Franchises: Hammer's Dracula Series. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Here's the movie that was my introduction to Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, appropriately on Halloween night when I was eleven. As it had been with Hammer's The Mummy, my mom watched most of it by herself when I walked in on her. I had just seen many of the Universal movies, including the original Dracula with Bela Lugosi, for the first time, but this was something different entirely and so much of it stuck with me, such as the vivid color, the violence, the animal-like ferocity of Lee's Dracula, and memorable moments like the staking of the vampire woman, the moment where Dracula corners the one woman in a room, and the ending where Dracula falls through ice and into the freezing water beneath. I'm sure I kind of knew what Hammer was, as I'd likely read up on it, but it wasn't until afterward, when I really became interested in their films and learned who Peter Cushing and Lee were, that I realized what I had seen was one of them. It took a little more research for me to learn that the specific movie I'd seen that night was Dracula: Prince of Darkness, a title I first read in the filmography in the back of the Monster Madness book, and which I later saw the very beginning of one Friday night on AMC, but as much as I wanted to see it in its entirety, it wouldn't happen for a long time. Not only did AMC completely change its identity and stopped showing such films not too long after that but, while I managed to get my hands on Horror of Dracula, Taste the Blood of Dracula, and The Satanic Rites of Dracula fairly easily, there was a long period where Prince of Darkness was out of print on both video and DVD. Not yet completely familiar with the idea of buying used copies of out of print items off of Amazon, I ended up ordering a DVD-R set from the now defunct website, Ioffer, that consisted of this film, Frankenstein Created Woman, and Scars of Dracula, in the summer of 2009. Although the print of Prince of Darkness in that little set was the old Anchor Bay edition, which wasn't the best quality, I was still able to enjoy it thoroughly and, fortunately for me, the movie came to Blu-Ray a few years later.

As you can tell, I have quite the soft spot for Dracula: Prince of Darkness, both due to nostalgia and also because I do think it's a very enjoyable and well-made flick in the Hammer filmography. It might not be on the level of the 1958 film or the studio's other true classics, like The Curse of Frankenstein, and, as many historians have pointed out, it doesn't break much of any new ground, but there's a lot of entertainment value to be had here, and when it comes to giving you everything you'd expect and want from one of these movies, it succeeds in spades.

Ten years after Dr. Van Helsing destroyed Count Dracula, the fear of vampirism is still very much alive in the region of the Carpathian Mountains, with victims of suspicious deaths being staked and buried in unhallowed ground. Father Sandor, abbot of the Kleinberg Monastery, is utterly disgusted by this and attempts to get it into the locals' heads that there is nothing to fear anymore. After putting a stop to one such burial, Sandor stops at a small inn and meets two English couples, the Kents, made up of brothers, Charles and Alan, and their respective wives, Diana and Helen. They tell him they're on a trip through the region and next plan to travel to Carlsbad, which Sandor advises against, specifically telling them to stay away from the castle there. But, the next day, after the driver of their coach spends four hours fixing a wheel, he refuses to travel any further than the castle as night approaches and forces the Kents out of his carriage at knife-point. Left stranded, the travelers have a choice between seeking refuge in an old, abandoned shack or the very castle Sandor warned them of, only for the decision to be made for them when a driver-less carriage shows up. When they attempt to drive it on to Carlsbad, the horses instead make for the castle. Despite Helen's uneasiness, the group enter to find that two rooms have been prepared with their luggage and four places have been set at the dinner table. They then meet Klove, a strange and rather creepy servant who serves them dinner, telling them that his late master, Count Dracula, gave instructions for the castle to always be made ready to receive guests. After enjoying their dinner, the guests settle down to bed, though Helen still has a feeling of foreboding about both the castle and Klove. Late that night, she and Alan are awakened by strange sounds and when Alan gets up to investigate, he sees Klove dragging a trunk through the hallways. Following him, Alan finds his way into a hidden room containing a stone coffin and a small, urn-like box in a separate section, but is then stabbed from behind by Klove, who uses his blood to resurrect Dracula from his ashes kept in the box. Klove then lures Helen down to the crypt and she is cornered and bitten by Dracula. The next day, Charles and Diana nearly fall prey to both Dracula and the now vampiric Helen, but manage to escape the castle and are found and taken to the Kleinberg Monastery by Sandor. But, even such a refuge may not be enough protection from Dracula, who, with the help of Klove, Helen, and a man at the monastery under his influence, is hellbent on taking Diana.

While they may have replaced him on The Evil of Frankenstein, Hammer didn't hesitate to have Terence Fisher direct Dracula: Prince of Darkness following his return to the studio with The Gorgon. After directing The Earth Dies Screaming, a 1964 science fiction/horror film for American producer Robert Lippert, Fisher headed back to Hammer for the assignment, which he would approach in a much slower paced and suggestive manner than he had in the 1958 film. It would also ultimately prove to be his last film in the series, as well as his last Dracula or vampire film period. He was slated to direct the next film in the series, 1968's Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, but injuries he suffered from a bad automobile accident forced him to drop out and, as a result, both the film and then the Hammer Dracula series as a whole marched on without him.

Nearly a decade after he first played Dracula, Christopher Lee picks the role up virtually where he left off, once again playing the count as a feral, beastly, and animalistic vampire, even more so than in the first film, given how he has no dialogue whatsoever, as if he's not even bothering with the mask of humanity he put on for Jonathan Harker. Right when Klove resurrects him, Dracula gets back to doing what he does best: preying on innocent women to create his vampire harem and striking down those who stand in his way. His first victim is Helen Kent, whom he turns after Klove lures her down there to him, and he next sets his sights on Diana. As in the first film when his vampire bride went for Harker, he becomes enraged when Helen goes for Diana herself, snarling at her and rushing down the stairs to grab Diana and take her away. Charles Kent tries to save his wife but he proves to be no match for Dracula, and it's only when Diana accidentally discovers that the vampires are vulnerable to crosses that Charles uses a makeshift one to hold off both Dracula and Helen while they escape. Not at all happy about having lost Diana, Dracula has Klove take him and Helen to the Kleinberg Monastery where Charles and Diana seek refuge. Thanks to his influence over Ludwig, a man who Sandor took in after finding him half-crazed and suffering from amnesia near the castle, he's able to enter the grounds of the monastery and, also thanks to Ludwig, manages to get Diana alone in Sandor's study. Using his hypnotic stare, he makes Diana remove the crucifix she wears around her neck and attempts to make her drink his own blood, but is forced to flee with her when Charles and Sandor arrive. With Klove driving the carriage, he tries to make it back to his castle, just as Dracula himself attempted during the climax of the first film, but his plan goes awry when Charles and Sandor manage to kill Klove and save Diana before he can make her a vampire, leading to a final confrontation between him and Charles on the castle's icy moat.

For a long time, it was generally believed that Dracula's lack of dialogue in the film came down to Lee believing the dialogue that was supposedly written was horrendous and he refused to speak it... at least, that's what Lee himself always insisted. However, in his memoir, Inside Hammer, Jimmy Sangster (who wrote this screenplay under the pseudonym of "John Sansom") argued that he purposefully didn't write any dialogue, commenting, "Vampires don't chat." He also noted that it didn't seem necessary for the recently resurrected Dracula to speak, seeing as how he would be even more undead than he was in the previous film, and given how I've discussed that the dialogue he had with Jonathan Harker and his acting as an accommodating host for him seemed to be a facade of humanity he was just barely managing to uphold, there might be some truth to Sangster's claims. Plus, some historians have noted that the lines Lee claimed he refused to say for this film were dialogue he actually would say in some of the later films, suggesting he may have been getting things mixed up in his memory, which is very possible. And finally, when you look at the film as it is, it's hard to find any spots where Dracula would have been able to say anything. Whatever the reason for his lack of dialogue in this film, Lee still manages to make his Dracula totally imposing and beastly, which, as I said, is actually helped by the lack of dialogue and fits with his portrayal for 98% of the first movie.

