good back-story, and good acting

An Exercise In Nonsense

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This 1966 movie was, you might say,an official sequel to Terence Fisher's 1958 "Dracula", opening as it does with the ending of the earlier film and there are some who think it's the superior picture. In the interim, films had become just that little bit more explicit so that this time round Fisher could up the ante, at least in terms of violence, if not sex.Peter Cushing's Van Helsing was no longer on hand, being replaced by Andrew Keir's somewhat gruff priest but Hammer had found a new Queen of Horror in Barbara Shelley and she's excellent as the latest addition to the count's harem. The difference here is that this time Dracula never speaks which, in a way, makes him all the more terrifying; the real stuff of nightmares. As well as Lee, Shelley and Keir there is a good supporting cast including Francis Matthews, Charles Tingwell, Thorley Walters and a suitably menacing Philip Latham as Dracula's faithful manservant.

Continuing from where Horror of Dracula left off, Dracula Prince of Darkness opens with Vampire hunters aided by monks; transporting a young woman to perform a ceremony of rending her spirit free from vampirism.One mysterious holy man interrupts the process.The mood and setting of the movie is what you would expect from a good classic horror film. A little added humor, is an interesting addition, and aids in the introduction of one of the stories main characters.Road sign markers, suggesting of international locations stand as good attention getters. The score, when used; seems to work well with the story.The signature Hammer Horror sound relating to Dracula, draws easily on the regular attention of the viewer.A driverless coach, bridges this story with the original tale; the team of horses guiding the coach to Dracula's castle.Dracula is resurrected by a ritual of spilling fresh blood upon his ashes, and the vampire rises again.Great gathering of talent, and a good story; make for one of the greatest Dracula stories ever told.

There's a lot of good you can say about Hammer's first Dracula sequel to actually feature Dracula again. It's great to have Lee back, and although Cushing is absent except in some footage at the beginning culled from "Horror of Dracula", Andrew Keir steps into a similar role in this film, and he's always an asset. On the downside, the plot is not terribly strong. The way in which Dracula is resurrected is fine, but the plot is largely driven by the main characters acting in unbelievably stupid ways. There's some dispute about why Dracula has no dialogue in this film ... Lee claimed he refused to read the terrible dialogue provided, but Jimmy Sangster claimed that no dialogue was ever written for him. Whatever the reason, it's a great move as the silent Dracula in this film seems as his most monstrous and feral.

The story takes a while to set things up but once the guests arrive at Castle Dracula, things take a quick and nasty turn. I thought the revival of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) was quite creatively done, brought forth from his own ashes and mingled with the blood from the slit throat of Alan Kent (Charles Tingwell). You know, it's probably a good thing that the principals in these movies never take the advice of the one rational member of their entourage. Had everyone just listened to Alan's wife Helen (Barbara Shelley), things would have been okay but then we wouldn't have had a story.Most of the typical Dracula myth elements are provided here like the fear of a crucifix and the curse of daylight, but I was really scratching my head over the moving water business; I'd never heard of that one before. I guess if one wants to get technical, the moat around Castle Dracula wouldn't have been flowing water, but that's probably just being picky. Who wants to see Dracula flame out in daylight at the end of every picture?Hammer Films did a pretty good job with this installment of their Dracula franchise. I didn't really think about it till the end of the story, but Christopher Lee didn't speak at all in the picture, relying more on that nasty hiss as his calling card. He had that one great scene when his eyes popped while waking up in his coffin, and there was a great shot of his billowing cape down in the courtyard of the castle. Considering he had a ten year dirt nap waiting for his time to come around again, it might have been a good idea for Klove (Philip Latham) to pick up a bottle of Murine during one of his trips into town.