Hard to say whether this is a good movie or not. On the one hand, there is nothing truly bad about but on the other, it's also being a movie that doesn't has any truly great or entertaining moments in it. You could say this movie is being average, in about every regard and I can do see this movie ending up being a disappointing one for a lot of people, including the Dracula and Hammer fans out there.

As often is the case with Hammer movies, you could so easily skip the first 30 minutes of it. Hardly anything happens and it attempts to set things and characters up, by showing and doing stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie.

But what follows isn't being anything all too great or entertaining neither. The movie lacks some good interaction between the Dracula character and the 'heroes' of the movie and I did wish there was some more vampire action in this as well. It's not like this is a boring movie but it at the same time also does very little to excite you or get you involved with anything. It's as if the Hammer studios 'demanded' another Dracula movie but the writer Anthony Hinds just had no good ideas at all and instead decided to put in some stuff we had all seen before in previous and far better Hammer studios Dracula productions, making this movie as generic and unremarkable as it could be.

It's a shame, since there were still some ingredients for a great movie present here. One of them is obviously being Christopher Lee, who once more plays the blood sucking count, who once again gets resurrected from the death. The other is being director Roy Ward Baker, who had directed some of the best Hammer movies and simply was being a great director, in general. Both of their talents sort of go to waste in this movie, since they are given very little good to work with.

And I'm still not really sure whether or not Dennis Waterman was a good leading man in this. Don't really think he had the right charisma and star-power and this movie is being one of those cases that really could had used a Peter Cushing, or someone of his caliber, in this.

I know I'm sounding mostly negative but in all truth, I did not hated watching this movie at all. Can't say there is anything truly bad about it but there just isn't being anything in it that makes me truly like this movie, or makes it one that stands out from the tons of other Dracula movies.

6/10

Watch trailer

(Review originally written at 29 August 2007)

This is an enjoyable rather forgotten movie from the Hammer studio's, staring both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee again.

I particularly liked the atmosphere of the movie. Unlike many other Hammer movies, this one actually got creepy, which was mainly due to its mysterious build up and overall atmosphere. The first appearance of Megaera is a great horror moment and surprised me quite a bit at how greatly it was done.

But no, unfortunately the movie is a whole isn't among the best the Hammer studios ever provided. The actual story fails to become really interesting and the character treatment isn't the greatest. It took me a while into the movie to realize that Peter Cushing was going to be the 'bad' guy in this and Christoper Lee the good guy. Normally those roles are always turned around. Besides that, Christopher Lee doesn't really get featured until the movie is already halve way through. His character after that also makes a redundant impression and the movie could had easily done without him. He's first billed but don't be fooled, he really isn't the main character in this. It also isn't Christopher Lee's finest acting moment. At times he's just downward horrible. His silly looking make-up and wig also doesn't help much to make his character a good one. Peter Cushing also gets make-up applied. In some sequences he looks so much different than he did in real life! It also takes a while for the movie to introduce its real main character, Paul Heitz.

The story flow also isn't the greatest. The movie gets stuck at times, when the mystery doesn't get explained and not enough is happening in the movie, even though the actual story itself is in its core quite a good one, that's filled with lots of potential, that doesn't really get ever exploited in this movie.

The movie obviously didn't cost a lot to made. Like I said before, the make-up effects aren't the greatest but more distracting are the obvious fake backgrounds and sets. Nevertheless, this has now of course become part of the charm of Hammer horror movies.

Greatly enjoyable to watch for the Hammer fans.

6/10

Watch trailer