Franchises: Hammer's Dracula Series. Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)

This was almost the first Hammer movie I ever owned, as I saw the VHS for it at the Media Play that was once in Chattanooga when I was around eleven or twelve. But, alas, I didn't get it, I never saw it again, and when I reached my mid-teens, I made the transition to exclusively buying DVDs (not to mention that Media Play went out of business not too long afterward). Like so many of these movies, I didn't finally see it until I was in my early 20's, when I bought the DVDs off of Amazon after having already seen and owned Horror of Dracula, The Brides of Dracula, Taste the Blood of Dracula, and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. I knew virtually nothing about the movie's story or any factual tidbits going into it, but I had heard its memorable main title theme during the opening of The History of Sci-Fi and Horror documentary, as well as seen an image of Dracula standing next to a woman hanging inside a large bell. Watching it, I found it to be pretty enjoyable, and it's definitely one of the better movies produced during Hammer's later years. It's actually the last genuinely good entry in this particular series, as the later films would start to dip in quality, and Christopher Lee's well-known weariness and apathy towards being repeatedly forced to play Dracula, which began here, would really start to take hold. The story itself isn't anything special but the movie more than makes up for it with some truly exquisite technical filmmaking and visual styling, as well as some memorable and likable characters.

A year has passed since Count Dracula met his demise in the icy waters around his castle, but the nearby village of Carlsbad is still gripped with fear, as the villagers refuse to attend their church, which was hideously violated by the vampire during his reign of terror. Arriving to check up on things, Monsignor Ernst Mueller of Keinenberg takes it upon himself to alleviate the villagers' fears by making the arduous climb up to the castle and exorcising it. The village's terrified priest joins him, but can't bring himself to go anywhere near the castle, opting to stay behind while Mueller continues on his way, places a large cross on the castle's gates, and says a prayer. Unbeknownst to him, the priest, frightened by a sudden storm that rolls in, falls and knocks himself unconscious next to the frozen stream in which Dracula is contained. The impact from his fall cracks the ice and some blood from a head wound he sustained leaks down onto Dracula's lips, reviving him. While Mueller, unable to find the priest, returns to the village and tells the people what he's done, Dracula's first act upon resurrecting is making the priest his slave. But, when he finds he can't enter his castle because of the large cross on the gates, he forces the priest to help him make his way to Keinenberg in order to take revenge on Mueller. There, Mueller lives with his widowed sister-in-law, Anna, and his teenage niece, Maria, who's seeing an aspiring scholar named Paul who works at the local cafe. Unfortunately for the young lovers, Paul makes a bad impression on Mueller when, while having dinner with the family, he admits that he's an atheist and is told to leave. Regardless, Maria continues to see Paul, while Dracula enslaves the cafe's flirtatious barmaid, Zena, and takes refuge in its cellar. The priest takes a spare room there and learns of Maria Mueller from Paul. Through him, Dracula learns of her and decides to further his revenge on Mueller by corrupting her. Though an initial attempt to trap Maria proves unsuccessful, Dracula soon finds a way to get to her, and when Mueller is mortally wounded by the enslaved priest, the task of saving Maria may fall to Paul, who is ill-equipped to battle the Count because of his disbelief in God.

Terence Fisher was originally slated to direct, but during post-production on The Devil Rides Out, Fisher got caught up in a bad accident, as a motorbike slammed into him while he was crossing a street. Though he would recover enough to direct Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed the next year, the fractured leg he received from the accident put him out of the running for Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. Hammer then decided to go the same route they did with The Evil of Frankenstein and have Freddie Francis take Fisher's place. Francis hadn't made a film for the studio since 1965's Hysteria, having been directing films for Amicus, specifically The Skull (which featured Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee), The Psychopath, The Deadly Bees, They Came from Beyond Space, and Torture Garden (which not only featured Cushing but also Burgess Meredith and Jack Palance), as well as some episodes of the show, Man in a Suitcase. As with most of his films as director, he brought his technical expertise and sophistication to the movie, making it one of the loveliest-looking entries in the series, as well as by Hammer at large during this period. This, however, would also be his last film with them, and while he would continue making films for Amicus on into the 70's, he would also start working for some very bottom-of-the-barrel production companies, like Tyburn Film Productions and World Film Services, before pretty much leaving directing behind in the 80's, due to his being pigeonholed into the horror genre, and returning to cinematography (he would win an Oscar for his work on the 1989 film, Glory).

Still leery at the prospect of being typecast, and having just played the heroic Duc de Richleau in The Devil Rides Out (one of his best roles ever, I might add), Christopher Lee was very reluctant to play Count Dracula a third time. Regarding the script, he told managing director James Carreras, "This is not Bram Stoker, it's totally wrong, and I don't want to do it, and I'm not going to." And, according to Lee, this is when Hammer began emotionally blackmailing him into continuously reprising the role, telling him that, because the film had been pre-sold to their American distributor with the promise that he would again play Dracula, everyone would be put out of work if he refused. "So, what do I do? Am I going to be held responsible for putting ninety to a hundred people out of work? How could I? So, I did them, and that is the only reason why. It certainly wasn't for the money." Besides his principles, it's not hard to understand why Lee was reluctant to keep playing Dracula, as the very one-note depiction of him in these movies didn't allow for much in the way of development. For one, his motivation is very simplistic: he's angry at Monsignor Mueller for putting this big cross on the gates to his castle, barring him from entering it, and decides to take revenge on him by following him to Keinenberg and corrupt his beloved niece, as well as kill him. I get the revenge part, but the ending, where he takes Maria back to the castle and makes her remove the cross, feels so unnecessary and contrived. Couldn't he have had the priest he's enslaved remove it and then set out to take his revenge? While he does have dialogue for the first time since the opening of the first movie, you could likely count the number of lines Lee has on two hands. His screentime is, again, very limited, and when he is onscreen, he does little more than menace and seduce young women and fight against those who oppose him. He's also nowhere near as animalistic and feral as he was before, with little of the agility and monstrous strength he showed of in his battles with Dr. Van Helsing or Charles Kent. In fact, now that I think about it, he never once fights Mueller and just briefly tangles with Paul a couple of times, instead often fleeing when faced with a crucifix or getting burning wood chucked at him. And while his actual death, getting impaled on that large cross, is pretty impactful and probably his best after being disintegrated by sunlight, the way he falls on the cross comes off like he was a klutz and fell over a ridge while struggling with Paul, even if Paul was meant to have thrown him over the edge.

But, despite all these drawbacks and his reluctance in reprising the role, Lee manages to make his third performance as Dracula as good as it possibly could be. He's still really menacing by his sheer presence alone, with his height, fangs, and blood-red eyes adding to his intimidation factor, and is once more unapologetic in how utterly evil he is. Besides his decision to corrupt Maria Mueller in order to further get back at her uncle, the way he kills Zena after Maria manages to escape him the first time is not only unfair but is also horrifically brutal. Dracula ravages her, leaving her dead on the floor, with blood all over the side of her neck and face, and before she can resurrect as a vampire, he forces the priest to destroy her body by putting it in the fireplace in the cellar's bakery. It's yet another sign of how the women he seduces and corrupts are little more than disposable commodities to him, as is the way he roughly treats Maria once her uncle is dead and he's managed to spirit her away back to his castle. You could easily surmise that, after he had her get rid of the large cross, he probably would have dispensed with her as well upon reentering his castle.

