Dracula A.D. 1972 (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Lee and Cushing back together again as Dracula and Van Helsing
Disadvantages:	Some of the clothes are a bit naff .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

When Hammer decied to update the Dracula franchise this was the result. Dracula AD 1972 is often refered to as one of the worst Dracula's that Hammer made. Feeling they needed to inject some life into the undead Count Hammer they resurrected him in a modern day setting.

However I have much praise for this film. Its a vast improvement on Scars of Dracula which preceeded it (although that did have Patrick Troughton in and the famous climbing down the wall scene) which was a retread of the Dracula's which had gone before, featured an awful ressurection scene involing a giant rubber bat vomiting blood onto Dracula's ashes. Dracula's ressurections usually linked into the end of the preceeding films but in the case of Scars there is no link at all, other than the Count being played by Christopher Lee.

Anyway, back to AD 1972! It was brave to try and revitalise the series like this and it directly lead on to one of the best vampire films ever made The Satanic Rites of Dracula. Its about time this film was re-evaluated.

The design and direction are excellent. At the time people possibly felt it lost something of its magic by being set in the modern day but looking back at it now the modern day sections are 35 years in the past. The modern day of AD 1972 is no longer modern day. It's like if Hammer had decided to set one of their 1970's Dracula films in the late 1930's.

Dracula AD 1972 probably felt very dated very quickly even 10 years after it was made. But now it can be viewed as a piece of retro hookum with a hell of a lot of 1970's style.

The opening sequence with Cushing and Lee battling it out as Van Helsing and Dracula for the first time in about 15 years is brilliant. And Dracula's death scene in this sequence is ingenius. Fast-forward 100 years and we find Van Helsing's descendant, also played by Cushing, and his grand-daughter Jessica pitting their wits against Count Dracula after he is brought back to life by thrill seeker Johnny Alucard.

Written by Don Houghton who had previously penned the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who adventure The Mind of Evil. He went on to script Hammer's final vampire films; The Satanic Rites of Dracula and Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires.

Stephanie Beacham as Jessica Van Helsing is wonderful (its a shame she didn't repise her roll in Satanic Rites in which the character was played by Joanna Lumley), Michael Kitchen of Foyle's War fame is one of the thrill seekers as is Caroline Munro. Johnny Alucard is played by Christopher Neame with wild abandon.

This is one of my favoruites of the Hammer Vampire films. Having Cushing and Lee back together as opposing forces is just wonderful. It's a shame that they couldn't have made more of the Dracula films together.

It's really worth seeking out a copy. It'll keep you entertained until the sun rises to banish the darkness away.