Movies That Suck/Franchises: Hammer's Dracula Series. Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

I'm positive this was the last of the Hammer Draculas I saw, as I'd seen the following film, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, very early on due to its public domain status and, after buying Horror of Dracula, The Brides of Dracula, and Taste the Blood of Dracula on DVD at video stores in Chattanooga, I ordered the rest of the series off the internet, with this and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave being the only ones whose official releases I could get for a decent price. Like Taste the Blood, I went into Dracula A.D. 1972 with few preconceived notions other than that it was the first in the series to move to a modern setting (which I knew Christopher Lee abhorred), it featured a very funky soundtrack, and it was first one since Brides to feature Peter Cushing. Upon watching it, that soundtrack stuck with me, but little else did, and as you can tell, my initial low opinion of this movie has not changed. It actually has some fairly heavyweight admirers, like Tim Burton and popular author and critic Kim Newman, but for me, this is and the next film represent the series' absolute nadir. However, while Satanic Rites is not a good movie either, at least there's a bit of campy fun to be had with it because of how utterly ridiculous its story is; save for that aforementioned soundtrack and a handful of good performances, there's little fun to be had here, even with the welcome return of Cushing as Van Helsing (even if, technically, he's not the good doctor from the first two films). There's nothing creative or imaginative about the story, with the filmmakers going through the trouble of transplanting Dracula to modern day only to, once again, give Christopher Lee almost nothing to do, and sadly, the same goes for Cushing, with Van Helsing and Dracula's final confrontation being very anticlimactic. Moreover, the low budget is quite apparent, the "groovy" early 70's London setting is charming but it only does so much, and, above everything else, the whole thing is just a bore.

London, 1872. Having tracked him from the Carpathian Mountains, Lawrence Van Helsing battles Count Dracula to the death on a coach as it speeds through Hyde Park. Both of them are fatally injured when the coach crashes but Van Helsing manages to effectively stake Dracula when he becomes impaled on the spoke of one of the wheels before dying. However, a disciple of Dracula arrives on the scene, gathers up some of the ashes the Count disintegrates into, places them in a vial, and when Van Helsing is laid to rest at St. Bartolph's Church, he buries some of the ashes in the same churchyard, sealing it with a broken wheel spoke. A century later, in 1972, a group of hippie-like teenagers have to flee the scene of a party they crash after the cops are called, and meet up the next day at the Cavern, a coffee bar in downtown London. One of the group, a mysterious newcomer named Johnny Alucard, suggests that, for some new kicks, they perform a black mass that night at St. Bartolph's, which is now condemned. None of them take it particularly seriously, thinking the whole thing will be little more than a joke, but decide to go along with it. The one really reluctant party is Jessica Van Helsing, the granddaughter of Lorrimer Van Helsing, an expert on the occult, but she's talked into joining them. That night, she and her boyfriend, Bob, arrive at St. Bartolph's, which Jessica is disturbed to learn is her great, great grandfather's final resting place, as well as that it's one hundred years to the day of his death. Regardless, they take part in the ceremony, which consists of a tape of eerie sounds and music and Johnny melodramatically reciting incantations to summon demonic beings. He also asks for Jessica to participate in a baptism of blood, but when she hesitates, another member of the group, Laura Bellows, eagerly agrees to it. Johnny then mixes his own blood with a vial of ashes in a chalice, causing the mixture to liquefy into more blood that overflows onto Laura. The group panics and flees, leaving Laura behind with Johnny, who then removes the century-old stake from the ground, reviving Dracula, who makes Laura his first victim. Johnny meets up with the gang again the next day, telling them that what happened was an elaborate prank, one that Laura was in on, and that she's gone off to see her parents. Unbeknownst to them, her mutilated body is discovered on the grounds of St. Bartolph's, and when she's identified and Jessica is cited as having been one of her friends, Inspector Murray of Scotland Yard decides to question her and call in Van Helsing for consultation. Hearing the details, Van Helsing believes it to be an act of vampirism, and is horrified to learn Jessica is linked to it. Little does he know that, out of revenge for his grandfather having originally destroyed him, Dracula plans to make Jessica his vampire bride, with the help of Johnny, a descendant of his disciple.

Hammer did learn one thing from the failure of Scars of Dracula: they couldn't keep doing the same thing over and over again, and needed to take more risks if this franchise was to survive (they also took the same approach to all of their horror films at the time, which is why, during this period, you get unusual films like Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, among others). Therefore, they decided to go with another reboot, one which was, initially, meant to be set in India, under the title of Dracula: High Priest of the Vampires, and was scripted by Anthony Hinds, who was still providing screenplays for Hammer, despite no longer being involved with the company on an executive level. But, the story proved too expensive for the cash-strapped studio, and after the success of AIP's modern-day set Count Yorga movies, Warner Bros. commissioned Hammer to do the same with Dracula. Like Christopher Lee, Hinds absolutely hated this idea, so Hammer had to bring in another writer, Don Houghton, to pen what would eventually become Dracula A.D. 1972. Though, as we'll get into, Houghton's ideas were hardly original, save for the new modern setting.

Initially, Hammer tried to get television director Paul Annett, who would go on to do the Amicus werewolf movie, The Beast Must Die, to make Dracula A.D. 1972 his feature debut, but when that didn't work out, they ultimately went with Alan Gibson, a Canadian-born filmmaker who was also active in British television starting in the early 1960's. Significantly, he'd directed an episode of Hammer's anthology series, Journey to the Unknown, in 1968, and this episode would be joined with another, directed by Roy Ward Baker, for the 1971 TV movie, Journey to Midnight. His first feature film, the 1970 thriller Crescendo, was for Hammer, and that same year, he directed another horror-thriller called Goodbye Gemini. This wouldn't be his last film for Hammer, or with Dracula, for that matter, as the studio would bring him back to direct The Satanic Rites of Dracula, which is a direct sequel to this.