This film begins a trend where the two main supporting characters are a young couple who run afoul of Dracula and they're usually rather bland and unmemorable. But, while there is indeed not much to Maria Mueller (Veronica Carlson) and Paul (Barry Andrews), they more than make up for it in being very likable. They both come off as very happy teenagers who live nice, comfortable lives in Keinenberg. Maria is the more well off of the two, as she lives with her uncle and mother in a very nice house, while Paul lives in a small room at the Johann Cafe where he works, but these differences aside, it's clear that there's genuine affection for each other, with Maria loving Paul because of his honesty, even though it gets him in trouble with Monsignor Mueller when he admits he's an atheist. Regardless of this bad first impression he makes on her uncle, Maria continues to sneak out of the house when she can in order to see Paul, which leads to her first being marked by Dracula. Speaking of Paul, he's the more interesting of the two. As carefree a person as he's depicted, he's actually an aspiring scholar who studies hard when he's not working, hoping one day to make more of himself than simply working at the cafe. Moreover, his atheism not only puts him at odds with Mueller, but it also makes for a great disadvantage when he's trying to protect Maria from Dracula, as faith is required when battling a demonic creature like him. Case in point, when he attempts to kill Dracula by staking him, it doesn't work because he's incapable of saying an effective prayer, leading Dracula to pull the stake out and toss at him. Although he gets injured while trying to stop the Count, Paul still manages to pursue him back to his castle, save Maria, and cause Dracula to fall on the large cross, although the priest is the one who says the prayer that ultimately destroys him. By the end of the movie, Paul seems to have found his own faith, as he makes the sign of the cross in front of himself after watching Dracula die.

One of the best characters in the movie is Monsignor Ernst Mueller (Rupert Davies), as he's everything you'd want in a man of God: a take charge kind of guy who's capable of vanquishing evil, but is also a genuinely kind and good-hearted man whose mission in life is to help people. When he goes to check up on things in Carlsbad, and finds that the villagers still live in fear of Dracula and the castle, refusing to attend church because of its desecration and because the castle's shadow touches it, he assures them that there's nothing more to fear, insisting, "There is no evil in the house of God!" But, when his words prove insufficient, Mueller takes it upon himself to put the villagers' fears to rest by going up to the castle and exorcising it of any lingering evil. He talks the frightened and disillusioned village priest into coming with him,  as a guide as well as feeling that his doing so will further encourage the villagers and alleviate his own fears. But, when the priest is unwilling to travel the whole way to the castle, Mueller goes himself, places a large cross from the church on the castle gates, and says a prayer. On his way back down, he finds no sign of the priest and returns to the village without him. There, he tells the villagers that he has rid them of Dracula's evil once and for all and leaves for Keinenberg, unaware that Dracula has been resurrected and has enslaved the priest (the landlord of the village inn tells him that the priest returned, mainly to keep him from meddling further, fearing he'll bring Dracula's wrath on them all the more). Once he's back home, Mueller, genuinely hoping that he was successful, meets Paul when Maria brings him by to have dinner with them for her birthday. Though Paul shows up smelling of beer after being roped into playing a drinking game, Mueller acts as an accommodating host to him, telling him that he admires his honesty. But, things go downhill when he asks Paul where he goes to church and he admits that he's an atheist, which Mueller, now not so fond of Paul's honesty, sees as blasphemy. Despite this, after Paul leaves, Mueller never out and out forbids Maria from continuing to see him, and clearly has sympathy for her when she becomes upset over it. Later, after she's sneaked out to see Paul, he's not only not angry but flat out asks her if she loves him. When she says she does, he also tells her that he'll be there for her when the time is right for her to tell him everything.

Soon, Dracula begins targeting Maria as part of his revenge, and when Mueller sees the bite marks on her neck after the vampire's first visit to her bedroom, he knows what's going on. Seeing to it that her bedroom window is closed the following night, Mueller reads up on how to deal with vampires, only to later walk in on Dracula's attempted second seduction of Maria. He manages to repel the Count with his crucifix and chases after him across the rooftops, only to be confronted by the priest, who smashes him over the head. He staggers back to his home, where he's cared for by Anna, and asks her to summon Paul, as he feels his love for Maria makes him the best one to carry on the fight. He tells Paul not to leave Maria alone during the nighttime hours and gives him an old book detailing how to combat a vampire, but also notes the disadvantage he has by not having any faith. Mueller doesn't last much longer, as Paul, unaware of the priest's enslavement, brings him to the house, and Mueller succumbs to his injuries after suffering the shock of seeing him. It sucks, as you really wish he was the one to battle and finally overcome Dracula in the end.

In sharp contrast to Mueller, the unnamed priest (Ewan Hopper) from Carlsbad is a weak and diminutive character, unable to offer the villagers any comfort, as he's just as terrified of Dracula's lingering evil as they are, having witnessed it firsthand when he found the body of the woman in the church's bell. He reluctantly agrees to accompany Mueller to exorcise the castle, but when they get about halfway there, he decides he can't go on and waits for Mueller to return. As he does, a thunderstorm breaks out, and he becomes frightened and runs and trips, hitting the spot where Dracula is sealed in ice, cracking it open. A head wound that he sustains bleeds into Dracula's mouth, reviving him, and the first thing he does following his resurrection is enslave the priest to his will. He forces him to tell him that Mueller is the one who put the cross on the castle gates and has him retrieve and empty a coffin for him to rest in, before they proceed to follow Mueller to Keinenberg. There, the priest is made to help Dracula corrupt Zena, the cafe's barmaid, allowing him to find a hiding place in the cellar, while the priest himself takes up residence in one of the spare rooms. From Paul, he learns about Maria, and he, in turn, tells Dracula, who decides to corrupt her as part of his revenge. Though he's unable to disobey Dracula's commands, the priest is not completely under his control, as he clearly suffers from and is aghast by the horrible things the Count makes him do, like putting Zena's body in the fireplace or attacking Mueller. His slow, lethargic movements when he's at the inn betray the physical and emotional toll the enslavement is taking on him, but when Paul takes him to the Mueller house to help guard Maria against Dracula, he goes along with it, although the sight of him causes Mueller to die of shock. There comes a moment where the priest knocks Paul unconscious and then goes to remove everything protecting Maria, including her crucifix, but he can't bring himself to remove that. Paul, learning of his enslavement, forces the priest to show him where Dracula's resting place is, attempting to stake him. Though he manages to do so, the priest tells Paul to pray, otherwise it won't work, which it doesn't. Dracula then heads back to Carlsbad with both Maria and the priest, but when he's impaled on the large cross at the end of the movie, the priest, in a last ditch effort to redeem himself, says a prayer that destroys Dracula, an act that appears to take every last bit of energy he has and seemingly costs him his own life.

