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One year after a woman's body is found in the bell of a church
Dracula is thought dead. But none of the villagers, including
the priest, will enter the church after dusk when the shadow
of Dracula's castle in the mountains spreads across the holy
building. The Monsignor arrives from another town to check
that all is well. When he discovers the truth he persuades
the priest to accompany him to the castle to seal the doors
with the church's cross and the sanctity of prayers. When
the priest is left behind he falls down an incline striking
ice beneath which the Count lies. Blood from the priest's
head finds its way through cracks in the ice and suddenly
Dracula has returned. Hypnotising the priest into doing his
will, he discovers that the Monsignor is behind the cross
on the castle. Travelling to the town of the Monsignor, Dracula
plans his revenge on the religious man and his daughter, taking
another slave along the way in the form of the beautiful tavern
wench. However, he doesn't count (pun intended) on the resistance
of a young student who intends to marry the Monsignor's daughter...
Isn't it strange how memories cheat on you? For years I had
thought this story to be Dracula Prince Of Darkness,
but obviously I got mixed up somewhere along the years. More
than any other Christopher Lee portrayal of Dracula this one
has made an indelible mark on my mind. I remember our favourite
fiend under the ice with blood from the priest seeping through
the cracks. I recall the large cross on the doors to his castle,
and the Caped Crucifix-Evader later falling on to it.
Lee's
Dracula is significantly different to Bela Lugosi's, although
both incarnations are valid. Whilst Lugosi was the creepy,
silver-tongued charm-meister ("Hear the children of the night;
what beautiful music they make."), Lee is more the obvious
monster. He speaks but a handful of sentences throughout the
film, content instead to rely on his imposing and dramatic
presence and control via his bloodshot hypnotic eyes. There
is no doubt he is commanding in the part, and no surprise
he became a horror ikon of the age. Having met Christopher
Lee I can vouch for the fact he is a gentleman with manners
from a bygone age... although he is mysteriously quick to
point out how many films he has been in over his remarkable
career which are not horror-related.
Unlike many horror films from the late sixties and the seventies
era, this one concentrates on the story, avoiding getting
bogged-down in the expected images of bodies in upright coffins
and misty graveyards. The violence is almost non-existent
by today's standards; certainly a mile away from the often
tasteless slashers of the eighties. But what this film has
is class and tons of it. Dracula Has Risen From The Grave
is one of the better examples from Hammer productions. Just
don't watch the trailer; due mainly to the voice-over it's
more hammy than a truckload of pigs.
Ty
Power
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