Lee's own feelings about this film were hard to gauge. In some sources, he seems to have been completely down on it, especially when he was talking about why he had no dialogue, but other times, such as the audio commentary he did with several of the other cast members, he appeared to have an affinity for it, as this was before he would develop his notorious ambivalence towards both Dracula and Hammer at large. Regardless, one thing I don't see when I watch the film is this notion that some people, among them Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of the book, The Films of Terence Fisher: Hammer Horror and Beyond, have about Lee sleepwalking through it. To me, he seems to be really into it and giving it his all, and even said at the time that he really enjoyed playing Dracula, an attitude he wouldn't have after the following seven years, where he was pressed into playing the role five more times, and that was just for Hammer. But, one thing I can say is that, as much as I enjoy his performance, Lee's Dracula isn't as 100% effective here as he was in the first film. The shadow of fear and superstition that's supposed to still be hanging over the region, even though he's been gone for ten years, just doesn't feel as palpable as it was when Dr. Van Helsing visited the inn in the first film, and Dracula's small amount of screentime, which isn't much more than it was before, is more noticeable, mainly because you don't have a rapidly-paced story or a lot of truly interesting supporting characters to keep your attention. Above everything else, the film does reveal how this Dracula, as effective as he can be, is rather one-note, doing virtually nothing here that he didn't do previously, and that would become more of a problem as the series went on.

The filmmakers appeared to have never been satisfied with merely staking Dracula at the end of these movies, instead opting to come up with some elaborate means of disposing of him. But, none were able to top or even match Dracula's disintegration in the sunlight at the end of the first movie, which would always serve as the ultimate demise for Lee's count, and while a couple are fairly satisfactory, most of them are either abrupt, lazy, or anticlimactic; his demise at the end of Prince of Darkness falls into the latter category. Sandor mentions to Charles Kent that running water can sufficiently drown a vampire and so, when Charles and Dracula are struggling on the castle's frozen moat, Sandor shoots holes in the ice around Dracula, cracking and separating it until he falls through and is trapped in the water beneath. It's a pretty pathetic way of defeating him, and the scream he gives off as he slips through sounds comical, as it's high-pitched and downright "geeky" in how sounds (while he had a great speaking voice, Lee's death screams were never that satisfying).

Although the film opens with a recap of the final confrontation between Dracula and Dr. Van Helsing in the first film, Peter Cushing's good doctor does not feature in this movie. Normally, that would be a major letdown, but fortunately, the movie introduces a more than capable substitute in the form of Father Sandor (Andrew Keir). Unlike the kindly Van Helsing, Sandor is a very forceful and irascible sort of person, the kind who doesn't mince words when he sees an injustice being done or when je experiences ignorance. He enters the movie by firing off a shot to stop a group of people from staking a woman whom they have no proof died of vampirism, calling them barbarians, and when he inspects the body and finds no bite marks on her neck, he tells the priest overseeing the ritual, "You shame the cloth you wear... This child died. You understand that, man of God? She died! Nothing more!" He orders the woman to be buried in a churchyard and, when the priest refuses to have any part of it, Sandor says he will oversee the burial himself. Nobody does anything to carry out his instructions, and when the priest threatens to tell the bishop of this, stating that Sandor is out of his jurisdiction, he retorts, "Do... and tell him that I stopped you from performing an act of blasphemy! Or would you prefer that I told him?... You are an idiot, Father. Worse than that: you are a superstitious, frightened idiot." He leaves them, warning that he'd better not have a reason to come by again. He then stops by at the inn to temporarily warm himself, only to find that they still have garlic cloves hanging up to, "Keep out the boogeyman." He angrily proclaims, "There is no boogeyman anymore, and if there was, this wouldn't keep him out. Can't you get it into your thick skulls it's over?! Finished these past ten years!" Despite his initial crankiness, however, Sandor proves himself to actually be a very cool and down-to-Earth type of guy when he meets the Kents. Warming his backside by the fireplace next to where they're sitting, he notes, "Fortunately, my calling still allows me the luxury of a warm posterior, one of the few pleasures left in life," and then further reveals how unpretentious and uptight he is, noting, "Pleasure in this life is important. What are the alternatives? Hellfire and brimstone, or... No, I'm sure the warming of one's backside in front of an open fire, and moll clarets, aren't part of the grand design. No, these are earthly pleasures, to be enjoyed while one is able." He also notes how he's not above bringing a rifle with him for protection, remarking, "Another of my earthly vices. Each time I leave the monastery, I bring this with me. The brethren think it is a bundle of prayer books for the unfortunate heathen I meet in my travels. I'm sure they truly believe that the venison I bring home from time to time drops dead by the divine will of God." After all this small-talk, which includes inviting them to visit the monastery in Kleinberg, he becomes deadly serious when he hears they're planning to travel to Carlsbad, advising them not to go there, or to, at the very least, steer clear of the castle.

Sandor then disappears from the movie until the beginning of the third act, when Charles and Diana come across him after having narrowly escaped from Dracula. He takes them to the monastery and now, truly becomes a Van Helsing substitute, informing Charles of the various methods to fend off and destroy vampires, as well as telling him that vampires often have human servants, like Klove. He also introduces Charles to Ludwig, a traveler he found almost completely out of his mind and suffering from memory loss at Castle Dracula years before and who he keeps at the monastery because of his craftsman skills, unaware of the influence Dracula has over him, which is how he manages to enter the grounds. Sandor and Charles decide to have Diana sent back to England and then for the two of them to storm the castle and tear it apart until they find Dracula, as Sandor believes Dracula's lust for Diana will make it risky to do so until she's gone. Unfortunately, Sandor underestimates just how determined Dracula is to get Diana, as he doesn't believe he would come to the monastery and figures, even if he did, he wouldn't be able to enter unless someone inside invited him in. (For that very reason, you'd think, going back to Ludwig for a moment, that, given his connection to the castle, Sandor would have asked him to be temporarily removed from the monastery while Charles and Diana are there or, at the very least, not allowed to be left alone at all). But, as soon as he tells Charles that, Ludwig allows Dracula and the now vampiric Helen onto the grounds. Helen manages to get at and bite Diana on the wrist, but Sandor uses the heat from a lantern to cauterize the wound, saving her from the curse of vampirism. It's then that he learns someone has been allowed to camp outside the monastery gates and, figuring what's up, has Charles come with him, while one of the brothers sees to Diana. Finding Klove's wagon containing the vampires' coffins, Sandor puts crucifixes in them and, upon hearing that Helen has been caught, offers to allow Charles to see how a vampire is destroyed, although he warns him it's a grisly sight. When he and Charles enter the room where the snarling, struggling Helen is being restrained, the scene is very similar to the one in the first movie where Van Helsing staked Lucy, as Sandor has to tell Charles that what he's seeing is not Helen anymore, in dialogue that's virtually identical to what Van Helsing told Arthur Holmwood. He then stakes Helen as she's restrained by the brothers and, once she's dead, he says a prayer over her and shows Charles how an air of peace has been restored to her. But, Sandor and Charles are so busy with this that they're unaware of how Ludwig lures Diana into a room where Dracula can take her. He manages to escape with her with Klove's help, but Sandor and Charles give chase on horseback and are able to cut the wagon off before they reach the castle. Although Charles intends to stake Dracula himself, he's unable to do so before he rises from his coffin, leaving Sandor to shoot the ice around him, causing him to fall into the water below.