Just as the Carlsbad priest is to Mueller, Zena (Barbara Ewing), the Johann Cafe's barmaid, is the total opposite of Maria, as she's sultry and flirtatious, particularly towards Paul, whom she goes after and teases every chance she gets. Needless to say, this causes a jealous rift between her and Maria, given Paul's preference for her, and it seems as though the feeling is mutual where Maria is concerned. This jealousy continues after Dracula seduces and corrupts her. Once she falls under his influence, Zena is ecstatic to be around him, but is not happy when he demands that she bring Maria to him, angrily asking him why he needs her. This act of insubordination leads to Dracula violently slapping her across the face and she does what she's told, leading Maria down to him in the cellar when she stops by to see Paul. But, when Maria manages to escape, Dracula angrily decides to punish Zena, who, again, insists that he doesn't need Maria. This appears to fuel Dracula's vengeful rage even more, as he then brutalizes Zena offscreen and forces the priest to destroy her before she can fully become a vampire by putting her body into the cellar's fireplace.

Good old Michael Ripper is here again as Max, the good-hearted, if occasionally grumpy, cafe landlord. He often teases Paul in a kindly way about his relationship with Maria and asks why her mother would allow her to marry him, given how he's currently nothing more than a pastry chef, and also questions what he gets out of his constant studying. The two of them have a funny exchange concerning what Paul intends to get out of the books he reads: "What life's about. Something of the truth." "The truth?! Oh, what do you want with that? Now, look, if you want to be a success in life, forget the truth." "I can't just forget it." "Well, then, stay a pastry cook. That way, it doesn't matter." He's not too keen about letting the priest stay at his inn, given the rowdy college boys who tend to frequent it, and when Zena goes missing (having been killed by Dracula and her body burned by the priest), he complains, while angrily scrubbing the inside of a glass, "Girls! Unreliable, the whole lot of them! Come and go, just as they please! No sense of responsibility. That's what I like about you, Paul. I can rely on you." Paul, however, has been completely spacing out, thinking of Maria, and mentions that Zena was there last night, to which Max grumbles, "Last night! Last night! I know all about last night! What's the matter with you today?! Off with some student, I suppose. Come back again in about a fortnight and want her job back." That's when Max notices that Paul walked off while he was ranting and he merely goes on with his scrubbing.

Though she's his widowed sister-in-law, Anna Mueller (Marion Mathie) adores Monsignor Mueller as much as a wife would, as he's kindly taken her and Maria in after the death of his brother and shows them nothing but unconditional love. When he arrives home from Carlsbad, Anna sees to his needs, removing his boots and saying that such long journeys are not good for his age, adding that there are plenty of younger men who could perform these tasks in his place. Preparing a dinner party for Maria's birthday, Anna tells Mueller of Paul, whom she's quite impressed with, given his scholarly ambitions, and asks Mueller to go easy on him. But, despite trying to see that Paul is at ease when meeting everyone, she, like Mueller, is taken aback when he admits that he's an atheist and says it would be best if he left. She stops Maria from chasing after him, and comforts her when she's upset after he's gone. She's not happy when she later finds out that Maria has been sneaking out to see Paul, but quickly drops that when Maria is clearly not well and she and Mueller try to nurse her back to health. She then has to do the same for him when he's attacked by the priest while pursuing Dracula and he tells her to fetch Paul. Not long after that, Mueller dies and Anna is absolutely heartbroken. The last significant thing she does is give Maria a small crucifix in order to protect her, saying that Mueller had intended to give it to her for her birthday.

Among the villagers of Carlsbad, two others stand out aside from the priest. One is the landlord (George A. Cooper) of the inn there, who, like everyone else, is content to just let things be when it comes to Dracula, figuring that if they don't bother him, he'll leave them alone. When Monsignor Mueller comes back from exorcising the castle and asks if the priest returned, the landlord, figuring his disappearance may mean that Dracula has not been vanquished after all, tells him the priest did come back but has gone off by himself somewhere, ensuring that Mueller leaves. At the end of the movie, when Paul pursues Dracula back to Carlsbad and goes to the inn looking for help, the landlord and the other villagers attempt to restrain and keep him there to stop him from angering Dracula further and bringing his wrath down on them again, though Paul does manage to escape. Paul is offered help from a mute altar boy (Norman Bacon), who was introduced in the movie's opening as having lost his voice due to the trauma of finding a grisly example of Dracula's handiwork in the church. He offers to show Paul the way to the castle, and after Paul fights off the landlord and the other villagers, the two of them flee the inn, though the boy doesn't take part in the climax.

This movie continues to push the envelope of the sexual connotations of the vampire, hearkening back to the first film with the notion that the women who've been preyed upon Dracula find the experience so satisfactory that they eagerly look forward to encountering him again. Zena, in particular, so loves it that she becomes absolutely bubbly when the priest motions that Dracula wants to see her down in the cellar, only for the sexual frustration she felt towards Paul and his only having eyes for Maria to come back when Dracula tells her of his own interest in Maria, ordering her to bring her to him. Her jealousy and backtalk to Dracula over this ultimately leads him to kill her and have her body destroyed, rather than continue to deal with it after she becomes a vampire. As for Maria, while she has a sexual encounter with Paul early on, the one she has when Dracula first enters her bedroom and bites her is so profound, her ecstasy becoming very apparent in how she tightly grips a doll on her bed when he bites her, that she's more than willing to allow him in again the next night. Dracula himself also seems to really enjoy this, with the way he nuzzles, lightly nips at her face, and even smiles at her during the first seduction, something we haven't seen him do since his second seduction of Mina Holmwood in the first movie.

The rules of vampires remain virtually the same as they have been in the previous movies, although now a prayer is needed in addition to staking or any sort of impalement in order to actually kill Dracula. Since Paul's failed staking of Dracula is the only time in this series where he does get staked, you could say that prayer is what makes it work on him, whereas prayer was only used after the staking of others he corrupted in order to save their souls. Additionally, some may see the moment where Dracula first enters Maria's bedroom as violating the rule of a vampire needing to be invited in, which Dracula: Prince of Darkness established he must follow, but Maria clearly gives silent consent for him to enter her bedroom in that instance. However, after he's first resurrected, there's an instance where Dracula's reflection is seen in a pool of water, even though there have been vampires in this series that didn't cast any reflection, like Baron Meinster in The Brides of Dracula. But, then again, Meinster and his victims were able to become bats, something Dracula and the vampires spawned by him never do, so it could be a sign that different vampires are able to do different things (or, more to the point, the rules change due to budget constraints).

