Review: Dracula Has Risen From the Grave

A monsignor (Rupert Davies) arrives in a local village to visit his widowed sister-in-law (Marion Mathie) and niece (Veronica Carlson). He is dismayed to find a town full of superstitious people still living in fear of the supposedly vanquished vampire Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). Even the local priest (Ewan Hooper) has become an alcoholic. In an ill-fated attempt at exorcising the demons inside Castle Dracula by the monsignor, the drunk priest injures himself and his blood inadvertently resurrects the Count! Whilst Dracula makes the priest his vampire-bitten lackey, the monsignor is busy dealing with his niece’s choice for a suitor – an atheist! Played by Barry Andrews, this non-believer might just have to find something to believe in as he and the monsignor do battle with the evil vampire Count. Barbara Ewing plays a saucy barmaid named Zena, who also falls victim to Count Dracula.

 

1968 entry into Hammer’s Dracula series from director Freddie Francis (“Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors”, “Tales From the Crypt”) and screenwriter Anthony Hinds (“Taste the Blood of Dracula”, “Scars of Dracula”) was my first exposure to the series many moons ago. It’s a solid entry in a series that has better entries. It’s a bit slow and Christopher Lee only has a few lines to speak, unfortunately. However, there’s some interesting and appealing stuff here and several good performances.

 

The typically excellent James Bernard (“Curse of Frankenstein”, “The Horror of Dracula”) score gets you pumped from moment one, and the bloody opener in a bell tower is one of the best and most shocking starts to any film in the series. The entire first act is more foreboding and atmospheric than in most of the other films in the series. It’s wonderfully rich, and Dracula’s resurrection scene may be the series’ best. It’s absolutely terrific and Lee and his blood-shot eyes cut an imposing, evil figure. Hammer regular cinematographer Arthur Grant (“Hell is a City”, “The Curse of the Werewolf”, “The Devil Rides Out”) and production designer Bernard Robinson (“The Curse of the Werewolf”, “The Gorgon”, “Quatermass and the Pit”) also fulfill their usual duties expertly, with the set design especially top-notch. The atmosphere – and fog – is wonderfully thick here. The only issue with Grant’s work is that some of the tinted colour photography is a bit annoying, because there doesn’t seem to be any organic coloured light source for such colouring. So it’s just a stylistic affectation for the sake of it, and if it annoys me in modern films I can’t rightly give this older film a pass for much the same thing.

 

This one pits Dracula against Rupert Davies’ Catholic monsignor, a really interesting character who although a man of God, he’s not afraid of what he sees as superstitious nonsense, which is rather curious if you ask me. Davies gives an excellent performance full of piety and impatience, and it’s interesting seeing how the film deals with him in relation to Dracula, Ewan Hooper’s morally compromised Renfield-esque priest, and Barry Andrews’ atheistic young suitor character. It’s very obviously a pro-religion film, but Hooper’s priest lackey adds some complexity at least. Meanwhile, Andrews’ character is tasked with having to believe in something in order to vanquish Dracula, and the film thankfully finds a way to pull that off without making his character a hypocrite or sudden believer in God. It’s really quite fascinating, so it’s a bit of a shame that Andrews is rather underwhelming in the part. In fact, he’s the lone dud here. Ewan Hooper is really quite good as the compromised priest forced to become Dracula’s Renfield of-sorts. It’s a rather haunted portrayal. The late, underrated Veronica Carlson is lovely as ever, Barbara Ewing is good too, whilst an actress named Marion Mathie is excellent as Carlson’s mother. Hammer ‘lucky charm’ Michael Ripper is terrific too, not playing a drunk for a change (he’s the landlord of the pub this time). When given the chance, Lee drops his usual suave schtick here in favour of just pure black-hearted evil. He’s really good at it, underused as his talents nonetheless are. He’s probably showing disinterest in the material of course, but it works in the character’s favour in my opinion. He’s positively chilling and disdainful of humanity. You just wish he were in more of it and given more to say and do. ***** SPOILER WARNING ***** Look out for the extraordinary shot towards the end of the film of a dead Dracula with his bloodshot eyes gone. Completely gone. He seems to no longer have eyes at all, and it’s creepy as hell. ***** END SPOILER *****

 

An interesting and mostly successful entry focussing on the battle of good and evil, and a particular emphasis on morality and moral weakness. Almost universally terrific performances, though Lee’s Dracula probably needed more to say and do.

 

Rating: B-