Where the cast of Dracula: Prince of Darkness falters is in the Kents, as they're honestly not the most interesting group of people. Charles (Francis Matthews) is likable enough, coming off as a fun-loving, devil-may-care type of person, one who's introduced while he's attempting to down a bunch of wine at the inn and buying drinks for everybody. His behavior often puts him at odds with his uptight sister-in-law, Helen, and that includes when the group end up at Castle Dracula. In fact, it's Charles' idea to try to take the driver-less carriage that appears to Carlsbad, only for it to take them to the castle. Once they're inside, and find that the table has been set for four and that their luggage has been taken up to the bedrooms, Charles does agree that the situation is strange, but when Klove shows up and explains that his late master gave instructions for the castle to always be open to guests, he pretty much takes it at face value. He even offers a toast to Count Dracula, intoning, "May he rest in peace." Later, when he and Diana bed down for the night, he admits that both Klove and the castle at large are kind of unsettling, and also comments on how Klove appears to be the only servant, but the two of them go to sleep and don't think more of it. But, the next morning, when they wake up to find no sign of anyone, Charles takes Diana away from the castle and to the little shack at the crossroads. He then returns to the castle to search for Helen and Alan, only to find the latter's body stuffed in a trunk after having been used to revive Dracula. Like most people, Charles is no match for Dracula when he confronts him while he tries to take Diana, and he only manages to fend him off with a makeshift cross when he sees that he and Helen are scared of them. Escaping the castle, and being taken to the Kleinberg Monastery, Charles, learning of how Klove used his brother's blood to resurrect Dracula, decides to kill the vampire himself and he and Sandor agree to work together to that end. But, while Charles is able to get some revenge by shooting and killing Klove, he never gets the opportunity to kill Dracula, despite his planning to stake him after he and Sandor chase the wagon back to the castle.

Diana (Suzan Farmer), Charles' wife, absolutely goes along with everything her husband does, thinking he's just the greatest thing ever and being totally amused by the antics that annoy Helen. Like Charles, she does admit that what goes on when they end up at the castle is strange but takes Klove's explanation at face value, although she later says Helen's overwhelming fear of the place is a bit disquieting for her. Come the next morning, when she and Charles wake up to find no sign of Helen and Alan, she becomes uneasy about being there and asks Charles to take her away from the place, which he does. Getting her back to the shack in the woods, Charles tells Diana to stay there, while he heads back to the castle to search for the others... and yet, when Klove drives up in a carriage and tells her to come with him, saying that her husband sent him, she does what he says without really questioning it! She ends up back at the castle, where Helen, now a vampire, attempts to take her, only for Dracula to stop her, intending to claim her for himself. During the fight between Dracula and Charles, Diana is nothing but a useless bystander who's restrained by Helen, only accidentally finding out that crosses are painful to the vampires when the crucifix she wears around her neck burns Helen's arm. After she and Charles escape and are taken in at the monastery, she spends most of her time there comatose in a bed. When she awakens, she's more than ready to head back to England, and is shocked when Charles tells her he's going to send her back alone, while he and Sandor plan to find and kill Dracula. But then, Dracula manages to enter the monastery and, with Ludwig's help, traps her in Sandor's study. Entrancing her, he makes her remove her crucifix and tries to get her to drink his own blood, but is then forced to flee with her back to the castle. Fortunately for Diana, Charles and Sandor manage to chase Klove's carriage down and save her before Dracula can corrupt her.

Alan Kent (Charles Tingwell), Charles' brother and Helen's husband, is the least memorable of the group, as he just goes along with everyone else and, for the most part, merely tolerates his wife's uptight nature. Like Charles and Diana, he writes off Helen's feelings of foreboding about the castle and Klove, thinking it's just another example of her not being able to enjoy anything, and completely ignores her when she tries to warn him that night when they're preparing to go to bed, telling her she'll forget about everything in the morning. Late in the night, the two of them are awakened when they hear strange sounds nearby and Alan gets out of bed and looks out the door to see Klove dragging a trunk through the hallways. He decides to investigate and finds his way down to the tomb in the bowels of the castle, coming across Dracula's stone coffin, his waiting clothes, and a box containing his ashes in a hidden section of the room. But then, Klove stabs him in the back, killing him, and then hangs his body over the coffin, slices his throat open, and uses the blood that pours out as a means of resurrecting Dracula.

The most notable of the Kents is Helen (Barbara Shelley), as she goes through quite a transformation over the course of the story. As I've been saying, when you first meet her, she's an absolute killjoy who's incapable of enjoying anything, often complains about Charles' incorrigible behavior, which she says is nothing more than foolishness, and just seems like a rather sour person in general. However, when the group ends up at Castle Dracula, Helen is the one who has the most common sense about the situation, having a major sense of foreboding about the castle, which is compounded when they meet Klove. She tries her best to warn the others about it but, because of how shrewish she's been acting, her concerns are written off as nothing more than more examples of such. This leads to them staying the night at the castle and to Alan's fatal investigation of what Klove is up to. And once Dracula has been resurrected, Klove lures Helen down to the tomb, where the count corners and bites her. Once she's been turned, Helen is now a very sensual and seductive creature, especially interested in corrupting Diana when she's lured back to the castle, approaching her with open arms and salaciously telling her, "You don't need Charles." She proves to be a little too eager for Dracula's taste, as he angrily reprimands her for trying to bite Diana, both at the castle and later at the monastery, when she tricks Diana into opening the window for her by putting on a facade of benevolence and manages to bite her wrist. After Charles and Diana escape the castle, Helen tries to appease Dracula's anger but he tosses her aside, determined to get Diana back.

The change in Helen following her encounter with Dracula is like a more extreme version of what happened to Mina Holmwood in the first film, as she goes from a fairly repressed person, one who you can tell likely doesn't get a lot of satisfaction from her husband, to a totally unchained and emboldened one, one who is very eager to share her newfound promiscuity with everyone else. Since Mina never became a full-on vampire, but was still clearly enjoying the doors Dracula was opening for her after her first night with him, it's not so farfetched to think that Helen is what she would have become had she been totally corrupted. But, unlike Mina, nothing can save Helen from Dracula's influence, and when she's captured at the monastery, Father Sandor has no other recourse than to stake her. Once he does, she, like Lucy Holmwood, has an aura of peace about her, signifying that she is now truly free.

At first glance, Klove (Philip Latham) may seem like an inexplicable character, seeing as how he wasn't in the first film, but then, you remember that Dracula told Jonathan Harker that his regular housekeeper was away at that time. Granted, it's unlikely they intended for Klove to have been that person and put him in for sake of the plot, but regardless, that line does provide something of an explanation for his absence the first time around. Although he is definitely creepy when he first appears in the shadows near the castle's dining room table, to the point where the sight of him causes Helen to scream, Klove manages to play the part of an accommodating host and servant for the Kents. He takes their luggage up to their rooms, sets the table for them, and after introducing himself, serves them dinner. When asked why he seemed to be expecting them, he explains that his late master decreed that the castle always be suited to receive guests and he is simply carrying out that wish (on that note, he does a pretty good of keeping the inside of the place looking spotless and welcoming to guests). But, despite his friendly enough manner, there's still an eerie coldness to him that Helen is deftly uneasy about, and for good reason. Klove has been waiting a long time for an opportunity to resurrect his master and the arrival of the Kents provides him with it. When Alan finds his way down to the tomb late in the night, Klove kills him by stabbing him in the back, hoists his body above Dracula's coffin, and spills his blood on the count's ashes, leading to his revival. Once Dracula has been resurrected, Klove brings Helen to him by telling her that something has happened to Alan and lures her down to the tomb. He continues to be totally devoted to his master throughout the film, as he brings Diana back to the castle the next day, attempts to stop her and Charles from escaping, and brings both Dracula and Helen to the Kleinberg Monastery, camping outside the gates to allow them easy access to the place. And though Father Sandor puts crosses in both of their coffins at one point, Klove apparently removes them before they head back to the castle once Dracula has taken Diana (I say apparently because it's never shown and, in fact, those crosses are completely forgotten as soon as they're placed in the coffinds). On the way, he's intercepted by Charles and Sandor, the former of whom shoots him when he attempts to throw a knife at him.

