Review of Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) by Sarah H — 21 Oct 2012

Well, for starters, the movie is a repeat of the previous Dracula film. Again, the Count is brought back in the middle of the living and he starts making trouble. Again, he mistreats the ladies and the gentlemen around him. Now, his intentions are a bit more unclear however than earlier, and in this sense the movie fails a bit. What is lost in Dracula's presence, is gained in the acting performances of others, but even so, it would have been advisable to keep Lee in the centre of the film. Alas, this is not the instance.

Special effects being quite poor and tame, and the film strongly repetitive and filled with cliches, I would not think normally much of it - but Christopher Lee's Dracula and the first half of the movie leading to how Dracula comes into the scene are inventive and different. Also one should understand that the effects are four decades old so one should not expect too much in that area.

Too bad that the actual part with the vampire count is too short, and the story is just not deep enough to surprise or benefit the film in any way. Actually surprisingly original this fourth Dracula film is still not as powerful performance by Christopher Lee as the previous Dracula film "Dracula has risen from the grave", but even so, its worth seeing for a fan of Lee.

The film does have a successful Victorian atmosphere and Hammer Studios feeling. The score is atmospheric too. I would like to point out that despite the tomato saucy blood, and generally silly effects, the film has original plot twists. The count himself has a bit too small of a role and there are not quite enough of the abovementioned plot turns or twists to keep this movie interesting enough to warrant a higher rating. It is also rather foreseeable after halfway. Lee has just a couple of lines and generally speaking his dialogue consists of very short sentences and menacing looks.

Not disappointing, but certainly could have been better. I have this on DVD because I wanted to collect all the five victorian horror/hammer studios Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee, but I don't recall this DVD having any special features except the trailer from 1970. Bringing back Dracula is just starting to get a bit old, that's all, so it would have needed more in depth dialogue or background for Lee's character, since he is so central. Maybe, like, what are his plans to conquer the world, how is he going to go on about it (until he gets destroyed again) and so on, something similar to what Stoker wrote in his book. Now he seems to remain the same old character, cardboad deep, whose destiny is already determined. In a way his is the most pitiful character of all, because he is so bound to his film legacy: one already and always knows, that whatever bad things he is about to do, in the end he will end up as dust.

The end of this film is rather poetic: the building in which the end scene takes place, surprises the evil vampire and has in fact a philosophical and comforting message. Very stylish way to end the film, in my opinion. Despite its obvious shortgivings and being the weakest of the five Hammer Studios Dracula films it still does have an original enough plot and a stylish enough ending to make it worth seeing if one can handle the silly looking tomato sauce blood and overall low-budget feeling to the film.