As tied together as they are in the public consciousness, it's surprising to know that the 1958 Dracula, this movie, and The Satanic Rites of Dracula are the only three films in which Peter Cushing's Van Helsing faces off with Christopher Lee's Count. What's more, the Van Helsing whom Dracula battles in the opening here is not the same character he faced in that original movie, as that was set in 1885, whereas this begins in 1872, and, moreover, it's this Van Helsing's descendant whom Dracula battles both her and in Satanic Rites. Whatever the case, it is great to see Cushing in a Hammer Dracula film for the first time in twelve years and, as always, he does a good job, but what's disappointing is that his return amounts to a big missed opportunity, as his role of Lorrimer Van Helsing isn't much bigger than Lee's. The film mainly focuses on his granddaughter, Jessica, her group of friends, and how Johnny Alucard uses them to resurrect Dracula, with Van Helsing himself only becoming involved in the proceedings when Scotland Yard comes to him for help in the murder of Laura Bellows, which Inspector Murray believes could be a cult murder. Initially, Van Helsing doesn't think there's any connection, but when he's told that the body was drained of blood, he suspects vampirism, knowing it's a real thing due to his grandfather having died while battling Dracula and also because he gathered real proof of the existence of vampires. His interest and concern over the case increases exponentially when he learns of Jessica's link to it, with her having known Laura, and when he and the police confront her and tell her of Laura's death, she tells them of the black mass she and her friends took part in. Later, when she tells him of Johnny Alucard and how he joined the group out of the blue just recently, Van Helsing figures out that his last name is "Dracula" spelled backwards, deducing that he's likely the Count's disciple. Between that, and Jessica having nightmares about what's happened, Van Helsing prepares to fight the Count, getting some holy water from a church, arming himself a silver knife and a Bible, and gives Jessica a crucifix protection. He next goes to see Murray again at his office at Scotland Yard, where he learns of two more murders and guesses correctly that they involved bite marks on the neck. He then tells him of a legend that Dracula's remains were possibly buried in an unsanctified part of the churchyard at St. Bartolph's, and that he might have been resurrected. He also tells him of the link to Johnny Alucard, of the various ways to fight off vampires, and how they work and spread their curse. With no other recourse, Murray decides to allow Van Helsing to help in the case and he, in turn, advises him to remove the police presence at St. Bartolph's and to find Alucard.

Van Helsing does a little investigating of his own, finding the opening in the fence around St. Bartolph's that the kids use to enter the grounds, only to then check in at home and learn that Jessica left with Bob to go to the Cavern. He rushes to the bar, which has been closed down by the police due to suspected drug activity, and sneaks inside, finding Jessica's crucifix on the floor. Further panicked, he nearly gets run over by a car while rushing across the street and is stopped by another friend of Jessica's, Anna, who tells him that she knows where Johnny Alucard lives. Getting the address, Van Helsing rushes to Johnny's home and confronts the young vampire, battling him as the sun rises. Johnny is ultimately destroyed in the ensuing battle, ever refusing to tell Van Helsing where Jessica is, saying he'll never find her. Following the battle, as Van Helsing get treatment for a bad knife wound he received, Murray arrives and he tells him that Dracula now has Jessica in his clutches and plans to get his revenge against Lawrence Van Helsing's family by making her into a vampire. He also asks for the police to give him one hour after nightfall to face Dracula alone at St. Bartolph's, and uses the time before sunset to prepare, finding Jessica there, entranced, and putting the crucifix back around her neck, before creating a booby trap in the churchyard in the form of a pit with upright stakes lining the bottom. Once the sun goes down and Dracula rises, Van Helsing confronts him, but it's a disappointing "fight," to say the least. All that happens is Dracula pursues him up to the balcony, tosses him around a bit, Van Helsing stabs Dracula with a silver knife, he falls over the balcony, only to have the entranced Jessica remove the knife, and Van Helsing then lures him out to the trap in the churchyard, flinging holy water at him to make him fall onto the stakes, ultimately using a shovel to force the stakes all the way through him.

What's really distressing about Peter Cushing in this movie is the way he looks. Though he wasn't even sixty yet at this point, and he handles himself well both in the opening and final confrontations with Dracula, he looks like he's in his 70's, at least, with very grayed hair and being even thinner than he usually was (seriously, you can virtually see his skull right beneath his skin). He looks so old, in fact, that they had to make Jessica his granddaughter rather than simply his daughter, as was initially the plan (however, Jessica still refers to Lawrence Van Helsing as her "great grandfather" when he should be her "great, great grandfather"). The reason for why he looks so bad is because of how utterly devastated he was by the death of his wife, Helen, the year before. A portrait of her is actually seen on Van Helsing's desk at one point, and as I mentioned in my review of Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, the movie Cushing had to quit in order to care for his ailing wife, while he would continue to work for a number of years yet, he would never recover from her loss and would always say that he was just biding time until he could be with her again, which is really sad.

The term "same shit, different day" is the best way to describe Christopher Lee's sixth portrayal of Count Dracula for Hammer, as while he may now be in the 20th century, he still has little significant to say or do. Not only is this a comedown from the generous amount of screentime and dialogue he had in Scars of Dracula but, when I think about it, this could be Lee's least effective time in the role, period. At least in The Satanic Rites of Dracula, Dracula is doing stuff, even if it is largely behind the scenes; here, once he's resurrected, he never leaves the grounds of St. Bartolph's, but rather has Johnny Alucard do his dirty work by bringing Jessica Van Helsing to him... eventually, anyway. Johnny tries to satiate Dracula by instead allowing him to feed on two other women but the Count quickly grows impatient with this, as well as with Johnny's desire to be given the power of vampirism. Like before, Dracula sees his disciples as nothing more than disposal commodities and has no reverence for Johnny even at the moment he's resurrected, telling him it came to pass through his own will, and he puts Johnny in his place when he demands he give him the power. This is Lee's best moment in the film by far, as he retorts, "You demand?! I have returned to destroy the house of Van Helsing forever, the old through the young. You, and your line, have been chosen." It's so awesome, as Dracula basically tells him, "Bitch, you don't demand anything of me!", and the same goes for the moment where he confronts Van Helsing at the end, proclaiming, "You would play your brains against mine. Against me, who has commanded nations?", a variation of a line from the original Bram Stoker novel, which I'm sure was something Lee insisted on. But those are the only truly great moments about Dracula as, again, the only deaths he causes are those of the people Johnny brings to him (seriously, I will never get why Hammer always went through the trouble of negotiating with the increasingly reluctant and difficult Lee, only to do nothing with him), and his death at the end is truly anticlimactic and lame, coming as close to an actual staking as he would ever get, only in a more elaborate and bloody manner.

After a pretty faithful depiction of the way vampires, particularly Dracula himself, are described in the original novel in the previous film, we're now back to the status quo Hammer had created for itself with the original film: no bats, sunlight is shown being deadly to them (not that it wasn't beforehand but Johnny Alucard's death is the first one by sunlight we've seen in this series since Dracula's own in the first movie), and the most efficient way to kill them is through staking, an exaggerated version of which Dracula dies by in both the opening and ending. They also bring back the notion of clear, running water being deadly, as this is adds to Johnny's death, and for the first time in the series, silver is also mentioned as being effective, specifically a silver knife, as Van Helsing tells Inspector Murray in one scene that silver bullets are "impractical" (remember that when we get to the next movie). And finally, apparently garlic doesn't work anymore, as Van Helsing says it's not entirely reliable, which lines up with Father Sandor telling the villagers in Dracula: Prince of Darkness that the garlic they have hanging up in the pub wouldn't keep the "boogeyman" out.

Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beacham) is the ostensible lead of the movie but, as is so often the case, she's not a particularly interesting character and is also not that proactive in the plot. She's characterized as being somewhat rebellious towards her grandfather, as she doesn't take his studies of the occult and her family's ties with it seriously, and she's also reluctant to introduce her gang of friends to him, but on the whole, you can tell she does have a lot of affection for him. Plus, despite being part of a rather rowdy crowd that tends to get in trouble, Jessica is shown to be a good girl for the most part, as she's not too thrilled about the idea of taking part in a black mass, is put off when she sees her great, great grandfather's (I'm going to continue to correct that error myself) grave at St. Bartolph's, and even during the mass, she's reluctant to join Johnny Alucard in a baptism of blood. When Laura Bellows substitutes for her, only for it to get out of control when the blood is poured all over her, Jessica tries to help her but her boyfriend, Bob, forces her to leave when everyone else panics and runs off. Jessica remains worried about Laura when Bob takes her home, is doubly so when she doesn't join them at the Cavern the next day, and wonders if what happened the night before really was all a hoax, as Johnny claims it was, and if Laura really went to visit her parents, as he tells them. She does take Bob's advice and decides to forget about it, until she comes home to find the police speaking with her grandfather. When questioned about what happened the night before, Jessica is initially evasive, but when she learns of Laura's body having been found, she breaks down and admits everything, telling Inspector Murray that the rest of the gang are currently hanging out at Joe Mitchum's place. After the police leave, Jessica tries to call her friends and warn them, but her grandfather stops her, and when he asks her about Johnny, she tells him of how he just joined the group out of nowhere not too long before. Jessica has a horrible nightmare when she goes to bed, apparently experiencing Dracula's killing of Gaynor in her sleep, and afterward, Van Helsing puts a crucifix around her neck. But, it's not enough to protect her, as while her grandfather is out the next evening, Bob shows up and tells Jessica to come with him to the Cavern, saying that Johnny has been arrested there and the police wants everyone's statement. Arriving there with him, Jessica learns too late that Bob has been turned into a vampire by Johnny, and they remove her cross, despite the pain it causes, and take her to Dracula. During the climax, Jessica is entranced and under Dracula's control, and he has her remove the silver knife that Van Helsing manages to stick him with during their fight. But, when Dracula is staked in the pit, Jessica is released from his control, ashamed of what she did under his control, but her grandfather forgives her and takes her home.

The most memorable character for me is Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame), mainly because of how over-the-top he can get and yet, still come off as a smooth operator when he wants to be. A mysterious newcomer to Jessica Van Helsing's group of friends, one who inserted himself and became the leader when they met him at a party, Johnny proposes a new experience, something "way, way out," namely a literal date with the devil, i.e. a black mass. He even proposes the place, St. Bartolph's, given how it's condemned and, therefore, desanctified. His incantation during the black mass is like a more over-the-top, groovy 70's version of Lord Courtley's in Taste the Blood of Dracula, as he has Joe Mitchum turn on this tape of spooky sounds and music, and as the kids sit in "the devil's circle," swaying back and forth, he intones, "Dig the music, kids! Let it flow into you! Relax! Give yourself up to it. That's it! That's it! Now you've got it together. That's it! Let it go! Let it go. Feel it happening, like a great ocean gathering you up, like the silken shrouds of death." I can't do justice in print to just how emphatic and downright orgasmic he gets while he saying this stuff, nor can I the weird arm gesture he makes when he starts invoking a series of demonic beings, with his left arm sticking straight up and his right out, and how he starts literally yelling their names at the top of his lungs, leading into the baptism of blood with Laura Bellows and, ultimately, Count Dracula's resurrection. This, of course, was Johnny's aim all along, as he's a descendant of the disciple who collected Dracula's ashes following his death at the hands of Lawrence Van Helsing and buried them in a corner of the St. Bartolph's churchyard. Though, when he resurrects his master, Johnny doesn't get much of a warm reception, as Dracula merely says that it was he who willed him to do this, and he's also not immediately granted the power of vampirism, which he thought he would get. He tries to bring Jessica to Dracula the next day, when he meets the group at the Cavern, telling them that what they saw the night before was a hoax, one the missing Laura was in on, and tries to make it up by offering Jessica some tickets to a concert at Albert Hall, but she opts to go out with Bob instead. However, another woman in the group, Gaynor, takes him up on his offer and he takes her back to his place "for a bite."

Johnny, again, manages to come off as real smooth and cool when he and Gaynor head back to his place, as he puts on some nice music and, noting that she's looking in the direction of his bedroom, comments, "Ah! Inner sanctum, baby. Food, music, wine, now. Playtime, later." As evil as he is, I'd give anything to have half of this guy's moves. Later, the two of them smoke weed and make out, and he then takes her to St. Bartolph's in a stupor, only for Dracula to angrily tell him that she isn't the one he desires and to add that, despite what Johnny may think, he promised him nothing. After Dracula drains Gaynor of blood anyway, Johnny makes the mistake of demanding to be given the power of vampirism, after which Dracula puts him in his place. But, when Johnny says it would be easier for him to accomplish his task if he were given the power, Dracula obliges and bites him. After he gets rid of Gaynor's body, he satisfies his newfound bloodlust with Marjorie Baines, a woman he spots at a laundromat. The next night, he turns Bob when he shows up at the now closed down Cavern, and has him bring Jessica there so the two of them can overpower and take her to Dracula. Johnny even goes as far as to remove the crucifix from around Jessica's neck, despite the pain it causes him, and after taking her to Dracula, prepares for the ensuing ritual. But, as he's gearing up for it, Lorrimer Van Helsing comes calling, demanding to know where Jessica is. Johnny, at first, denies knowing what he's talking about, but it soon becomes clear there's no reason for the charade and so, he mocks Van Helsing by saying what's about to happen is a wedding, saying, "Aren't you gonna give the bride away?!" The two of them get into a fight, Johnny revealing his now vampiric nature, which Van Helsing uses against him, first by barring him from his coffin by tossing a Bible wrapped in a crucifix in it and then by using the rising sun against him. Stupidly, Johnny ends up killing himself. Van Helsing forces him upstairs using the sunlight reflecting off a mirror, he stumbles into the bathroom, accidentally pulls the blinds open on the skylight, and then falls into the bathtub, turning on the water as he does, all while he screams like a girl. But, he's defiant to the end, refusing to tell Van Helsing where Jessica is even as he begs him to turn the water off.

