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The Satanic Rites of Dracula
Average Customer Review : 3.0/5 based on 64 reviews
List Price : $29.98
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Spotlight Reviews
70's Drac Attack (2008-09-20)
Customer Review : 2
I just caught this movie on the late late show at 3am. Its a Hammer production so I had high hopes. Then I saw the names of legendary Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (the two stars in this review are for them only.) The movie went downhill after the opening credits. There is the usual Satanic ritual going on which shows how popular the Devil was in the 70's. But what really didn't work for me was the modern setting. Seeing Van Helsing walking around in London without all the old style gothic settings of past Hammer films didn't sit with me. It reached the point of being absurd when Van Helsing is sitting at a desk with a dark figure speaking to him and then the figure is revealed to be Lee as Count Dracula. Seeing Dracula in a corporate setting lost all crediablilty to me. The other problem is the waka cha waka cha disco soundtrack. I know Hammer was trying to appeal to a young audience in swinging London, but it doesn't really work at all. I could see that soundtrack in a Kung Fu film and it would have been fine, just not here.
Despite all that, there are so cool moments. When Van Helsing's daughter Jessica, is surrounded by female vampires, who procede to throw her to the ground and leap on top of her, that was a scary moment. You know the heroes would come in any second to break it up but for those few minutes that scene did work.
The ending confrontation between Cushing and Lee was good too. No matter how bad the storyline can get, seeing those two titans clash, is always worth it. The hard part is staying awake until you get to that part. If I saw this on DVD, instead of TV, I would have scanned forward to the ending. The ending did work, everything in between was a lot of talk and padding.
This is worth a watch only if you can see it for free on TV.
Dracula...Shaken not Stirred. (2008-08-25)
Customer Review : 4
Almost everyone comments on how this Dracula movie is a bit like a Bond Film. It is in a way, and I have to say I like it. It adds another level of fun and excitement. And we get to see "Mod" Britain. And although some people say Dracula lives through the ages because he is undead, I think the real reason is that he, or rather his collaborators reinvent him as needed. This is a Drac for the 70's. The traditionalists will always have "Horror" and "Brides" and other great movies and modernizing the Count won't take anything away from those movies. But if anyone knows about surviving by keeping up with the times it's a guy who's revenge "reaches through-out the centuries", to paraphrase the Count.
I really enjoyed seeing a different type of Drac movie. I liked the intrigue and subterfuge, the high-ranking powerful members of gov't involved in a horrific Doomsday plot. Epic stuff. And considering it was his last Hammer film its fitting Dracula wanted to go out with a big bang instead of a whimper. Instead of merely waylaying knucklehead tourists who are too stupid to avoid Dracula's castle AT NIGHT, or terrorizing some Bavarian hamlet with a bratwurst based economy, Dracula wants to take out the entire world. He's doing it right too. Instead of just unleashing one of the most dreaded plagues in human history on the world, Drac has gotten a bio-weapons expert to expose it to radiation, making it hundreds of times more deadly and painful. It's not just Super Bubonic Plague; it's Mutant Radioactive Super Bubonic Plague. And he has a good reason. Every time he gets killed some doofus with delusions of grandeur resurrects him for some crazy scheme. Dude just wants a little peace and quiet. And he's also evil incarnate too.
Of course as many point out, it's great just to see Lee and Cushing paired up as enemies one more time. They do a great job of conveying the eternal nature of their feud. There have been many great acting teams through out the years but most of those team members were on the same side in their movies. This is one of the few great teams where the members were adversaries most of the time.
Also the movie starts out with some Dark Rites, a blood sacrifice, a nude blonde and a savage garroting. If that doesn't wake you up, check your pulse. Some of the scenes down in the dungeon where Dracula keeps his vampire brides chained up are actually truly creepy. And the twin hit men who carry out much of the Doomsday Groups dirty work are quite the fashion plates, sporting matching deep pile shag vests and hideous mutton chops. There is plenty to enjoy here.