A Renfield type of character, Ludwig (Thorley Walters), is revealed to be staying at the monastery, having been found almost totally mad and suffering from amnesia at Castle Dracula years before. They keep him there because he's quite a craftsman, and when he's introduced, he seems like an eccentric but harmless sort of person, as he obsessively polishes the cover of a leather-bound folio, humming, "Rum-ti-tiddly-dum, ti-tiddly-dum," to himself. While doing so, he catches a fly, drops it in a cup, and quickly swallows it when he hears someone coming. He called for Sandor to give him his opinion of his work on the cover, asking, "Is it 'exquisite' or merely 'magnificent'?", and is quite pleased when Sandor says it's exquisite. After he and Charles leave the room, Sandor tells Charles that, as calm as he seems, Ludwig has been known to get violent occasionally, which is why the door to his room is kept locked. That isn't enough to keep him from escaping his room when he hears Dracula calling for him, though, as he gets out through his barred window and opens the gate, allowing the vampire in. Later, while Helen is being staked in his room, Ludwig knocks out the man who was to be guarding him and tricks Diana into going into Sandor's study, where Dracula is waiting for her. He also helps Dracula to escape with her, but is himself never punished for what he's done, instead taken away back to his room.

Terence Fisher usually had a very leisurely and measured approach to the narratives of his films, taking the time to set up the story, the characters, and the setting, but Dracula: Prince of Darkness is exceptionally slow-paced and drawn out in this regard, especially when compared to the brisk pace of the first film. After the prologue that begins with the final scene from Dracula, you're first introduced to Father Sandor when he stops the mob from staking a woman who died of natural causes and his admonishing them for this, then you go to the inn and meet the Kents, as does Sandor when he comes in, and after that, you get the ordeal where their coach driver leaves them stranded near Castle Dracula before they finally end up at the castle itself. Even then, they take time to explore the seemingly empty castle, meet Klove, have dinner, and then head off to bed, all while Helen is sure that there's something evil about the place. The buildup to Dracula's resurrection is also a slow one, as you watch Alan make his way down to the tomb, where he's killed by Klove, and you then see every single detail of Klove's plot to bring his master back to life: dragging Alan's body into place beside the stone coffin, taking the covering off of it, tying up Alan's feet and hoisting him above the coffin, fetching the box containing Dracula's ashes, pouring them down into the coffin, and slicing open Alan's throat to allow the blood to pour down onto the ashes. The effect of Dracula's body reforming is onscreen for a full, unbroken minute, and by the time he finally has returned, the movie has reached the halfway point. The pace does pick up somewhat afterward, particularly during the third act at the monastery, but it's still a much slower film when compared to the first one, as well as The Brides of Dracula. While it's never bothered me, as I find myself enjoying the atmosphere and setpieces, I can see how some people would find this to be rather boring, especially given how slow-paced many of Hammer's movies are anyway.

While Dracula was shot in the standard format, Prince of Darkness was shot in scope, specifically a process called "Techniscope," a sort of poor man's CinemaScope, making it ideal for the always budgetary conscious Hammer, who were starting to get especially tight with money around this time. As a result, the reused footage from Dracula during the opening had a swirling halo of mist placed around it in order to fill out the wider frame, and it also led to this being one of the harder Hammer films to remaster in the digital era, as the early DVD releases were extremely dark. Of course, the screenshots I'm using for this review are taken from a very nice Blu-Ray release but, even then, there was a limit to how much they could remaster it, leading to a lot of grain in some of the images, even for a film this old. Regardless, the Blu-Ray releases, especially the one by Scream Factory, allow you to admire the good work cinematographer Michael Reed did on the film. Most of the movie is shot in a pretty conventional manner, coming off as a slightly more colorful version of Reed's work on The Gorgon, but the cinematography for the scenes inside Castle Dracula stand out in how atmospheric it is, with long, creeping pans and push-ins through the dark hallways during the scenes that take place late at night, sometimes making it look as though the characters are being watched and followed by an offscreen presence. The dark, blue-tinted shadows in most of these shots, with occasional hints of color here and there, are a lovely, creepy touch, and the billowing mist and low, yellow-colored lighting in the tomb for when Dracula is resurrected helps sell that scene tremendously. Reed's work for the scene in the castle the day after Dracula is brought back is especially well-done, with the effect of the late afternoon lighting coming through the stained glass window in the tomb and the way the close-up of Dracula's sleeping face in the coffin is shot with complete darkness surrounding it (the manner in which Christopher Lee opens his eyes there and looks around with a neutral expression on his face makes it quite eerie). And when Dracula appears to admonish Helen for trying to take Diana for herself, the background behind him is lit in sheer red, not unlike something Jack Asher would have done, and the skirmish between him and Charles is done in a lot of well-done low lighting, most of which comes from the large fireplace in the main hall. Once the film switches to the monastery for much of the third act, the cinematography is unable to live up to its high quality standard during the middle, although the nighttime scenes there are nicely done, with the exteriors having an eerie, light-blue moonlight look.

But, as talented a cinematographer as Reed was, he couldn't save this movie from having some of the most egregious day-for-night photography seen in a Hammer film. While some scenes, like when Charles and Diana, after having escaped the castle, meet Father Sandor in the woods, and the nighttime exteriors at the monastery, are passable, as well as comparable to similar scenes in the first film, it is problematic when you see Dracula walking around in what is obviously broad daylight, such as when he storms out of the castle following the couple's escape. It gets especially bad in the climax, when Charles goes to stake Dracula before the sun goes down and yet, even though the sun is still very much up (despite the filters they put on the screen, which don't help at all), Dracula pops out of his coffin and attacks him. There are even shots of a daytime sky behind Dracula in some of his close-ups! To be fair, though, the darker-tinted earlier releases of the movie helped sell these scenes better, whereas the clarity of the newer Blu-Ray releases make the day-for-night far more obvious.

In their continued practice of reusing sets from movie to movie, Hammer had Bernard Robinson refurbish the exteriors and main hall of High Towers in Nightmare into the same for Castle Dracula here. As a result, the castle is quite different from how it appeared in the first film, with the outside now having different architecture, as well as a stone bridge crossing over a frozen moat and curving around to the entrance, which is now two large doors, rather than its being right out in front, with a small bridge going over a little stream and the castle crypt off to the left of it, as it was before. The main room beyond the doors is more akin to what was seen in the first movie, with a large dining room, fireplace, and the same sort of wall decorations, but now the staircase and the landing on the second floor go from right to left, rather than the other way around, like before (it's obvious that this is the same room used in the first film, just with many of the same alterations made to it for the interior of Castle Borski in The Gorgon). There's a large room beyond the dining room table that you never see but it's obviously the kitchen, as it's where Klove fetches the soup he serves to the Kents, and the second floor has several different corridors that are decorated with swords, ram skulls, paintings, and lit candles, as well as cozy bedrooms for the guests. There are some stairs leading up to the third floor but you never see what's up there, aside from the trunk that Klove pulls down those stairs. The whole place looks presentable and hospitable enough, but as Helen senses, there is an undeniable, uncomfortable atmosphere to it, especially when it's in total darkness later on, and you can constantly hear the howling wind outside. The second floor also has a hidden passageway that's covered by a large piece of drapery and which leads down into the crypt where Dracula's stone coffin is kept, which is covered with a drape and in the middle of four floor candelabras, along with his ashes in a box that's kept in a separate section, his cape and outfit (useless bit of trivia here: this is the first film where Christopher Lee's cape is red on the inside), and the trunk that Alan's body is stuffed into after he's been used to resurrect Dracula.

