The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

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nTitle: The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

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nDirector: Alan Gibson

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nCast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Coles, JoannanLumley

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nDracula A.D. 1972 is universally considered to be the worstnof the Hammer Dracula films, it took Dracula out of the gothic setting and put himnright smack in the middle of 70’s London hipster scene. I guess it was a waynfor Hammer Films to attempt to connect with a younger crowd, after all, it wasnmostly the kids who went to see these movies and they couldn’t risk losing anconnection with that market! As a result, we have these long scenes of youngndudes and dudettes partying and grooving to the tunes of some hippy rock band asnDracula is being resurrected by a young dude interested in the black arts. Fornme it didn’t work because honestly, what I enjoyed about those old HammernDracula’s was the gothic setting, I liked the castles, the full moons, the cemeteries;nit’s what made those films special for me. Taking Christopher Lee’s Dracula outnof that and bringing him to swinging 70’s London felt like suddenly Dracula wasnin a fish out of water story? And that’s not what Dracula’s about! So anyways,nI hated that film, it was directed by a guy called Alan Gibson, a directornwhose career was mostly centered on directing television. So here’s a guy whonmade one of the worst of the Hammer Dracula’s and what does Hammer do? They letnhim direct the next Dracula film as well! It’s not surprising that the endnresult was a less than stellar film.

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nOn The Satanic Rites of Dracula the Count has become thenhead honcho of a major corporation, he runs things from this shadowy office atnthe top floor of his office building.  Apparently Dracula has grown tired of eternitynand is looking for a way to end it all, in other words, on this film Draculanwants to hang his cape and die! But he doesn’t just want to die, he wants tontake all of humanity with him, so he enlists the help of some of his followersn(who also happen to be Satanists) in order to create a deadly plague that willneradicate all of humanity by way of a deadly flesh eating virus! It’s up to VannHelsing and a couple of detectives to stop Dracula’s plans!  

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nThe thing about this Dracula movie is that it is kind ofnuneven in tone. For example, at times it feels like a James Bond movie, atntimes it feels like a satanic film and at times it goes into sci-fi territorynand then at some point it attempts to turn into one of the old Hammer Draculanfilms, so it’s kind of like a mish-mash of genres that never quite works in mynbook. I will elaborate. On this movie, Dracula’s followers are a group ofnSatanists who kidnap people in order to sacrifice them to Satan, so part of thenfilm focuses on their little operation, you kind of get the idea that they arenhere to resurrect Dracula, but it’s not even about that. Anyways, theirnoperation hasn’t passed unnoticed to local authorities who have sent secretnagents in order to infiltrate the satanic cult and find a way to stop their evilnschemes. Now here’s where the James Bond type of thing comes into play! Thensecret agents use micro films and gadgets in order to record the secret meetingsnthat these cultists perform! Then the film takes a turn towards sc-fi/postnapocalyptic territory with the deadly plague plot line, and the idea that thisnplague could possibly destroy all of humanity. Of course, we never actually seenthe plague take over the world or anything, but the idea is there, the virus isnset and ready to go on the petri dish! Where the film completely fails in mynbook is that it doesn’t even feel like a Dracula film at all! It might as wellnhave been a film about the satanic cult and that’s it. Dracula feels like he wasnshoehorned into the plot, which is sad because what we want to see is a Draculanfilm, not a James Bond wanna be.

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nAnd here’s the most disappointing thing about this movie, wenhardly ever see Dracula on this one! Now this doesn’t surprise me at all becausenLee always did a lot of these Dracula movies without any real interest in doingnthem. Actually, he was quoted as saying that he thought this particular Draculanfilm was unnecessary. “I am doing it under protest!” he said, Lee also usednwords like pointless, fatuous and absurd to describe this particular film and Inhave to say I agree. This is probably the reason why we don’t see much of Leenduring the film. Actually, the film is close to hitting the 50 minute mark andnstill no Dracula! Can you imagine seeing an Indiana Jones film with no IndiananJones after 50 minutes into the movie? Exactly. Instead we are treated tonSatanists performing rituals involving naked girls and killing roosters. Thenfilm also centers a lot of its time on the Satanists escaping snooping cops.  The one moment where you feel you’re finallynin one of those old Hammer Dracula movies is when the cops stumble upon andungeon filled with a couple of Dracula’s vampire brides, but if it wasn’t fornthat, you’d think you were in some other movie. I also liked some of thenvisuals they pulled off during Dracula’s demise that I really liked, they didnthis thing where Dracula gets entangled in thorns which was pretty cool, Lee’snface on those scenes has all the evil and all the rage that should have beennpresent on more of the film, not just the last 15 minutes!

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nThank god we do get some Van Helsing! And this movie got mento thinking about what an important element Peter Cushing was in these movies,nhe was in them a heck of a lot more than Lee himself. Cushing was one of thenmost vital components of the Hammer Dracula formula. Gotta say, even thoughnthis isn’t the best of the Hammer Dracula’s, Peter Cushing gave it his all. Bynthe way, this was the last time that Lee and Cushing worked together on a HammernDracula film, so it’s notable for that alone. This is the last time you get tonsee Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing vs. Christopher Lee’s Dracula, after this one,nCushing would go up against Dracula again one more time in The Legend of the 7nGolden Vampires (1974), a film that brought together the worlds of Shaw Bros.nKung Fu movies with Hammer Films Dracula universe, it’s one of the more offbeatnHammer films, but also, one of the most fun, highly recommend checking that onenout! So anyhow, The Satanic Rites of Dracula doesn’t hold anything special to it,nsave for it being the last Cushing/Lee collaboration in the Hammer Draculanfilms.

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nRating: 2 out of 5 

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