Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dracula: Prince of Darkness, 7 Oct 2007
Dracula: Prince of Darkness.
IMO, this is the best of the sequels, despite the only real drawbacks of the Peter Cushing not returning as Van Helsing, & Christopher Lee having absolutely no dialogue in the film, whatsoever. Those who thought it was sparse in his previous appearance will not be pleased to note that he doesn't utter a single word! And yet such is the power of Lee's on-screen presence, that his outing as Dracula in this movie is still extremely effective!
Fortunately, a pretty decent replacement for Cushing was cast, in Andrew Kier, who gives a robust performance as Father Sandor, & is further augmented by a strong cast of unwitting visitors to Castle Dracula, via a carriage pulled by horses that refuse to go anywhere else, & promptly disappear after depositing the carriages occupants at the castle!
After this point, the film really starts to come into it's element. Once again, Hammer's lush set design is on display as the visitors look for someone within the castle, whilst James Bernard's music once again adds to the sense of foreboding, which suddenly builds to a fearful pitch as a tall, dark shadow suddenly looms in a doorway.......
Enter Dracula's manservant; Klove, superbly played by Philip Latham, who in his own way could almost upstage his master for his cold, unsettling prescence. The spooky factor is magnified much more after the vistors bed down for the night, with the music accentuating Terence Fisher's camera as it almost prowls around the castle. The tension starts to rack up even further after one of the guests go to investigate some bumping noises, & from the bedroom door he spies Klove dragging some sort of heavy trunk in the darkness. Mystified, he is lured out of his room to investigate, & follows Klove down the staircase to a basement, into candlelit chamber containing various relics of Dracula, & also his tomb....... And then curiosity kills the cat.......
Or rather Klove does. Stringing the body up hanging upside down above Dracula's tomb, He then brings a box of ashes & sprinkles them into Dracula's empty tomb, & slitting the throat of his victim over the ashes, to perform one of the most famous scenes in the history of Hammer - the ressurection of Dracula! As the blood flows over the ashes, a mist forms, through we can gradually see a skeleton form, which slowly grows muscle tissue, & eventually as the mist billows & thickens, a hand & arm is seen reaching out of the tomb...... This is an absolutely fantastic scene, which totally mesmerizes the viewer, & is brought to a climax by James Bernard's slowly building score, as a thunderstorm begins. Next, the wicked Klove tricks his victim's wife, Helen into the cellar, & we finally see the fully re-animated Dracula claim his first blood, & i must say that Barbara Shelley makes an extremely beguilng & rather sexy vampire. She'd have me in a second!
In a confrontation at the castle, Francis Matthews' character; Charles gamely tries to confront Dracula with a sword, but the vampire with his super strength simply snaps the sword & grasps Charles around the neck & begins to choke him until Charles' wife accidently discovers the power of the crucifix, & they manage to make their escape. Even though the Count is reduced to only hissing & snarling, the dominating presence of Lee is still very effective in these scenes, & it's interesting that Dracula has no interest in his recently vampirised bride. In a reflection from the original story, he stops her from biting Charles, & flings her away when she goes to him. The Count it seems, is only interested in fresh victims!
Meanwhile, Charles & his wife (somewhat ironically called Diana) encounter Father Sandor again, (not to mention a character called Ludwig, who's clearly based on Renfield from the original story) & he proceeds to share his knowledge of Dracula & vampirism, warning Charles that Dracula will be after Diana. Eventually, after a failed attempt to get at Diana, Sandor's monks capture Helen, & he stakes her, in a scene played very effectively by Barabara Shelley, after which, in a reflection of a similar scene from the first movie, we see Helen serenely 'at peace'.
But helped by Ludwig, Dracula does manage to get to Diana, & as Lee dons his now famous red contact lenses, we see the Count's mesmeric powers as he prevents Diana from screaming. This is immediately followed by another nod to Stoker's original novel, directly transposed from a scene with Mina, where Dracula makes her (Diana in this case) drink his blood from a self inflicted wound on his chest, after which she faints, & Dracula makes off with her. This scene is another step forward in establishing Lee's Dracula as having a sexual/sensual element, that's touched on in the original film.
Again in a similar vein to the first film, there's a frantic horse & carriage chase back to the castle, with Diana & Dracula, aided once again by Klove, are pursued by Charles & Father Sandor, leading to the film's finale where Dracula is trapped on the ice, & is eventually engulfed by the running water underneath, after Sandor's gunshots break up the ice.
IMO, Dracula: Prince of Darkness is the most successful & most dramatic of Hammer's Dracula sequels. It successfully recreates the gothic atmosphere once again, & an excellent cast go a long way to making up for the lack Cushing/Van Helsing. Even so, it would've been nice if they'd given Chris Lee even a few lines! For me, the mute Dracula does detract slightly from Lee's excellent characterization in the first Hammer film, but even so, there's such a high overall enjoyment factor for this sequel, that i can't give it any less than 9/10.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good old-fashioned horror yarn, 27 Dec 2007
This wouldn't have won any Oscars but it's what a lot of punters want - a standard Dracula film. The Count doesn't actually appear until the 46th minute (it's a 86 minute movie).
In this tale, Dracula, aided by his faithful servant, sets about bumping off a group of naive English tourists who are travelling through the Carpathian Mountains. Not a good advert for the Romanian tourist board, but all the Dracula ingredients are here - the castle, stagecoaches, superstitious locals, stakes, crosses, garlic etc.
Dracula gets quite brave in this one as he undertakes a daring raid on a local monastery in his pursuit of one of the tourists - Suzan Farmer (so who can blame him?)
This is a Hammer offering so close the blinds, turn the lights out, put the phone off the hook and enjoy.
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12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine sequel, 20 Aug 2007
This is the second Hammer Dracula film to feature Christopher Lee in the title role. Although Peter Cushing sadly does not reprise his definitive role as Van Helsing this has much to offer.
The film starts with a replay of the final few minutes of the first Hammer Dracula (aka The Horror of Dracula), which is perhaps the greatest moment in the history of Hammer films. From there it develops quickly, with two couples ending up staying at Castle Dracula. Some well known faces make up the rest of the cast including Francis Matthews, Barbara Shelley and Andrew Keir. This film was made eight years after the original and its quite surprising how much more violent and gory it is.
The film was directed by Terence Fisher and you always know with a Hammer film that if he was the director you would get a quality film. He also directed Curse of Frankenstein, The Devil Rides Out, Hound of The Baskervilles, Brides of Dracula and of course the original Dracula (all worth buying). Add this to James Bernard's great score and you have a fine horror film that has stood the test of time really well.
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