jamesraeburn2003 Secret agents are investigating a disturbing case which could have profound implications. VIP's including a government minister are taking part in satanic rituals involving human sacrifice in a country estate, Pelham House, which masquerades as a legitimate psychiatric research group. Colonel Matthews (Richard Vernon) calls in special branch's Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) to assist his agent Torrence (William Franklyn) who in turn calls in Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) since he is an expert on the occult. It so happens that Van Helsing knows one of the VIP's involved, the biochemist and expert in bacterial warfare Professor Keeley (Freddie Jones) whom he discovers is developing a new strain of the black death. But, before he can discover who for and why he is murdered and the test tubes containing the cells stolen. The trail leads to a reclusive tycoon called DD Denham who lives in a skyscraper penthouse who turns about to be none other than Van Helsing's old adversary Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) himself. The Count is plotting to release the plague thus destroying all life on earth and bringing about the end of his own tormented existence. He intends to use the VIP's, whom he conned into believing that the disease would only be used as a means to hold the government to ransom in order to take power, but really he intends them, plus Van Helsing, to be its carriers. In addition, he threatens to make Van Helsing's granddaughter Jessica (Joanna Lumley) his bride...Hammer's most satisfactory attempt to relocate Bram Stoker's character to the present day following the failure - albeit a glorious one that was Dracula AD 1972. It has an ingenious script by Don Houghton (Dr Who) which combines an attractive combination of espionage/political thriller/mystery and straightforward horror in the Hammer tradition. The idea of prominent people involved in satanic rituals for personal gain has great appeal and adds to the intrigue. Unlike its predecessor in which Dracula was stuck milling around in an abandoned church, which meant that he wasn't seen in modern times at all (something that critics commented upon), he has a greater part in the plot here as a fiend attempting to bring about the destruction of the world. The idea of him being a reclusive tycoon Howard Hughes style is also quite imaginative. Christopher Lee was still the cinema's best Dracula and he turns in a performance of an illusive silent evil waiting to pounce upon an unsuspecting world that is really unsettling here. Peter Cushing plays the descendent of the original Van Helsing with his customary authority and there is an excellent supporting cast on hand too. William Franklyn is truly believable as a sophisticated spy as is Richard Vernon as his chief an ex-serviceman with a distinguished record. Michael Coles, here reprising his role from Dracula AD 1972, makes a convincing hero getting plenty of action such as staking a couple of female vampires plus destroying a whole lot of them in a cellar with running water. Joanna Lumley, in an early role as Van Helsing's granddaughter, is particularly noteworthy giving the part played by Stephanie Beacham in the previous film more to do. Whereas in the last film she was solely a teenager out for kicks with her "gang" that dabbled in witchcraft and brought the vampire back to life, here she is more academic and has a working knowledge of her grandfather's lifetime study of the occult and vampirism. Another plus is Alan Gibson's no nonsense direction, which makes the film seem like a fast paced hard hitting thriller. Maligned much for many years, The Satanic Rites Of Dracula is a Hammer horror that deserves wider appreciation.

moonspinner55 The end of an era: Christopher Lee hangs up his cape in this, his final bow as star of Hammer Films' Dracula series--fitting, since he was unhappy with the direction in which the cycle of movies was heading (and critics at the time agreed with him). In modern-day London, the Secret Service investigates strange goings-on in an isolated manor in the British countryside. When an imprisoned agent escapes the compound with proof that four dignitaries (a government minister, a Novel Prize-winning scientist, a general and a peer in the House of Lords)--as well as a possible fifth person who is camera-shy!--are involved in satanic rituals, occult specialist Professor Van Helsing and his granddaughter are consulted. Van Helsing learns his friend the scientist was ensnared by the cult in order to produce a new strain of bubonic plague--and that his nemesis, Count Dracula, has been revived and is posing as a reclusive land developer with an insidious plan to spread the plague and start a new apocalypse. Hammer's immediate follow-up to the dismal "Dracula A.D. 1972" (featuring the same director, Alan Gibson, and writer, Don Houghton) is a much-improved bloodsucker, dispensing with the Chelsea teenagers and replacing them with assassins on motorcycles and a basement full of nubile vampires. If Lee doesn't have much to do, he still cuts a foreboding presence and gets a bloody good send-off; Peter Cushing again excels as Van Helsing and the supporting cast is solid. Still, this story doesn't bear close scrutiny; once the bacillus is introduced, no one knows quite what to do with it (Van Helsing has a point when he asks if the Count really wants to rule over a world devoid of life), and there are two conspirators in the plot who are unaccounted for at the finale. Stylishly photographed by Brian Probyn and scored by John Cacavas, the film is a flawed but decent addition to the series with several tight action scenes and a great deal of suspense. **1/2 from ****

