... And considering I only saw it two days ago this might be a sign that Dracula PRINCE OF DARKNESS is a very forgettable movie The story starts with a fairly lengthy recap from the first Hammer Dracula movie - Bad mistake since you might be expecting Peter Cushing to turn up in the story . He doesn't and the film suffers from this . What does happen is something we see in nearly every other Hammer horror movie of having a bunch of tourists arrive at their destination via a coach driven by a surly coach driver who throws some suitcases on the ground with the story introducing characters ( And yes one of them is a man of God ) saying things like " strangers ? We don't get strangers here " and " Stay away from that castle , there's danger after dark " .
You get the picture ? It might have seemed fairly fresh when it was released in 1966 but watching it many years after the Hammer studio had gone bust you do feel that familiarity breeds contempt and it was for this reason the studio went out of business in the mid 1970s . I should perhaps be fair and point out that this movie isn't all that bad but suffers from a lack of something that THE REPTILE or VAMPIRE CIRCUS or several other Hammer horror movies suffer from and that is trying to do something a little bit different with a formulaic plot
You get the picture ? It might have seemed fairly fresh when it was released in 1966 but watching it many years after the Hammer studio had gone bust you do feel that familiarity breeds contempt and it was for this reason the studio went out of business in the mid 1970s . I should perhaps be fair and point out that this movie isn't all that bad but suffers from a lack of something that THE REPTILE or VAMPIRE CIRCUS or several other Hammer horror movies suffer from and that is trying to do something a little bit different with a formulaic plot