Halloween Video Crypt

Back when Hammer Films were all the rage and knocking horror fans dead at the box office, “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” marked the return of Christopher Lee to the title roll of the infamous undead vampire king.  He had gone away from the role after his turn as the blood sucker in the remarkable “Horror of Dracula” (1958), one of Hammer Films’ first stabs at rebooting the Universal monster cycle from films decades before.  Lee appeared in Hammer Films such as “The Gorgon” (1964) and “She” (1965).  He just wasn’t interested in playing Dracula.  But through whatever form of alchemy and monetary incentive, Lee menaced again in “Dracula: Prince of Darkness”.  It had to be money that got him back because this is not the juiciest script that Lee could have gotten.  He has no lines of dialogue but sneers and hisses a lot and manhandles his intended victims.  This is a fun view, though.  Dracula has a life long human servant who makes sure that two couples spend the night in Dracula’s old castle.  You see, Dracula is now no more than collected dust from the last time he was destroyed in “The Brides of Dracula” (1960).  Lee didn’t appear in that entry.  But, anyway, the servant dispatches one of the guests in the bloodiest way possible in order to bathe Dracula’s ashes in the life giving, red stuff.  Before long, the King of Vampires is back terrorizing the countryside in his endless quest for fresh blood.  Plenty of atmosphere, moody music and heroics from Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Hammer veteran Andrew Kier.

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