The sets maybe weren't up to par with past Hammer film sets and the writing was sometimes a tad clunky but over all this is a very entertaining film. The only part I felt was a little weak was the very ending where Dracula, the Big Impaler himself, the Lord of Darkness, King of Vampires, Prince of the Undead, is killed by a ....bush. Yeah he gets caught in a bush and dies. Van Helsing helps finish him off but that's pretty much how Drac met his final end. He's bushified. Maybe the actors felt too old to get into much of an athletic scuffle, maybe the writer was searching for a novel way to do in the Count, or maybe there was some other reason for the movie to end that way. It was a bit anti-climactic. However, Dracula still lies out there in the mist, waiting for someone foolish enough to bring him back to the world of the living. MWA HAHAHAHA! It's a good entertaining movie. Check it out.
Christopher Lee throws in the cape (2008-03-05)
Customer Review : 3
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (belatedly released in a cut version as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride in the US) was the swansong of the Hammer-Lee Dracs, and while not a classic it is a much more interesting attempt to do something new with the material in a modern-day setting than it's predecessor, Dracula AD 1972. Here Dracula is a reclusive Howard Hughes-like tycoon weary of immortality but determined to take the world with him when he goes by unleashing a new and improved Black Death, developed with the help of key government figures who think it's just a bargaining chip to create a new world order. Pitted against him are a couple of British secret service agents whose own boss is one of Dracula's Four Horsemen of the new Apocalypse, a special branch officer and the grandson of Van Helsing and his own granddaughter. The low budget is apparent, but the ideas go some way to compensate (certainly Drac's plan is a more convincing Armageddon than anything Damien Thorn planned in The Final Conflict) and Alan Gibson's direction, though not always successful, shows some imagination.
The extras package is less than impressive here, with only trailers for the UK and US releases and the same Hammer clip show included on Dracula Prince of Darkness, but it is a very respectable widescren transfer of the uncut UK version.
"What's this then...............?" (2007-08-06)
Customer Review : 5
........asks an amused British police inspector when shown a slide of a barren doorway where there should have been a figure of a man, but that of course is not possible when that man is the spectral presence Count Dracula. The slides are of 4 prominent men who have been to Pelham House wherein curious lurkings have been exposed. A dossier is promptly ordered and secretary Jane is set forth to meet her fate.
I did not think i was going to like "Satanic Rites..." as much as I've come to. I thoroughly enjoyed Dracula A.D. 1972 and reading that "Satanic Rites..." was a sequel I rushed out and watched it but it didn't seem to have the same spark as "..A.D..."
And then I gave it another shot when I rented it again by accident. And this time I couldn't put it down, so to speak.
The film opens with a vast panning shot of Trafalgar Square (?) in central London with an ominous shadow of the Count hovering over all. The musical main theme is introduced-very early 70's blacksploitation sound.
We are then wisked off to the aforementioned Pelham House where the sacrifice of a young maiden(wait.....are there old maiden's?)is being witnessed by the 4 prominent men cloaked in white robes and the blood of the cockerel upon their foreheads. They seem to take a perverse pleasure in the naked sacrifice as a dagger is thrust into the girls' body. This entire unfortunate business is leaked out and during a briefing at police headquarters we meet the 3 inspectors that will head this case. The actors playing the inspectors grabbed me right away. Richard Vernon as Col. Mathews, William Franklyn as Torrence and Michael Coles as Inpector Murray. I enjoyed their cool dissection of the events unfolding before them. Insp. Murray suggests someone who may help...someone he has worked with before in a similar case 2 years prior("Dracula A.D.1972")...a certain professor Lorimar Van Helsing. A meeting is adjourned in the professor's study. This is where we meet the consumate actor Peter Cushing playing the good Professor Van Helsing. And this is when I entered the no-turning-back zone. To watch Peter's performance as the professor is facinating. Cooling drawing on a cigarette or pouring tea for his guests, he lays out for them just what type of unGodly situation we are dealing with here. We also meet Jessica Van Helsing played by Joanna Lumley of New Avengers fame. When Jessica recognizes one of the 4 prominent men as having been a visitor to her grandfather's home, a visit is decided upon between the professor and Keeley-one of the men in the photo's. And that introduces the next remarkable performance in this film of many. One of my favorite actors Freddie Jones plays a shaken and corrupt scientist Keeley and when professor Van Helsing comes calling, Keeley is in the midst of creating a plague that will wipe out mankind at the insistance of the evil count dracula. This scene between Cushing and Jones is one of the most riveting in the film. Watch Jones as he trembles the words " nothing is too vile...nothing is too dreadful. you need to know the terror" he cries to Lorimar. "you need to feel the threat of disgust......the beauty of obscenity". And of course the good professor is shocked...shocked with what has become of his old college chum.
