A trio of bored and rich (dangerous mix) gentlemen/deviants are targeted by Dracula’s disciple to help him perform a ceremony which will bring his master back from the dead. It involves the purchasing of some of the count’s belongings, pledging oneself to Satan and the consumption of the vampire’s powdered blood (don’t ask). Lord Courtley is the only one who drinks the red stuff and when he crumbles to the ground, he is slain by the three distinguished pillars of the community. Too late to take back the foolish actions, Dracula (Christopher Lee, of course) returns and decides the murder of his loyal servant will not go unanswered. The evil creature plans to use the three men’s own children to kill them by turning the heirs into vampires. That Dracula, he can be a real bastard sometimes. Young and forbidden love leads to heroics but there’s still alot of death and undeath on the table. Classic Hammer fare has one of my favorite titles ever and features a solid story with stuffy hypocrites getting what’s coming to them. Ralph Bates is excellent as the smug Lord Courtley who bows out way too soon and Christopher Lee is his usual terrific self but, as is tradition, gets minimal screen time and still leaves a powerful mark… even if the climax is hilariously him throwing the equivalent of a temper tantrum until he’s killed by… well, a bout of fatal religion it would appear. The rest of the cast is above average as well, with Roy Kenner as a questionable salesman who stumbled into ownership of Dracula’s belongings being more than memorable and Geoffrey Keen suitably prickish as an awful father and human. Linda Hayden (later showing up to steal some scenes in Blood on Satan’s Claw as the dangerous Angel) is Keen’s daughter, deep in love with a young man her father wants her to have no part of and suffering under the man’s stern/abusive rule of the household. She, of course, ends up a prime target for the Count and a major tool for his vengeance. We also get good ol’ Michael Ripper as an inspector. Just one Cushing short of the Hammer Triforce.
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