The only other major setting in the film is the Kleinberg Monastery, the interiors of which are just a bunch of small hallways and modest rooms, save for Father Sandor's rather large study, which is filled with a number of books, a large table in the center, and a statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. And, as per usual with most of these movies, you have the small inn which serves as the place where Sandor first meets the Kents. Aside from those sets, a good chunk of the movie takes place in the cold woods in the area (more than likely the ever reliable Black Park), which are shot to look quite lovely, with the most memorable spot being the small, rundown shack at the crossroads where the Kents' coachman leaves them stranded. Many of these sets and locations would be reused, virtually unchanged, in Rasputin, the Mad Monk, which began shooting immediately after this film wrapped (and starred many of the same actors), as part of a ploy by Hammer to shoot four different movies all around the same time.

The film keeps with the same basic depiction of vampires as was seen in Dracula, with Dracula himself being even more animalistic and beastly than before, although Helen is able to put on a far more convincing mask of benevolence than either he or Lucy managed to. Unlike The Brides of Dracula, bats are nowhere to be seen (and they wouldn't be again until Scars of Dracula), although the hypnotic stare that was first put into practice there is carried over here, as seen in the moment between Dracula and Diana in Sandor's study, as is the notion of vampires having loyal human servants (the closest example of that which Dracula had in the first film was the driver of the hearse that transported his coffin to Karlstadt). And as Dr. Van Helsing did for himself upon being bitten by Baron Meinster, Sandor uses heat to treat the wound when Diana is bitten by Helen. As mentioned, running water is apparently now a means with which to dispose of a vampire. I have a feeling it's meant to be seen as a symbol of purity but it still makes Dracula seem like such a bitch when they merely have to force him beneath the ice in order to defeat him.

Hammer decided to seriously up the ante with the violence and gruesomeness here, as Klove's resurrection of Dracula using Alan's blood is the goriest spectacle yet seen in one of the studio's productions, or in any British film made up to that point. You don't truly see him slice open Alan's throat, as Alan's back is to the camera when he makes the cut, but it then immediately cuts to the blood pouring down into the coffin, over Dracula's ashes, and it is pretty revolting (AMC actually used that shot in a promo for the film when they showed it as part of AMC EFX that one night). Needless to say, the film ran into censorship problems as a result and the effect, as well as all of the violence, had to be trimmed. That said, Terence Fisher was unmoved by the controversy, saying that what he depicted was a religious ritual, as well as noting that you don't actually see the throat being cut and that Alan was already dead anyway. Just as horrific to me is the idea that Alan's body was crammed into the trunk, which Charles later finds in the crypt, with Alan's arm sticking out of it. You don't see the condition of his body inside it but, given Charles' expression when he opens it up, as well as how small that trunk is, you can guess it's not a pretty sight. As with Lucy in the first film, Helen's staking by Father Sandor is fairly bloody, but even more gruesome and skin-crawling than that is the scene between Dracula and Diana in Sandor's study, where he opens his shirt, makes a bloody cut in his chest with his finger, and then pulls Diana's head towards it, intending for her to drink the blood. The amount of bloodletting here would serve as a sign of things to come for both this series and the studio at large.

Like The Gorgon, the film borrows the same countryside matte shot from The Evil of Frankenstein for the establishing shot of the inn where Father Sandor meets the Kents, but the miniature of Castle Dracula that's seen in several shots was obviously a creation made for the film itself, given how much it resembles the actual location (though, I have a feeling it was likely either a refurbished version of the Chateau Ravna in The Kiss of the Vampire or another version of the Frankenstein chateau that was remade into Castle Borski for The Gorgon). But, the most impressive effect in the film is the shot of Dracula's gradually reforming body, which takes place in one, unedited shot that lasts for a whole minute, as you first see a skeleton appear, then see fat and muscle gradually materialize on it, and Dracula's vague shape starting to form, before the whole thing is completely obscured by swirling mist for the final part of the resurrection. It was achieved through a series of twelve different dissolves and it still holds up quite well.

Though the first thing you see when the movie begins is a shot of the miniature for the newly designed Castle Dracula, the opening itself is, I've said, a recap of the ending of Dracula, with Dr. Van Helsing pursuing Dracula through the castle before cornering him in the library and, after a violent struggle, killing him with the rays of the sun through the window. As the recap nears its end, a voice that's later revealed to be that of Father Sandor gives this monologue: "After a reign of terror spanning more than a century, the king of the undead was finally traced to his lair, high in the Carpathian Mountains. Through the decades, many had sought to destroy him; all had failed. Here, at last, was an adversary armed with sufficient knowledge of the ways of the vampire to bring about the final and absolute destruction. This, then, was his fate. Thousands had been enslaved by the obscene cult of vampirism. Now, the fountain head himself perished. Only the memory remained, the memory of the most evil and terrible creature who ever set his seal on civilization." Following Dracula's being reduced to dust, the film cuts to a new shot of the dust that was his hand blowing away, leaving only his ring behind, which is what the opening credits play over.

Following that, the movie proper begins with a group of people carrying the body of a young woman through the woods on a small stretcher. An older woman runs through the woods, spots them, and when she sees one of the men in the group is carrying a stake and a mallet, she becomes hysterical and runs towards the group. She's pushed away when she tries to touch the body of the young woman, her daughter, and the priest who's among them tries to comfort her. They arrive at a pyre whereupon they set the body, as the priest tries to talk the woman into consenting to what he feels must be done. But, when she hesitates, and with darkness fast approaching, the priest laments that the deed must be done without her consent. She becomes hysterical again, running to the man who's about to drive the stake into her, and begs them not to go through with it, but is pulled away and restrained as she continues to cry uncontrollably. But, just as the one man is about to bring the mallet down on the stake, a loud gunshot stops everyone dead, as Father Sandor emerges from the woods on horseback. He angrily admonishes them for that they're doing and, ignoring the priest telling him it's none of his concern, countering, "Would I ride fifty kilometers in this filthy weather if it were none of my concern?", he examines the body, specifically the neck. Finding no evidence that she was a victim of a vampire, Sandor becomes all the more appalled at what they were doing. He orders the woman to be buried properly in a churchyard and that he will oversee it, but no one moves to do what he says. Writing the priest off as a complete idiot and a disgrace to his faith, he departs, warning them, "Take care I don't have cause to ride this way again!"

The film switches to the inn, where the Kents are introduced, and just as they're about to head up to bed, Sandor comes through the door and orders a claret. As he did with the mob in the woods, he angrily writes off the villagers' superstitions, ripping off a ring of garlic hanging from the ceiling and insisting there's nothing to be afraid of anymore. Warming his backside by the fireplace, he introduces himself to the Kents and they do the same, telling him of the sightseeing trip they're taking through the area. He invites them to visit him at the monastery in Kleinberg but, while the always affable Charles is more than willing to take him up on his offer, Helen says their program next has them traveling to Carlsbad. Hearing this, he strongly advises them to change their plans and go somewhere else. Before he leaves, he tells them that, if they do decide to go Carlsbad, they should at least avoid the castle. Alan is perplexed by this, saying there's no castle on the map, but Sandor insists that it is real and, again, warns them to stay away from it.

