In the late 19th century, Marianne Danielle, a lovely young French woman, is on her way to take up a position as a student teacher at the Lady's Academy of Bachstein in Transylvania. On the way, her coach driver stops at a small village, and when she heads inside the inn there to get a meal, the coach suddenly leaves without her. Stranded and with nowhere to stay, as there are no vacancies at the inn, Marianne's luck appears to change when the Baroness Meinster pays the inn a visit. Taking an interest in her, she offers to allow Marianne to stay the night in her castle in the hills, an offer she accepts. At the castle, Marianne is shown to her room by Greta, the Baroness' servant, and is surprised when she looks down from her window's balcony and sees a young man on the balcony below, as she thought the three of them were the only people there. While having dinner with the Baroness, she admits that the man Marianne saw was her son, whom she says is very mentally ill and must be kept behind locked doors at all times. Later in the night, while she's unable to sleep, Marianne walks out onto her balcony, where she again sees the young man, standing on the ledge of his balcony. Fearing he's going to jump to his death, she stops him and heads down to the one door that leads to his isolated room. Meeting the young Baron formally, he appears to be very sound-minded and claims his mother keeps him locked away to prevent him from inheriting the castle and land from her; with a chain latched around his ankle, it's clear he's incapable of jumping to his death. Wanting to help, Marianne finds the key and gives it to the Baron, who frees himself. He then exerts an influence over his mother, while sending Marianne back to her room. Later, Marianne finds the Baroness dead in her son's room, while Greta apparently proves to be the one who's insane. Horrified, Marianne flees the castle and into the woods, where she's found the next morning by Dr. Van Helsing, who's been called to the village by the local priest to help with what is believed to be a possible case of vampirism. Taking an interest in the Meinster family, Van Helsing, while taking Marianne to the Lady's Academy, asks her about everything that happened the night before and then has her promise to forget it all. Little does he know that the main vampire, Baron Meinster himself, is not only slowly but surely building up a harem but also has his evil sights set on Marianne, planning to make her his main vampire bride.
Before he leaves, Van Helsing, who feels paternal towards Marianne, is initially happy to hear that she's become engaged to be married, only to be horrified to learn it's to Baron Meinster. He finds out she hasn't been bitten yet but clearly feels sympathy for her when she tells him she is in love with the Baron. That night, when he returns, he finds the stable keeper dead from an attack by a vampire bat and just barely manages to save Marianne from being taken by the resurrected Gina. Carrying her back into the school, Van Helsing tells Marianne the terrible truth: Gina is now a vampire and Baron Meinster is the one who turned her. Despite her being in denial and devastated at the revelation, he gets her to tell him where Meinster is, which is an old mill. He leaves to confront the vampire and his harem, only to be attacked by both them and Greta, who disarms him of his crucifix. In his fight with Meinster, Van Helsing is rendered unconscious and bitten, with Meinster then leaving him to his fate to go fetch Marianne. But when Van Helsing awakens and realizes what's happened, he promptly cauterizes the wound using a metal tool in a brazier and then douses it with holy water, healing the wound and stopping the spread of vampirism. When Meinster returns with Marianne and prepares to turn her into a vampire in front of Van Helsing, the doctor sears his face with holy water and manages to get himself and Marianne to safety when the mill is set on fire. Ultimately, he stops Meinster by moving the mill's sails until their shadow forms a cross, which traps and kills him.
Once she begins her tenure as a student teacher at the Lady's Academy, Marianne, unfortunately, regresses to more along the lines of your typical, bland Hammer female lead. She's paid a visit by Baron Meinster late that very night, as he arrives under the pretense of bringing her the luggage she left at the chateau but also asks her to be his wife, which she agrees to. This brings up two plot points that are never resolved in a satisfactory way: her apparently not remembering everything that happened the night before, as she appears shocked when hearing of the Baroness' death, despite having seen her body, which never again comes into play, and the conflict of her loving and being engaged to the Baron, unaware of what he is. It's not until she's confronted by the resurrected Gina that she sees exactly what vampirism is, and when Van Helsing tells her that Baron Meinster himself is a vampire, Marianne is distraught, not wanting to believe it, and almost doesn't tell Van Helsing where he is, though she ultimately does. This doesn't go much farther than the following scenes, where Meinster abducts the devastated Marianne from the school (after she stupidly removes a rosary Van Helsing told her to wear at all times) and prepares to turn her into a vampire in front of Van Helsing at the mill. Once she sees his monstrous side, any affection she may have still had gives way to plain old fear, but then, she's slightly hypnotized by him, so she has no means of confronting him about what he is and what he does or even fighting back, forcing Van Helsing to save her. Plus, the conflict didn't hold much water anyway since, as was often the case during the fifty or so years of movies, she falls in love with Meinster after having only known him for a very short time and it feels more like she pitied him for his "sad" existence than anything else.
While he may not have the presence and intimidation factor of Christopher Lee's Dracula, one thing that Baron Meinster (David Peel) has over the count is being able to successfully pass himself of as an ordinary human. When Marianne Danielle first meets him after the Baroness Meinster has told her her son is mad and has to be kept locked up, the young Baron instead comes off as the victim of a cruel mother, as it's revealed he's chained to the wall by his ankle. He further tells her that his mother keeps him locked away from the outside world because she wishes to keep the castle and lands that are rightfully his. This is enough to convince Marianne to find the key to his shackle, which his mother keeps in her bedroom, and toss it to him, allowing him to free himself. Once he's loose, his demeanor changes, as he assures Marianne in a very menacing voice that the Baroness can't harm her now. After sending Marianne to her room, Meinster kills and damns his mother to vampirism, before heading out into the night and doing the same to a young village girl. With the help of his ever loyal Greta, Meinster begins amassing a vampire harem, which grows to consist of the aforementioned village girl and Gina, Marianne's fellow student teacher at the Lady's Academy, who had found herself falling for the dashing, handsome young Baron upon meeting him. In addition, Meinster plans to make Marianne, whom he proposes marriage to, his main bride, much to the horror of Dr. Van Helsing.
