The Brides of Dracula (1960) (UK)

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A young teacher (gorgeous Yvonne Monlaur) is stranded in a Transylvanian village when her coach driver makes a hasty exit after stopping by an inn en route to the small village where she’ll be teaching young girls French and etiquette. Marianne Danielle is then relieved when Baroness Meinster arrives at the inn (much to the trepidation of the owner and his wife) and invites her to spend the night in her castle where she lives a lonely life with her servant Greta. She unwittingly releases a plague of vampirism when her kind heart has her helping the Baroness’s son escape his shackles. He convinces her his mother is insane and has him locked up in his room for no good reason. The Baroness has a very good reason, Baron Meinster is an undead bloodsucker. Thankfully, a local priest has invited Dr. Van Helsing (Cushing, dashing as ever) to look into the death of a girl which points to a return of vampirism in the area. Dracula may be dead, but his disciples still do what they can to ensure his evil is not forgotten. Marianne is found by Van Helsing after she flees the castle upon seeing the corpse of her hostess and passes out on the side of the road. She recuperates after some TLC and is dropped off at the school where Van Helsing helps smooth things over with the headmaster and gets Marianne set up. Unfortunately, the Baron isn’t going to easily forget the woman who freed him and the fact that she’s now in a school filled with lovely young women is a bonus for the creep. They’re engaged immediately and it’s going to be up to Van Helsing to save her cute derrière. Sure there may not be any Dracula or brides hanging around but that doesn’t change the fact that this movie kicks ass. Lee opted to not return and I’m completely fine with that. In fact, I would have loved if he remained in the shadows and let the series turn into Van Helsing traversing the world and slaying himself some vampires and whatever other monsters he may come across. Maybe bring good ol’ Dracula back for the final outing. Cushing is so damn perfect it’s hard to be mad about him given the top billing. Lee would come back six years later for the Cushingless (but still great) Dracula: Prince of Darkness. I saw Brides for the first time when I was seven and I still think Van Helsing’s aggressive disinfecting of his vampire bite and then creative slaying of the vampire is one of the coolest things to ever happen in a monster movie.