Franchises: Hammer's Dracula Series. Scars of Dracula (1970)

My first glimpses of this film were on two separate occasions in my teens, both of which involved AMC. One, as you might expect, was me actually seeing a little bit of the movie, namely the very beginning, one Friday night, but the other is a little more unusual: the original Fright Night from 1985. I first saw that when AMC began playing it in the early 2000's and, while there was no acknowledgement of it in the ending credits, Scars of Dracula is one of the old horror movies Charley Brewster watches a bit of on the TV. At least, I knew it was one of the Hammer Dracula films, as I recognized Christopher Lee, but it wasn't until I saw the movie itself many years later, when I was in my 20's and ordered a DVD-R of it and Dracula: Prince of Darkness off of Ioffer, that I learned which one it was specifically. As with pretty much of all the later entries in the series after Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Scars is not looked upon very favorably by either critics or fans and I think the reason for that is simply because it screams, "Been there, done that." While I have found myself enjoying it somewhat in the past, upon rewatching it this time, I could see just how much of a by-the-numbers film it is when put into context with the series as a whole, as well as how its set-up and story, besides acting as a messy reboot of the series, make for something of a jumbled rehash of elements from the previous movies, namely the first film and Prince of Darkness. The very low budget, a result of Hammer's having lost their lucrative American distributors and investors, is also painfully obvious, and while Lee does have much more to say and do here than he did in the two previous films combined (or he would in the two that followed this), is aided by a few good supporting actors, and there's plenty of gore, instances of sadism, and sexual content to satisfy those who crave it, it's ultimately a tired affair that, while watchable, shows just how Hammer's glory days were behind them at this point.

Having had enough of living in fear of Count Dracula, the villagers who live near his castle decide, after another young woman falls prey to him, to storm it and burn it to the ground. Though the men manage to get through the gates and set it afire, when they return home, they find that all of the women, who'd taken shelter in the local church, have been horrifically mangled by a horde of bats under Dracula's command. Some time later, in Kleinenberg, young Paul Carlson gets in trouble when he sleeps with the burgomaster's daughter, Alice, and then, upon realizing he's late for his friend, Sarah's, birthday party, quickly rushes out to make it in time. Things get even worse when Alice, angry that he's leaving her, decides to get back at him by telling her father that he broke in and attempted to rape her. Though he makes it to the party, the burgomaster's men are soon on his tail and he ends up fleeing the city by jumping into an unmanned coach, causing the spooked horses to run off wildly. Upon getting knocked off the carriage, he walks until he finds himself at the village near Castle Dracula. Initially, he tries to stay at a local tavern, but the landlord throws him out when he catches him making out with the barmaid, Julie. With nowhere else to go, Paul finds his way to the castle, where he's welcomed inside by a lovely young woman named Tania and greeted by Count Dracula. He's allowed to stay the night and is shown to a room, where he later beds Tania, unaware that she is a vampire, and when she tries to bite Paul's neck, she's attacked and stabbed to death by Dracula for her betrayal. Finding himself locked in the room afterward, Paul attempts to escape out the window by tying some bed curtains together to create a makeshift rope, but when he climbs down, he finds that the next window leads to Dracula's personal chamber, from which there is no escape. Soon, Sarah and Paul's brother, Simon, come looking for him and find their way to the castle as well, where Sarah becomes the Count's next target, leaving Simon and Dracula's own servant, Klove, who has fallen in love with a small portrait of her, to protect her.

As with The Horror of Frankenstein, which it was released on a double-bill with in some territories, Hammer chose someone who was now a familiar name to the studio, although hadn't been with them nearly as long as Jimmy Sangster: namely, Quatermass and the Pit-director Roy Ward Baker. After first impressing them with his work on that film, Baker had gone on to direct more for Hammer: 1968's The Anniversary, a black comedy that starred Bette Davis, 1969's Moon Zero Two, and, right before Scars of Dracula, The Vampire Lovers, with Peter Cushing and Ingrid Pitt. But, even though he'd just tangled with vampires, Baker's direction of this film would prove to be somewhat uninspired for the most part, with the obvious cheapness of it not doing him any favors at all. He would have better success with his next Hammer project, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, starring Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick, but, sadly, he would end his association with the studio on a turkey: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Hammer's ill-fated co-production with the Shaw Brothers.

Also like The Horror of Frankenstein, one of the initial concepts for Scars was for it to be a reboot of the series, in case Hammer was unable to get Christopher Lee to return again, which is why it doesn't continue the continuity that had gone on from their first Dracula up to Taste the Blood of Dracula. They had even lined up Lee's potential replacement, John Forbes-Robertson, who would eventually play Dracula in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. If you've seen Forbes-Robertson's "performance" in that movie, you'd know it was a good thing that, how ever they did it, Hammer managed to get Lee back yet again, although they obviously didn't know to incorporate his Dracula into this rebooted storyline, as the movie opens with a random resurrection scene that makes no sense in context. It's also amazing to think that Scars, which was made just two years after his reluctance to play Dracula for a third time in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, marks Lee's seventh appearance in the role, and his fourth that very year. Not only had he been in Taste the Blood, which was released in May of 1970, but around that same time, he'd made the Jess Franco film, Count Dracula, and had also cameoed as Dracula in the Jerry Lewis-directed comedy, One More Time, starring Sammy Davis Jr. (and he appears alongside Peter Cushing's Baron Frankenstein, no less). And his association with the character, be it for Hammer or not, still wasn't over!

Ironically, this and the Franco film are where Lee was able to play a version of Dracula that was the closest to the original Bram Stoker character. While his performance in Count Dracula is definitely the most faithful in that regard, he has more to do and say here than simply menace and seduce people or speak in monosyllables. For the first time in this series since the original Dracula, Lee's Count (who has a rather pale, sickly makeup job here) is able to come across as a charming and gracious, albeit subtly menacing, host to the people who find their way to his castle, first for Paul Carlson, whom he tells is welcome to stay, gives him some wine, and insists he must, as there's nowhere else for him to go, and then for Simon and Sarah, the latter of whom he carries up to a room when she appears to be weak and sickly. He also infers to the latter two that the nearby villagers are not to be trusted, which Simon is somewhat willing to believe, given how they'd been treated, although they soon learn that's not quite the case. Moreover, like in the original novel, Dracula is shown to have control over some animals, particularly bats, whom seem to communicate vital information to him, as well as do his bidding (although he himself still never becomes one), and, in a moment lifted directly from the book, he climbs along the castle wall near the end of the film. But, as in the previous movies, his character motivation is a simple one: any woman he comes across, be it in the countryside or who find their way to his castle, he yearns for, either turning her into a vampire or completely draining her of blood, killing them. When Paul first arrives, he meets and later has a liaison with Tania, a lovely young woman who claims to be held prisoner by Dracula, but who actually craves his attention, as seen when she silently asks him to bite her after Paul is led up to his room. When she later sleeps with Paul, Dracula bursts into the room, viciously stabs her to death for her betrayal, and later kills Paul when he winds up in his chamber while trying to escape. Naturally, when Simon and Sarah show up while searching for Paul, Dracula sets his sights on the latter, only for his efforts to be foiled by the crucifix she wears around her neck and by the intervention of Klove, who helps them to escape. For this betrayal, Dracula punishes Klove by burning his back with a red-hot sword, and later allows him to redeem himself by bringing him another young woman to feed on.

Dracula's powers and abilities remain pretty consistent from the previous movies, but, near the end, when Simon tries to stake him while he's sleeping in his coffin, his eyelids appear to become transparent, revealing his blazing red eyes, which overpower Simon and cause him to collapse, giving him time to rise. Interesting idea, though it kind of makes the concept that Dracula made his personal chamber inaccessible to anyone other than him irrelevant, and that's a shame, because I liked the notion that he did that because he knows how vulnerable he is while resting in his coffin. I also miss that notion of the feral, beastly Dracula that Lee portrayed the first two times, the one whom it felt could get to you and rip you in half before you even knew what happened. There are hints of it here, particularly in Dracula's brutal stabbing of Tania and when he's torturing Klove, but Lee's Count never reclaimed that animalistic quality which made him stand out after Dracula: Prince of Darkness, which sucks.

Dracula's death here has to be his worst in the whole series, as well as among the worst ways he's been defeated in any movie, as it's so lazy and convenient. After Simon throws a long, metal rod that sticks into him, Dracula pulls it out and prepares to throw it back at him, when a bolt of lightning strikes it, electrocuting him and causing him to burst into flames. He flails around a bit, repeatedly screaming, "Raah!" (it's literally the same yell replayed again and again), before toppling over the edge of the castle and falling down the side of the cliff it rests on. The bolt of lightning didn't come out of nowhere, as the storm overhead had already been established, but still, what a dumb way to kill off Dracula and make Simon look completely worthless in saving his girl. His death at the end of Taste the Blood of Dracula was bad simply because it made no sense, and the ways he's vanquished in both Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula are just lame, but this is just flat-out uncreative.