The rest of the group are kind of hit and miss in regards to how memorable they are, with one of the lesser ones being Jessica's boyfriend, Bob (Philip Miller). Coming off as little more than a decent guy, one who, like Jessica, is initially reluctant to take part in Johnny Alucard's black mass, he is convinced to go along with it, as he comes to believe there won't be anything serious about it. He does, however, suggest that Jessica try to get some background on the occult from her grandfather but she refuses. When they arrive at St. Bartolph's that night, Bob is really pissed when he sees that Jessica's great, great grandfather is buried there, confronting and accusing Johnny of having a sick sense of humor, though Jessica tells him to forget it and that it's fine. And when the blood baptism goes haywire, Bob drags Jessica off the grounds and into his car, despite her wanting to help the panicking Laura. Before letting her off at her home, Bob writes off what they witnessed as Johnny going too far with a prank and Laura being strung out on drugs, telling her that, the next day, they'll all meet up at the Cavern like always and she'll see everything's alright. The next day, when Johnny comes in with no sign of Laura, Bob, eventually, buys his saying what happened was a prank and that Laura has gone to see her parents, assuring Jessica of this when she remains skeptical, encouraging her to forget about what happened. But, when he takes her home that night and they see the police are there, talking with her grandfather, Bob offers to accompany her inside but Jessica opts to go in without him. The following night, when he finds the Cavern has been closed down, with a police guard out in front, Bob sneaks in through the back when he sees Johnny's car parked nearby and finds him waiting for him. Johnny turns him into a vampire offscreen and Bob, in turn, goes to Jessica, telling her that Johnny has been arrested at the Cavern and that the police wants to take everyone else's statements there. He gets her to come with him, revealing his new vampiric nature on they're inside and he and Johnny corner her. Jessica faints in the ensuing struggle and, after Johnny removes the crucifix, Bob tries to bite her, but Johnny stops him, saying she's for Dracula, not them. During the climax, when Lorrimer Van Helsing arrives at St. Bartolph's to battle Dracula, he finds that he killed Bob offscreen at some point.

Caroline Monroe has a small role in the first act as one of the looser and more out there members of the group, Laura Bellows, whom you later learn had been arrested before for drug possession. She's the one who's most interested in Johnny Alucard, trying to dance with him at the party where the characters are first introduced, and is up for his proposed black mass. She's also the one who presses the reluctant Jessica into taking part, telling her it may be good for a laugh. Predictably, she really gets into it when the kids take drugs and start swaying to the music during the mass, and when Jessica is reluctant to join Johnny in the baptism by blood, Laura eagerly jumps and yells for him to do it with her. Johnny complies and Laura is more than willing to let him lay her down on the altar and hold a chalice he pours Dracula's ashes into, before mixing his blood with it. But, when the blood overflows from the chalice and spills onto her chest, Laura panics and starts screaming for help, as the others run off. When Dracula is resurrected shortly afterward, he goes into the church and drains Laura of blood, which she clearly seems to enjoy. The next day, while the others are talking with Johnny at the Cavern and he tells them Laura went off to see her parents, her body is found by some kids playing near St. Bartolph's, bringing Scotland Yard into the story and, by extension, Jessica's grandfather.

Though he disappears from the story after the halfway point, Joe Mitchum (William Ellis) is memorable for the very hippie-like shroud he wears and for a handful of memorable lines and moments he has during the first act. When he and the others are introduced at the beginning after they've crashed a party, he irritates the woman of the house, "agreeing" with her statement of, "Outrageous! Outrageous!", by retorting, "Shocking! Shocking!", and when she describes the teenagers as "animals," he responds, "You're quite right, love. They are animals. And they're worse than animals. They're antisocials." He also tells her, "You know why I like you? Because you remind me of my father," prompting her to fling her drink in his face. The next day, when Johnny Alucard suggests the black mass, and everyone else mostly laughs it off, Joe comments, "Anybody down there wish to talk to anybody up here? Ooh, it's for you, Sapphire," motioning towards Gaynor. He's advised by Johnny not to make fun of it if he hasn't tried it, and when he agrees to it, he declares, "But, if we do get to summon up the big daddy with the horns and the tail, he gets to bring his own liquor, his own bird, and his own pot." And when Jessica and Bob first arrive at St. Bartolph's, he scares them by jumping out at them with a skeleton mask and hood, telling Bob not to get his "knickers in a twist" when he becomes angry about it, and quickly apologizes when he realizes they don't find his joke funny, especially since they just learned the tombstone there is Lawrence Van Helsing's. Like I said, he's not seen again after the scene in the Cavern where Johnny tells them everything they saw at the black mass was a gag, but later, Jessica tells Inspector Murray that she knows most of the gang are over at Joe's place, where they're all detained, as, not surprisingly, there were drugs found there.

None of the other members of the group are that memorable. Gaynor (Marsha Hunt) is only noteworthy because she's the only black person among them and also because, even though she says the mass caused her to have some awful nightmares, she's excited enough by the prospect of tickets to a jazz recital at the Albert Hall that she opts to go with Johnny when Jessica turns him down. Before the concert, she goes with him to his home, where he wines and dines her, until she's so out of it she can barely walk. He then takes her to Dracula, who feeds on her even though she's not Jessica Van Helsing, and afterward, Johnny dumps her body in Hyde Park, where she's found the next day. And finally, there's Greg (Michael Kitchen) and Anna (Janet Key), neither of whom do anything that significant. Greg only has a few lines and, the day after the black mass, believes they should have gone back for Laura and is also the most skeptical about whether the blood they saw was fake, as Johnny claims. In a similar vein, Anna's only importance to the plot is that, during the third act, she's the one who nearly runs into Van Helsing and then tells him that, despite what she told the police, she has been to Johnny's apartment and gives him the address.

Though he doesn't come into the film until the second act, Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) is a fairly significant character in that, when Laura Bellows' body is discovered, and he learns she's connected to Jessica Van Helsing, whose grandfather he knows of because he helped Scotland Yard with a blackmail case that involved witchcraft, he decides to consult with him about the murder, feeling it may have its origin in a satanic cult. Initially, Van Helsing doesn't see any such connection, but when Murray tells him how Laura's body was totally drained of blood, he puts forth the theory that she may have been a victim of vampirism. Though he doesn't dismiss it outright, Murray doesn't quite know what to make of Van Helsing's theory, and when Jessica comes home, he speaks with her, telling her of Laura's death and getting from her the group's current whereabouts. After detaining and questioning them at Joe Mitchum's place, Murray meets with Van Helsing again at his office and tells him of the discovery of two more bodies: Gaynor, another of Jessica's friends, and a woman named Marjorie Baines. He also admits he has no clue what he's dealing with, as this is far outside the scope of his knowledge, and Van Helsing, in turn, tells him that Dracula was in London a century before and may have been resurrected, as well as that the key to everything is Johnny Alucard. The professor also tells him how vampires operate and how to battle them. As crazy as it all sounds to him, Murray agrees to officially say the murders were the work of a crazed maniac while, at the same time, taking Van Helsing's advice of removing the police presence at St. Bartolph's and locating Johnny. Murray does eventually find Johnny's place but, by that point, he and Van Helsing have already had their fateful encounter, which has left Johnny dead. Even though Van Helsing tells him Dracula now has Jessica, Murray is advised to keep away from St. Bartolph's and to give him an hour there by himself that evening. Murray agrees to follow up on other leads in the meantime and is never seen again. Murray, however, does appear again in The Satanic Rites of Dracula, where he's given more of an active role in the story.