The cause of Baron Meinster's vampirism is revealed by Greta to mainly be his mother's doing, as she spoiled him, caused him to become cruel, and allowed him to keep bad company, which led to his being turned into a vampire by one of them. (It's never revealed, but you can guess Count Dracula himself was the one who cursed Meinster.) The Baroness then kept him confined in the castle and would bring him young girls for him to feed on. But, his rather twisted backstory and charming human guise aside, when Meinster is freed and starts going into full vampire mode, he comes off like a low-rent imitation of Lee's Dracula (ironically, in Jimmy Sangster's original script, Dracula's spirit was meant to appear and punish Meinster for attempting to usurp his role). First off, what kind of a wimpy vampire is kept imprisoned by an ankle shackle? Did he never think to try to break it or turn into a bat and slip through it? Besides not being as intimidating, despite having the same bloodshot eyes and fangs, as well as being able to become a bat, he's also not as physically impressive in the fights with Van Helsing. In their first skirmish, Meinster is repulsed by the sight of a crucifix not once but twice, and has to overturn a table in order to beat a hasty retreat. It's during their first meeting at the mill that Meinster manages to get Van Helsing on the ropes, he attacking him with a long chain, choking him out, and biting his neck and infecting him with vampirism, but Van Helsing manages to easily undo that. When Meinster brings Marianne to the mill in order to turn her into a vampire in front of him, Van Helsing stops him by searing his face with holy water. Desperate, Meinster kicks over a brazier, instantly setting the old mill aflame, and tries to escape, but Van Helsing turns the mill's sails until their shadow forms a cross, which Meinster is unable to escape and dies from, an idea that I find to be a ridiculous cop-out.
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| This alternate poster art actually features Dracula himself on the right. |
Equally memorable is Greta (Freda Jackson), the Meinsters' servant who has cared for the Baron ever since he was a baby. Initially sinister but low-key about it, never denying nor confirming the existence of the man Marianne claims to have seen on the balcony below her room, the Baroness tells Marianne that Greta is the only one of the two of them who ever sees her son. But Greta's character changes wildly when she discovers the Baron has escaped his chain, as Marianne finds her in hysterics over it, both horrified and excited, yelling, "Oh, God, help us!" Learning it was Marianne who gave him the key, she, like the Baroness, tells her she has no idea what she's done, only to then laugh in a wicked cackle and reveal that the Baroness is dead. She continues cackling as Marianne flees the castle, before telling the dead Baroness, "Don't blame me, mistress. It was none of my doing. Nay. I've always kept faith with you. Twenty years since I first saw you come to the castle here with the old Baron and your little son. Huh. A fine, handsome little imp he was, too. But you spoiled him, oh, yes. He was always self-willed and cruel and you encouraged him. Aye, and the bad company he kept, too. You used to sit and drink with them, didn't you? Yes, and you laughing at their wicked games, till in the end, one of them took him and made him what he is. You done what you could for him since then, God help you. Keeping him here a prisoner, bringing these young girls, keeping him alive with their blood. But the powers of darkness are too strong! They've beaten you. He's free." Despite this chastising and her voice breaking at points when she recalls what's become of the young Baron, Greta remains as loyal to him as she's always been, keeping his coffin ready for when he returns and helping him build his harem of vampires by ensuring that the village woman he victimized rises from the grave. That scene is pretty creepy, as Greta enthusiastically eggs the girl on as she claws her way out of the coffin, acting like a woman who's eager to witness the birth of a baby, as she says, "Just one little effort more! You'll soon be here!", and when the girl's hand emerges from the dirt, she cackles loudly. She then fends off Van Helsing and Father Stepnik when they try to stake the girl, and although Stepnik tries to restrain her while Van Helsing heads to the castle, you later learn she escaped. When Van Helsing goes to the mill near the end, Greta sics the vampire women on him, and wrestles away the crucifix he uses to keep them away, though she ends up falling to her death from the second floor, making for an uninspired demise for such a memorable character (she didn't look like she fell that far, either).
Miles Malleson, who'd appeared briefly in Dracula as the jolly undertaker, has a slightly larger role here as Dr. Tobler, the village physician who has an interesting method of preventing himself from becoming ill from whatever may have killed a person whose death he investigates: he takes every medicine for every possible malady, saying that precautions are better than cures. Really, it's just an excuse for him to get drunk on the wine he uses to down the pills, and he later helps himself to some more wine in order to do so at the Lady's Academy, without waiting for permission when he asks. When you first meet Tobler, he mixes up a sort of concoction in a bucket from which he intends to breathe in vapors, getting the wife of the inn's landlord to hold his toweled head down in it. He tells her to pay no mind to anything he says, but he starts yelling and carrying on, saying he can't breathe and she's killing him, and when she lets go, he asks her why she stopped. Fed up, she tells him to look after himself while she gets back to her work. When he heads up to the academy to look into Gina's death, he takes Van Helsing with him, asking him if he can put his specialist's fee on his own account, which Van Helsing agrees to. When they're examining Gina's body, Van Helsing shows Tobler the bite marks on her throat, though he writes them off as teeth marks from a dog or a cat, and laughs off Van Helsing telling him it's the mark of a vampire. He's advised not to take the legends so lightly and then decides to leave the whole case up to Van Helsing, save for the fee.