While I was able to find something to like about at least one half of the young couples who featured in the previous two films, I can't do that for Simon Carlson (Dennis Waterman) and Sarah (Jenny Hanley), as they're absolutely bland. Save for their obvious affection for each other and their mutual love for Simon's brother, Paul, whom Sarah admits she's somewhat attracted to and worries about because of how much his shenanigans concern Simon, there is nothing to say about them. After Paul disappears upon fleeing Kleinenberg and they don't hear from him, they take it upon themselves to go search for them, leading them to the village near Castle Dracula. Unable to get anything out of the villagers, particularly the landlord of the tavern, who forces them to leave when Simon questions him, they head on to the castle. Simon tries to keep Sarah from doing anything needlessly dangerous, first by trying to get her to go back to Kleinenberg when the driver of the cart that brought them there refuses to wait on them before heading back, and then by trying to get her to stay somewhere safe while he goes to the castle, but she stays by his side, regardless. Upon arriving at the castle, and being attacked by a bat, they duck inside and Count Dracula personally carries Sarah, who's suffering from shock, up to a bedroom, while having Klove prepare a bed for Simon in the sitting room. During their brief stay at the castle, Sarah is almost made into Dracula's new vampire bride while she's sleeping, but the crucifix she wears around her neck and Klove's refusal to harm her, as he's become infatuated with a small portrait of her he took from Paul, saves her life. The next day, Simon finds that Klove has the portrait and he confirms that Paul was there, despite what Dracula told him, but says he got away. He implores Simon to get Sarah away as well, saying that Dracula will do horrible things to her if he doesn't. Simon takes Klove at his word and he and Sarah escape back to the village, but they, again, find no one there who's willing to help Simon find Paul, save for the priest, who gives them sanctuary in the church and tells them what Dracula is and how to fight him. Leaving Sarah in the church, Simon and the priest head to the castle to do battle with Dracula, though Simon ultimately has to go by himself when the priest's nerve gives out upon seeing one of Dracula's bats. Arriving back there, he forces Klove to show him where Paul went, but because of Klove's treachery, he ends up trapped in Dracula's chamber, where he eventually finds his brother's impaled body. Meanwhile, the priest is killed by one of the bats and Sarah flees the scene, running back to the castle, where Dracula, again, tries to corrupt her, this time getting a bat to remove the crucifix and kills Klove when he tries to stop him. Simon, after escaping the chamber, tries to save Sarah but, like I've said, he has virtually no part in Dracula's defeat, making him the poorest excuse for a hero in any of these movies.

Far more memorable a character than Simon, and one who I think is killed off far too early, is his brother, Paul (Christopher Matthews), a free-spirited libertine who's often getting himself in trouble because of his horndog tendencies. He's first introduced after having had sex with the Kleinenberg burgomaster's daughter, only to realize he's late for Sarah's birthday party. He tells his paramour, Alice, that he's going to night school, but when he drops a gift meant for Sarah, she, already angry that he's leaving her, decides to get back at him by telling her father that Paul broke into her room and attempted to rape her. Paul has to quickly flee to the party, where he delivers his present to Sarah, which is the small portrait of herself, when the burgomaster's servants show up, looking for him. Climbing out the window, Paul falls through the roof of an unmanned coach, startling the horses and causing them to take off and run wildly for miles. After he falls off the coach, he makes his way to the village near Castle Dracula, attempting to find a place to stay at the tavern. Though the barmaid, Julie, lets him in and tries to get a place to sleep, Paul can't help but try to bed her as well. He gets caught by the landlord, who immediately throws him out, and he decides to head on to the castle, which Julie told of him. On his way, he finds a parked, vacant coach and, dumbly, climbs inside it, hoping to sleep there for the night. But, after he dozes off, Klove mans it and drives it to the castle, where Paul is beckoned inside by the lovely Tania. She offers him a room and while waiting for her to get it ready, he meets Count Dracula, who offers him some wine and says that he's welcome there. Paul politely tries to leave, saying he doesn't want to put them to any trouble, but when both Dracula and Tania insist, he decides to go along with it and is shown to his bedroom. While washing up, Tania comes to him, telling him that Dracula is holding her prisoner and also asks him to make love to her. Paul, naturally, does just that, but in the early morning hours, he gets a very rude and horrifying wake up call when Dracula barges into the room, tosses him aside, and stabs Tania to death. When he regains consciousness, Paul finds himself locked in the room, and attempts to escape by climbing down to a lower window with a makeshift rope of bed curtains, only to find Dracula sleeping in his coffin within. Worse, someone takes away his rope, trapping him in there with the vampire, and near the end of the movie, Simon finds Paul's body in the chamber, pinned to the wall.

In an odd callback to Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula, again, has a human servant named Klove (Patrick Troughton), but this guy is a much different character than the one Philip Latham played there. His look, for one thing, is the exact opposite of Latham's well-dressed, perfectly groomed and presentable, if somewhat creepy, butler, as Troughton's Klove has a head of stringy, messy hair, thick eyebrows, and facial hair that's just shy of becoming a full-on beard, as well as rather ragged-looking clothes and a sense of really bad hygiene. Second, he's more nuanced than Latham's character. For the most part, he is absolutely loyal to Dracula and does whatever hideous task the Count asks of him, like dismembering and disposing of Tania's body after Dracula has killed her and bringing him a woman to satiate his bloodlust, despite how he's forced to live in a claustrophobic, crappy-looking room and how Dracula horrifically punishes him when he displeases him (though, Klove seems to masochistically welcome and anticipate being seared by the burning hot sword, with how he prompts Dracula to punish him after he lets Simon and Sarah flee). That begins to change when he sees the portrait of Sarah that Paul left behind and keeps it for himself, becoming infatuated with her image. So taken with her is he that he completely disobeys Dracula's command to remove her crucifix so he can bite her, and he later warns Simon to get Sarah away, fearing what the Count will do with her. Regardless of this, when Simon comes back to the castle to find Paul and kill Dracula, Klove betrays him after showing him where Paul climbed down, as he cuts the rope while Simon himself is climbing down to Dracula's chamber, trapping him there just as he did Paul. And when Sarah finds her way back to the castle, she's confronted by Klove, who says he wants to help her, but then starts acting all pervy, with how he reaches his hands out to her and removes her shoal. Dracula comes in and tosses him aside, only for Sarah's crucifix to, again, protect her from him. While Dracula pursues Sarah outside, Klove randomly tosses a rope down to allow Simon to escape the chamber, out of character and a complete 180 from what he did just a few minutes before. He then tries to stop Dracula when he corners Sarah outside but proves to be no match for the Count, who grabs him, disarms him of the knife he was brandishing, and throws him to his death over the edge of the castle.

Similarly, Tania (Anouska Hempel) is something of a callback to the vampire bride Jonathan Harker encountered in the first Dracula, as she's the first person Paul meets when he arrives at Castle Dracula and she clearly takes a keen interest in him. Like Dracula, she's intent upon his staying there, and when he's shown to his room, Tana motions for Dracula to bite her neck, which she clearly enjoys (whether she was already a vampire or just then becomes one due to his bite is unclear). Then, she goes up to Paul's room, tells him that Dracula is keeping her prisoner, and entices him to make love to her. After they spend a sensual night together, she tries to bite him herself, only for Dracula to intervene. As it was with the bride's interest in Harker, Dracula horrifically punishes Tania for her betrayal, but whereas there, it seemed like he was angry at her for attempting to feed on Harker when he himself had planned on doing so (like in the original novel), here it's more like he's mad because she betrayed her devotion to him and slept with Paul. After he stabs her to death with a dagger, he has Klove dismember her body and dissolve the various parts in a bath of acid.