Matt Kony The Satanic Rites of Dracula is about as mediocre as its title suggests.First of all, the ending sucks. (Van Helsing defeats Dracula by tricking him into walking into the thorny branches of a Hawthorne tree?) Dracula's cronies are ridiculous. (Did those guys all have to wear the same Alpaca fur-lined vests? How could four of the most powerful men in London be so malleable and toothless?)& for being "The Prince of Darkness," Dracula himself is about as useless as a stone statue when it comes to fighting the 70 year old Professor Van Helsing, or stopping the young Scotland Yard policeman from rescuing Jessica.This movie is a clusterf*** of genre tropes. It seems to me like the writer took two movies & smooshed them them together: The first movie would have been about a James Bond-like detective (Murray) who discovers a mad scientist has created a deadly virus. It is a race against time for Murray to stop the evil scientist from starting a plague that will infect all of mankind.Then, the second film would be about a group of Satan-worshiping upper crust Londoners who resurrect Dracula from the grave in attempt to gain worldly power & eternal life. It's up to the aged Van Holding & a young policeman from Scotland Yard to defeat Dracula & co. & save Jessicca.In order to reconcile these two plots together, the writer had to abruptly kill off Detective Murray by a hidden sniper before Dracula arrived on screen (Murray's character should have been combined with the younger Scotland Yard policeman who rescues Jessica from Dracula near the end), and the Mad Scientist had to be a puppet of Dracula. (Dracula should have been trying to unleash the plague through an addendum to the vampire myth, i.e. an ancient prophesy found in an old book or something, not a Nobel prize winning molecular biologist.)To put it simply: The film's biggest problem is that there's too much going on in the plot, and it doesn't work.

DarthVoorhees I found a lot to enjoy in 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula'. It's reputation of mediocrity is undeserved because this film really delivers what it's audience wants Cushing and Lee in finest form. While not an exquisite example of the horror film 'Rites' has an abundance of wonderful cheese that actually has some really funny twists on a Dracula series that sometimes had a lot of trouble defining what it really wanted to be.I'm a huge Christopher Lee fan but I've always found his Dracula pictures to be something of a mixed ordeal. I can definitely see and feel Lee's frustration with the character because Dracula is seldom given anything truly interesting to say or do. In the worst moments of Hammer's Dracula films Dracula serves as nothing more than a boogeyman and this I find is unacceptable when you have a talent like Lee and the most poetic horror character ever conceived. 'Rites' gives Dracula the most mythos and motive he has ever been given in a Hammer picture. Dracula has a method to his madness and that is truly saying something here. Lee actually has more than one page of dialogue to express his motives and hate, we get to know Dracula as a sick being with a deep burning hate for mankind rather than the animal lesser Hammer films tend to portray him as. Most importantly though we have Peter Cushing as Van Helsing who is finally able to give Dracula an adversary to play off of. A great deal of 'Rites' is nothing more than exposition in between bizarre imagery. Director Alan Gibson is a more than competent exploration director. The scenes of satanic orgies are fun in that they really do bring the audience to the realm of the strange but odd imagery is not enough to sustain a picture. Peter Cushing does that.The best entries in this series are the ones with Cushing. Peter Cushing was a special actor because he loves the material that is written. There is a great sense of urgency and passion in Cushing's delivery that even someone who knows the vampire mythos by heart is never bored. It's like watching a great singer go through their greatest hits. Peter Cushing was one of the all time great horror stars and 'Satanic Rites' is one of his best performances.Even more so than 'Dracula AD 1972' 'Rites' has a hell of a good time playing with the 70's era London. I love that Dracula sees corporate London and MP's as his tools of destruction. I probably liked this film a great deal more than '1972' because it isn't drenched in the kind of novelty of the time and because of this I admire the style and settings a heck of a lot more. This is the Hammer Dracula to check out and my personal favorite of the series. It delivers Lee's Dracula and Cushing's Van Helsing in a fun looking story with actual stakes...