This is, hands down, the best-looking movie Freddie Francis ever directed for Hammer, as well as one of his most technically sophisticated directorial jobs period. The most distinguishing thing about its visuals are the way in which he and cinematographer Arthur Grant shoot many of the scenes involving Dracula and his castle. Often, whenever either of them are onscreen or Dracula's presence can be felt, the edges of the frame are colored amber, yellow, and even crimson red (appropriately in the scene where Paul stakes him) in order to give off a hint of the supernatural. The filters used for that effect are the very ones Francis had used while he was working as the DP on The Innocents and they make for some truly unique and lovely imagery, as well as a much less overdone way of giving off a vampire's unearthly presence than the stuff Francis Ford Coppola went for in Bram Stoker's Dracula. In addition to the filters, the film is well-shot all-around, with a rich color palette (the red on the inside of Dracula's cape especially pops here) and some truly memorable uses of the color, like pink, late evening lighting (that shot of Dracula lurking on the rooftop is one of the best in the whole series) and golden sunlight in some scenes set in the early morning. Also, the opening credit sequence is very memorable in the vivid reds and purples that make up the background, and when Zena is about to die by Dracula's hand, the shot of her screaming face turns blood-red before it cuts. The filmmakers manage to create atmosphere by giving off a feeling of warm, humid weather in how misty the many shots of the town's rooftops are, as well as pump in plenty of fog during the scenes where Mueller and the priest make their way up to Castle Dracula. The way in which the camera is used in the more intimate scenes, such as the buildup to Paul and Maria's lovemaking in his room and the first seduction between Maria and Dracula, is a handheld method that gets in close and helps sell the sensual nature of those moments. The one with Dracula, for example, features lingering close-ups of Maria's dazed face (akin to those of Mia Farrow in the devil rape scene in Rosemary's Baby), a close-up of him bearing his fangs as he moves towards the camera, and a POV shot of the camera going right for her pronounced jugular when he himself goes in for the bite. In a similar fashion, the camerawork emphasizes the horror of the priest being forced to push Zena's body into the fireplace by filming some of it from his POV, as he holds her in his arms and then places her down just inches from the fire, before cutting to a closeup of his tormented face as he shoves her in.

The first Hammer Dracula film to be shot after the company had left Bray, this one was done at Pinewood Studios, with Bernard Robinson still doing his usual good work. However, none of the sets are particularly amazing, with the main ones being the posh interiors of the Mueller household and the Cafe Johann in Keinenberg, especially the latter's cellar, which houses a bakery and a dank, dark, dungeon-like room where Dracula's coffin is stored (I don't know why a cafe would have such a room), but as was always the case with Robinson, they look nice. Save for some location work at Black Park, most notably for some of Monsignor Mueller and the priest's trek up to Castle Dracula and the scene where Zena is chased down by Dracula's carriage, the movie is 100% studio-bound, with only a scant few scenes in the second act taking place on any village streets built on the backlot. Instead, most of the exteriors there are set on the village rooftops, with some good matte paintings used to fill in the city in the background. There's a bit more shooting on the backlot for the exteriors of Carlsbad, and the sets representing the interior of the church, likely the biggest in the whole film, and the inn also look quite nice. The crucial scenes that occur along the mountainous path to and in front of Castle Dracula, like Dracula's resurrection, Mueller's exorcising the castle, and the climax, are clearly done on soundstages, with matte paintings used to create the surrounding landscape, like the other mountains and the castle in the distance, but they serve their purpose nicely. Speaking of the castle, the front gates and the steps in front of it are the only actual set representing it; otherwise, it's just a matte painting.

This was one of, if not the, first Hammer horror film to get an MPAA rating... and they rated it G. Yeah, a movie with taglines like, "He lives! They die!", and, "The Most Horrific Dracula Film Ever Made!", got a G-rating. It's not entirely shocking, as the MPAA was brand new and still trying to decide what constituted what rating, which would lead to them giving Planet of the Apes and its first two sequels G-ratings around the same time, despite the violence and oftentimes upsetting content of those films, but you'd think that, after seeing the amount of blood and sexuality here, they would have considering giving it a PG (or GP, as it was originally known), at least. Make no mistake, this movie is quite bloody in its violence, more so than any of the previous Hammer Draculas. The movie's opening features the Carlsbad altar boy seeing blood dripping through the hole in the ceiling that the bell rope passes through, and the priest then goes up there to see a trail of blood running from the bell to the rope's hole, before finding the body of one of Dracula's victims hanging inside the bell, with bloody bite marks on her neck. You also see a fair amount of blood when the priest falls and hits his head, which leads to Dracula being revived by his blood streaming into his mouth and when Zena is killed by Dracula. Plus, while it happens right offscreen, it's pretty horrific to imagine the priest pushing her body into the fireplace, which is reinforced by the way it's filmed, as I mentioned earlier, and with how you later see that all that's left of her are her shoes, which the priest also throws in the fire. Paul's attempted staking of Dracula is very bloody, on par with the amount of blood seen when Klove revived him in Dracula: Prince of Darkness, as you see a closeup of it gushing out of him, and the same goes for Dracula's ultimate death, where he's impaled on the large cross, which features a closeup of the cross' pointed end jutting through his chest, blood streaming down his face, and his body disintegrating into nothing but splotches of it running down the cross and collecting on the ground around it.

After the memorably colorful opening credit sequence, with the movie's title appearing along with an animation of blood dripping down the screen and the credits appearing atop a background of pulsating red and purple colors, which come together to form what appear to be veins and the shape of a heart in some instances, the movie opens on an innocuous scene of a young boy riding his bicycle to the village of Carlsbad, whistling casually as he goes. Arriving, he heads inside the church. He starts to sweep up and also walks over to the bell rope, pulling it. But, not only does the bell not ring, but blood also drips down on his hands from above. He then sees that the rope is soaked in it and the palms of his hands are now covered. Looking up, he sees that blood is dripping down the rope from the hole in the ceiling it runs through and he walks up the stairs leading to the belfry to investigate. Outside, the village priest is heading to the church, when he hears the boy's horrified screams echo from inside. He heads through the door in time to see the boy come running down the stairs, scared out of his mind. The priest asks him what happened but the boy is too frightened to speak and shows him the blood on one of his hands before rushing out the door. Seeing the blood leaking down the rope, the priest himself heads up into the belfry. There, he sees that the blood is dripping from the underside of the bell itself and running across the floor to the gap the rope goes through. He walks over to the side of the bell that has a smudge of blood on the rim, when a shoe falls to the floor from within it. This startles him, causing him to fall and grab the rope, swinging the bell. The body of a young woman falls halfway out of it, still hanging from the inside, and when the priest sees the tell-tale bite marks on her neck, he prays, "Dear God, when shall we be free? When shall we be free of his evil?!" (This prologue is meant to take place during the events of Dracula: Prince of Darkness.)

