Review of Scars of Dracula (1970) by Carlton R — 03 Mar 2012

Now that Hammer Studios are officially open for business, it's useful to see how the masters did it. Admittedly, this comes from an era where the Dracula myth was getting a bit tired, and, indeed, the plot is so cliched it almost falls into the "it's so bad, it's good" canon.

Be that as it may, there are still things to enjoy in this film: Christopher Lee is a joy to watch, whether he plays Dracula, Rasputin or Saruman. The depiction of Dracula's castle shows its age but it is still very well done with an overabundance of the colour red.

The women are annoyingly powerless and silly and they spend most of the film weakened by Dracula's hypnotic powers.(they don't teach you that in the ICH, I'm telling you that!) They are however, very attractive and conveniently dressed mostly in nightgowns.

In other words, this has all the trademarks of a Hammer film, which makes it a must for the Hammer Horror fan. However, for the casual horror fan, or film fan this will appear slightly tedious and dated.