The next day, when they're only two kilometers away from Carlsbad, the Kents' coach driver suddenly stops and orders them to go on by themselves, refusing any sort of money they offer. As they argue with him, Alan points out a nearby castle and asks the driver about it, but he refuses to even acknowledge its existence. When Charles grumbles, "That's because you're not looking, idiot!", the man punches him in the face and pulls a knife on him, demanding he and Alan force the women to get out of the carriage. Alan tells them to do so, and afterward, they're surprised when the driver climbs up and throws their luggage down from the carriage's roof, as they expected he was planning to rob them. He then tells them that if any of them show up there the next morning, he'll take them on to Carlsbad and drives off. Left stranded, they wonder why everyone denies the existence of the castle, and though Charles considers staying there, both Diana and Helen feel they should heed Sandor's warnings. With the only other option being an old shack at the crossroads, they decide to inspect its condition, when they hear the sound of neighing horses nearby and turn to see another coach coming their way. When it gets close, they see there's no driver, and yet, the horses stop right in front of them. As strange as it seems, Charles decides to take the old adage of, "Never look a gift horse in the mouth," to heart and use the coach to drive on to Carlsbad. Reluctantly, everyone else boards and puts their luggage in the back of the coach, while Charles climbs up top to act as the driver. But, when they head off, Charles finds the horses won't obey him and take the path to Carlsbad; instead, they go back the way they came. Try as he might, he can't make them turn around and, after some futile struggling, he decides to let them go wherever it is they're heading. The horses take a long path that leads deeper and deeper into the woods, finally stopping at the castle. With that, Charles figures they might as well see if those inside are as accommodating as the horses, but Helen is reluctant to go in, saying the place has an eerie vibe to it. Charles walks up to the door and, finding that it's unlocked, opens it and calls for anyone inside. He gets no response and, again, despite Helen's misgivings, they step through the door. Suddenly, the horses take off, taking their luggage with them, with Charles unable to run out and stop them in time. Helen then grumbles that they should have listened to her, while Charles says if they'd listened to her, they would have never left England. Diana then calls to them from inside and the others join her there.

She points out that the table is set for four people and she deduces that, as strange as it seems, someone was expecting them. Charles decides to go up to the second floor to see if he can find anybody, but Helen tells him not to and insists that they need to leave immediately. Alan, however, makes her sit down, trying to calm her, as Charles heads up there. He searches the hallways and corridors of the second floor but doesn't find anyone, and he gets no response when he calls up to the third floor. He then checks one of the rooms at the top of the stairs, knocking on the door and then opening it. The room is empty, but just as Charles is about to walk back out, he's surprised to find Alan and Helen's luggage and evening clothes resting on the bed. He rushes back to the landing overlooking the main hall/dining room and asks Alan to come upstairs with him. He guides him to the bedroom and shows him the luggage, before going to check the room next door. When he does, he finds that his and Diana's luggage are there as well. Downstairs, Diana and Helen sit and wait, when they hear the sound of approaching footsteps coming from a hallway across from the table, followed by a shadow and the silhouette of a figure. Helen, already on the verge of a breakdown, screams at this, bringing Charles and Alan running back to them. They see the figure, who emerges from the shadows, revealing himself to be a man wearing the uniform of a servant. He apologizes for scaring the women, and when Charles asks why he didn't show up earlier, he explains that he was unpacking their luggage. He then offers to serve them dinner, to which Charles agrees, and when he goes to fetch the food, Charles, Diana, and Alan decide not to question it, although Helen is still very much afraid. They seat themselves at the table, as the servant returns with a pot of soup. As he serves it to them, he reveals his name to be Klove and also tells them that his master is long dead. He goes on to explain that the reason why it appears as if they were expected was because his master's instructions were that the castle always be ready to receive guests, further revealing that his late master was Count Dracula and that he was the last of a very old family. Having finished serving, he takes the pot away. They begin eating, and while Charles, Diana, and Alan feel themselves to be fortunate, Helen still feels frightened, though she can't quite explain why. The others pay her no mind, and Charles offers a toast to Count Dracula, saying, "Here's to him. May he rest in peace." When he says that, an eerie gust of air passes through the place, though Helen seems to be the only one truly frightened by it.

Later that night, everyone is preparing for bed in their rooms. Charles and Diana talk about Helen's fearfulness, and while Charles thinks it's just more of her complaining nature, he does admit that Klove is a fairly creepy person, as well as note how he seems to be the only person there. Meanwhile, at Helen and Alan's room, Klove appears at their door to ask if they need anything else, and when Alan says they don't, he bids them goodnight. Once they've closed the door, Helen, again, tells her skeptical husband that Klove and the castle as a whole are frightening and that there's a feeling of evil about the place. She tries to convince Alan that they need to leave immediately, but he shrugs it off and says, "You'll forget about all of this in the morning. You'll see." Helen grimly responds, "There'll be no morning for us." Alan merely rolls his eyes and sighs at that remark while continuing to undress. Meanwhile, Klove quietly extinguishes the rest of the lit candles in the place. The film transitions to the dead of night, with Helen awaking from a restless sleep with a start. Alan asks what the deal is and she says she heard him call for him, which he insists he didn't do, saying she had a dream. They then hear something outside and Alan, at Helen's urging, gets out of bed and looks out the door and down the hallway from their room. At first, he doesn't see anything, but then he sees Klove dragging a trunk down from the third floor and rounding the corner with it. Ducking back into the room, he tells Helen what he saw and puts on his robe, intending to follow Klove and find out what's going on. Helen asks him not to leave her but says he'll only be a minute and asks her to lock the door after him. She does as he says and, too nervous to go back to sleep, she puts on her own robe and waits for him. Alan, after looking in on Charles and Diana, heads down the hallway, but doesn't find any place Klove could have gone. Then, he finds that a large piece of drapery on the wall is hiding the entrance to a passage and investigates, walking through an iron door and heading down some stairs to a large chamber akin to a crypt. He finds the trunk Klove was dragging there, as well as a black cape with a red-colored inside and a large, stone object in the center that he sees is a coffin with the name DRACULA on the side. While Helen continues anxiously waiting upstairs, Alan finds a separate room behind a drape that contains a single box sitting on a covered pillar. As he's about to walk back out, Klove suddenly appears and stabs him in the back, killing him instantly.

As thunder rumbles outside the castle, Helen paces nervously in her room, obviously sensing that something is wrong. Down in the crypt, Klove drags Alan's body across the floor and places it on the left side of the coffin. He removes a cloth covering it, then takes a rope and pulley, the latter of which he ties Alan's feet up with, and uses a lever to hoist Alan above the coffin. After ensuring that Alan is dangling directly above the coffin's opening, he takes the box in the separate section, walks over to the coffin, and dumps the contents, ashes, down into it. Finally, he takes out his knife again and slices open Alan's throat. Blood pours down into the coffin and completely covers and saturates the ashes. Klove steps back from the coffin, while inside, after the last bit of blood has dripped down onto the ashes, a human form begins to materialize amidst a swirling mist. The mist becomes thicker and thicker, until it billows out of the coffin like smoke, and as Klove watches, an arm emerges from the mist, the hand crawling along the edge of the coffin with its fingers, looking akin to a spider. Back up in the bedroom, Helen, now totally frightened by the very loud thunderclaps, can't take it anymore and is about to rush out the door, only to find Klove standing there. He indicates that something serious has happened to Alan and tells her to follow him. He leads her down the hallway and to the hidden passage, telling her that he'll wake Charles and Diana. Helen heads down to the crypt and stops in her tracks when she sees Alan's body hanging above the coffin. She lets out a scream and runs back to the bottom of the stairs, crying, only to look up and see the newly resurrected Dracula looking at her. She backs into a corner, while he smiles evilly and slowly walks down the steps towards her, trapping her and biting her. Come the next morning, he's resting in his coffin.

