Dracula: Prince Of Darkness

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Terence Fisher

Starring: Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Francis Matthews, Suzan Farmer

From: Hammer

This is one of three movies I watched on TCM last night. The second I will post a review of tonight and the third one will be tomorrow afternoon. The review of this average movie is below: 

Last night via TCM I finally saw this film, which is usually hard to track down. I was hoping it'd be better than just average, but beggars can't be choosers. It brings back Dracula to the halls of Hammer, and it's done so in not as preposterous a way as I had feared; incidentally, one day I should watch the Peter Cushing Brides of Dracula, as I've heard good things about it.

The plot here revolves around two couples (both on the annoying side) who are on vacation in Eastern Europe and they happen to land in what is now Castle Dracula, which of course is different from the former Castle Dracula. The Count has a master and he is alright, but not the most interesting character. That is a problem with this movie, there aren't enough interesting characters. There's no cad like Paul from Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, let alone Van Helsing from Horror of Dracula; this movie was dying for someone awesome like Peter Cushing who could play an awesome character... technically he is in this movie, but only in archival footage at the beginning, where we see clips from Horror of Dracula. I mean, it can't just be Lee being Lee, i.e. being a badass as a forbidding and chilling vampire.

Still, this is at least watchable. As typical, mood and atmosphere are nailed. It is a nice setting that is decently brought to life. Characters like Father Sandor or Ludwig are at least fine and it is cool part of the film takes place at a monastery. In addition, I see why Barbara Shelley was known as a scream queen of the time and the score from James Bernard was pretty cool. The direction from Terence Fisher was nice.


Unfortunately, despite some cool moments, this does not rise above average for me. I also wonder what the exact reason was for Lee not having any dialogue at all; it was either that the script sucked and he hated his lines (Lee's take) or that he was never given any dialogue to begin with (the scriptwriter's take). Either way, at least Lee was still unforgettable in the role when the only noise he made was hissing a few times. As he does not have a huge role, however, I can only say this is an average picture.