Dracula Prince of Darkness [M]

Ten years ago a great evil was rid from the village of Carlsbad, that of the vampiric count Dracula. But the villagers still live in fear that he is not truly gone. Their fears are confirmed when four English travellers are lured by evil to Dracula’s castle and one of them becomes the blood sacrifice that resurrects the monster. One falls prey to his ‘kiss’ and while the two remaining manage to escape, the release is only temporary as the bloodthirsty Dracula designs to bring about their doom no matter what. 

I have not seen the first instalment in the series of Hammer Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee, but one can easily get excited about the prospect of such an actor-character match. Needless to say I had very high expectations of this movie and, even though Christopher Lee is wonderful as the Prince of Darkness, the film was a bit of a disappointment. 

First, let’s talk about a predictable and uninspired storyline. Tourists, through mysterious circumstances, end up at Dracula’s castle and become the key to his resurrection and his meal. Two barely escape and then team up with a knowledgeable friar to destroy the monster in a very anticlimactic way. From beginning to annoyingly dispiriting end, there wasn’t much life in this story. 

I will admit that for the beginning it was rather good; it managed to create this great sense of suspense, namely through the overloud score, and it packed a bit of a gore factor: primitive and unbelievable, but still effective. 

For the second half of the film, it was just boring and the only reason that I stayed in my seat was to see more Christopher Lee. Spoiler warning: there is nowhere near enough Christopher Lee in this movie! I feel quite ripped off. 

Having said that, the scenes where he does feature are the most exciting of the film. Sauntering through the movie with absolutely no dialogue aside from hisses and screams, he was eerie and mesmerising: it feels as though you’re caught in his hypnotic powers because you really can’t look away. 

All his acting is done through his face and the expressions that he makes are quite telling of his character and where he is ‘emotionally’. At times there’s a real sadness and melancholy lingering about the mouth and the eyes, and then other times it’s pure rage and the thrill of the hunt. Once or twice there’s this sinister and villainous lustful look that flits across his features, which is exciting and creepy given the context. 

To be fair all the performances were fine, the film just falls down in it’s uninspired story and its haphazard narrative flow plus the fact that time does not travel very well here: one minute it’s the early hours of morning and the next it’s dusk the following evening. Bit of a time jump at warp speed that just warped the whole thing really. 

Starring Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Frances Matthews, Suzan Farmer, Charles Tingwell, Thorley Walters, and Philip Lathan, Dracula Prince of Darkness doesn’t quite cut it as a classic monster movie and admittedly, coming from the studio of Hammer, I expected a lot more. Filled with action, suspense, drama, romance, and some unrealistic but still slightly effective gore, it’s a film that had some redeeming features, but unfortunately not enough to save it from drowning.