A shot of the bell from outside the belfry shows the passage of time since this horrific moment, with rain transitioning to snow and then back around to warm weather, with the bell now tolling. Monsignor Ernst Mueller is seen riding towards Carlsbad to check up on how things have been going in the year since Dracula was destroyed. The priest and the altar boy are shown inside the church, the former saying mass, but when he turns around to head out, it's revealed that they're the only people in church. While the priest heads to the nearby inn, where most of the villagers are, the altar boy stays behind to put everything away. Mueller arrives in Carlsbad and heads straight for the church. When he enters, the altar boy becomes frightened and hides behind one of the pillars. Mueller, noticing that the church is otherwise empty, asks him to come out, saying he doesn't need to fear him. The boy does come out and Mueller asks him why the priest isn't there, saying mass. But, as the boy mumbles, he realizes that he's mute and, taking pity on him, asks him to instead take him to his priest. He leads Mueller to the inn and, when he walks in and sees the priest, he immediately asks him why he wasn't there. The priest says that he has already said mass, albeit to an empty church, and Mueller demands to know why the church was empty, adding that, while he knows it was once desecrated in a horrific manner, the one behind it is long dead. However, he finds that the villagers are reluctant to acknowledge Dracula's death or even to speak his name, explaining that the shadow of his castle touches the church in the evening and that they can still feel his evil in the air. Declaring that there is no evil in a church, Mueller asks to speak with the priest alone, prompting the landlord to shoo everyone out. The priest confirms that it is as everyone says it is, and Mueller asks if anyone has been up to the castle since Dracula's death. When he says no one has, including himself, Mueller offers to go up there with him the next day to ensure that the evil is gone, and the priest reluctantly agrees. Mueller, telling the priest he never doubted his resolve, asks that they meet at 5:30 the next morning.

Come morning, the priest arrives at the church to find Mueller already there, saying a silent prayer and crossing himself in front of the altar. He then takes the large cross from the altar and, seeing the priest, asks him to pray with him. After that, the two of them begin the trek up to Castle Dracula, but when they reach the steeper parts of the climb, the priest begins to lose steam and goes to the ground, while the robust, strong Mueller continues on. When they get to one spot, the priest all but collapses onto a large rock, moaning, "Dear God." Mueller tries to spur him but the priest is now too weak and frightened to go on, telling him that it will soon be dark. Despite Mueller's insisting that there's nothing to be afraid of, the priest can't muster the courage and Mueller opts to go on alone, telling him to wait there until he returns. The priest wishes him well and Mueller trudges on, the castle now in sight in the distance. It isn't long before he reaches a spot where it's looming above him and makes his way up to the gate (the unearthly filters appear for the first time here). He sits down on the steps in front and, lighting a candle and ringing a bell taken from his satchel, he reads a prayer in Latin, his voice echoing through the mountains. Dark clouds gather overhead, lightning flashes, and thunder bangs as he continues reading, but he pays it little mind. Farther down the mountain, the priest becomes frightened by the storm and tries to flee back down, but loses his balance and tumbles down, landing beside a frozen stream. His elbow falls on and cracks open a section of the ice, under which lies Dracula's frozen form. The storm continues raging as Mueller plants the large cross on the castle gates, while the blood from a head wound the priest received in his fall drips and leaks down to Dracula's now thawed face and into his mouth, causing him to slowly stir back to life. Mueller then starts back down and calls for the priest when he reaches the spot where he was. Finding his empty wine flask, he figures he must have gone on down and does the same.

Elsewhere, the priest regains consciousness and splashes some of the water on his face, only to recoil when he sees Dracula's reflection in the ripples. Looking up, he sees him standing nearby, pointing at him, and his weak will causes him to fall under his influence almost instantly. Back down in the village, Mueller returns to the inn and, when the landlord lets him in and guides him to a seat, asking for someone to give him a brandy, he tells them what he's done, ensuring them that Dracula's spirit will no longer haunt them. He then notes that the priest isn't there and the landlord, knowing what it must mean, tells him that the priest came back down but went off by himself. Mueller tells the landlord to tell the priest what he's done when he returns, confirming that he himself is heading back to Keinenberg. Back up at the castle, Dracula recoils when he sees the large cross sticking out of the castle gates and angrily demands to know who's behind it. The priest tells him it was Mueller, who is currently on his way home, riding all the way through the night.

He arrives in Keinenberg by morning. Walking into his home, he's greeted by his sister-in-law, Anna, who, seeing that he's tired, has him sit down and takes his boots off for him. She then sends him off to rest, reminding him that it's Maria's birthday and that they're going to have a dinner party that night. Noting a somewhat troubled aspect of his expression, she also tells him not to worry, saying that she's sure he put things right. He says to himself that he can only hope she's right, before going into his bedroom. Unbeknownst to him, when darkness falls that evening, Dracula has the priest remove a coffin from a cemetery in Carlsbad and dump out the corpse (said corpse has blood around the chest, suggesting it was one of Dracula's previous victims who was staked). He then motions for the priest to put it in the back of his carriage, as he climbs up into the driver's seat. Back in Keinenberg, Mueller, now well-rested, walks out into the dining room as Anna prepares for the dinner party. Noting an extra place at the table, he asks who's joining them and she tells him that it's a male friend of Maria's who works at the Cafe Johann and is planning to become an academic. Paul is then introduced as he finishes up his work down in the cafe's bakery and starts to clean up for the dinner party, while talking with Max, the landlord. On his way out, in a nice suit and carrying a bocquet of flowers, Paul gets stopped in the middle of the cafe by the flirtatious barmaid, Zena, and is then roped into playing a silly drinking game by the partying students there. He has to keep a glass of beer that's being pushed up against the ceiling by a broom handle from falling on him while he walks in a circle below, while drinking another glass of beer at the same time. He manages to go one round without spilling it, but when he tries to get someone to take his place, the others refuse to let him off so easily, as does Zena. As he pleads, Maria walks in and, seeing what he's doing, yells his name. This causes him to lose his concentration and pull the broom out from under the glass, the beer spilling on his hair and shirt. As Zena and the others tease him, he sheepishly offers Maria the bocquet, but she says that he'll have to come like that and the two of them rush out the door.

Once they're out in the street, away from the cafe, Paul, again, presents Maria with the bocquet and the two of them share a kiss. They then flirt and that leads to Paul playfully chasing Maria to the Mueller house. When they come through the door, they're both surprised to find Mueller himself there. Though Maria is happy to see him when she gets over the initial shock, Paul is obviously uncomfortable. Maria formally introduces him to both Anna and Mueller, and while they're pleasant enough, it's made obvious that they both smell the beer on him. He tries to explain what happened, but quickly realizes he's making it sound worse than it actually was and immediately offers the flowers to Anna. All four of them then have a hearty laugh about it, easing the attention. A cutaway shows Dracula and the priest traveling the countryside in the carriage, and then it goes back to the Mueller household, where they've just finished dinner. Everything goes well, until the subject of church comes up and Paul admits that he doesn't go to church, as he's an atheist. This, of course, greatly offends Mueller, and he accuses Paul of being impertinent when he reminds him that he just said that he admires honesty in a person. Realizing he's made a terrible mistake, Paul opts to leave, apologizing to Anna and Maria and heading out. Maria tries to run after him but Anna stops her. When Paul leaves, Anna comforts her upset daughter, and Mueller himself obviously feels bad for her being upset as well. At the cafe, the last customers of the night are staggering drunkenly out the door, and Zena starts cleaning up. She doesn't see the priest watching her from outside the window. He's about to come in, but ducks out of sight when Paul comes walking up the street, passing the carriage that's parked nearby. He walks through the door and immediately asks Zena for a schnapps. When she pours him one, surprised since he doesn't drink schnapps, he tells her what happened. He drinks the glass down, and coughs on it, asking how anyone could enjoy that and Zena tells him, "They don't. They just like the effect." He then asks for another one.