Gina (Andree Melly), another student teacher whom Marianne becomes acquainted with upon arriving at the Lady's Academy, is herself smitten with the good-looking Baron Meinster, fawning over him while talking with Marianne after her engagement is announced. She describes Meinster as like a living Prince Charming, and is so caught up in her daydreaming about him that she burns the toast she's holding over a fire. She also jokingly says that she'd best be careful, lest she fall in love with the Baron herself, but once Marianne leaves her alone, Gina laments to herself, "Wish it had been me." She then gets her wish, as Meinster appears in the room behind her, seduces her, and bites her. After her body is discovered the next day, Van Helsing orders her to be isolated from the school and kept in the stables until he returns that night to finish the job. But she rises from the coffin before he can get there and corners Marianne in the stable, acting just as seductive as Meinster himself, saying she wants to kiss Marianne and asking for forgiveness for letting the Baron "love" her as well. She then tells her that they can share Meinster and attempts to take her up to the old mill, but Van Helsing bursts in and chases Gina away. She joins the village girl Meinster turned before at the mill, where the two of them attempt to attack Van Helsing when he arrives, only to be fended off by his crucifix until Greta snatches it away. Though it's not confirmed, you can assume they ultimately perish when the mill burns down at the end.
Ol' Michael Ripper appears briefly at the beginning as the coachman who brings Marianne to the village. Rushing through the gloomy, fog-shrouded woods, he ignores Marianne's asking him to slow down and just barely manages to stop before his cart runs into a log that's in the middle of the road (which he initially thinks is a corpse). After moving it, he and Marianne head on to the village, seemingly unaware that a mysterious man (Michael Mulcaster) has hitched a ride on the back of the coach. I say "seemingly" because, when they arrive at the village, the coachman takes some money from the man before suddenly taking off without Marianne. However, this part of the plot is left unexplained, as it's a holdover from an earlier draft. You never learn who this man is, although he seems to have a connection to Baroness Meinster, as when he appears in the inn's doorway, all the other locals suddenly clear out and Johann, appearing to know what's happening, tries to get Marianne back on the coach, when it takes off. The implication seems to be that he paid off the coachman to leave Marianne stranded so the Baroness could pick her up and take her to the castle to allow her son to feed on her blood, an apparent confirmation of which occurs when he;s shown watching as the Baroness' coach leaves with her. But, after that, the man is never seen again, and the Meinsters never acknowledge his existence, leaving his exact role in the story an enigma.
This was Jack Asher's penultimate film for Hammer before he was let go from the company due to his perfectionist, time-consuming methods, but he more than left his mark, as I think The Brides of Dracula sports his best work. The Mummy may have been where Hammer's movies really started to look lush and polished but Asher cranked it up tenfold here, as every frame of this film looks superb. My God, do the colors pop, both from the characters' vivid costumes and Asher's using highlights of lovely red, purple, and even gold-like colors in the lighting, the latter of which creates a heightened sense of reality for scenes set in the dark, lit by only a burning fireplace or a small lamp, or at sunset, such as when Van Helsing prepares to stake the young woman who Baron Meinster victimized. Asher's skillful use of deep shadows is also back in full force, as is the way he creates a palpable Gothic atmosphere in scenes like the opening in the fog-shrouded forest, which is on par with the visuals in both The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula for how classically eerie it looks, and that's to say nothing of how he shoots the interior of the Chateau Meinster, which comes off best when Van Helsing visits it to find it seemingly abandoned and eerily quiet. But, while there are some good examples of location work that was shot at night, there are also very noticeable instances of day-for-night, such as when Marianne first flees the chateau and when Severin, the stable keeper, is killed outside by a vampire bat. Other than that, though, the cinematography is exquisite and Hammer's films would never recapture this look after discharging Asher, as Arthur Grant, the man who would replace him, and while still being very talented in his own right, often went for more naturalistic cinematography, as opposed to Asher's otherworldly style.
Using the same stages at Bray Studios as he always did, Bernard Robinson virtually recreated many of the sets that he had for Dracula. He does his usual warm and cozy pub/inn interiors, uses the outside of the studio for the small area outside the inn, makes use of a small, interior set for the churchyard where the vampire woman rises from the grave with Greta's help, and the lovely, and creates affluent-looking interiors for the Lady's Academy, but as with Castle Dracula, the interiors of the Chateau Meinster are among the more memorable sets. As was the case before, the biggest room is a gigantic dining room, with a long table, a big fireplace, full of lit candelabras, old paintings and other items such as swords and red drapes adorning the walls, and a big staircase that leads up to a landing that wraps around the room. Both the Baroness and Marianne's bedrooms are very lovely to look at, the former's decorated with memorable red-and-white wallpaper (kind of reminds me of the wallpaper in my grandmother's old house) and golden-colored pieces, and even the room where Baron Meinster is locked up looks and feels accommodating, with another big table, a small sofa and nightstand with a lamp and books in the back, a bearskin rug, a balcony, and a small space behind a drape that contains his coffin. Since there are, initially, living people residing in the castle rather than just vampires, the place has a bit more life in its look than Castle Dracula, and it's only after Meinster has been freed and cursed his mother that it feels hollowed out and dead in the scene where Van Helsing investigates it. A similarly memorable set is the inside of the rundown mill where the movie's ending takes place, not unlike the mill where the ending of James Whale's Frankenstein was set, right down to its catching on fire during the climax. Though there's nothing special about how the set looks, as it's another environment like the stable where Karl hides in The Revenge of Frankenstein, filled with straw and various farm tools, the two levels (the upper of which contains a hidden room where Baron Meinster moved his coffin), the well below the mill which were Van Helsing's crucifix ends up, and the lit brazier on the bottom level all play major parts in the climax and make it a far more notable place.