This is the last time we'll see Michael Ripper, as his role here as the landlord of the tavern was his last in a Hammer Gothic and his next-to-last for the studio (after 1972's That's Your Funeral, they never made use of him again). Fortunately, it's a fairly substantial and significant one, as the landlord is the one who, at the beginning of the movie, decides to lead the raid on Castle Dracula after the body of the Count's latest victim is brought in, telling his wife, Maria, to take the other women to the church and barricade themselves within. After they break through the castle gates and manage to cause some damage with their torches, they head back to the village, believing the evil has been vanquished, only to find all the women dead in the church, having been killed by the bats under Dracula's command. Maria is among them, and her death leaves her husband broken and very bitter, to the point where he refuses to give lodgings to any strangers who pass through. He immediately throws Paul out when he catches him making out with Julie, the barmaid, and feigns ignorance about where he went to two cops who come by looking for him. While he's initially accommodating to Simon and Sarah, he becomes agitated when Simon presses him about what happened to Paul and why he's denying the existence of a castle in the area, finally reaching his breaking point and angrily forcing them to leave. Even when the two of them return from the castle, he, as well as the other villagers, refuse to help them, not wanting to bring Dracula's wrath down on them further, and they're, again, forced out. This act of cowardice proves to be the last straw for Julie, whom the landlord has been trying to keep out of things, and she decides to leave. Desperate to get her to stay, the landlord admits that he lied to her about his wife's death, revealing that she was murdered, although he's vague about who killed her, simply saying he was murdered by "him" and motioning in the direction of the castle. This does nothing to convert her and she leaves, with the last glimpse of the landlord being when he ducks back inside the tavern to lock himself in.

Speaking of Julie (Wendy Hamilton), who's a newcomer to the village, she initially comes off as rather sultry and flirtatious when she meets Paul, unbuttoning the top few buttons on her nightgown before letting him in and encouraging his less than subtle interest in her, to the point where they end up kissing. But, when the landlord catches them and throws Paul out without a second's notice, Julie's curiosity about why everyone in the village is so on edge come nightfall, refusing to open up once the sun goes down, and they're afraid of the castle, grows all the more. Though the landlord refuses to tell her, whenever she can, Julie does try to steer those searching for Paul in the right direction, telling the two cops searching for Paul that he went to the castle (though they're too lazy and irresponsible to follow up on that lead), and doing the same for Simon and Sarah. When the latter two return from the castle, Julie is really the only one who does anything to help, and she's disgusted when the landlord and villagers force them out, knowing the trouble they're in, prompting her to call them cowards. Come nightfall, she tries to sneak away, but when the landlord catches her, she bluntly tells him that she's leaving, as she can't stand staying there any longer, ignoring his telling her that she can't leave now that it's dark. When he confesses that his wife was murdered and alludes to it having been the work of Dracula, though he never mentions his name, Julie, thinking it's more superstitious nonsense and paranoia, storms off. She doesn't get far, as she comes upon Dracula's coach and is abducted by Klove, who takes her to the castle and gives her to Dracula so he can feed on her. Julie is completely drained of blood and dies from it.

Michael Gwynn, who played the monster in The Revenge of Frankenstein, appears here as the village priest who, in his introduction, tries to dissuade the villagers from storming Castle Dracula, especially since it's close to nightfall, but ultimately comes with them, praying for holy protection on the way. But, when they return from burning the castle and find all the women dead inside the church from Dracula's bats, the priest grimly declares that the devil has won. Later, learning from Julie that Paul went to the castle, the horrified priest hopes that Paul is alright, but doesn't have a big part in the story until the third act, when he decides to help Simon and Sarah. He gives them sanctuary in the church and stops Simon from heading back to the castle to search for Paul, telling him that he can't do so until daylight and also informs them of what they're up against and how to fight it. Upon doing so, and giving Simon a rosary to use to protect himself, the priest joins him in heading back up to the castle, but Simon, seeing that the priest's nerves aren't up to it, tells him to go back to the church and watch over Sarah. When he does, one of Dracula's bats breaks into the church and the priest sends Sarah away right before it kills him. 

The closest the movie comes to genuine comic relief are these two cops (David Leland and Richard Durden) who arrive in the village while searching for Paul, stopping by the tavern for information. They both come off as rather pompous about their job and seem eager to find Paul simply because of the scandal he's caused, but the cop played by Durden (who, I've learned, went on to have a one-scene role in Tim Burton's Batman) comes off as a dim-witted toady to his partner, as he repeats certain significant words and phrases he says for emphasis, trying to sound smarter and more important a person than he is. While neither of them get anything out of the landlord, Julie tells them that Paul went to the castle, but when she mentions it's a long way from the village, they opt not to go there, even though they've been ordered to make a thorough search, as they say it's outside their jurisdiction, with the one cop saying they'll make a report about it instead. When they leave, Julie calls them what they are: a couple of "lazy pigs."

As was the case with The Horror of Frankenstein, Scars of Dracula suffers greatly from its being a reboot that does little different from what's been seen before. But, rather than follow Horror's example and virtually remake the first Hammer Dracula, Scars instead tells its story by combining various elements of the previous films, particularly the first one and Dracula: Prince of Darkness. The basic plot, of the village near Castle Dracula living in constant fear of the Count's evil deeds, while reminiscent of many of the past movies, mainly makes me think of the first movie, since the villagers are aware of his existence and that he's continually preying on them, whereas in the other movies, it was the fear of his evil continuing to linger on even after he'd been destroyed. Plus, as I said earlier, Paul's finding his way to the castle, meeting Dracula, Tania taking an interest in him, and his becoming Dracula's victim offscreen reminds me of the first act of that movie with Jonathan Harker. The parallels to Prince of Darkness come, obviously, from the presence of a servant named Klove, as well as how the movie's second and third acts feel like an extension of the first half of that movie, in how Simon and Sarah spend a night at the castle, leave the next day when they realize that something isn't right, and then, they each find themselves being drawn back to the castle separately, culminating in their confrontation with Dracula, much like what the Kents go through in that movie, right down to Simon eventually finding his brother's remains. The village church being desecrated by Dracula's evil is a nod to the opening of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, and this movie continues the increasingly satanic depiction of the Count seen in Taste the Blood of Dracula, as the priest says that Dracula is the very devil himself. And you could say that the bats are taken from The Brides of Dracula. When you combine all of these familiar elements with Christopher Lee's presence, it makes the movie feel especially redundant, even more so than The Horror of Frankenstein, as it comes off like Lee's redoing everything he'd done in the previous movies, despite his slightly richer characterization of Dracula here, and the lack of a really strong Van Helsing sort of character drags things down even further. And ultimately, the whole thing feels very stale and just plain tired, a testament to how far the series had fallen in the twelve years since its inception.

As adept a director as he was, Roy Ward Baker was unable to keep Scars' tiny budget from leaking through onto the screen. The film itself looks fine, with the color red being a very prominent one, from the candles on Sarah's birthday cake and her party dress to the color of much of the drapery and furniture in Castle Dracula and, of course, the ample blood and gore; there's plenty of mist to be found on the battlements of the castle, giving off that classic Gothic feel; Moray Grant's cinematography during the dimly lit, interior nighttime scenes and some of the exteriors look fairly good with that pale-blue lighting scheme; and there are some instances of noteworthy camerawork and editing, which I'll point out later, but you can still see through all this style and pick up on how cheap the movie is. After some films where it was passable, the day-for-night cinematography has become really bad yet again, with the movie sometimes appearing to switch back and forth between night and day to the point where you can't tell what time it's supposed to be, and Scott MacGregor's art direction, although serviceable, isn't all that special or original. His most notable sets are those of Castle Dracula, but there really isn't much to say about the place as a whole. The exterior battlements beyond the gates look good, with all that mist, the large door of the castle, and the drop-off from the ledge that goes straight down the cliff, but the interiors are nothing you haven't seen before (not to mention that, despite the opening sequence, nothing looks at all burned), with their most striking feature being the amount of red in the decor. There's a foyer with a small table and chairs; a large dining/sitting room, with a long, black table, a fireplace, many red chairs, couches, curtains, and candles, and objects like sharp knives and paintings adorning the walls; a guest bedroom that Paul is shown to, which is almost bathed in the color red due to the bedspread, the curtains around the bed, and more red-colored chairs, candles, and window drapes; Dracula's chamber, which only he can easily reach and escape from (the concept of which is something I like, as I mentioned before); and Klove's dingy, cramped, cell-like room. Not only is there a definite "seen it" nature to these sets, including the interiors of the village tavern, church, the burgomaster's home, and Sarah's house, but you can tell that the "stone" walls you see in many of them are nothing of the kind, as they sometimes shake, and the backgrounds in the scenes on the castle battlements and outside its windows are obviously painted backdrops. And the movie is so low-budget that there are very few Elstree Studio backlot scenes, save for only the briefest glimpse of the streets of Kleinenberg in the first act and a few exterior scenes set in the village near Castle Dracula; everything else was shot in the forests of Scratchwood.