Going back to what I said earlier about how Hammer does little different here besides move Dracula to the 20th century, it was while I was in the middle of writing this review that I realized how, in writing the screenplay, Don Houghton basically copied Anthony Hinds' script for Taste the Blood of Dracula (ironically, Hinds himself got hit with a charge of plagiarism for that very script, which was what led to him officially leaving Hammer). It has an opening where you witness Dracula die and his body disintegrates, after which someone gathers some residue of his remains; the first act revolves around someone talking a group of people into taking part in a satanic ritual that results in Dracula being resurrected, right down to said person being a disciple of Dracula, the ritual taking place in an abandoned church, and his mixing his own blood with the Count's remains, causing the cup containing it to fill up with blood; Dracula continues to make the condemned church his lair following his resurrection; he ultimately seeks to destroy his target(s) through a specific person or persons; and the final confrontation takes place at the church. Houghton literally took the basic premise of a previous movie and simply moved it to 1970's London, and also made it far less effective than the earlier film, which wasn't all that good to begin with.

Probably more so than any other film Hammer produced, Dracula A.D. 1972 is absolutely steeped in the time in which it was made, totally reveling in its setting of early 70's London. Everything, from the clothes, the hippie-like, weed-smoking nature of the teenagers and their dialogue ("far out," "wild," "that sort of jazz," "dig the music," etc.), the music (both the actual score, which is very funkadelic, and the presence of the popular bad, Stoneground, who perform at the party where the movie truly begins), and a couple of the locations, like the coffee bar called the Cavern and Johnny Alucard's place, do nothing but reinforce tenfold what era you're in. It's so of its time that it makes both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee feel very out of place, which could have worked to the film's advantage had it been developed, as there's a hint of alienation between Lorrimer Van Helsing and Jessica in their first scene together, and the movie's very foundation is about a sort of old hat type of evil like Dracula preying on a group of hip, modern teenagers who wouldn't take it seriously at first. On that same note, there's also a hint at the divide between the adults of the period and the kids, with how shocked the adults at that opening party are over the group's having crashed it, and Inspector Murray's mentioning to Van Helsing how alien the habits of the day's kids are to him, but it doesn't go much further than that. And speaking of which as well, the movie notes the presence of the New Scotland Yard and how it's much more modern and sophisticated compared to the law enforcement seen in the previous period films, an aspect of that setting that would be emphasized much more in the next film. Like Blacula, which was released the same year, you can either see the sheer 70's-ness as horribly dating the movie or as cheesily charming. Me, personally, I always kind of smile when I see this kind of stuff in movies of the time; in short, I can dig it. But, that said, it only goes so far here and doesn't negate the fact that this movie simply isn't good.

Overall, this is one of the flatter-looking Hammer films yet, with Alan Gibson's direction simply being serviceable for the most part. There are several notable moments where the camera will focus on someone's face, often in the rearview mirror of a car while someone's driving, and certain shots like when you see the painting of Dracula on the wall juxtaposed with Van Helsing as he prepares for the upcoming battle. Gibson also manages to shoot the more action-oriented setpieces, particularly the opening fight between Van Helsing and Dracula and when Van Helsing confronts Johnny Alucard at his home, in a comprehensive and effective enough matter. As for the cinematography of Dick Bush (who was originally the DP on Aliens but was let go because he and James Cameron didn't gel), there's not much to write home about, save for maybe how the day-for-night cinematography is used very sparingly, to the point where I forgot there even were instances of it, and how there are nice uses of darkness and shadows in some scenes inside Van Helsing's home, as well as how moody and atmospheric the interiors and churchyards of St. Bartolph's are shot (a shot of Dracula walking through the center of the place and another where he prepares to grant Johnny the power of vampirism are the standouts).

At this point, just a couple of years after he'd been appointed to succeed the late Bernard Robinson, Scott MacGregor himself was now dead, so the duty of production designer here went to another veteran of the Hammer art department: Don Mingaye (though this would serve as his last job for the studio). His most impressive set is the abandoned church of St. Bartolph's, the exterior of which has a memorably creepy and chaotic-looking churchyard, full of rubble and old junk, while the inside is taken almost directly from Taste the Blood of Dracula, right down to the altar now being covered in satanic paraphernalia, with an inverted cross and a black cloth with a pentagram. The only major difference is that you see a tiny bit more of the place, particularly the spiral staircase leading up to the balcony, both of which figure in Van Helsing and Dracula's final confrontation. After that, the most notable sets are the interiors of the Cavern coffee bar, which have all of these tacky-looking neon lights consisting of pinks, purples, and blues (you get to see a lot of it when the characters sneak inside after it's been temporarily closed down), and Johnny's rather swanky home, which has something of a loft where the kitchen is, a downstairs area containing a pool table with a memorable-looking light hanging above it, a light blue couch, and a record player. You never see Johnny's bedroom but, after he's become a vampire, you do see that he now has a coffin in his living room (also, his bathroom still has a skylight, which you think he would have had removed after becoming a vampire). And, in keeping up with the more traditional Hammer sets, you have the interiors of the upper class Van Helsing home, with a large library and study for Van Helsing himself, decked with paintings of both Dracula and Lawrence Van Helsing, and nice-looking bedrooms for both himself and Jessica, and the same goes for the upper class home at the beginning that's overrun by the rowdy teenagers during the party.

There's a lot of location work to be found in this particular movie, most notably in the Chelsea section of London itself, giving you even more of an authentic look and feel of what the city was like in the early 70's. Also, for the more traditional Hammer opening, the filmmakers made use of the ever reliable Tykes Water Lake and Bridge in Hertfordshire, as well as Hadley Common, Barnet in London, the latter of which I believe was used for Lawrence Van Helsing's funeral following his battle with Dracula.