The movie also features some notable exteriors, such as the aforementioned foggy forest the movie opens on (Black Park, Hammer's favorite place for location work), filled with murky ponds and where the coach transporting Marianne travels across a muddy road to the village, and the outside of the Chateau Meinster, which was likely either just a facade built up on a hill near Bray or a model shot (possibly the former, as you can see the chateau overlooking the village in a shot that doesn't appear to involve mattes; the actual entrance to the chateau was shot at Oakley Court) and is very classic in how it sits up on a hill, overlooking the village. Speaking of the castle, I'm not sure how they pulled off the shots of Baron Meinster standing on his balcony, as it doesn't look like any matte effects were used and, given Hammer's low budgets, it's doubtful they were able to build that for real, so I'm guessing it's an example of them making very good use of what was available to them at Bray. But the exterior image I like the most is that of the windmill's sails shot against the cloudy night sky with the full moon in the upper left corner, another quintessentially classic Gothic image. Not only does it take inspiration from Frankenstein but I guarantee it was the inspiration for Tim Burton to put in the windmill that figures in Sleepy Hollow (and, if you want to give this movie any sort of credit, the opening of Van Helsing). And again, I think the shots of the mill burning down at the end are either of a mall or of a relatively small facade that they built explicitly for being destroyed.
In Dracula, the filmmakers had attempted to go for the most plausible depiction of vampires they could, parring down the supernatural elements to an absolute minimum; with The Brides of Dracula, they appeared to decide to heck with it and went full force into the supernatural and occult, which is how their depiction of vampires, both in the Dracula series and their standalone vampire movies, would more or less remain. All the familiar tropes are here: hypnotic powers, the lack of reflections in mirrors, and the ability to transform into bats, the latter of which flies in the face of when Van Helsing told Arthur Holmwood in the first film that such an ability is a "common fallacy," though you could make the argument that Van Helsing is learning more and more about vampires as he continues to face them. There's one moment where, in the buildup to Gina rising from her coffin, one of the padlocks on her coffin slips off while remaining locked in place, denying physics themselves. The vampires' aversion to crosses was present in Dracula but their religious context is amplified here, as Van Helsing mentions that anything holy or Christian will repel them (i.e., holy water), and he also tells Father Stepnik that vampirism itself is the survival of a pagan religion and its struggle against Christianity. Van Helsing also mentions that vampires are often thin, with an air of hunger, and that they're often aided by a devoted human follower, which Dracula himself didn't appear to have in the first film (unless you count the driver of the hearse that transported his coffin from the castle) but would become a running theme throughout the series, continuing with the character of Klove in Dracula: Prince of Darkness. While he doesn't mention how sunlight destroys them, Van Helsing does tell Stepnik that burning a vampire is as good as staking it through the heart. And finally, while the distinction between seemingly normal human and full-on monster mode remains, the vampires occasionally speak while in this mode, unlike Dracula in the first film, though they do mostly hiss and snarl.
This marked the first time Hammer had to create fake bats and, as you can see, the result isn't the greatest. According to the IMDB trivia section, the prop department put a lot of time and money into making a really good fake bat... but, it got lost somehow and had to be replaced at the last minute, resulting in the slapdash prop that appears in the final film. But, as fake as this bat does look, it's used sparingly, with its only major scene being when Van Helsing has to fend it off, and I think the shots of its face, with its glowing eyes, accompanied by the threatening hisses it emits, are kind of unsettling in an uncanny way. Plus, it looks somewhat passable when it's in silhouette against the night sky in some shots. Trust me, though, this bat looks like a creation of ILM when compared to those in The Kiss of the Vampire and Scars of Dracula.
While featuring more bloody violence than The Mummy, The Brides of Dracula is a tad less grisly than Dracula was. As in that film, there's a pretty bloody staking scene when Van Heling puts the Baroness Meinster out of her misery; Van Helsing finds Severin dead, his face all scratched up from an attack by a bat; you see the Baron's fangs dripping with blood after he bites Van Helsing; and you get a look at the slightly bloody bite marks on the doctor's neck (those on the other victims are virtually bloodless), as well as some pretty good, convincing burn makeup for when he cauterizes the wound in order to save himself from being cursed, which itself is really painful to watch. Similarly, the Baron's handsome face is badly scarred when Van Helsing douses him with holy water, with an ugly ring of dissolved flesh around his left eye, but unlike Dracula's slow disintegration from exposure to sunlight, the Baron's death isn't gruesome in the slightest.
After the opening credits, the movie opens on a dreary, fog enshrouded forest, as a narrator intones, "Transylvania, land of dark forests, dread mountains, and black, unfathomed lakes. Still the home of magic and devilry as the nineteenth century draws to its close. Count Dracula, monarch of all vampires, is dead, but his disciples live on, to spread the cult and corrupt the world." A coach comes roaring down a muddy road, the driver whipping his horses to make them go faster and faster. Marianne Danielle, the sole passenger, leans her head out the window and yells for the coachman to slow down, but he ignores her and whips his horses up even more. The coach continues down the road, when the horses rear up at the sight of something lying in the middle of it. The coachman attempts to calm the horses before climbing down to investigate. At first glance, he thinks it's a corpse, but when he gets closer, he sees it's just a small log instead. As he struggles to move the heavy thing out of the way, a man dressed in black emerges from the nearby bushes and grabs onto the back of the coach when it takes off again once the road has been cleared. Come nightfall, the coach arrives in a small village and the stowaway jumps off the back and runs into the shadows once they come to a stop. Marianne is led out of the coach and into the inn, the Running Boar, which is full of the sounds of music and laughter. The coachman, meanwhile, dismounts and helps himself to a drink, when he's approached by the man, who gives him some money, suggesting that his stowing away didn't go totally unnoticed. Inside the inn, Marianne is led to a table by the landlord, Johann, who is horrified when he learns she's traveling by herself. Suddenly, all activity ceases and she and everyone else turns to see the man standing in the doorway, looking at her in a menacing fashion. He walks back out the door and all of the customers, inexplicably, follow suit. Seeing this, Johann advises Marianne to get back on the coach, suggesting the coachman may take off without her, which he does almost instantly. Johann runs outside, yelling for the man to stop, but it's too late. Now, Marianne feels she must stay the night, but Johann tells her they have no rooms available. His wife sends him to a farm to get their cart, while she sits Marianne back down, saying she'll get her some food and that they'll get her back on the road soon, adding, "We must."