I will leave the plot synopsis at that but I do want to mention some other scenes that were great. When poor secretary Jane (Valerie Van Ost) is kidnapped while transporting some crucial evidence for the police we learn the she is brought back to the foreboding Pelham House and is imprisoned in a room until the "prince of darkness" is ready to have his way with her. This scene, where Jane lies in wait and begins to hear knocking sounds upon her window and the rattle of the ceiling light above and a mysterious vapor creeping underneath the door is quite chilling. And then.........and then,,,the grand entrance of Mister Dracula. Christopher Lee's Dracula is marvelously intense as he moves toward the entranced woman and ever so parts his lips to reveal the two pointy fangs that will sink into her neck. But.....she smiles up at the demon as he is perched over her body, hypnotized by his gaze.
Later, the professor's granddaughter Jessica has snuck her way into Pelham's lower chambers where she encounters "the poor retched creatures" that have been made vampires by the thoughtful Count, poor secretary Jane being one of them. When Jessica flicks the lights on the chamber, Jane's sleeping vampiric eyes are opened into a deathly stare. very creepy.
and........i could go on. but I will instead recomment this movie highly. Possibly the only knock I have with it would be the conclusion where I thought Count Dracula was a little too feeble as her tries to get his teeth into the professor.
The Last Chris Lee Hammer Dracula (2007-07-30)
Customer Review : 5
Alan Gibson directed this 'final' entry in the Hammer Films(UK)'DRACULA' film category. Many movie reviewers(Leonald Martin, Mick Martin & Marsha Potter etc..) have considered this one of the 'turkeys' in their reviews.
To TRUE LEE-ADMIRERS(people born in the Fifties) who have not seen or rather heard of actors like Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr.,etc..,CHRIS LEE was the Definitive 'Dracula'. And to Mr.Lee's Credit, even though he is seen in fewer and fewer scenes in the later Hammer Films, he speaks lines
not included in the script but quotations from the original Bram Stoker book. Eg.: "Already the ones you love are all mine. Through them you shall yet do my bidding.." "My revenge is just begun. I spread it over Centuries.." These lines show us how much Mr.Lee has read and adapted the Original Character of Stoker. Then in all other productions (including UNIVERSAL and AMERICAN ZOETROPE) films, Dracula is shown as a love-lorn Vampire which Stoker's creation is NOT. The 'real' creation is a tall thin
man, dressed all in black with sharp pointed teeth(Lugosi looks tooth-less)and burning red eyes. He is a totally EVIL man/undead with no time for frivilous activities like love-making. He is(according to Stoker) a vampire with the strength of 20 men, hypnotize victims with his piercing looks and craves for blood. He has no time for lovemaking, raising a family and paying taxes. He is EVIL INCARNATE. That is what true lovers of Stoker's book want and that is what we get from Mr.Lee. The so-called world renouned reviewers have all grown up seeing Lugosi and Chaney. I do agree that in those days the films must have appeared very 'frightening'.
But guys/gals like me all grew up seeing the true evil-incarnate Christopher Lee sinking his fangs into the necks of his victims. Regarding The Satanic Rites of Dracula(also known as Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride) Lee gives us the very same totally Evil Count.
So don't hesitate buying this DVD. If you are a true Stoker fan you will
love this film. Agreed that Dracula is transported to 1973 London with Afgan Thugs on Harley Davidsons as bodyguards and a Chinese Vampire as 'housekeeper' but hey, let's face it folks, the studio wants to survive and the year is 1973. So we can forgive some of these additions and a bit of nudity. But no need to make a hue and cry about THESE points like Mr.Maltin and co.. Please no offence to be taken or meant.
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