While there is a good amount of blood to be found in the movie, I think the instances of it may be too few and far between to really excite gorehounds. Among them are Dracula getting impaled by the spoke of a carriage wheel during the opening, which Van Helsing, who receives a nasty cut on the side of his head, forces all the way through him and then breaks it off in order to stake him; Johnny Alucard cutting open his hand and allowing the blood to drip into the chalice with Dracula's ashes, which then fills up with blood and overflows onto Laura's chest; there's a little bit of blood when Dracula feeds on both Laura and Gaynor, but the aftermaths of their deaths, where you see their drained bodies, are far more horrifying, especially Laura's, as her body is badly mangled when it's discovered; both Johnny and Dracula burn their hands when they remove Jessica's crucifix, with Johnny's getting a close-up that's complete with small flames on his palm; Van Helsing gets stabbed in the arm while fighting Johnny; and during his battle with Dracula, you see Van Helsing stab him in the torso with a silver knife, burn his face and hands by throwing holy water on him, and when he forces Dracula's body through the bed of stakes he falls into, you get a closeup of blood oozing and spurting out of the hole in his back. The effects of Dracula's body disintegrating both in the opening and at the end of the movie are done through effective lap dissolves to a skeleton, and you get some gruesome closeups of his decaying form as he rots and turns into goo. Johnny, however, gets no such elaborate sendoff when he's exposed to sunlight and drowned, as all you see when he dies is some peeling and loss of color on patches of skin on his face.

The movie opens with the last hint of a Gothic period setting in this particular series: a carriage speeding through Hyde Park, as a narrator tells us, "The year 1872, and the nightmare legend of Count Dracula extends its terror far beyond the mountains of Carpathia, to the Victorian metropolis of London. Here, in Hyde park, the final confrontation between Lawrence van Helsing and his arch enemy: the demon vampire, Dracula." Indeed, throughout all this, you've seen Van Helsing and Dracula battling on the carriage, culminating in them struggling with each other on its roof, with Dracula grabbing Van Helsing by the neck. The leather rein attaching the carriage to the horses snaps, allowing them to run off in a panic, and Dracula takes advantage of the distraction by tossing Van Helsing off the carriage, sending him into some bushes. However, Dracula doesn't escape unscathed, as the carriage crashes into a tree, smashing apart, sending various pieces flying everywhere, with a wheel rolling into a nearby lake. As a lone man in black rides to the spot, Van Helsing comes to in the bushes and sees the crashed carriage. He crawls towards it, as Dracula stumbles out, gasping and yelling from the spoke of a wheel having been jammed into him. But, despite his grisly injury, when he spots Van Helsing, he lunges at him and the struggle continues, even with them both in their weakened states. It ends when Van Helsing gets Dracula down on the ground and forces the wheel's spoke all the way through him, effectively staking him. The man on horseback arrives in time to see Dracula's form, skeleton and all, rot and disintegrate, until there's nothing left but ashes. Seeing his foe vanquished, Van Helsing drops dead from his injuries, while the horseman removes the stake that was sticking through Dracula's body from the ground and also retrieves his ring, which he puts on his own finger. He then takes out a small, glass vial and gathers up some of the ashes. Some time later, as Van Helsing is being laid to rest at St. Bartolph's church, the horseman slowly and quietly makes his way to the edge of the churchyard, where he digs a small hole into the ground, pours the ashes into it, and covers it with the stake. Following that, the movie cuts to a closeup of Van Helsing's gravestone, now long weathered, and pans up to the sky, as an airline streaks across, revealing that we're now in the modern day, which is hammered home further as the opening credits play over a montage of 1970's London, with the funky theme music blasting in all its glory.

As if it weren't already clear from that we're in 1972, the movie cuts to a rather rowdy party in an upper class home, with a bunch of young people dancing and gyrating around to music being played by the band, the Stoneground. The older people at the party are clearly put off by this display, as Joe Mitchum is introduced taking some food from the loaded dining room table, only to look under it and see a couple passionately making out, to which he comments, "Still at it?!" At the same time, one guy is shown actually painting on a mirror, while a scantily clad young woman is dancing atop the piano; none of this bothers the Stoneground, as they just keep doing their thing. The woman who owns the house admonishes her son, Charles, for this, but he says the only ones he invited were the band, as he's never seen any of these other people before. His mother, who's being harassed and insulted by Joe, tells Charles to get rid of them, and he goes and calls the police. This doesn't go unnoticed by the others, but they figure they've got plenty of time, seeing as how it's a busy Friday night, with Johnny Alucard, who's been sitting around this whole time, looking a bit bored, ultimately saying they've got eight minutes, as Kings Road is likely crawling. Joe feels they've probably got four but Johnny insists eight, and they go on with their partying. The band starts playing a song called Alligator Man and everyone continues with their dancing and drinking, while Joe keeps counting down the minutes on his watch. And then, far short of Johnny's eight minutes, guess who comes down the street towards the house, blue lights flashing and siren blaring? Joe exclaims, "You can't depend on anyone these days!", noting how it's only been four-and-a-half minutes, and yells for everyone to get out. Everyone in the group flees, except Johnny, who sticks around just long enough to antagonize the lady of the house once more. Feigning that he's heading out, he grabs a small statue from a table and, as she nearly has a heart attack, taunts her by tossing it back and forth between his hands. He then acts like his display is over and places the statue back on the table, much to the woman's relief... and, as he's heading out the door, he reaches back in, knocks it off the table, and it smashes apart on the floor. The police then arrive to break everything up, with a constable finding the one couple still making out underneath the table. The guy rolls off his girl and, looking up at the cop, says, "Peace, man." The cop can't help but smile.

The next day, as the group is on their way to the Cavern, Joe admonishes Johnny for nearly getting them arrested, but Johnny doesn't seem as though he would have been all that concerned had they gotten arrested, noting that Joe was looking for kicks and the party was a "tired scene." In the Cavern, Johnny proposes some new experiences by suggesting, "Something new, yet as old as time, I wonder... Something way, way out." When pressed to elaborate, he says he's talking about a "date with the devil," a black mass. Though everyone laughs it off as a joke, Laura is intrigued, saying it sounds like a wild time, and Johnny advises them, particularly Joe, not to make fun of it unless they've tried it. Jessica Van Helsing notes how such a thing is said to be dangerous, while Bob wonders if anyone among them knows the ritual and also notes that they need a desanctified church in which to perform it. Johnny immediately brings up St. Bartolph's, which is condemned, and everyone else slowly, and in the case of Bob and Jessica, reluctantly, agrees. He tells them they'll meet up that night at midnight. Afterward, Johnny drives home and eagerly and excitedly runs inside his apartment. He opens up a box on a small stand against the wall, revealing Dracula's ring and the vial of ashes collected by the man at the beginning. He takes out the vial and holds it up to a portrait of Dracula on the wall, before putting the ring on his own finger and looking out the window, literally trembling with excitement.