Later, as the sound of a brewing storm is heard thundering outside, Johann returns with the cart and he and his wife try to hurry Marianne along. When Johann closes the door, they hear the sound of another coach pulling up outside. His wife warns him not to open it but he says he has no choice and, following a knocking on the other side, opens the door for the Baroness Meinster, who walks in, dressed in her distinctive black-and-red dress. Asking for some wine, she heads for the nearby fireplace and stokes it, before turning and acknowledging Marianne. The Baroness asks her to join her and she agrees. As they make small-talk, Marianne mentions she's on her way to the Lady's Academy at Bachstein, which the Baroness says she knows well. Telling her what happened, she asks if she's going in that direction, when the landlord's wife desperately tells Marianne that they, in fact, do have an available room. The Baroness, however, agrees to let her stay the night at her castle, saying she will see she gets to the school in the morning. With that, the two of them prepare to leave, Marianne remarking on her kindness, to which the Baroness says, "I'm a very lonely old woman who often longs for the company of someone with a little breeding, a rare thing in these parts." She leads Marianne out to her coach and they depart, while the man from before watches. Upon arriving at the castle, the Baroness has Greta, the servant, show Marianne to her room, telling her they will have dinner in ten minutes. As she's being led upstairs, Marianne notices an extra place at the dining room table; Greta explains that the Baroness always has a second place set in case she has a guest. Once she's in her bedroom, Marianne prepares herself for dinner, walking out onto the balcony, as thunder continues rumbling in the sky. Looking down on the balcony below her, she sees the figure of a young man walking out onto it from the room behind it. Marianne heads back inside, where she meets Greta, and asks her about the man she just saw. Greta doesn't deny nor confirm what she saw, instead telling her that the Baroness is waiting for her. Marianne says she's almost ready and, when she's alone again, she walks back out onto the balcony. This time, there's no sign of the man.
While having dinner with the Baroness, Marianne learns that the man she saw does exist and that he is the Baroness' son, whom she is told is mentally ill and has to be kept locked up at all times within a room that can only be reached through a single door in the dining room. Following this discussion, the Baroness decides to say good night. Marianne excuses herself and heads upstairs, telling the Baroness, "Thank you and, may I say, God bless you,"; when she's out of earshot, the Baroness says, "If only he could." Late in the night, Marianne finds herself unable to fall asleep, when she hears the echoing sound of footsteps from outside. Getting up and putting on her nightgown, she walks out onto the balcony and looks down. Seeing the young man standing on the ledge of his balcony, she panics and yells, "No! Don't do that!", startling him. She promptly runs back inside, out the bedroom door, and heads downstairs. She goes through the door leading to the young Baron's room, which is beyond a small hallway. Inside, she meets him formally. Curious as to who she is and why she's there, she tells him she's there to help him. He says that no one can help him, and reveals that he's unable to throw himself over the balcony, which she thought he was planning to do, as he has a chain around his ankle. He tells her that his mother has made everyone in the countryside believe he's dead and keeps him locked away because he's meant to inherit the castle and land from her. Marianne, again, tells him that she will help him, and he asks her to get the key to the chain, which is kept in a drawer in the Baroness' bedroom. Despite the risks, Marianne agrees to do so.
Marianne heads back upstairs and quietly sneaks into the Baroness' bedroom, to find that she's not there. She heads around the corner and rummages around the drawer. At the same time, the Baroness heads upstairs and enters Marianne's room, finding she's not in her bed. Just as Marianne finds the key, the Baroness exits her bedroom and walks down the hall, when she thinks to look in her own bedroom. Walking in, she doesn't find Marianne and so, closes the drapes on her window. Outside on the ledge, Marianne cautiously climbs back on her balcony, near slipping at one point, and, calling to the young Baron, tells him she's found the key. Tying it to a handkerchief, she tosses it to him and he tells her to get dressed and meet him outside, as he proceeds to unlock his chain. Ducking into her room, Marianne tries to find a dress to put on, when the Baroness enters the room and demands she give her back the key. Marianne denies having it but the Baroness isn't fooled and grabs her arms, telling her to give it to her. She then realizes she's given the key to her son and tells her she doesn't know what she's done. Frightened, Marianne wrenches free from her grip and runs out the door, with the Baroness in pursuit. Running downstairs, Marianne heads for the Baron, who's waiting for her at the foot of the stairs, begging him for help. He assures her his mother can't harm her now, and tells her to go back to her room and wait. As she does, the Baron tells his mother to come to him. Though she initially refuses, when he repeats the command, she does as she's told and he takes her away.