This is the first of the series since The Brides of Dracula to involve vampire bats and you would hope that, in the ten years since that film, the special effects for depicting the bats would have improved; on the contrary, they actually got worse. While the fake bats in Brides weren't great by any means, Terence Fisher and his crew used them sparingly, shot them in a way that sold the effect as best as they could, and their portrayal as these big, brown, hissing things with glowing eyes was somewhat eerie. The bats seen here, while better than the really bad ones seen in the climax of The Kiss of the Vampire, are still pretty laughable. I say "bats" but I have a feeling they had only one prop, as you never see more than one bat in a shot, and when you do see it, it's either hovering in place with mechanically fluttering wings, which Christopher Lee once said made the bat look, "As if it were doing morning exercises," or flying about in a very stiff manner, with often visible wires and audibly stretching and crinkling rubber. The scene where the bat kills the priest is especially bad, as he could easily outrun the thing or fling it off him, as it loosely sets down on his back and shoulders while stiffly biting and clawing at his neck. (In his autobiography, My Word Is My Bond, Roger Moore tells a funny story about how, when he was working with Lee on The Man With The Golden Gun, he talked about how two of the operators controlling the bat were flaming gay lovers who were not shy about making out with each other during filming, which could be a major reason as to why it comes off so bad). It comes off somewhat better when Dracula has it remove Sarah's crucifix during the climax, as you see a shot of it with glowing red eyes, but, wisely, Hammer decided not to bring the bats back in any of the following movies.

Some of the other special effects in the film fare much better, such as the miniatures of Castle Dracula (sometimes, though, they're shot in a manner that reveals them to be models), the well-designed matte paintings showing the long drop down from the edge of the castle's battlements, which are often well-integrated with live-action footage of the actors, and the effect of Dracula's eyelids becoming transparent, with his red eyes revealed behind them. But, akin to the bat, another major fail effects-wise occurs in Dracula's death scene. Disregarding how cartoonish the lightning looks when it strikes the rod, not only is the very concept behind his demise dumb, but the disconnect between Christopher Lee and the stuntman who does the fire gag is very obvious, right down to the featureless mask he wears in order to do the stunt, which you get a pretty good look at and which is about as bad as the "stunt zombies" seen during the climax of The Plague of the Zombies when they start to burn. Moreover, when you see the closeups of Lee's face as Dracula burns, with fire in both the foreground and behind him, you can tell that the flames aren't even touching him and that they just put a smoking effect on his clothes. And, in the final shots of him standing by the edge before he goes over it, it's obvious you're watching a stiff, immobile, scarecrow-like dummy that is simply being manipulated into moving and falling from offscreen.

One thing's for sure: if the previous entries in the series weren't bloody enough for you, you're in luck, as Scars of Dracula not only doubles down but almost triples down on it. The opening moments of the movie, with a bat bleeding from its mouth onto Dracula's ashes to resurrect him and the shot of the fresh bite marks on his latest victim's neck as her body is carried into the village, are only prelude to a lot of grisly stuff that comes later. When you see that his bats have killed all of the women in the church during the raid on the castle, you see streaks of blood all over the walls and altar, and the camera pushes into gruesome, tight closeups of the women's faces, which have been horribly clawed apart, and you also see their blood-covered arms and feet in some shots. The landlord's wife, Maria, got it particularly bad, as her right eye is virtually hanging out of its socket, and as the scene ends, you see blood dripping onto a candle from above. Later, you see Dracula stab Tania to death, and then, Klove comes in with a tub that he fills with a powerful acid and uses it to dispose of her body parts after he dismembers her. Most of the dismembering occurs off-camera, but you hear the sounds of it, and you get a skin-crawling shot of her heart being tossed into the acid and watch as it begins to sizzle. Speaking of Klove, the hideous scars on his back from where Dracula tortures him for his failures can really make you wince, and near the end of the movie, Simon finds Paul's body hanging from spikes on the wall in Dracula's chamber. While the effect of the bat doesn't work, the priest's death by it is still pretty bloody, as his face is totally scratched up and his hands covered in blood by the time he dies. And finally, when Dracula is set aflame at the end of the movie, they put some effective burn makeup on Lee's face, with the last shot of his face being totally covered in burn scars.

Like its sister film, The Horror of Frankenstein, there's a good amount of sexual material in Scars, all of it concerning what a libertine Paul is. Like I said, the first time you see him, he's just bedded the burgomaster's daughter, Alice, and when she gets mad at him for leaving her, she gets out of bed, only covering her front with a sheet, and chases him out into her home's foyer, giving you a good look at her naked backside, and you see it again when her outraged father chases her back to her room. That alone trumps the bare breasts seen in Taste the Blood of Dracula. Upon arriving in the village, Paul flirts with and intends to bed Julie as well, who's also not exactly putting up a fight, in how she decides to show some more skin before allowing him into the closed tavern. And, of course, before she meets her nasty end, Tania sleeps with Paul as well.

As I said earlier, even though it's an ostensible reboot that breaks the continuity from the previous movie, Scars, nevertheless, opens with a resurrection scene for Count Dracula, one that seems to take his death at the end of Taste the Blood of Dracula into account. Following an opening shot of Castle Dracula, with the camera panning down the side of it to an open window, you see Dracula's cape lying on a slab, covered with his powdered blood. A bat flies into the chamber, hovers above the cape, and blood suddenly leaks out of its mouth and drips onto the powder. As thunder crackles outside, Dracula's form slowly materializes (this is the very effect of his disintegration at the end of Taste the Blood, only run backwards) and his eyes open once he's fully resurrected. The bat then flies out of the window, as Dracula gets up and looks out over the countryside. The film cuts to a bright, sunny day, as a man carries in his arms the body of a young woman who bears the telltale signs of a vampire attack on her neck, through the woods and towards the village, a sequence that the opening credits play over. When he reaches the village, he goes straight for the tavern, the place going dead quiet and everyone turning and looking when he walks through the door. He sets the girl's body down on a table and the village priest comes up and says a prayer over her. The landlord's wife, Maria, comes in and recognizes the woman as Joanna. Her husband decides that, since they know who was responsible and where he lives, they should go and free themselves from his reign of terror. Knowing that it will be dark soon, he says they must hurry, and tells Maria to take all the women to the church. The priest tries to stop him, saying it will only result in more violence, but the landlord emphatically tells him that Dracula must be destroyed once and for all. With that, the priest decides to accompany them, adding, "And may heaven protect us all."

In the next scene, the men march to the castle, armed with farm implements and rolling a cart containing large barrels and bundles of large sticks. The priest stops when he comes to a small, wooden post in the woods containing a little figure of the Virgin Mary and silently prays for their protection. When the castle is in sight, the landlord tells the others to hide behind the rocks, as he goes up to the gates and rings the bell. A small panel in the door opens and Klove looks out from the other side. The landlord tells him he has something for him but Klove just stares at him before sliding the panel closed. Looking back at the hiding men, the landlord assures Klove that he's alone and, again, asks him to open the gate. Klove opens the panel up again and, looking around suspiciously, slides it closed and opens a small section of the gate. When he does, the landlord grabs his arm, threatening to slam the door shut on him, and orders him to open it completely and let him in. He complies, and once the landlord is through the gate, the others storm their way through, bringing their weapons and the cart with them. The landlord warns Klove to stay put or he'll get hurt, as the men light the bundles of sticks, turning them into makeshift torches. Klove defiantly yells, "You fools! You think you can destroy my master?! The flames'll never reach him!" As Dracula sleeps in his coffin down in the chamber, a bat flies in and hovers above him, squeaking loudly, as if trying to warn him of what's going on, though he doesn't react. Up above, the men smash the windows and toss torches through them, immediately turning the interior into a blazing inferno. While the bat flies out of Dracula's chamber, the landlord takes a barrel from the cart and tosses it to the foot of the castle door, telling one of the men to light it with his torch, causing the flames to engulf the door. By this point, there's fire in so many spots that the landlord figures it's enough and he tells the men to head back. Klove, who didn't interfere in any way, looks at the flames around him and sneers at the men as they head off the castle's battlements.

As they head back through the woods, the men turn and look at the burning castle before going on and rejoining the priest, who's waiting for them by the post. The priest says they must give thanks for their protection and that they should go back and tell the women the good news. When they reach the village, they head for the church and open the door, only to be surprised when a screeching bat comes flying out and swoops above them, before heading off into the night. Several more come flying out, and once they've gone, the men see that the inside of the church has been all but decimated, with candelabras turned over, smears and streaks of blood all over the walls, and, worst of all, the mutilated bodies of the women lying about. The men file inside, aghast and devastated at what they see, when the landlord sees Maria sitting in one of the pews. But, when he comes around to her front and looks at her, he sees that she too fell prey to the bats, as her face has been virtually ripped off. Looking about the horrific scene, the priest grimly intones, "The devil has won," as blood drips onto one of the candles near him, and the film does a rippling transition.