Charles and Diana are up, but they're unable to find any sign of Klove, Alan, or Helen, and the latter two's bags are gone. Diana, feeling uneasy, tells Charles she wants to leave and the two of them flee, making their way back to the shack at the crossroads. But, Charles plans on going back to search for Alan and Helen. He sees no point in trying to get any help from the nearby village, given how they act as though the castle doesn't exist, and he demands that Diana stay there without any argument. He promises to try to be back by 6:30 that night and, after kissing her, heads back. When he returns to the castle and walks through the front door, he finds that it still appears deserted, and he gets no answer when he calls for Klove. He decides to head back upstairs. Meanwhile, at the shack, Diana hears the sound of approaching hoofbeats and runs out of the shack, thinking it's Charles, only to be surprised when it turns out to be Klove. Pulling up next to her, he hops down from the carriage and tells her that Charles sent him to fetch her, saying that he'll explain everything when she meets him. Reluctantly, she gets into the carriage with him. Back at the castle, Charles still hasn't found anyone, even after searching the third floor. Walking back down to the second, he spots the large drape on the wall and notices it billowing from behind. Moving it back, he discovers the hidden passage and follows it down to the crypt. Before he can see Dracula lying in the coffin, he spots the trunk lying near it and sees an arm sticking out from under the lid. Running to it and opening the lid, he's absolutely aghast and shaken to his core when he sees Alan's crumpled body inside it. At that moment, the sun goes down and Dracula awakens. He senses Charles' presence but does nothing, as he stumbles back upstairs, staggering badly from what he's just seen.

Outside, Klove and Diana arrive back at the castle. He helps her off the carriage and guides her through the door, but once she's inside, he closes and locks the door behind her. She runs to it and futilely tries to open it, and then turns around and sees the figure of a woman come downstairs. The woman tells her, "We've been waiting for you, Diana. We've been waiting for you," and she realizes it's Helen, wearing a much more sultry dress than she ever would normally. She asks her where Charles and Alan are, but Helen merely approaches her with her arms outstretched, telling her, "Come sister." She, again, asks where Charles is, but Helen tells her she doesn't need Charles, revealing her vampire fangs. Terrified at this, Diana tries to flee but Helen stops her, only for Dracula to appear on the landing above and hiss and snarl at Helen. He rushes down the stairs to them, grabs Diana's wrist, and tries to pull her upstairs. Charles appears and orders Dracula to let her go. Helen then rushes up to Charles, asking him to let her kiss him, and goes in for a bite, but Charles shoves her off. Diana breaks free from Dracula and runs to Charles, but the two of them are trapped, with each vampire blocking their way. Dracula lunges for Charles, grabs him by the throat, turns him around, and shoves him near the fireplace, sending him tumbling into the furniture. As Dracula approaches, baring his fangs, Charles, spying the swords on the wall, gets to his feet and grabs one. He moves around to Dracula's front, and when he approaches him, he tries to slice at him, but Dracula grabs his wrist, takes the sword from him, and snaps it in half. He grabs Charles by the throat with both hands and forces him down, Charles unable to break free of his grip. Diana, who's been subdued by Helen this whole time, tries to help, when Helen suddenly recoils and yelps. Looking at her, Diana sees a cross-shaped burn on her arm and, realizing it was the crucifix she wears around her neck, picks it up and uses it to force her back. Charles, seeing this, and having been released by Dracula, who was distracted by what happened, grabs the two halves of the sword and forms a cross with them. Dracula immediately gasps and backs away, and Charles yells for Diana, who's still fending off Helen, to join him. The two of them back towards the door, unaware that Klove has come in behind them and is ready to stab Charles with his knife. Diana sees him and Charles swings around and bashes him in the face, knocking him to the floor. Still fending off the vampires, they head out the front door and commandeer Klove's carriage to escape. Once they're gone, Helen tries to comfort the irate Dracula but he's in no mood for it and shoves her away, storming out the door after them.

The carriage barrels through the woods crazily, until it hits a log, which flings Charles and Diana to the ground, while the horses break free from the carriage and go on without them. Getting up, Charles checks on his wife, who was knocked unconscious, then picks her up bridal style and carries her on. He walks for a long time, before his legs give out and he falls to his knees in exhaustion. He hears approaching footsteps and, looking up, he sees Father Sandor, who grimly intones, "I warned you not to go anywhere near the castle, Mr. Kent." In the next scene, the film switches to the Kleinberg Monastery the next day. Charles speaks with Sandor in his study, where he tells him of how Count Dracula was destroyed ten years before but that Alan's life-force was used to resurrect him. He also tells him of the various ways to kill a vampire, as well as of how they often have devoted human servants, such as Klove. Unbeknownst to them, at that very moment, Klove is heading their way, driving a wagon containing Dracula and Helen's coffins in the back. Sandor and Charles check in on Diana, whom Sandor is sure will be back to full strength within a day. Sandor is then told that a man named Ludwig wishes to see him and he has Charles join him, telling him of how Ludwig was a traveler he found near Castle Dracula twelve years before, almost totally insane and having lost his memory. Meanwhile, outside the monastery gates, Klove's wagon arrives. He tells the man at the gate that he seeks shelter but, while he's not allowed inside, per Sandor's orders, he is allowed to camp out there.

Ludwig is then introduced as he's polishing the cover of a folio that's bound in leather, as well as when he catches a fly, puts it in a cup, and then quickly swallows it when he hears someone coming. Sandor isn't fooled when he walks in, asking, "Flies, Ludwig?", to which he says, "A small aperitif, Father Sandor. It will soon be dinner." He then asks Sandor for his opinion on his work on the cover, which he says is exquisite, an opinion Charles shares. Happy to hear it, he excitedly sends them away. Outside the room, Charles asks if all the security around Ludwig is necessary and Sandor says he has a tendency to become violent from time to time. Once he's left alone, Ludwig appears to sense something and is drawn to the window in the back of his room. Back in Sandor's study, he and Charles agree to send Diana away when she's recovered and then hunt down Dracula. As much as Dracula may yearn for Diana, Sandor doesn't think he'll risk coming to the monastery, adding that he wouldn't be able to get in unless someone on the inside invited him anyway. At that very moment, however, Ludwig, hearing Dracula calling to him, opens the shutters to his window and begins using a chisel and hammer to remove the bars. Charles and Sandor then go back to Diana's room and find her awake. Charles tells her that he plans to have her sent home, but she's upset when she learns that Charles plans to go hunt down Dracula. She tries to get Sandor to tell him how foolish a plan it is but he simply says they should talk about it in the morning. The two of them leave the room and Sandor shows Charles to his own room. By this point, Ludwig has managed to move the bars back in order to slip through them. He walks to the main gate and opens it up to find Dracula waiting for him outside.

In her room, Diana is gradually awakened by the sound of tapping at her window, and when she looks, she sits up with a start to see Helen there. Acting more like herself, she begs for Diana to let her in, saying that she's no longer under Dracula's influence. She appeals to Diana, telling her it's cold outside, and Diana, despite some hesitation, gets up and walks over to the window. But, when she opens it, Helen quickly grabs her wrist and bites her. Just when she starts drinking Diana's blood, Dracula yanks Helen back and then looks through the window at Diana (that specific shot was my first ever glimpse of Lee's Dracula). Diana screams loudly, and Dracula is about to move in on her, but he hears someone coming and quickly ducks back outside. Charles and Sandor run in, the former trying to comfort his wife, while Sandor shuts the open window. He demands Diana tell him what happened, when he grabs her wrist and sees the bite mark. He has Charles sit her down, then takes an oil lantern from a desk and holds her wrist across it. After a few seconds, he removes her hand and orders one of the brothers to bring some salve and bandages. Inspecting the wound, he tells Charles they were just in time, and when the brother, Mark, returns with the salve and bandages, he asks him if there are any strangers on the grounds. Mark tells him of a "tinker" spending the night outside the main gate. Sandor has him see to Diana's wounds and guard her, while he tells Charles to come with him outside. There, they find the wagon and Sandor puts a cross in each of the coffins, intending to prevent the vampires from returning to their coffins before daylight. One of the brothers rushes outside to tell Sandor that they caught Helen in the stables but couldn't find Dracula. He tells them to take Helen to Ludwig's room and then tells Charles, "If you wish to see the destruction of the horror spawned by Count Dracula, come with me... but, I warn you, it is not a sight for the squeamish." They then head to Ludwig's cell, where they find Helen being restrained by two of the brothers as she struggles like a rabid animal. Sandor has Brother Peter take Ludwig outside, but once they're out the door, Ludwig knocks Peter out with a blow to the back of the neck. Sandor tells Charles, "Now, bare in mind, Mr. Kent. This woman is not your sister-in-law. She's dead. This is a shell, and what it contains is pure evil. When we destroy it, we destroy only the evil." He then has Helen placed atop the table in the room and restrained by four brothers in total, as she struggles and snarls. Sandor is handed a stake and mallet and, as the others continue holding Helen, he places the stake over her heart and drives it in. Charles has to turn away from this sight, as Sandor says a prayer for Helen's soul and makes the sign of the cross in the air. The deed done, he tells Charles to look, and when he does, he sees how peaceful Helen now looks in death. Sandor proceeds to say a final prayer for Helen, none of them aware of the window that Ludwig forced open earlier.