Later, Marianne has gotten dressed, but there's no sign of Baron Meinster. She then hears the sound of Greta hysterically raving down in the room where he was imprisoned, and walks downstairs, as the sounds of her cries and manic laughter echo through the castle. Entering the room, she finds Greta holding the chain that once shackled Meinster, cackling and crossing herself, yelling, "Oh, God, help us! He's free!" Asking why he was locked up to begin with, as he's clearly not insane, Greta confirms that's not the reason, before figuring Marianne was the one who let him loose. She tells her he's gone off into the night, noting that bats are flying about, and then hearing the sound of a wolf in the distance. Marianne, thinking Greta herself is insane, asks where the Baroness is and Greta, smiling evilly and cackling like a lunatic, shows her: sitting in a chair, dead. Believing Greta killed the Baroness, Marianne runs out of the castle and into the woods, as Greta continues her maniacal laughter. Once she's alone, she chastises the Baroness, who has two bite marks on her throat, for allowing her son to go down the road that led to him becoming what he is, before adding that she knows he'll have to come back to her. She draws back a drape in the back corner of the room, revealing a hidden space containing a coffin, and says, "He's got to come back here before cock crow."
The next morning, Marianne has passed out in the woods from exhaustion and shock, when a passing coach spots her and stops. Dr. Van Helsing disembarks and, examining her and finding her to be alive, asks the coachman, Karl, for the traveling rug. They put it around Marianne and Van Helsing uses some smelling salts to rouse her. Telling her that she has nothing to fear now, he takes her on to the village. They stop at the Running Boar, Van Helsing ordering some coffee for Marianne, while also confirming his reservation there with Johann. He learns that a girl in the village has been found dead in the forest and that they're having a wake for her in the next room. Deciding to have a look at the body, he's shown into the back, where a group of villagers, including the girl's father, Hans, is saying a prayer over her. Van Helsing notes some cloves of garlic hanging from the rafters and wild garlic plants draped around the girl's neck. Johann tells Van Helsing to excuse such superstitions but he quietly admits, "There's usually a good reason for all these old customs." He looks at the girl's neck, which has the telltale bite marks on it, and Johann promptly crosses himself. Outside, Marianne tries to come to terms with what happened the night before, telling Johann's wife that Baron Meinster is actually still alive. Van Helsing and her then leave in order for him to take her to the Lady's Academy at Bachstein; on the way, he asks her to tell him everything that happened, down to the last detail, before then asking her to forget about it and not relate it to anyone else, which she promises to do. After dropping Marianne off at the academy, and smoothing things over with the very stern Herr Lang, Van Helsing heads back to the village. Arriving there, he finds that Father Stepnik has returned and is talking with Hans about his having buried his daughter in the churchyard, which Stepnik opposes given the circumstances. Hans becomes distraught and runs off when Stepnik alludes to what his daughter will become, which is when Van Helsing introduces himself to the priest, who is happy and relieved he's arrived. Later, in Van Helsing's room, he tells Stepnik how vampires operate, how to identify them, and how to destroy them. Looking out the window, he sees the girl's fresh grave and, with the sun setting, prepares to do what must be done. Before he does, Stepnik gives him a canteen full of holy water.
Come nightfall, Van Helsing heads out to the gravesite, armed with a shovel and his small satchel, when he hears a whispering, female voice. Setting the shovel down, he walks to a spot where he can get a good view of the grave and sees Greta hovering over it, patting the ground and encouraging the young woman to rise. A rustling and scratching sound is then heard underneath the soil and, as Van Helsing watches, the girl's hand emerges, while Greta cackles evilly. The girl then pushes open the coffin, completely revealing herself, and grins wickedly, as Greta removes the garlic plants from around her neck. She gets to her feet, when Father Stepnik appears and yells for them to stop. He rushes at them, intoning, "In the name of the Almighty!", and Van Helsing quickly steps in and keeps him back. Greta sends the newly risen vampire away, whom Van Helsing tries to pursue, but Greta blocks his way. Stepnik takes the opportunity to restrain her from behind, giving Van Helsing the chance to chase after the girl. Running outside the churchyard, Van Helsing finds the girl has become a large bat, which swoops down at him. He falls to the ground while smacking the bat away, and when she comes around for another pass, swooping right over his head, he swings his satchel at her. She then flies off into the night.
With no other recourse, Van Helsing ventures to the Chateau Meinster. Entering the castle, which is eerily quiet, save for the sound of a ticking clock, he takes out a crucifix and walks towards the door across from the dining room table. He makes his way to the room Baron Meinster was imprisoned in and, searching around, he finds and inspects the chain that once held him. Spying the red drape across from him, he walks to it and yanks it back to reveal the imprint of Meinster's coffin in the dusty floor, indicating he's moved it. Van Helsing senses a presence behind him and turns to see the now vampiric Baroness standing in the doorway. Surprised when he doesn't show fear, she asks, "Who is it that is not afraid?", to which Van Helsing answers, "Only God has no fear." He reveals that he's come to confront her son, when Meinster emerges from behind some drapes on the other side of the room, snarling as his eyes blaze red and his fangs stick out of his mouth. Van Helsing takes out his crucifix and Meinster shuts his eyes and covers his face with the corners of his cape, growling. The Baroness actually takes cover behind Van Helsing, who then lunges at Meinster, but Meinster grabs a large candlestick and flings it at Van Helsing, knocking him onto the table and causing him to tumble to the floor. He quickly gets to his feet and slides the crucifix across the table at Meinster, repelling him back. Van Helsing tries to run around the table to get at him, but Meinster turns the table over, pushing him back against the window, and flees the room. Van Helsing chases him out the door and through the dining room, where Meinster tries to block his way by knocking over a tall candelabra. He runs out the front door and manages to leap onto a coach and drive off before Van Helsing can reach him (don't know why he didn't just become a bat and fly off). Knowing he's lost this battle, Van Helsing heads back inside and tells the Baroness what happened. She tells him he'll never find him, as he's too clever, and laments her part in his becoming what he is, which she's now paying for in the worst way possible. But, Van Helsing tells her that there is one release from the cursed existence she's now stuck in.