Later in the night, Maria, unable to sleep, sneaks out of her room through the terrace and heads along the Keinenberg rooftops towards the cafe. By this point, Paul is thoroughly drunk on schnapps, unable to get to his feet, with Zena having to help him up the stairs to his room. There, after he takes off his suit-jacket, Zena tries to help him get into bed, only for them both to collapse on it. Zena takes the opportunity to do some flirting, opening up the collar of Paul's shirt, much to his surprise, before going in for a kiss. At that very moment, Maria reaches the cafe and climbs through one of the windows on the top floor. She enters the room right after Zena finishes kissing Paul and starts unbuttoning his shirt. Seeing her there, Zena knows she missed her chance and tells her what the problem is, asking her to help put him into bed. She takes off Paul's shoes and actually goes to unbutton his pants, but Maria quickly stops her. Zena then grumbles, "Well, he's your boyfriend. You tuck him up," and walks out the door and down the stairs. Offscreen, Maria manages to get Paul's pants off and pull the covers over him. That's when Paul, who's been totally unconscious this whole time, wakes up and is surprised to see Maria there. He asks for a glass of water and after she pours him one and he drinks it, he laments have spoiled the dinner party due to his always having to tell the truth. Maria tells him it's why she loves him and the two of them share an embrace that gradually becomes more intimate. Down in the cafe, Max returns and Zena tells him that Paul is upstairs, "studying." He invites her to stay the night, given how late it is, but she opts to walk on home, noting that a walk would be good for her.

She heads out of the cafe and through the nearby woods, casually tossing a rock into a lake as she walks by, when she comes upon the priest sitting in the parked carriage, apparently asleep. Unnerved by this, Zena quickly walks on by, when the carriage begins to follow her. Noticing this, she tries to speed up in a way that's not too obvious, but when the carriage does the same, she bolts into a full-on run. The priest whips the horses, getting them to run faster and faster, even going as far as to pursue Zena off the trail and through the woods. After an extended chase, Zena falls to the ground, only for the carriage to whip past her rather than run over her. She quickly gets to her feet and runs to a denser section of the forest, but when she sees that the carriage is going on up the road, she feels as though she's safe. She staggers back the way she came, when she passes by a tree and turns to see Dracula standing there. He walks around to her backside and unties the small cloak she had around her, exposing her low-cut dress, and turns her around. He immediately entrances her, which she's more than happy to let happen, and after he removes a band from around her neck, he goes in for the bite.

Come morning, the priest returns to town in the carriage, carrying Dracula's coffin, while Maria climbs out of the cafe's window and prepares to sneak back to her bedroom, having to talk Paul out of joining her and telling him that she may sneak out to see him again that night. Zena has also returned to the cafe, now sporting two bite marks on her neck, which she quickly covers up with her hand when Paul comes down into the bakery. She tells him that she was there all night and acts defensive and evasive towards his questions, especially when he asks her what's wrong. Later in the day, the priest comes by and enters the cafe. He and Zena exchange glances and, when he sits down at a table, she ignores Max's asking her to serve him. When he asks if he wants anything, the priest asks if he has a room he could rent. Max says they don't, but Zena pipes up and says that the room next to Paul's is empty. Max tries to dissuade the priest by saying that it's very small, but he insists he doesn't care about that, and he, reluctantly, asks Paul to show him the room. He leads the priest up the stairs, while Max admonishes Zena, saying he doesn't want a priest staying there. On the way up, the priest asks Paul if he knows Monsignor Mueller, and Paul says he knows Mueller's niece better, a revelation that surprises the priest. Later, while Zena is serving some customers, she sees the priest appear in the back of the cafe and distracts Paul by asking him to get her some more glasses. When he's out of sight, Zena signals the priest and he heads down into the bakery. He walks to a door hidden behind some large bags in a corner of the room and removes them to enter it, heading down a corridor to a dank, dungeon-like room, where it's revealed he has hidden Dracula's coffin. He walks over and sits by it, only to be startled by the sound of the lid flinging open and falling to the floor. When he looks up, he sees Dracula standing behind the coffin, smiling at him menacingly.

That evening, Zena is going about her duties, when she, again, sees the priest, standing in the doorway leading to the cellar, before going back down there. Knowing what it means, she asks Paul to take over for her, making the excuse that she doesn't feel well. She eagerly makes her way down to the cellar and the priest guides her through the door leading to Dracula's newly made lair. Rushing down the stairs, she looks until she sees Dracula step out of the darkness. She goes for him, but when he appears to have an angry look on her face, she asks him what she's done. He tells her to bring Maria Mueller to him, a request that confuses and upsets her, as she exclaims, "What do you want her for?! You've got me!" Enraged at her insubordination, Dracula smacks her across the face, sending her to the floor, and angrily demands that she do as he says, sending her running back upstairs. There, she relieves Paul of covering for her, saying he can go back to his studies. She asks if Maria is coming and he merely says he hopes so. She then says that she'll call him if she does and he thanks her for being a good sport, only to be confused when she ducks away when he tries to give her a friendly kiss on the side of the face. As Dracula waits down in his lair, Zena tries to do her job while watching to see if Maria will show up. When she sees her walking past the window, she rushes from behind the counter and greets her, telling her that Paul is waiting for her down in the bakery. Maria promptly heads down there, passing by and greeting Max, as he sits at a table, having a drink with some of the patrons. Reaching the bakery, Maria is confused when she doesn't see Paul there, but then hears a noise in a small space next to the stairs. Thinking Paul is playing games, she walks over there, only to be jumped from behind by Zena, who puts a sack over her head and forces her over to and through the door leading down to Dracula's lair. Right after this, Paul comes down to the bakery and obliviously puts some coal in the fireplace.

Zena shoves Maria to the bottom of the steps into the lair and runs back up them. As Maria looks up, Dracula emerges from the darkness. Just as she screams, the film quickly cuts up to the bakery, as Paul throws some coal into the fireplace and heads back up to the cafe. Maria gets to her feet and moves away from Dracula, who slowly moves towards her, backing her into a corner. When Paul gets back upstairs, a customer asks him what he's done with Maria. Paul dismisses it as just teasing, but Max then asks the same thing and tells him that Maria went downstairs to find him. Having trapped her in the corner, Dracula proceeds to entrance Maria and goes in to bite her. But then, he hears Paul call to her from upstairs, the sound of which causes Maria to snap out of the trance. Dracula ducks back into the darkness and Maria slumps down the wall and to the floor. As Paul heads back upstairs, Zena runs to Maria and tries to get her up on her feet. Paul tells Max that Maria isn't down there but Max says he's sure he saw her go down there, before suggesting she may have gone upstairs to his room. Paul goes up there to check, while the patrons tease him about not being able to find her and suggest he spirited her up to his room himself. Again, Paul finds no sign of Maria in his room, and looks out the hallway window to see if she's sneaking across the rooftops like before, but doesn't see her out there either. He goes back down to the cellar, calls for her, and is about to go back up again after not getting a response, when he hears her cry out around the corner. He goes and sees her in front of the door in the cellar's corner, looking as if she's on the verge of collapsing. He rushes to her just as she falls against the bags of flour on the floor. Paul embraces her and she asks him not to leave her. He, in turn, asks her how she got there and she says she has no idea what's happened. Down in his lair, Dracula tells Zena that she must be punished for failing him and she, again, angrily asks why he wants Maria when he has her, ripping off the band on her neck and showing her bite marks. Dracula approaches her and gingerly puts his hands on her shoulders, but when his expression turns from placid to monstrous, Zena screams as she knows what's coming. Up in the cafe, Paul and Max are trying to calm Maria down, after she's talked about an encounter with "a man with burning eyes." Max thinks she just imagined it and, while Maria is insistent on going home before her mother finds her missing, Max and Paul talk her into staying until she's well enough to go. All the while, the priest is sitting and listening at a nearby table.