Said transition reveals a set of red-colored candles, that are then blown out by Sarah, as they're revealed to be on a birthday cake for her. People are gathered a table for her party, and after Simon proposes a toast to her, everyone tries to press her into giving a speech. After some hesitation, she does stand up, but her "speech" is a simple, "Thank you. Thank you all, very much." She then begins cutting and serving the cake (which looks really good, I might add), when the subject of Simon's absent brother, Paul, comes up. Simon says that he thinks Paul is simply working late, and the film then cuts to a sign on a wall that reads, "Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today," as it's revealed that Paul is in bed with a lovely young woman, Alice. As she tries to get him to say it was the best sex he ever had, he repeatedly asks what time it is and all she tells him is that it's early. He explains that he needs to go to night school, when they hear a clock-tower chiming outside the window. Paul sleepily counts the chimes, and is horrified when they stop at nine, realizing it's much later than she let on. He hurriedly gets out of bed and starts putting his clothes on, as she tries to get him to stay, getting to the point where she demands he does, saying she'll scream if he leaves. Not taking her seriously, he removes his coat, which is draped across a chair, when a small packet falls out onto the floor. When she sees that, Alice knows he's not going to night school and accuses him of going to see another girl. She starts screaming at him, saying she hates him, while he slips out the door, hearing the sound of a carriage pulling up outside. Alice gets out of bed, only covering her front with a sheet, and runs out the door and down the stairway to the foyer, yelling at Paul to come back, saying she's not going to let him go. At that moment, her father, the burgomaster, comes through the door and is immediately at the sight of his daughter standing there naked. Alice then says that Paul broke into her room and tried to, "Interfere with me." The burgomaster grabs Paul, calling him a rapist, but he manages to break free of his grasp, knocking him to the floor, and runs out. The burgomaster yells at his servants to get after Paul, angrily yelling at them to stop trying to help him off the floor. Alice is still standing there, smiling smugly, when her father turns and starts after her, chasing her up the stairs and to her room, where he bangs on the door, yelling at her to let him in.

Back at the party, after they stop dancing when she becomes thirsty, Simon presents Sarah with a present: a small box with a beautiful ring inside it. She happily thanks him and kisses him on the cheek, before putting it on her finger, but he says he was hoping she'd put it on her other hand. Noting how she looks unhappy, he asks her if it's because of Paul's absence, when he arrives right then and joins them, pouring himself some champagne. When asked where he's been, Paul tells them he had a meeting with the burgomaster and that he had difficulty getting away. He then gives Sarah his own present, describing it as, "Just another example of my photographic genius," as she unwraps it and finds it to be a small frame with a little picture of her inside. Both of them admit that Paul does take good pictures, though Simon wonders how he could afford such a pricey frame. It's then that Paul sees that there's a crack in the glass, and while Sarah insists she doesn't care about it, Paul takes it back, saying he'll have it fixed in the morning. It's then that the burgomaster's servants come in and Paul, putting the frame in his pocket, climbs up onto the window sill, telling Simon and Sarah he must leave. Simon, exasperated, exclaims, "Not again!", and Paul, apologizing and blowing a kiss to Sarah, jumps out the window. He crashes through the roof of a carriage parked below, spooking the horses and causing them to take off. They run out of the Kleinenberg city limits and into the forested countryside. After being tossed about, Paul looks out the window and sees that the carriage is unmanned. He climbs out and across to the driver's seat, where he grabs the reins and tries to get the horses under control. But, he's unable to slow them down, when the frontier station comes up. He does manage to steer them away from the pole, but they head towards the fencing on the station's right side, and while the horses jump the fence, the carriage itself crashes right through. The two men on duty at the station run out and start shooting at him, but Paul is able to avoid the bullets. The horses drag the carriage deep into the woods, the tree branches smacking Paul in the face, until one knocks him to the ground. As he sits up, all he can do is watch as the horses head on without him. Meanwhile, back in Kleinenberg, the party is over and Sarah and Simon say goodbye to the guests. They head back inside the gate, with Sarah admitting that she's worried what happened to Paul, saying that she knows how close he and Simon are and that she doesn't want Simon to suffer from anything happening to him. Simon gives Sarah a chaste kiss and she heads inside her house, while he walks home.

Paul makes his way through the woods on foot, until he comes through a clearing and finds the village up ahead. He makes his way to the tavern and knocks on the door. Getting no response, he knocks again, louder, and Julie, the barmaid, peeks her head out of a second story window. She tells Paul that they're closed and also informs him there's nowhere else in the village he could stay, and the next village is ten miles away. She does mention the castle but says that, while she doesn't know why, as she's new there, no one is supposed to go there. With no other alternative, Paul decides to bed down in the yard, but Julie, not wanting him to freeze, heads downstairs and, after making sure she's showing a little more skin underneath her nightgown, unlocks the door and lets him in, motioning for him to be quiet. She tells him that they always close as soon as night comes but no one will tell her why. In a flirtatious manner, Paul asks if she could make an exception, saying he's tired and hungry. Julie says she could give him some food but that there are no spare rooms and that the only bed is hers. Paul says he doesn't mind sharing, which Julie isn't surprised to hear, and he insists that he's so tired that he'll fall asleep as soon as he lies down, adding that he can hardly stay awake as it is. Julie mentions how he said he was hungry and he says, "I am," to which she responds, "Well, make up your mind." He goes in for a kiss but, no sooner do they start making out than the landlord shows up, demanding to know why Paul is there and admonishing Julie for opening the door after dark. He doesn't let Paul explain, yelling at him to get out, when they hear the sound of a coach passing by. The landlord walks to the door after the sound dissipates and, looking out to see no one there, again tells Paul to leave. Paul does as he says, angrily telling him, "Well, thanks for nothing. I only hope the castle is more hospitable." The landlord closes and bars the door behind him. Julie is shocked that he's going to the castle but the landlord growls, "He can go to hell, as far as I'm concerned!", and orders her to get to bed.

Paul walks back into the woods, trying to find his way to the castle, when he comes upon a six-horse coach parked on a trail. Walking up to it, he finds no one inside and climbs in, intending to spend the night there. But, just as he lays down, Klove emerges from the woods, carrying a dead animal over his shoulder, which he tosses atop the driver's seat. He then climbs up there and quietly motions for the horses to take off. When they do, Paul sleeps through the entire ride, and doesn't awaken until the carriage slows down and stops just beyond the castle gates. Looking out the window, and seeing a bird-like statue on the stone wall, Paul disembarks and walks around to the front of the carriage and across the misty battlements of the castle. He walks up some steps and onto a ledge, nearly falling over the edge of it. He looks down to see that it's a sheer down the side of the cliff and quickly gets to his feet and backs away from the edge. Walking back to the castle, he's suddenly dogged by a large bat, falling to the ground when he tries to dodge it and hurting his ankle. As he clutches his ankle, he looks up and sees a beautiful woman standing near the door. She asks him if he's hurt, and when he says he doesn't think so, she invites him inside. He follows her through the door, limping on his foot, and into the foyer beyond. She sees him stumble and notes that he is hurt, though he says it's just a sprain. Touching his face and feeling that he's cold, she has him walk into the sitting room and warm himself by the fireplace. She asks him if he's hungry but he says he's more tired than anything. She tells him she'll have a bed prepared for him and tells him to wait as she walks off to see to it. As he waits, Paul walks over to a display of knives on the wall and removes one of them. He hears a voice intone, "The blade is very sharp," and turns to see Count Dracula standing nearby.

Caught off-guard, Paul tells Dracula that he isn't an intruder and puts the knife back. He adds that the girl is arranging a bed for him but Dracula assures him that he is welcome, saying that, before the fire (which, again, you see no trace of at all), strangers were always welcome. He asks Paul to be seated and brings him some wine. Curious, Paul asks what exactly happened to the castle, but then, the girl appears in the doorway and she and Dracula exchange glances. Realizing he hasn't introduced himself, Paul does so, and Dracula, in turn, introduces the woman as Tania before telling Paul his own name. Apparently getting a strange vibe from Dracula, Paul insists that he must get going, saying he's sure he can find somewhere else to stay, but Dracula informs him that there is nowhere else, adding, "This is not Kleinenberg." Paul is confused as to how Dracula knows where he's from, but the Count ignores his question (which is never answered but, hey, it's Dracula; I would imagine he has ways of finding things out) and turns to Klove, who'd just entered the room, telling him to show Paul to his room. Paul decides not to fight it any longer and goes to follow Klove, thanking Dracula for his hospitality and bidding him good night. Once they're gone, Tania walks up to Dracula, throws her hair back, and exposes her neck to him. Dracula leans down, nuzzling the side of her face and neck, before exposing his fangs and biting her in the neck. As she gasps in ecstasy from it, he opens his eyes, as they're now blazing red, and bites into her again.