Meanwhile, at the Lady's Academy, Frau Lang informs Marianne that she has a visitor: Meinster, who has come under the pretense of bringing her the luggage she left behind. Frau Lang leaves the two of them alone in her husband's office, only for him to show up and, upon hearing that Marianne is in there with a young man, interrupts their moment. However, Herr Lang finds himself quite embarrassed to learn that the young man, whom he called a "young jackass," is Baron Meinster, given that he's a tenant of the estate. Instead of admonishing him, Meinster simply announces that Marianne has agreed to marry him and leaves to make arrangements for the wedding. Later, Marianne talks with her fellow student teacher Gina, using the fireplace to make toast, when Gina, so caught up in how handsome and charming Meinster is, ends up burning the toast. Marianne opens the window to air out the stench and then leaves the room to get some more bread. Once alone, Gina laments that she wishes she'd been the one to become engaged to Meinster. A large bat appears outside the window and flies in. Gina hears the sound of the flapping wings, which suddenly stop. Turning around, she doesn't see anything, and walks over to the window, looking out. Not seeing anything outside either, she closes and locks the window and draws the drapes. Still feeling an unsettling presence, she sits back down at her mirror, seeing nothing reflected behind her. She turns around again and gasps when she sees Meinster standing there, in full vampire mode. Immediately falling under his hypnotic influence, she walks over to him and he opens the collar of her nightgown, going in for the bite.
Dawn breaks at the Chateau Meinster and Van Helsing gets to work, removing a packet of stakes from his satchel. Choosing one, he walks over to the sofa, upon which Baroness Meinster lies, and jams it into her with a small mallet (you can tell that it was nowhere close to her heart), blood gushing out of the wound. He then removes one of the room's red drapes and covers her body with it. His task finished, he returns to the Running Boar, tired from having been up all night. Father Stepnik pours him a drink and tells him that Greta managed to escape from him. Van Helsing then tells Stepnik that his suspicions about the Meinsters were well-founded and that he's released the Baroness from her son's curse, but that Meinster himself escaped. He goes to freshen up before joining Stepnik in a meal. At that moment, Dr. Tobler, the village's physician, talks with Stepnik about his curious habit of taking medications for every possible cause of death he investigates, revealing that a girl at the Lady's Academy at Bachstein died during the night. Van Helsing overhears this and Stepnik suggests taking him along to the academy. The two of them grab their coats and hats and leave.
At the academy, Van Helsing learns from Herr Lang that the door of the room Gina was in was locked from the inside, but that the window was open. Sending him and his devastated wife out of the room, Van Helsing points the two bite marks on Gina's neck out to Tobler. Though he admits he has seen such wounds before, Tobler writes them off as being caused by dogs or cats gone bad. Van Helsing tells him it's the bite of a vampire, or the seal of Dracula, which Tobler also laughs off, though Van Helsing advises him not to. He then asks Tobler to leave everything to him in order to keep those at the academy from finding out and the doctor is more than willing to do so. The two of them join the Langs, as well as Marianne, out in the next room. Van Helsing tells them Gina died of a fever and that he's locked the room as a means of quarantine. He also tells them to keep the body out in the horse stables and watch over her until nightfall, when he returns, and advises them to keep the doors and windows locked. The Langs agree to his instructions, and on their way out, Frau Lang advises Marianne not to let what's happened spoil her personal happiness and hints that she should tell Van Helsing. After Frau Lang has left the room, Marianne tells Van Helsing that she's engaged, which he's happy to hear, but becomes horrified when he hears it's to Baron Meinster, whom he realizes has been at the school. Asking if she allowed him to kiss her, and inspecting her hands when she says she only let him kiss them, he then asks her if she loves Meinster and she confirms she does. Now knowing that things have become more complicated, he asks her when she's going to see Meinster again. When she says she doesn't know, he leaves with Tobler.
That night, Frau Lang is keeping watch over Gina's coffin in the stable, per Van Helsing's instructions, but the horses in the back are clearly disturbed by the body's presence, as they can't keep still. Marianne then shows up to relieve Frau Lang of her duty, an offer she's more than willing to accept, as she's as jittery as the horses. Once she's left, Marianne talks with Severin, the stable keeper, when one of the padlocks on the coffin suddenly falls off and clatters on the floor. Picking it up and inspecting it, Severin finds the lock itself isn't broken at all. Marianne asks him to go fetch Herr Lang and he reluctantly does, yelling at the continuously stomping horses to be quiet as he heads out the door. Outside, he doesn't get too far before a vampire bat swoops down at him. Inside the stable, Marianne watches as another of the locks suddenly falls from the coffin, as the horses neigh in terror. Suddenly, the coffin's lid is flung open from the inside and Gina slowly rises up, flashing her fangs at Marianne. As she backs away, terrified, Gina climbs out of the coffin and approaches her, telling her she wants to kiss her, adding, "Say that you forgive me for letting him love me." Outside, Van Helsing arrives and finds Severin's body on the ground, his face horribly scratched up. At that moment, Gina tells Marianne that Baron Meinster is waiting for them up at the old mill and that they could go together. Gina reaches for her hand, when Van Helsing bursts in. He immediately rushes to Marianne, catching her in his arms when she faints, while Gina flees. After inspecting her and finding she hasn't been bitten, Van Helsing takes her into the school and lays her on a couch, telling Frau Lang to bring some brandy and hot water. When she awakens, Van Helsing tells her that Gina has now become one of the undead and Meinster is behind it all. Distraught at hearing this, Marianne doesn't want to believe it, but with some pressing, she reluctantly tells Van Helsing that Meinster is up at the windmill. He gives her a rosary, telling her it will protect her, and further instructing her to lock the door and answer it for no one.
