Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968)

 


Seeing as moviegoers couldn't get enough of Hammer's colourful Dracula-series, complete with vibrant blood, fun locales and beautiful women, they kept going. Christopher Lee of course was a brilliant Count, even if he probably got tired of doing the same thing over and over.

That is: look sexy, stare at people and have almost no dialogue save for screaming when he is dispatched.

Nevertheless, this is yet another fairly solid entry and it is probably the goriest of the lot. Now gorehounds shouldn't get their hopes up: it's gory for the 1960s, which is still fairly tame to today's standards. Or is it?

After Dracula literally got washed away at the end of the previous outing, his castle is now empty, yet no one dares to venture near it. One day, a burly monsignor arrives who will have none of this nonsense and heads up to the castle with the very reluctant local pastor in tow, so he can exorcise the castle, thus making sure Dracula could never return, even if he is dead at the moment. The monsignor indeed succeeds, but the terrified pastor flees and accidentally brings Dracula back to life and is enthralled. 

Dracula is of course not particularly happy that his pad has been closed off to him and vows - what else? - revenge on the monsignor. 

Meanwhile in a parallel story, the monsignor's niece (the gorgeous Veronica Carlson) is engaged of sorts to a fine young man by the name of Paul, who happens to be an atheist. Monsignor doesn't approve of course and now there are two people pretty heartbroken. Dracula seizes this opportunity to not only turn a local barmaid, but also set his sights on the niece. This of course means that the atheist and the whatever-church-rank monsignor have to team up to quench the evil. 

Yes, the story is the same old schtick yet again. But the pacing is brisk, the shots are beautiful and have some nice quirks here and there courtesy of director Freddie Francis and the characters are enjoyable. No one is annoying or awful and it just flows really nicely. Lee is his impressive self once more, because of course he is. 

What probably got people by surprise, is the amount of blood and guts on display this time around. The first impalement has blood gushing and spurting all over, and the finale where Dracula ends up falling on a metal cross which impales him, is pretty graphic.

It is also rather funny to see Lee try to convincingly sell this. It doesn't quite work. 

Nevertheless: yet another solid Hammer semi-classic and "gefundenes Fressen" for lovers of the genre. 

Reacties

Populaire posts