Review of The Brides of Dracula (1960) by Todd S — 30 Jun 2005

Dracula's dead, but Van Helsing is still busy wiping out vampirism in Transylvania. This time he's after the Baron Meinster, but he's also got to clean up the baron's contributions to the vampire cult, by destroying those that the baron initiated.

Christopher Lee wanted nothing to do with this one, and that's fine by me, because it's even better than Horror Of Dracula, and who's to say that's not the reason? Peter Cushing is back as Van Helsing, and that's all we need. Actually Van Helsing would have probably been a better title, since everyone seems to find the existing title misleading. With a title like Dracula's Brides, all that I expect to see are women vampires created by Dracula who have survived him to wreak havoc in a sequel. It seems that others think the title implies that Dracula himself should make an appearance. He didn't appear in Universal's film, Dracula's Daughter, why should he appear here when his name is used in the same sense?

Once again, no James Bernard score, but Van Helsing gets his own theme music this time. Terence Fisher directs, and Jimmy Sangster helped with the script. We've got three fifths of the elements required for a winning Hammer formula, yet it exceeds most of the films that have all five. In case you can't tell, this one is currently my favorite.