Later, the priest goes down to the lair, where Dracula is resting in his coffin, fresh blood around his mouth. The priest walks to the other side of the coffin and picks up the lid, only to be taken aback when he finds Zena's body lying under it on the floor, now sporting fangs and with splotches of blood all over her neck, mouth, and bosom. He then hears Dracula's voice rumble, "Destroy her." The priest carries Zena's body up to the bakery and, as he grimaces from the horror of his task, puts her down on the floor in front of the burning fireplace and pushes her body into it. When he does, the film quickly cuts to Maria waking up with a scream up in Paul's room. He rushes to her side, calming her and telling her that there's no one there, and pours her something to drink. He then offers to take her home, now that it's early morning, but Maria is afraid to do so, not wanting her mother to see. Downstairs, there's now nothing left of Zena except her shoes, which the priest then throws into the fire, before sobbing in horror and frustration over what he was forced to do. Back upstairs, Paul sees Maria out the window, and walks her part of the way to her home. When they do, the priest enters the room behind them and watches them disappear around the corner of a rooftop across from him. Once Paul gets her fairly close to her house, the two of them part and Maria climbs onto her terrace and sneaks through her room's window. Just as she's getting into bed, her mother comes in and immediately figures she's been with Paul. But, when she starts admonishing her, Maria faints on her bed from physical and mental exhaustion, snapping Anna out of her anger and prompting her to run to her bedside. Seeing how bad off she is, she calls for Mueller.

Following a brief scene where Max complains about Zena's having disappeared to an absentminded Paul, who then goes to give the priest a note to take to the Mueller home, and Mueller bringing Maria some soup, there comes a scene where, after evening has fallen, Maria changes into her nightgown. She wanders over to the open terrace doors and looks out, only to be slightly startled and move back into the room when she sees something. A reverse shot from inside her room reveals that Dracula is standing on her terrace. He enters and moves towards her, as she sits on and then leans back onto her bed. Once more falling under his spell, she lays back completely on the bed, putting her arm on the pillow behind her and opening her nightgown in a more suggestive manner. He leans down towards her, nuzzling against her face and lightly kissing and nipping at her in various spots, before bearing his fangs and going in and biting her neck, which she clearly enjoys the sensation of, as she rolls and closes her eyes, while also grabbing a doll on her bed tightly, before releasing it and allowing it to fall to the floor. Back at the cafe, Paul, again, stops the priest on his way up to his room, asking if he gave Maria the note. He says he did and that Maria is well, but will come to see him at the cafe as soon as she can. Paul is unable to press him for further details, as Max yells for him to help with the many customers they have. Come morning, Mueller and Anna find Maria still in her bed, now appearing to be horribly ill. Inspecting her, Mueller asks if the window was open, and as Anna goes to close it, he moves back the hair around her neck and sees two bite marks. Not showing them to Anna, Mueller suggests they wait to see how she is the next day before sending for the doctor.

The evening, while Paul sits up in his room, studying (or trying to, as he can't stop thinking about Maria), Dracula has again emerged from his coffin and is heading towards the Mueller home. There, Anna tells Mueller, who's at his desk, reading through various books, that she closed the veranda window, as he asked, and then heads up to bed. Outside, on a nearby rooftop, Dracula waits and telepathically communicates with Maria to open the window. She does, and he enters her bedroom again, as she sits on the edge of the bed, waiting for him, and exposes her neck, to which he smiles evilly. He reaches for her, when Mueller bursts into the room. Seeing that he's brandishing a crucifix, Dracula recoils, covering his eyes, and bursts through the window, fleeing onto the rooftops. Mueller chases after him, following his trail, and spots him rounding a corner up ahead. He makes his way over there, but when he himself rounds the corner, he's shocked to see the Carlsbad priest standing there. No sooner does he process it, than the priest smashes a large section of shingling over his head, flooring him instantly. After the priest has gone, Mueller staggers to his feet and manages to make his way back to the terrace. He calls for Anna, who's comforting Maria, and she helps him climb over the railing. Later, after having bandaged his head and dabbing his face with a wet washcloth, Mueller tells Anna to go and fetch Paul.

The next evening, while Maria is up in her room, Mueller talks with Paul downstairs, telling him of Dracula and that Maria must not be left alone at night. He also gives him one of the books he was studying, saying that it contains various means of repelling a vampire. Paul swears that he will do what Mueller has asked of him, and Mueller adds, "You should swear to almighty God, but you have denied yourself this." Again promising Mueller, Paul rushes back to the cafe to fetch his things, as Mueller tells him, "Come back quickly. There is much to do before dark." At the cafe, Paul quickly grabs his satchel and rushes back downstairs, hurriedly telling Max to keep his job open for him and that he'll explain what's going on later. He then grabs the priest, who's sitting at a table, drinking, and pulls him along with him, telling him he needs his help. When the two of them return to the Mueller home, Mueller, his vision blurry, sees that someone else is with Paul, and when his vision clears to where he sees it's the priest, the shock of it causes his body to give out and dies right then and there. Anna runs to him and cries over him, while Paul, not knowing exactly what happened, takes the priest upstairs to Maria's room. There, he helps set up the protection against Dracula, reading to Paul the directions found in the book Mueller gave to him, which include putting garlic flowers on either side of Maria's head and smearing the liquid from a garlic clove around any opening in the wall. Anna then places a small crucifix on Maria's blouse, telling Paul that Mueller meant to give it to her as a birthday present. Paul sends Anna to bed. The sun is beginning to set, and the priest, knowing that Dracula will rise soon, stays by Maria's bedside. Paul tells him to go and rest and he reluctantly agrees, but behind Paul's back, he grabs a candlestick from a dresser and smashes him in the head, knocking him unconscious. That done, he removes the garlic flowers and smashes open the window leading to the veranda. But, when he goes to remove the crucifix, he finds he can't bring himself to do it, and breaks down crying. Paul regains consciousness and confronts the priest, who tells him that Dracula was willing him to do it. Paul then grabs the crucifix, puts it to his face, and tells him, "Now, I'm willing you. Do you understand?" He demands the priest tell him where Dracula is and take him there.