Klove lets Paul into his bedroom and Paul, after looking at the furniture, including the large, sheer red bed, walks over to the window and opens it. He then walks back to the door when Klove is gone and closes and locks it. He unbuttons his coat, places all of the items he has in his pockets, including his portrait of Sarah, on a table, intoning, "You're not going to believe a word of this when I get back, Sarah." Taking off his coat and vest, he pours some water into the wash basin, preparing to clean up, when he hears someone right outside the door. He asks who it is but doesn't get an answer, and opens the door to reveal Tania, who's now dressed in a low-cut evening gown, and walks in and closes the door behind her. She walks over to the window and opens it up a little more, as the sound of howling wolves sound over the countryside. She tells him, "They're free. Free to wander as they please. If only I were free... I'm a prisoner here. There's nobody I can turn to. Nobody I can talk to." She then asks him to help her, then embraces him. Paul immediately goes into it and the two of them kiss, which immediately turns passionate. Tania asks him to love her and goes and sits on the bed, repeating it. Paul doesn't need to be told a third time, as he walks over to the bed, leans over her, and they start making out passionately as he lies on top of her, beginning to undo her gown from behind. The camera then pans over to the window and the shot of the night sky outside transitions to the gray clouds before dawn. With the drapes around the bed completely pulled to, Paul and Tania are unaware of it, as they continue sleeping. Tania wakes up first and smiles at Paul, when her gaze turns to his neck, the camera zooming in on a tight closeup of it. She licks her lips and, unable to control her urges, opens her mouth to reveal her fangs and goes in for the bite. Before she can, Dracula suddenly flings back the drapes, causing Tania to yell in surprise, waking Paul up. Paul immediately rushes Dracula, grabbing him by the neck, but he gets tossed to the floor easily (you can see he's wearing red briefs, which I didn't think existed back in the 1800's). Dracula then rips back the sheets and, brandishing a knife, stabs Tania again and again as she screams, until her screams give out and he leaves the knife sticking in her. As Paul lies unconscious on the floor, Dracula is shown leaning down towards Tania's body, and then, Paul starts to come to at the sound of a rooster crowing. He sees the grisly aftermath of Dracula's attack and that the Count himself is gone. Paul walks over to the side of the bed and, unable to bear the horrible sight, covers Tania's body with the bedspread.

Some time later, Klove stands outside the door, listening as Paul, now fully dressed and having discovered that it's locked from the outside, pounds on it, futilely yelling for help. Quickly realizing there's no help coming, Paul runs for the window and looks out, only to be reminded of the drop down the cliff. He then spots something he didn't see earlier and, leaning out for a better look, sees another window halfway between him and the bottom of the cliff. Getting an idea, he yanks down the curtains around the bed, at one point having to stop and push Tania's leg back underneath the bedspread when it slips out, and ties them together to create a rope. As Klove continues listening from the other side of the door, Paul ties one end of the "rope" around the center stone section of the window and tosses the other end out, down the side of the castle. Looking, he sees that it reaches the window below and, with that, he climbs onto the window sill and scales down the side of the castle. A section of the curtains near the top tears slightly, causing Paul to fall a few feet, but he manages to steady himself and make the rest of the climb down to the window. Setting down on its window sill, he drops down into the chamber, the centerpiece of which is a large slab with a black coffin sitting on it, and walks around the side and in back of it. However, he finds no other way in or out of the room, and when he looks towards the window, he sees that someone is pulling his rope from up top. He rushes to the window but doesn't get there in time and yells at whoever is up there for help, adding that there's no other way out. Curious, he then opens the lid of the coffin and recoils to find Dracula lying there, with fresh blood around his fangs.

The film cuts to the tavern, where Julie is scrubbing the floor, when two policemen walk in. One of them asks the landlord for wine, and adds that they're on official business. As the landlord fills up a glass of beer, as he doesn't have wine (one of the men mentions they got wine at the last place they stopped and the landlord retorts, "Then, you better get back to the last place,"), he's shown a warrant and told it's for the arrest of a young man from Kleinenberg. The landlord and Julie exchange glances and the one officer whispers the charge into the landlord's ear, though Julie tries to lean in to hear. He then loudly adds that it was with the burgomaster's daughter and that they think he may have passed through the village. The landlord says he isn't there but Julie pipes up and says that a young man tried to stay there the previous night, although the landlord says he sent him away. He's then asked where Paul went but the landlord says he doesn't know and doesn't care, before going on to do some work. When he's gone, Julie tells the cops that Paul mentioned he was going to the castle, but when she says it's a long way from there, they seem less than enthusiastic about following up on it, saying it's outside their territory. The one officer says they'll make a report instead and the two of them leave, with Julie calling them "lazy pigs!" The priest, who was sitting at a table the whole time, asks Julie if Paul really did go to the castle, and when she confirms he did, he says, "Then heaven protect his immortal soul." Speaking of which, at the castle, Klove drags a tub into the bedroom Paul was staying in and removes a handful of tools, namely cleavers and saws, from it. Whistling casually, he takes all of the items Paul left on the table, and is quite struck by the portrait of Sarah, which he places on one of the bed's legs. He then takes a towel out of the tub, lays it on the floor beside the bed, pulls back the bedspread, revealing Tania's body, and picks her up and sets her down on the towel.

A cutaway shows Simon and Sarah riding on the back of a cart, talking about how it's strange that they haven't heard from Paul, but while Sarah is worried, Simon says they don't know for sure that anything bad has happened to him. Sarah asks, "Then where is he? Where?" It then cuts back to the castle, to a shot of Klove tossing Tania's severed heart into the tub, which is now filled with acid, and he proceeds to dismember other parts of her body, all while Sarah's portrait sits nearby. In the village, the cart carrying Simon and Sarah stops. The driver tells them he's not going any farther and that he's heading back as soon as he's unloaded everything. He also advises them not to stay either, saying there's been "trouble" there, but refuses to wait on them while they talk to the villagers. Simon tries to get him to at least take Sarah back but she refuses to leave him, despite his insistence. Knowing he's not going to win, he decides that they should check the tavern. Walking inside, he guides Sarah to a table and asks the landlord if they could have a meal. When they confirm that they're passing through, the landlord becomes more than happy to serve them, offering Simon a stein of beer while he waits and calls Julie to get the table ready for them. The landlord makes small talk about their being students and says he hopes they're enjoying their "vacation," but then, Simon says that they're looking for someone from Kleinenerg. He describes Paul and asks if he passed by or came in. The landlord says he didn't, and becomes agitated when Simon presses the matter. Simon goes to sit down, when he looks at Julie as she brings out a tray and she shakes her hand, indicating that the landlord isn't telling the truth. He sits down with Sarah, and as Julie prepares the table, she and Simon exchange glances, all while the landlord watches like a hawk. Noticing that the other people in the tavern are staring at him and Sarah as well, Simon accuses the landlord of lying. Enraged, the landlord storms at him, attempting to throw him out, when Julie says that Paul went to the castle. However, she doesn't say anything else and walks off. Simon tries to get the landlord to clarify what castle she was talking about, yelling at him, "What castle?!", but the other villagers restrain him and the landlord opens the door, again yelling at him to get out. Simon asks that they at least let Sarah stay but she refuses to and walks out after him when the men shove him out the door.

Outside, Simon and Sarah now wonder where the aforementioned castle is and who would tell them how to get there. Peeking out an upstairs window, Julie gives them directions, and in the next scene, they're walking through the woods, along the path she told them to take. After some walking, they stop, as Simon says they should find a place for Sarah to rest while he goes to the castle alone, but she, again, refuses to leave his side. He comments, "Not forever, I hope," and the two of them kiss. She then says, "Not forever," and they kiss again, before they get up and walk on, unaware that they're being watched by a bat hovering in the trees. At the castle, Klove returns to his room, his grisly chore done, and washes his hands, before taking out Sarah's portrait and placing it on his table. He intones, "You're beautiful. You're very beautiful," while reaching out and touching the glass. Meanwhile, with darkness falling, Simon and Sarah reach the castle and make their way across the misty battlements towards the door. Simon has Sarah wait for him on the steps, as he walks up onto the ledge they lead to and heads to the edge, where he sees the drop-off. He notes a bat fluttering in the air above them but doesn't pay it any mind, until it swoops down at Sarah. He runs to her aid and the two of them watch as it flies about in the air and comes around for another pass above them. It hovers just overhead and Simon tries to get it to leave, swiping at it, when Sarah realizes the door's open. The two of them duck inside and, upon closing the door, walk over to the sitting room, searching for any sign of life. Sensing someone behind them, they turn around and see Dracula standing there. Simon tries to explain, when Sarah acts as if she's about to faint. Dracula notes this as well and motions for them to take a seat. As Simon leads her to the seat, he says she's suffering from shock, mentioning the bat attack. Dracula brings her some wine and asks them why they've come. Simon says they're looking for his brother but Dracula denies that anyone has been there. He goes to ring for Klove, and when the servant appears and is told they have guests, he says the room is prepared. Dracula tells him to bring some blankets, telling Simon that he will sleep in the sitting room, adding, "I must apologize for the inconvenience but since the fire...", though he doesn't speak any further.