Arriving at the mill, Van Helsing, after looking through the window and seeing no sign of anyone, heads inside, the door creaking shut behind him. Finding nothing on the ground floor, he climbs up to the second one and, in a room hidden behind an old drape, finds Meinster's coffin, which is empty. He removes a crucifix and is about to place it inside, when he hears Greta laughing nearby. She promptly sics Meinster's two vampire brides on him but he promptly drives them back with the crucifix. Greta, being human, however, rushes him and wrestles the crucifix away, only to fall to her death on the ground floor. Van Helsing rushes down there and tries to take the crucifix from her hand, but it slips and falls into the well below the mill before he can reach it. He then hears a hiss behind him and turns to see Meinster, who takes out a chain and whirls it in the air, attempting to whip Van Helsing with it. Grabbing a rope, Van Helsing dodges the swing and kicks Meinster, sending him falling backwards into a stack of hay, and jumps on him. The two of them struggle with each other, Van Helsing briefly managing to get Meinster on his back, but the Baron pushes him up, punches him in the face, and then knees him, knocking up against one of the support beams. Grabbing a chain that's fastened to it, Meinster squeezes it around Van Helsing's neck until he gasps for air and passes out. Once he's collapsed, Meinster descends upon him and bites him, leaving two fresh, bloody wounds on his neck. Satisfied, he then leaves the mill. Van Helsing regains consciousness and rubs his head and neck, when he feels the bites and sees the blood on his fingers. Realizing what's happened, he quickly but calmly gets to his feet and stokes the embers in a nearby brazier, as well as removes the canteen of holy water Father Stepnik gave him.
At the Lady's Academy, Marianne, who's still distraught and crying, takes out her nightgown and prepares for bed, unaware that Meinster has arrived outside in bat form. While undressing, she removes the rosary and hangs it from the mirror, when she hears a crash behind her. Looking and seeing Meinster standing in the window (that pose is, to me, where he feels the most like a Christopher Lee wannabe), Marianne tries to go for the rosary but Meinster quickly rushes at her and grabs her, keeping from her grabbing it, as he smiles a toothy sneer at her. Back at the mill, Van Helsing removes a searing hot tool from the brazier and puts it to the bite wounds. Gasping and flailing from the pain, he then grabs the holy water and douses the wound. As the two brides watch from above, this causes the bites to disappear completely and Van Helsing is relieved to find that it worked. Meinster then arrives with Marianne, telling Van Helsing, "I've brought someone to see you... Beautiful, isn't she? What a pity that such beauty must fade... unless we preserve it. She's going to join us, doctor, and you are going to watch her initiation." Van Helsing warns Marianne not to look at Meinster's eyes but the Baron forces her to look. Seeing that she's being entranced, Van Helsing spies the holy water, which the brides warn Meinster of via their hissing. He rushes at Van Helsing but he manages to grab the canteen and douse him in the face, the water burning his skin like acid. Van Helsing calls Marianne to him and she complies. Seeing this, Meinster rushes at the brazier and kicks it over, setting the straw and wood on fire in an instant.
Van Helsing and Marianne climb up to the second floor, while Meinster flees through the door. The doctor leads Marianne up to where a door opens up onto the roof around the base of the mill's sails. Seeing Meinster attempting to escape down below, Van Helsing, after sending Marianne down a ladder leading to a platform just a few feet above the ground, spies the sails and gets an idea. Jumping and clinging onto one of the sails, he manipulates them into turning until their large shadow from the moonlight creates the image of a cross, which Meinster gets caught up in. Unable to escape, as he sees the shadow everywhere he turns, he lingers back and forth, snarling desperately, before collapsing to the ground, dead. Van Helsing, after hopping down to where Marianne is, jumps off the platform and to the ground. Rushing to Meinster, he finds that the Baron is dead. Marianne joins him down there and the two of them embrace, the movie ending on the image of the entire windmill becoming engulfed in flames.
Malcolm Williamson was another composer with very few film credits whom Hammer brought in to score one of their movies (his entire filmography is very sparse, with only four feature films listed, along with some occasional television work and a couple of documentary shorts). What's more striking about his work on The Brides of Dracula is how much more traditionally Gothic it is when compared with James Bernard's work in the first film, often making use of a church organ for the really freakish scenes with the vampires, most notably in how much creepier it makes the scene where Greta gets the vampire girl to rise from her grave, as well as in a more benevolent, holy manner for when Van Helsing releases Baroness Meinster from her son's curse. Speaking of which, Williamson often uses the music to play up the notion of anything holy triumphing over the vampires' evil, playing grand, majestic horns for the moments where a crucifix is brandished and for when Van Helsing uses holy water along with the cauterization to free himself from the potential infection of vampirism, along with some light, hopeful strings to make it clear that he's out of danger. As for the rest of the score, Williamson appears to be attempting to emulate Bernard's hard-hitting, fast-paced style, as the action and suspense scenes are scored in that same way, though it never quite reaches the heights of Bernard's work and Williamson kind of overdoes in the lead-up to when Marianne first sees Baron Meinster on the balcony, as he plays some very tense music that builds and builds, only to suddenly stop when Marianne walks back into her. It's still good music, but it might have been better to play that scene silent, as he wisely did with the scene where Van Helsing investigates the seemingly deserted castle later. Still, I think I'd place the score above that of The Revenge of Frankenstein and about on par with Franz Reizenstein's work on The Mummy.
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