Hammer Features Week: Dracula: Prince of Darkness

Hello and welcome back to Hammer Features Week.  Now it is rare I tackle a sequel directly after reviewing its original source but I thought this could be entertaining and therefore how could I refuse?

We hark to the year of our lord 1966 where director Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Mummy and Horror of Dracula) has procured another helping of horror to the dish of dismay, this dinner of detestation…yeah now I am just flexing my vocabulary.  Dreadfully sorry about that behavior, it won’t happen again for a while.    So hang the garlic cloves around your windows, don your crucifix and prepare for battles with the undead.  This is Dracula: Prince of Darkness.

Dracula's tale told through The Eye of Sauron.

After a reign of hideous terror, spanning more than a century, the King of the Spoiler was finally traced to his lair high in the Carpathian mountains.

It has been ten years, ten quiet years since Doctor Van Helsing had done battle with the lord of the undead Dracula and won. Dracula had faced an adversary armed with the knowledge of dispatching vampirism and the dark lord’s arrogance was his own undoing.   The villagers quietly rejoice but remain vigilant of any strangers, stragglers or persons unknown.  To not allow them to disturb the town of Karlsbad in the remote region of the castle of Dracula the peasants remain cordial but wary.  Four young travelers from England are visiting the countryside to broaden their horizons.   They have chosen to dine and relax in the local tavern with a large well armed priest wanders from off the road in need of libation and a warm meal.

  Father Sandor (Andrew Keir of Sword of Freedom, Ivanhoe, The Four Just Men, Cleopatra, Macbeth and Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.) greets the Kent family four but urges them to avoid Karlsbad.  Our young travelers are baffled at the mention of this castle because the maps show nothing in that area but the good father assures them the castle is there and they should not go.   Naturally the good father’s warnings are chocked up to being poppycock and tom foolery.  The Kent family travels until almost evening when the coach driver pulls over, demands they vacate the carriage and even threatens them at dagger point for them to leave.  

Now dear what could possibly go wrong?

Confused for a place to stay for the night is a shabby cabin to lodge in or they can walk the two kilometers (1.24 miles for the Americans.  Stupid metric system.) into Karlsbad.    As luck would have it, quite possibly a writing device, a driverless coach appears with two black stallions.  Our party cannot believe their good fortune and head off…with the ominous omens and portents here!

And now I have just a few tidbits and bonmots about the film.   

Once again I am always floored by the costuming and sets Hammer brought to life.    The haunting chords of composer James Bernard sets the scene well and keeps the mood throughout the film.

Now be honest, am I getting long in the tooth?

Christopher Lee (Horror of Dracula, The Three Musketeers, The Man with the Golden Gun, Dracula and Son and Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones) is completely without dialogue the whole film.  The rumormill churned out such fabrications to Lee was being a diva and insisted Dracula would never say such things.  Another story is the screenwriter felt vampires had no need for idle chat or tete-a-tete  so that being said Lee was to have no lines at all.  

Take your pick on which you choose to believe.