Not Coming to a Theater Near You

The Satanic Rites of Dracula / Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride / UK / 1973

Lee and Cushing have one last go round as Dracula and Van Helsing. This time out, Dracula steals a trick from Fu Manchu (another of Lee’s roles) and plots to destroy the Earth’s population with a plague. The backstory to the film was that Lee’s unhappiness with Hammer’s liberties with the Dracula mythos lead to a falling out between the two, hence this film’s reliance on motorcycle chases and Satanic cults rather than the Count himself. It’s all great fun though, and worth a viewing for historical reasons alone.

It also contains one of the earliest examples (as far as I’m aware at least) of the portrayal of the vampire as a sympathetic anti-hero. Van Helsing surmises that since Dracula’s plot to decimate civilization would result in his death as well it must be a suicide attempt on his part. The majority of the film is standard good versus evil plotting, but Van Helsing and Dracula share a look in which they obviously express a bit of sympathy for each other and look weary of their endless game. You can almost see Lee and Cushing peek out from behind their roles to acknowledge that they too are getting too old to be chasing each other around London in fancy dress—a disconcertingly poignant moment for a horror film.

by David Carter | Source: Mill Creek DVD
05 Feb 2008 11:31 PM | Submit Comment