Elsewhere, as they put his car through a wash, Bob tells the still reluctant Jessica that, as far as he's concerned, it won't be anything sinister, saying it'll probably turn out to be a love-fest instead. He also suggests that she get some pointers about the occult from her grandfather, but Jessica refuses to drag him into this ridiculousness. Once the wash is done, Bob drives on down the road and lets Jessica out at her home. When he drives off, he honks at her grandfather, Lorrimer Van Helsing, as he walks down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street and he motions back at him. Walking into the house, Jessica finds that it appears empty, with neither her grandfather or Mrs. Donnelly, the housekeeper, around. She walks into her grandfather's study and library and, out of curiosity, pulls out a large book titled A Treatise on the Black Mass. She walks over to the desk, sits down, and begins to read, unaware that her grandfather has just come in and is hanging up his coat in the hallway. He walks into his study and, upon finding her sitting there, notes the book she's reading and asks why she's taken an interest in it. When she says she thought it might be a bit "mind-blowing," Van Helsing tells her it's not something to mess around with and isn't happy at her deriding it, saying that their family has had a tradition of researching into the occult. Not really listening and coming off as a typical impatient teenager, Jessica is then about to leave when her grandfather asks if she would like to eat out with him that night. She gently turns him down, since she's going out with her friends, and when he suggests she bring them to the house so he can meet them, she says it wouldn't be a good idea, before assuring him that, "I've never dropped acid, I'm not shooting up, and I'm not sleeping with anybody just yet." She kisses him and heads out the door. When she's gone, he puts back the book on the black mass and glances at another one, The Legend of Dracula, The Vampire, written by Lawrence Van Helsing. He looks at a painting of Dracula on the wall, namely the same one in Johnny's home, and then at one of his grandfather, Lawrence.

That night, Jessica and Bob arrive at St. Bartolph's (the establishing shot of which is an okay-looking miniature), but when they get out of the car, Jessica is still reluctant to partake in the ritual, suggesting they just leave. Bob says they may as well have a look around at least, adding that there's nothing else to do, before beginning to make out with her on the hood of the car. Jessica playfully shoves him off her and they search for the hole in the fence around the church. Patting around until they find it, they slip through and see how rundown and utterly ancient the place is, with Jessica commenting, "The operative word is 'yuck.'" Regardless, they head on down to the churchyard in front of the building itself, when Bob sees something on one of the tombstones that clearly appalls him, as he talks about what a "joker" Johnny is. Unfortunately, he doesn't try to hide his disgust whatsoever, which gets Jessica's attention and she pushes past him to look at the tombstone, which she finds is that of her great, great grandfather. Already troubled by this, Jessica notes that it's a hundred years to the day that he died, while Bob is now furious and about ready to give Johnny a piece of his mind. Suddenly, they jump back when someone wearing a skull mask and dressed in a hooded shroud pops up and yells at them. But, as the figure giggles afterward, he removes his mask to reveal himself to be Joe. Bob first yells at him for the joke, and also points out the tombstone and whose it is, though Joe says, "Well, how was I to know? I haven't read any good tombstones lately." Though Jessica says she's alright, Bob is ready to take her home, but Joe quickly but clumsily apologizes, says they can even kick him in the head if they want, and also asks them to stay because of the trouble Johnny's gone through to set everything up. His motormouth but irrepressible likability convinces Jessica to stay. But, before they go inside, she notes the confusing epitaph, "Requiescat in Pace Ultima," or, "Rest in Final Peace," wondering what it means. Before they can ponder it, Joe yells for them to come on and they rush inside, joining Johnny and the rest of the gang. Bob immediately confronts Johnny about whether or not he knew about Lawrence Van Helsing's grave, but Jessica assures him it's fine. Wanting to get on with it, Johnny decides to start the ceremony, saying, "Alright, no fooling around. This is for real."

He tells them to close the devil's circle, while motioning towards Joe, who runs and turns on a nearby tape recorder, before joining the others. As weird music and sounds play on the tape, they start swaying back and forth, both to it and any drugs they've probably taken, while Johnny gives that over-the-top soliloquy I mentioned earlier. He gets especially excited when he sees Jessica and Bob kissing each other and fiddling with each other's hands, grasping himself in a very orgasmic fashion. He walks back behind the altar and proclaims, "I call on Andras, Grand Marquis of hell, provoker of discords, and upon Ronwe, demon of forbidden knowledge, and upon Behemoth, arch-devil of the Black Delights. I call upon Asmodeus the destroyer, and Astaroth, friend of all the great lords of Hades. I call upon the many names of Prince Satan: Beelzebub and Lucifer. I demand an audience with his satanic majesty! Come, demons, support me. Come Mammon, Yoruba, Leviathan, Belphegor..." He keeps going on, naming various demons, with the others so caught up in his chanting that they don't realize that the tape has just run out but the freakish sounds are still going on. "I make a pact of blood with you, the baptism of the walking dead. Come to me... Count Dracula! I call to you in your dark, eternal caverns! Oh, hear me!" When he says that, a section of the churchyard outside begins slowly moving up and down, as though the ground were breathing. And, as most of them are thoroughly weirded out by this point, Johnny proclaims, "I call upon Jessica Van Helsing!" He tells her that "they" have asked for a baptism by blood involving her. Jessica herself, however, is reluctant to take part, even when Johnny assures her, "I'll give you undreamed of power, I promise you!" Seeing her reluctance, Laura shouts, "No!", then jumps to her feet and yells, "Me, Johnny! Me! I'll do it!" As a gust of wind blows through the place, Laura shows her willingness by motioning towards Johnny in an erotic, dance-like manner, and he accepts her offer. He walks up to her, caressing her from the sides of her face all the way down her body, before picking her up bridal style, carrying her over to the altar, and laying her atop it.

