Let’s keep the Hammer train rolling for Day 9 of 31 Days of Vampire Movies and do the follow-up to yesterday’s featured movie, Dracula 1972 A.D. I’m of course talking about The Satanic Rites of Dracula.
This movie picks up a few years after 1972 A.D. and follows Lorrimer Van Helsing and his granddaughter Jessica Van Helsing in their pursuit to eradicate Dracula from the face of the earth.
This one, yeah. It’s not good. I like it, but its far and away the worst of the Hammer Dracula movies with Lee and Cushing. You could tell both were getting tired of the roles, and Cushing’s health was still in decline after the death of his wife, which he never really recovered from. The plot is less fantasy-driven, and it’s a plot where James Bond would have been more at home than the undead Count. It never really gels the way it should, and the Black Mass scenes are not that great, especially compared to the one in Dracula 1972 A.D. There’s a lack of spark that feels like everyone is just going through the motions, like it’s 3:30 pm in the workday and everyone is over it and just wants to go home. This is the first movie on the list where I’d say it’s okay if you want to skip it, but I’m putting it here because it does hold a place in my heart because it’s the last Dracula movie featuring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee together.
If you’re a completionist, go ahead and give it a watch, but you’re not really missing anything if you let this one slide by.