Ludwig goes to Diana's room, explaining to Brother Mark that his own room is in use, and tells Diana that Sandor would like her to join him in his study. He manages to convince Mark that there's no cause for concern and Diana follows him, but not before putting her crucifix back around her neck. After Ludwig leads her into the study, Diana is perplexed when she finds there's no one in the room, which is almost completely dark. She then hears the door's locking bolt snap and, when she turns, she sees Dracula standing at the door. She attempts to scream but Dracula quickly stops her using his hypnotic stare. Once he has her under his power, he approaches her and motions for her to remove her crucifix. After she's done so, he opens the front of his shirt and makes a deep, vertical cut on his chest. He then puts his hands on her shoulders and attempts to pull her face in towards the bleeding wound, when he hears Charles call for Diana. He scoops Diana up in his arms and carries her outside, smashing through the French windows on his way out and making his way to the front gate. Charles and Sandor manage to break down the door to the study and they rush through the smashed windows. By the time they reach the gate, Dracula has already rode off with Diana. Frantically, Charles demands some horses for them to pursue Dracula but Sandor tells him they shouldn't do so in a panic. He leads Charles back inside and has Ludwig, who saw Dracula out, taken back to his room. In his study, Sandor prepares his rifle, telling Charles that, while he knows Dracula will be heading for his castle, the fact that it will soon be daylight ensures that Diana will be safe until the following evening, which is how long it takes to reach the castle.

The next day, Klove rushes to reach the castle, going so fast across the rough, country road that the two coffins in the back are violently bumping around. Charles and Sandor follow some distance behind on their own horses but, when they reach the old shack after Klove does so, it's clear they're not going to be able to reach the wagon before it gets to the castle. To make up for it, they decide to cut across the country to try to head Klove off, a ploy that works. They get him to stop and order him to disembark, which he acts as if he's going to do, only to quickly rise up and attempt to throw a knife at them. Charles quickly shoots him, killing him instantly, but the gunshot spooks the horses and they roar past the two men, rushing out of control down the road. Sandor and Charles quickly mount their own horses again and chase after the runaway wagon. Once they reach the castle, the horses stop on a ridge by the moat, sending one of the coffins sliding out and across the ice, stopping near the castle wall. Sandor and Charles arrive, quickly dismount, and, seeing the coffin that fell out, decide to see whose coffin is still in the wagon first. When they do, they see that it's Diana's. Sandor then takes out a stake and mallet, but Charles takes them himself, asking Sandor to look after Diana while he deals with Dracula personally. Sandor tells him to hurry, as the light is fading fast. Charles jumps out of the wagon, makes his way down to the moat, and, upon ensuring that the ice will hold him, starts across it. Sandor helps Helen out of the wagon, but by the time Charles reaches the coffin, Sandor warns him that it's too late. On cue, Dracula flings open the coffin and grabs Charles' arm, forcing him to drop the stake and mallet. The two of them struggle on the ice, while up on the ridge, Diana asks Sandor why he doesn't shoot Dracula, and Sandor tells her it wouldn't do anything. Desperate, Diana points the rifle and shoots, hitting the ice at Dracula's feet. Water streams up out of the hole and, seeing this, Sandor remembers a vampire's vulnerability to running water. As Dracula slams Charles up against the wall, Sandor takes his rifle and shoots again at the ice, this time causing it to split open at Dracula's feet. Realizing what's going on, Dracula stops his fight with Charles and tries to flee, but Sandor shoots the ice near him again, causing another split, and the same thing happens when he tries to flee in another direction. Charles scrambles off the ice and up the ridge to join the others, while Sandor fires once more. Now, the ice is cracking all around Dracula, who finds himself stuck on one small island. His weight on the one side of the isle causes it to become buoyant and he falls into the water. Unable to pull himself out, Dracula yells as he slips beneath the ice and disappears into the frigid water, as Charles, Diana, and Sandor watch from the ridge. The movie ends on a blurry shot of Dracula's face beneath the ice.

Though he had some reservations, James Bernard was ultimately convinced to reprise his main theme for Dracula for the sequel, albeit in a slightly altered manner, making it just a little bit faster and with some subtle changes to the arrangements. He reused the motif that literally says Dracula's name many times in the film, usually for whenever he's onscreen or when his presence is hinted at. Bernard also redid the action theme for the first movie's third act for the climax here, although I think he made it a tad too frantic this time and not as pleasant to listen or even as memorable. As far as original music goes, the most notable for me is for Dracula's resurrection scene. During Klove's preparation to use Alan's blood in the ritual, you hear this distant pounding sound that creates a vibration that reverberates with a dull gong-like echo. This piece repeats again and again, with the gong sound becoming more and more severe and intense as it approaches the moment when Klove slices open Alan's throat and the blood pours onto the ashes. When Dracula's form slowly begins to materialize afterward, you have this flute-like piece that starts off soft but rises and rises in pitch, until it reaches its zenith and is then accompanied by a low, menacing sound that builds to a crescendo when Dracula's arm emerges from the mist in the coffin. There's also an eerie, high-pitched sound used for the moments when Dracula is communicating telepathically with Ludwig, and in the scene where Helen is staked, there's a pounding, brassy piece that builds to when Sandor drives the stake into her. For the true opening scene where the group is seen carrying the dead young woman's body, Bernard comes up with suitably somber music for it. And, despite how big and bombastic his music, as per usual, is, he does manage to treat the quieter, more atmospheric scenes, such as those taking place in Castle Dracula late night, appropriately.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness may not be the greatest possible actual sequel to Hammer's original 1958 classic but it is an enjoyable film, despite its flaws. Though he has no dialogue, Christopher Lee still manages to imbue his Dracula with the same ferocious, beastly qualities he did before, Andrew Keir brilliantly makes up for Peter Cushing's absence in his role of Father Sandor, Klove and Ludwig also make for interesting characters, the film is well shot by Michael Reed, especially during the section at Castle Dracula, the art direction of which is quite good, as is the location footage, there's plenty of bloodletting to be had here for gorehounds, as well as some well-executed special effects moments, and another good score by James Bernard. However, the characters of the Kents aren't that interesting, for the most part, the way in which Dracula is defeated is rather pathetic, the movie takes its sweet time in setting up its story, with Dracula's resurrection not occurring until around the halfway mark, which may not sit well with certain viewers, and, above anything else, there's little here you wouldn't have already seen in Hammer's previous vampire movies. It's a film where you have to balance out the good and bad and see if it works for you; obviously, for me, it does, though I can admit it's got some flaws.