DRACULA

1958, Terence Fisher, 82 mins.

An evil vampire directs his attentions to a bourgeois family.

Bringing colour and sex to the vampire movie, Terence Fisher’s Dracula is a riveting horror film directed with immense economy and acted with visceral ferocity by the iconic, although surprisingly rarely used by Hammer, team of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Jimmy Sangster’s screenplay streamlines Bram Stoker’s novel - for budgetary reasons – but keeps the atmosphere and much of the horror while focusing on the sexual subtext which, according to Christopher Frayling, went largely unnoticed until this screen version. Numerous memorable images – none more so than Lee’s Count appearing in a doorway like a wild animal, fangs dripping with blood – and technical credits which typify the very best of Hammer; Jack Asher’s rich colour photography; James Needs’ pacy editing; Bernard Robinson’s lush production design; and Fisher’s direction which never puts a foot wrong in an incredibly fast-paced eighty two minutes. 

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA

1969, Peter Sasdy, 91 mins.

Dracula is reborn in Victorian London.

One of Hammer’s most interesting films; less a Dracula movie than a study of Victorian repression and hypocrisy which has the Count rather awkwardly shoe-horned in.  The first half is quite marvellous as we follow the descent of three thrill-seeking Victorians into blood-drinking Satanism, instigated by rather arch acolyte Ralph Bates whom they subsequently beat to death in an abandoned church. The performances of Geoffrey Keen, Peter Sallis, and John Carson are excellent and Peter Sasdy creates a memorable atmosphere of decadence. Unfortunately, the second half drifts rapidly into incoherence as Christopher Lee turns up, looking bored, and is given virtually nothing to do while the children of the thrill-seekers kill their fathers. The baffling climax, during which Dracula is destroyed after having a funny turn as the church is mysteriously re-consecrated, is an unworthy end to an interesting film.