Director: Freddie Francis
Year: 1968
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Fearful that Dracula's reign of terror will continue, the efforts of a local monsignor to rid a town of the fearful creature backfire as they resurrect the vengeful vampire, who launches a flurry of vampiric activity on his daughter and her friends, forcing her boyfriend to finally stop him.
Review:
Frankly, this is one of the best in the series and one of Hammer's better-crafted efforts here. Among the many good points in this is that the pace of this one is just a lot livelier than the majority of their other films, settling into a pace that is quite a bit of fun to behold. The opening scene is a great highlight, as it's the sequence where Dracula is revived with the fury of the oncoming storm, where the howling wind and the fevered attempt to complete the ceremony combine together with a perfectly timed jump that still gets many viewers into a pretty creepy, nicely atmospheric setting. Even in the rest of the film, there are some good moments. The numerous attacks throughout the village are quite well, a ghastly staking sequence near the end is handled expertly, full of the traditional Hammer blood and color, and in general this one tends to utilize the pace better than many of their peers, which is one of the greatest parts here.
This leads to the film's embracing of traditional Gothic overtones mixed in with the rest of the action, getting the genuine sense of classic Hammer through and through in the film from costumes to camera angles to setting, with the scenes at the castle being undoubtedly the most fervent example of classic Gothic setting while the shots in the village manage to contain the same overall feeling. This also has the best bedroom-romancing sequence in the series, lushly erotic and quite sensual, which is largely influenced by other films. This version of the bite, though, has the advantage of a great bloodsucker paired with one of Hammer's better-looking leading ladies. Here, it's absolutely certain we properly associate the bite with sexual deflowering, throwing in a shot of her hand pushing her baby doll from the edge of the bed as she's being sucked, which is quite beautifully filmed and leads even more to the erotic quality of the scene.
The shots in here are marvelous in the grand overall design of Hammer films, and it certainly ranks as among the best from the time period. There is a continuous use of overhead shots in here that don't look like anything else at the time, and are a joy to behold. Watching the town from overhead while trying to center on the action in the middle of the screen is one of the greatest compositions in the genre, and gives the film a higher appeal. While the film may not have much for Dracula to do like always since he basically just seems to be there in the periphery of the story and never really has much of anything to do here, these other factors make it that much more enjoyable.
Overview: *****/5
One of Hammer's best Dracula tales, this one comes off incredibly well and has so much to like that it contains plenty of likable elements to counteract only a few drawbacks within this one. Those with an appreciation for this era of the genre, who appreciate the other films in the franchise, or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like, while most others out there should heed caution.
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