In the next scene, the priest leads Paul down into the room where Dracula's coffin lies. He removes the lid, revealing Dracula's sleeping form, and Paul prepares to impale him using the large stake he's brandishing. The priest implores him to do it immediately, before Dracula wakes, and Paul, after a bit of hesitation, stabs the stake right into his chest. Dracula awakens with a yell, gasping and couching as he tries to pull the stake out of his chest. Sickened at the grisly sight, Paul turns away but the priest grabs him, imploring him to pray or Dracula won't die. Paul tells him he can't and yells, "You pray! You're a priest! You pray! You pray!" Dracula rises up in the coffin, still struggling with the stake, and yanks it out of his chest. Spotting Paul, he throws the stake at him, but he misses, as the stake clangs against the wall to Paul's right. Paul rushes upstairs into the bakery, grabs a shovel, and goes for the fireplace. Dracula pursues him up there and Paul flings burning coals at him. Dracula shields himself with his cape and rushes up the stairs. Paul gives chase and, finding that he went out a window at the top of the stairs, climbs out and chases him along the rooftops. Atop one, Dracula wills Maria to come join him. Seeing this, Paul yells for Maria to get away and charges at Dracula, who grabs him by the throat and tosses him down another roof, which he tumbles along until he smacks into the side of the chimney. Turning his attention back to Maria, he comes around her and intones, "Now my revenge is complete," before motioning her to follow him.

Paul manages to stagger back to the cafe, where he's found by Max, who attempts to help him. In a daze, Paul tells him that Maria is in danger. A cutaway shows that she's in the back of Dracula's carriage, caressing his coffin, as the priest prepares to climb into the driver's seat. Once he's recovered, Paul pursues the carriage on horseback, though it's obvious he's lost the trail. Regardless, he still manages to find his way to Carlsbad and enters the inn. Though the landlord greets him in a friendly manner, his expression sours when Paul mentions Castle Dracula and asks how to get there. The villagers are confused as to why he would want to go there, especially since they believe Dracula is now dead, but he warns them that he's on his way there. The landlord angrily grabs Paul by his collar, accusing him of bringing Dracula back to them, when they hear the sound of his carriage passing by outside. The mute altar boy comes through the door, terrified, and the landlord pushes him out of the way and bars the door. He listens until the carriage passes, when Paul tries to run out the door. The landlord doesn't allow him, advising him to go back to where he came, and when he asks the villagers if someone will show him the way to the castle, they all ignore him, making it clear that there's no help for him there, with one man telling him that no one would show him the way even in the daytime. He, again, asks for someone to merely point him in the right direction, and the altar boy motions that he will. Paul attempts to leave with him but the landlord stops him, saying they're tired of outsiders interfering in their lives and that if they leave Dracula alone, he may leave them alone. He then shoves Paul into the arms of one of the villagers, who restrains him, and tells the man to lock him up. But Paul manages to fling the man off him, grab and throw the landlord to floor when he tries to attack him, remove the bar on the door, and shove a table at the landlord when he comes at him again. He motions for the altar boy to run out the door and he follows him. The landlord stops the one man from chasing after Paul, saying he'll be sorry for what he's about to do.

Now in the driver's seat of the carriage, Dracula stops at a crossroads near a forest and disembarks, along with Maria, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to him, and the priest. While Dracula and Maria make their way through the woods, the priest drives away in the carriage. The rough terrain of the woods and the mountainside leading up to the castle is really hard on Maria's bare feet, so Dracula carries her bridal style the rest of the way. When they reach the castle gates, where the cross is still sticking out, Dracula puts Maria down and orders her, "Get that thing out of my sights!" He shoves her towards it, causing her to fall at the steps, yelling, "Throw it away!" Maria does as she's told, removing the cross from the gates and throwing it over the edge. It tumbles down the side of the mountain and sticks in the ground below. Dracula prepares to finally enter his castle, when Paul shows up and rushes to Maria's aid. His calling to her snaps her out of her entrancement and she collapses to the ground. He rushes to her aid, but Dracula grabs him on the back of his neck and throws him towards the edge. Before Paul has a chance to defend himself, Dracula rushes him and grabs onto him, attempting to shove him over the railing. But in their struggle, Dracula himself is sent over the edge, along with Paul. Paul manages to grab onto a branch sticking out of the cliff-face, but Dracula keeps falling and is impaled on the sharp point of the cross. While Paul climbs back up, Dracula struggles on the cross, growling and gasping. The priest appears on a nearby ledge and Dracula motions for him to help him, but the priest, resisting his influence, gets down on his knees and begins to pray. As he does, Dracula starts to lose his strength, his struggling becoming less violent, while Paul is able to climb back up to Maria. Blood drips down Dracula's face and he falls back, the cross sticking back into the ground as he stops struggling completely. Having finished the prayer, the priest collapses on the ledge, as Dracula lies dead on the cross. Up in front of the castle gates, Paul and Maria embrace and kiss, and when they look down, they see that Dracula's body has disintegrated into nothing but splotches of blood dripping down the cross and pooling around its base. Paul, having now found his faith, makes the sign of the cross in front of himself, and continues to embrace Maria. The film ends on a final shot of the cross and Dracula's cape, which collapsed around it.

Rather than recreate his original Dracula theme a third time, James Bernard instead came up with a completely original motif, which, as before, is heard in all its glory during the opening credits. It's a very memorable title theme, building gradually and menacingly until the movie's title comes up, and then launching into the distinctive motif of, "Dun-dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun-dun, dun-dun," which is then reconfigured and re-played in various ways, with blasting horns accompanied by pounding drums. The main section of the credits transitions to a less bombastic, more low key string section, but when the credits reach their end, that motif returns in full force again. Said motif, as you might expect, is often used whenever Dracula appears or his presence is felt, and it lends him an uncanny air of horrific power. Dracula's seduction scenes of Zena and Maria are scored with a very suggestive string theme that builds and builds in intensity until Dracula goes in for the bite. The first scene with Maria is especially suggestive, starting as light and soft via a flute, transitioning into a low version of his motif, and then going into this explosive string moment with accompanying cymbals that does come off as orgasmic, before going into that building motif that was first introduced with Zena. The chase music and the music for the action scenes come off as bit too hyperbolic and cartoonish for my tastes, but I do like the lovely music that signifies good triumphing over evil, with ringing bells and a very soft horn theme that grows ever louder and triumphant at the end of the closing credits, making for a nice counterbalance to the sinister and horrific theme that opened the movie.

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave is a movie that makes up for what it lacks in originality with plenty of style, with director Freddie Francis making it one of the most visually stunning and technically sophisticated movies of Hammer's later period. It also doesn't hurt that the cast has a number of memorable and likable characters, chief among them Monsignor Mueller and Paul, nice instances of atmosphere, plenty of blood, gore, and sexuality for those who want it, and another good music score by James Bernard. But, as enjoyable as it is, and while Christopher Lee doesn't appear to be half-assing it, despite his growing disinterest in the series at this point, there's no denying that the story isn't much to write home about, there are a fair amount of cons to the film's depiction of Dracula, and while the production design is up to Hammer's standards, there aren't any that stand out as being particularly breathtaking, with the best ones, Dracula's lair beneath the cafe and the Keinenberg rooftops, being just kind of so-so. I do recommend it but only for sheer entertainment purposes and nothing more profound.