He looks at Sarah, who begins to list over to her right, and she takes his hand when he offers it. When it then looks as if she's about to fall, he scoops her up in his arms and carries her out of the room. Klove reenters the room behind Simon, assuring him, "The young lady will be quite comfortable," while Dracula takes Sarah up to the room that was occupied earlier by Paul and lays her down on the bed. He then walks out, with the door closing by itself behind him, and when it does, Sarah gets up, walks over to it, and locks it. Walking back over to the bed, she then notices a pinkish nightgown lying on it. Down in the sitting room, Simon asks Klove about Dracula and he tells him he's the last remaining member of the family, saying it's one of the oldest in the region, if not all of Europe. Klove also tells him that the fire Dracula mentioned was caused by the villagers, though he doesn't tell him why. When he leaves, Dracula approaches Simon with a glass of wine, telling her that Sarah is asleep. Simon takes the wine and, after raising the glass and looking at Dracula through it, drink it, complimenting him on it afterward. Later that night, as Sarah, who's now wearing the nightgown she found, tosses and turns in her bed, Dracula appears in the room, pulling back the curtain around the bed and bending down towards her, gently brushing her hair. But then, before he can bite her, she turns over in her sleep, revealing the crucifix she wears around her neck. Dracula recoils at the sight of it and rings for Klove, who quickly leaves his room, though not before hiding the portrait under the mattress of his bed. He slips through the sitting room, past Simon, who's sleeping on a couch, and heads upstairs. He meets Dracula in the doorway, as he points at Sarah and tells Klove to remove the crucifix. Klove goes to remove it, when Sarah, again, turns over in her sleep. As this is the first time Klove sees her (he stood behind the chair she was sitting in when they first arrived), he recognizes her from the picture and, gasping, backs away. Dracula yells at him to remove the cross but Klove yells, "No!", and runs out of the room. Unable to get at Sarah because of the cross, Dracula has no choice but to leave as well. Down in the sitting room, Simon wakes, having a feeling that Sarah's in danger, but falls back asleep when he tries to get up, obviously drugged.

Come morning, Sarah awakens to the sound of someone knocking on her door. It turns out to be Simon, but she has to get out of bed and let him in, as the door's locked. When he comes in, he sits at her bedside, asking her if she's feeling better, but she says she doesn't know, that she had a horrible dream. He tells her it's late in the day, as they both overslept, when they hear someone walk up to the outside of the door, followed by the clatter of dishes and footsteps walking away. Simon walks to the door and opens it to find a tray of food sitting on the floor. He picks it up, remarking, "There's service for you," and brings it over to Sarah. He sees that it's broth and presses her to eat it, saying it'll do her some good. He then says that he's going to find Klove and ask him some questions. Sarah asks him not to go but he promises her that he won't be long and walks out the door. He heads downstairs to the sitting room, and tries to go through one door on the other side of it, only to find it locked. He then walks around to the castle's main door but finds that it's locked too. That's when he spies a corridor behind a door that's partially hidden by a drape next to the main one and heads down it. He finds another door around a corner but, when it, too, appears to be locked, he decides not to bother with it... until he hears the sound of someone groaning on the other side. Thinking it may be Paul, Simon tries to break the door in and eventually manages to kick it open. He ends up in Klove's room, which seems to be empty, when he spots the edge of the picture frame sticking out from under the mattress. He goes to grab it, when Klove runs at him from behind a draped off corner of the room and jumps on him, trying to take the picture. Simon knocks him off his back, jerking his loose shirt off in the process, and when Klove hits the wall, Simon sees a series of hideous, seared slash marks on his back. Klove tells Simon he needs to get away, that Dracula would do the same to him and worse to Sarah. Simon, now knowing that Paul was there, asks Klove what happened to him, but he refuses to talk. That is, until Simon grabs his face and shoves him up against the wall, demanding he tell him. Klove then admits that Paul was there but he got away. Simon lets him go and Klove, again, warns him to get Sarah away, saying Dracula will do horrible things to her, and that he'll help him to get her away. Suddenly, Klove realizes, "It may be too late!... The broth!"

Cut to Sarah, who sips a spoonful of the broth, when Simon bursts in and, seeing this, throws something at the tray, smashing the plate and startling Sarah. Rushing to the bed, he asks her if she's swallowed any yet and Sarah says only a little. He tells her they're getting out and pulls her out of the bed, when she notices that he has Paul's portrait. He confirms that Paul was there but hurries her out the door, grabbing her blue shoal, and the two of them rush downstairs, through the sitting room, and out the door, which is now ajar for them. They find a coach outside and Sarah climbs in, while Simon gets into the driver's seat and has the horses take off, all as Klove watches from inside the castle. The coach rushes through the forest and arrives back at the village close to nightfall. They head into the tavern, where most of the villagers are, but only Julie comes to their aid, pulling out a chair for Sarah to sit on. Desperate, Simon asks the landlord to come with him back to the castle to try to find Paul, but he's unwilling to do so, and Simon finds no one else is jumping to help him either. The landlord tells him, "It's nothing to do with us," and Simon decides to go back by himself. He asks the landlord to at least let Sarah stay but he tells him, "Go back where you came from. We want no trouble here." Outside, the horses neigh and the coach takes off. Simon rushes out the door to find that it's gone, but when he tries to come back in, he finds the villagers blocking him. He yells, "In God's name!", but the landlord murmurs, "The devil's, more like," and then pulls Sarah out of the seat and shoves her outside, before closing the door in their faces. Julie calls them cowards, but the priest decides not to stand idle, and heads out the door after them, telling them to follow him. He leads them to the church, where he lights some candles, and explains to them how it was horribly desecrated and that the villagers won't go there now. Simon tells him to look after Sarah and tries to head off to the castle, but the priest stops him, telling him he mustn't do anything until daybreak, as he must give him time to prepare him. He tells him, "Without my guidance, you'd never survive the ordeal, and without your courage, I could not even attempt it."

Julie, having had enough, leaves the tavern, and though the landlord catches her and attempts to tell her why he is the way he is, alluding to Dracula's having murdered his wife, Julie doesn't want to hear it, calling him superstitious and paranoid, and leaves, saying she wants to get out before she ends up like him. By this point, Dracula has awakened and is enraged when Klove admits that he helped Simon and Sarah escape. Anticipating what's going to happen, Klove tells him, "I have sinned, master," and removes his shirt, exposing his scarred back. Snarling, Dracula removes the red-hot sword from the fireplace and puts it to Klove's back, as he yells in agony. Meanwhile, the priest, after Simon tells him how they managed to escape the castle, explains to him and Sarah what Dracula is and what his powers are. Sarah then mentions that she "dreamed" about Dracula entering her room and bending down towards her. Spotting the crucifix, the priest tells her that it saved her, as Dracula fears it, and fetches a rosary with a crucifix attached to it and gives it to Simon, telling him to keep it on him at all times. He tells them, "What we shall be facing in a few hours' time is not a man. He is evil. He is the embodiment of all that is evil. He is the very devil himself." At the castle, a bat appears outside the window to Dracula's chamber and hovers there, squeaking loudly, appearing to communicate with him about Julie, who's presently walking through the nearby forest, frightened of both the dark and the strange sounds she hears all around her. Klove is then shown sleeping in his room, when he's awakened by the sound of the door opening and sees Dracula standing there. He tells him, "I have work for you."

Julie continues walking through the woods, but decides to sit down and rest for a bit. She then decides to try to sleep, but is then awakened by the sound of a carriage pulling up near her. Standing up to look, she's surprised when she doesn't see anyone sitting in the driver's seat, and cautiously approaches the carriage. Looking through the window and finding no one inside it, she opens the door and takes a closer look inside. She then turns around and gasps to find a sneering Klove standing in front of her. He shoves her into the carriage, closes the door, and climbs up into the driver's seat and gets the horses going. Julie is tossed around inside the carriage, futilely yelling for Klove to stop, as it rolls through the castle gates and stops on the battlements. Klove dismounts, walks over to the carriage's door, and yanks Julie out and to the ground, as Dracula watches from the door. Klove eagerly asks, "Have I pleased you, master? Am I forgiven?", and Dracula, looking at Julie, tells him, "You have done well." Klove quickly rushes off, as Dracula entrances Julie, who gets to her feet, only to wobble and threaten to fall over. Dracula rushes to her, grabs onto her, and then bites her neck. She yells and gasps in pain, before collapsing to the ground, the life drained out of her. Dracula heads back inside the castle, while Klove drags the body away to dispose of her.

