the pre-credit flashback sequence but his absence from the narrative of the story feels wrong somehow.

There are strong performances, notably from Andrew Keir and Barbara Shelley and Christopher Lee is perhaps at his most imposing as he sweeps around the castle with his cape all flowing or lurks in corners with blood-red eyes, but the story is inconsistent and seems to jar in places. However, as the perfect anti-hero, Lee does light up the screen even though he doesn't utter a word.

The joy of Hammer is that we all know what to expect. They pretty much wrote the book of what makes a good horror movie and those of us of a certain age were scared witless by films such as this. There's little that can be described as subtle about this film, but its knowing nods and winks to the audience are good fun and I'd rather watch a dozen movies like this than the latest franchised 3D gorefest.