This movie really is a mixed bag--with a really unusual plot on one hand but some really dopey elements as well. And, overall, it's one of the weaker Dracula films I have ever seen.
Dracula is back even though in the last Hammer version of Dracula, he was completely destroyed by sunlight. I can forgive this actually, as Universal Studios frequently brought back their monsters after they'd been destroyed! But the way they did it here was really unusual and violent. It seems that the old vampire's ashes had been collected by a dedicated evil servant and he kept them for a decade waiting for some dumbbells to wander into the castle. Well, a group of the world's STUPIDEST travelers show up even after being repeatedly warned to avoid the castle at all costs! The way they actually got to the castle by being stranded and then brought to the castle by a driver-less carriage but pretty novel, but again and again there were so many signs warning them to go back, but of course they didn't. Having characters THIS dumb is a bit of a problem--especially since they are so unbelievably dumb you actually root for them to die! And in a grisly scene, one of them is murdered and his blood is poured into the coffin with Drac's ashes and the old vampire is revived.
The rest of the film is just okay. While offering some chills here and there, the movie also offers some bizarre Dracula lore that I never heard before--such as "a vampire is unable to enter a room unless asked" (huh?!). And, in the end, the vampire naturally dies (only to come back in the sequel) but HOW he dies is odd and seemingly impossible--I have NEVER heard of killing a vampire THAT way! It was almost like the writers had never seen a vampire movie before and re-made the existing vampire legend from scratch in many places. And because of this, the film is watchable but also eminently skip-able.
Dracula is back even though in the last Hammer version of Dracula, he was completely destroyed by sunlight. I can forgive this actually, as Universal Studios frequently brought back their monsters after they'd been destroyed! But the way they did it here was really unusual and violent. It seems that the old vampire's ashes had been collected by a dedicated evil servant and he kept them for a decade waiting for some dumbbells to wander into the castle. Well, a group of the world's STUPIDEST travelers show up even after being repeatedly warned to avoid the castle at all costs! The way they actually got to the castle by being stranded and then brought to the castle by a driver-less carriage but pretty novel, but again and again there were so many signs warning them to go back, but of course they didn't. Having characters THIS dumb is a bit of a problem--especially since they are so unbelievably dumb you actually root for them to die! And in a grisly scene, one of them is murdered and his blood is poured into the coffin with Drac's ashes and the old vampire is revived.
The rest of the film is just okay. While offering some chills here and there, the movie also offers some bizarre Dracula lore that I never heard before--such as "a vampire is unable to enter a room unless asked" (huh?!). And, in the end, the vampire naturally dies (only to come back in the sequel) but HOW he dies is odd and seemingly impossible--I have NEVER heard of killing a vampire THAT way! It was almost like the writers had never seen a vampire movie before and re-made the existing vampire legend from scratch in many places. And because of this, the film is watchable but also eminently skip-able.