The next day, Simon and the priest walk the path through the woods towards Castle Dracula, when the priest stops by the same post containing the figure of the Virgin Mary that he did before. Simon tells him that they'd best hurry, since they have a long way to go, and the priest, knowing he's right, agrees. Following a cutaway that shows Sarah sleeping in one of the pews in the church, the priest and Simon stop again, as the priest sees a bat hovering above them. Seeing that he's losing his nerve, Simon asks him to go back and watch over Sarah. The priest believes he's failed Simon but he tells him he will have only failed if anything happens to Sarah. He agrees to do as Simon asks, sending him on his way with, "God be with you, my son," before heading back to the village. Simon rushes ahead until he reaches the castle and pounds on the door, telling Klove to open up. Hearing him, Klove is initially reluctant to do so, but when Simon says Sarah is with him, he opens the door, only to be put into an arm-lock. Simon demands to know what happened to Paul and Klove tells him how he climbed out of the window using the knotted together bed curtains as a rope. Simon asks him to show him where it happened, adding that if he does, he can have Sarah's portrait, which he continually swipes at when he sees it in his hand. Klove then leads him to the bedroom Paul stayed in and to the window. He points down to the window far below them, telling him that's where Paul is and that it's also where Dracula sleeps securely, as there's no other way down there; Simon asks for a rope. Meanwhile, the priest returns to the village and, looking after Sarah, walks to the altar, kneels down, and silently prays.

Putting on his rosary, and having tied the rope to the center part of the window, Simon smashes the stand holding the room's wash basin, tearing off one of the legs to use a stake, which he holsters to the rim of his pants via his belt. He gives Klove the portrait when he asks for it and then leads him out the door, locking it behind him. That done, Simon walks to the window and begins to climb down towards Dracula's chamber. Unbeknownst to him, Klove manages to reenter the bedroom by pushing the key out of the lock from the other side. Simon is almost to the window to Dracula's chamber, when he sees Klove appear at the window above him. Sneering, Klove takes out a knife and begins to cut at the tied portion of the rope. Panicking, Simon tries to hurry down to the window, and just as Klove cuts through the rope completely, Simon's rosary gets hooked on a carved devil's head on the top part of the window, which manages to keep him from falling when the rope gives way and allows him to right himself and swing into the chamber. Once he catches his breath, he looks and sees Dracula lying in his coffin. He walks over to the side of the coffin and puts the point of his makeshift stake over his heart. He prepares to jam it down into Dracula, when his red eyes suddenly materialize behind his eyelids, and his power hits Simon hard, overwhelming him. Try as he might, Simon is unable to stake Dracula and collapses to the floor. Back at the church, as the priest continues praying, Sarah is suddenly awakened by the flapping wings and squeaking of a bat. Her cries of fear get the priest's attention, and he grabs a candlestick and throws it at the bat. He runs to Sarah and gets in front of her, telling her to run for it. She manages to rush out the door, while the priest, in his battle with the bat, is cornered against the altar, allowing the bat to fly down at him and bite and scratch at his face and neck multiple times. He gasps and yells in terror and pain as his face is slashed repeatedly, and by the time the bat is finished, he collapses to the floor, bloody bite and scratch marks all over his face and blood covering his hands. The bat flies out of the church, while Sarah rushes through the forests back to Castle Dracula.

Simon awakens in Dracula's chamber to find that, while he was unconscious, the Count rose from his coffin and is no longer there. He looks out the window but sees no sign of Dracula anywhere out there, and then walks around a corner near the coffin, only to recoil in horror when he sees Simon's mangled body hanging from a set of curved spikes on the wall. Turning back around, he sees Dracula standing on the opposite side of the coffin. He says, "You have decided to return to my house. You are alone," and then asks where Sarah is. Simon merely tells him that Sarah is safe but Dracula, hearing the squeaking bat that's flapping outside the window, apparently telling him that Sarah is on her way to the castle, comments, "I think not." As Simon watches, Dracula walks to the window and climbs out. Running to the window and looking up, he sees Dracula climb along the wall and slip through the bedroom window above. Sarah, meanwhile, makes it back to the castle and walks through the door, which she finds unlocked. She calls for Simon, and then for Klove, but gets no response from either of them, when the door shuts by itself behind her. Becoming frightened, she frantically runs through the place and finds her way to the upstairs bedroom. She runs to the window, opens it, and looks down, but when she doesn't see anything, she heads back to the door, only to come face-to-face with Klove when she opens it. He tells her not to be frightened, saying that he wants to help her, but corners her and undoes her shoal, revealing her cleavage. Before he can do anything, Dracula grabs him from behind and throws him to the floor, before entrancing Sarah and having her come to him. When she reaches him, Klove exclaims, "The cross!", and Sarah pulls it up and exposes it to Dracula. Again, he recoils when he sees it, allowing Sarah to slip past him and make it out the door. Dracula then chases after her, while Klove throws Simon another rope, allowing him to escape the chamber.

Sarah runs out onto the castle battlements, calling for Simon, when she's cornered by Dracula. When he moves towards her, she, again, repels him with the crucifix. That's when the bat shows up and he communicates with it, having it swoop at Sarah, grab the crucifix with its mouth, and fly off with it. Now defenseless, Sarah is cornered along the edge of the battlements by Dracula, while elsewhere, Simon climbs back along the wall of the castle, up towards the bedroom window. Just as Dracula is about to take Sarah, Klove appears, brandishing a knife, and yells at him to stop. Dracula, however, is not at all intimidated, and when Klove rushes at him, he puts him in a vice-like grip, forces him to drop the knife, then grabs his vest and throws him over the edge to his death. Dracula turns his attention back to Sarah and entrances her to come to him again. That's when Simon rushes out to the battlements and, seeing some old, metal rods sticking out of the side of the castle wall, rips one of them free and throws it at Dracula. It impales him in his midsection but does no real damage, as he easily pulls it back out and prepares to throw it back at the defenseless Simon. That's when the deus ex machina of the lightning comes to the rescue, as it strikes the rod when Dracula raises it up, causing him to yell in pain, a yell that then turns into a series of pained growls and snarls as his sleeve catches fire from it and the flames proceed to engulf his entire form, particularly the back of his cape. He stumbles about as he burns, before ultimately falling over the edge and plummeting down the length of the castle, to the bottom of the chasm, as he continues to burn. With Dracula vanquished, Simon and Sarah embrace happily.

If you don't count The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, this was the last Hammer Dracula film scored by James Bernard, as well as one of his last jobs for the studio. You'd hope, then, that he would send himself off with a really good one but, unfortunately, his score for Scars of Dracula is his weakest of the series, as he neither uses his original motif for Dracula, nor comes up with a great new one, like he did with Dracula Has Risen from the Grave; instead, the music slightly hints at that original motif, particularly in the bombastic piece you hear when the film's title pops up, but it's pretty generic for the most part and doesn't have the power of Bernard's past Dracula scores. He does manage to come up with some soft, moody string themes, like the one you hear at the very beginning of the movie and the mournful one you hear during the opening credits, which is probably the best part of the score, as well as a nice march for when the villagers head to Castle Dracula, a pretty rousing piece for their burning the castle, a crazed, frantic string theme for when Dracula stabs Tania to death, and a so-so climactic bit for the final confrontation with Dracula, but it's nothing that's likely to stick in your head after the movie.

Scars of Dracula is another Hammer horror film that's watchable and benefits from more screentime and dialogue for Christopher Lee, some nice supporting roles courtesy of the always capable Patrick Troughton, Michael Ripper, and Michael Gwynn, instances of memorable camerawork, cinematography, and editing, good effects shots here and there, plenty of grisly violence to satisfy gorehounds, and some more early 70's sensuality for those who want it. However, it's also a prime example of the doldrums Hammer had found itself in at this point, as you have a bland lead couple, a charismatic character who gets killed off too early, production design and sets that, while fine, don't give you much you haven't already seen before and sometimes betray the film's very low budget, embarrassing bat effects, an uncreative and way too convenient demise for Dracula that isn't too well-realized either, a music score that could have been better, and above anything else, a setup and plot that is virtually devoid of originality and cobbles together elements from the previous films in the series. While I have found myself enjoying it in the past, as I said in the introduction, there's no doubt about how run-of-the-mill and creatively and technically bankrupt it is and, as such, it's another I can only recommend to true aficionados; otherwise, your reaction will likely just be, "Seen it."