Standing behind the altar, he picks and holds up a chalice, proclaiming, "An ancient rite, performed before the dawn of time. You, who witness it, must swear before the name of the devil to keep it secret. A curse on anyone who utters a word of what they have seen!" He gives the chalice to Laura, who holds it on her chest, and then holds up the vial containing Dracula's ashes and pours them into the chalice, as the ground outside continues to rise up and down. He next takes a switchblade, holds up both it and his left wrist, and exclaims, "By the 6,000 terrors of hell, I baptize thee!", before slicing open the skin just under his wrist, letting out a loud scream. Everyone watches in horror as he allows the blood pouring out of his arm to drip into the chalice and mix with the ashes, as Laura begins to squirm and gasp in terror; outside, steam emerges from the rising and falling section of ground. By this point, the chalice completely overfills with blood and Johnny pours it out onto Laura, who screams in panic. Johnny holds her down as he continues to pour it, while everyone else recoils in revulsion, and Laura knocks the chalice out of his hand and rolls off the altar. Everyone panics and runs for it, ignoring Laura's screams for help, while Johnny yells for Jessica, saying she's the one who's been chosen. Though Jessica wants to help Laura, Bob drags her out into the churchyard and to the fence, finding the spot where they ducked in and pulling her through. He practically has to make her get in the car, as she momentarily bends over the hood, on the verge of getting sick. With everyone gone, Johnny walks to the spot where steam is seeping through the ground and removes the stake. A big blast of smoke emerges from the hole it leaves in the ground and, as Johnny watches, it billows up in front of him, swirls, and Count Dracula's form gradually materializes until he's actually standing there. Johnny proudly tells Dracula he's the one who summoned him but Dracula says, "It was my will," revealing that he's now wearing his ring, which was earlier on Johnny's hand. He then heads inside and makes a bee-line straight for Laura, touching her face and acting like he's going to kiss her, only to sink his fangs into her neck. Johnny watches as Laura appears to get pleasure from the sensation of it, before Dracula continues his blood-meal.

Bob takes Jessica home, and when they pull up outside her house, he tries to comfort her, agreeing that Johnny went too far but believes that Laura was simply way over her limit. Jessica, however, isn't having it, and tries to storm out of the car, when Bob tells her that they'll go to the Cavern like usual the next day and assures her that Laura will be there: "A bit drained, but she'll be there. And I'll have a few words to say to Johnny." This calms her down and the two of them quickly kiss before she gets out and heads inside. The next day, Greg, Anna, Joe, and Gaynor are the first to meet up at the Cavern, with Greg saying they should have gone back for Laura and Joe saying he knows that Bob and Jessica made it but that they don't know about Laura. Joe also says that calling the police would have been a bad idea, and they then talk about how much Johnny loves to scare people and they don't even know where he lives. Bob and Jessica then walk in and join them, only to be shocked when they see that Laura isn't there, and the others tell them they haven't seen her or Johnny. Joe suggests that Johnny and Laura may have eloped but Bob feels that, if Johnny were to have his eye on anyone, it would have been Jessica, a thought that repulses her. They decide to drop the subject, as they're still disturbed, and then, a cutaway shows some kids playing near St. Bartolph's, when one of them kicks the ball over the fence. Trying to find a way to retrieve the ball, they discover the opening in the fence and slip through. Back at the Cavern, Johnny joins the group, telling them he just came from the railway station, where he saw Laura off on the train to Ramsgate, saying she goes there every month to see her parents. Though Gaynor mentions that she thought Laura's parents lived in Watford, he insists it's Ramsgate and Bob, in turn, decides to change the subject and confront Johnny about the night before. Johnny talks about how much they got into it and were really "living it," when the subject of the blood comes up. Johnny pulls out a small pill, a blood capsule, and shows how it works by dropping it into the pitcher of water on the table and shaking it around, turning the water red. He also says that Laura was in on the whole thing, though Greg mentions that it looked like real blood to him, and Bob isn't sure if he believes him either. Jessica isn't convinced at all, but Johnny laughs, calling them a gullible bunch, and puts a big sack on the table, saying they left their clothes behind. He comments, "You really thought I was spooking up old Beelzebub? Wait till Laura hears about it."

At that very moment, the kids discover Laura's mangled body amid the rubble behind the fence. Back at the Cavern, most of the group decides to get up from the table, save for Johnny, who asks Gaynor if she's forgiven. She mentions how he gave her serious nightmares, to which he comments, "In Technicolor? Well, lay off that stuff." He then asks Jessica if she forgives him and she quietly says that she does. He pulls out two tickets for the Jazz Spectacular at the Albert Hall but Jessica turns him down, as she's going to the movies with Bob instead. The two of them leave and Johnny looks at Gaynor, who said that she'd sell her soul for those tickets, and tells her, "Okay, angel, you can come," to which she responds by kissing him excitedly. By this point, the police have arrived at the crime scene at St. Bartolph's, with the doctor reporting that Laura was killed some time the night before and that the cause of death is difficult to determine without an autopsy, although the body is horribly mutilated. He tells Inspector Murray it seems as though someone tried to drain the body completely of blood, which gets Murray thinking it could be a cult murder, like those in the United States a few years before. He then tells the sergeant to have the body identified as soon as possible, and comments to the doctor, "Well, your boys have been saved some trouble anyway... She was already wearing a shroud." Meanwhile, at a bar, Bob and Jessica try to decide what movie to see, but Jessica can't stop thinking about Laura and says that Gaynor was right about where she actually comes from. Bob tells her to forget it, and notes how her shirt has a patch that says, HAVE A NICE DAY, which they both laugh at. Later, at Scotland Yard, Murray learns that Laura has been identified because her prints are on record for drug possession. Looking at her file, Murray asks for a list of her friends and movements up to the night before, but the sergeant points him to a list of those in the group she hung out with as part of that very report. He reads them off and says he thought Murray would be interested to know that one of them is Jessica Van Helsing, telling him that she's Lorrimer Van Helsing's granddaughter. Knowing he's a specialist in the occult who's helped them before, Murray decides to go speak with both him and Jessica.

That night, Johnny takes Gaynor to his secluded home, inviting her to, "Come in for a bite." (Yeah, this movie's attempts at humor are cringe-inducing.) Once inside, he comments, "Poor place, but it's mine," but Gaynor notes how his place is anything but poor. He invites her to sit down on the sofa, while he puts on some nice, smooth music, and then goes into his bedroom, telling Gaynor there are some smokes in the box on the table. At Van Helsing's home, Murray and the sergeant talk to him about the murder, but he believes it falls outside his field, saying the condition of the body sounds like the work of a crazed maniac and that the cults in England are less violent than those in America. But then, Murray tells him the body was drained of blood, which gets Van Helsing's attention. Back at Johnny's place, he and Gaynor share some marijuana before making out passionately on the couch, while Murray can tell that he's now struck a nerve with Van Helsing. Van Helsing, in turn, says that the mutilations around Laura's neck may have been a means of covering up the real cause of death: vampirism. Murray and the sergeant exchange glances over this, the former believing Van Helsing is kidding, but also says he doesn't know if he dismisses it or not, as he's been a policeman for far too long. Motioning towards the painting of Lawrence Van Helsing, the professor says, "My grandfather died fighting a vampire, the most terrible and the most dangerous vampire of all time. But, before that, he collected proof. Positive proof... He was a scientist. His evidence was conclusive. There is evil in this world. There are dark, awful things. Occasionally, we get a glimpse of them. But there are dark corners, horrors almost impossible to imagine... even in our worst nightmares. There is a Satan." Murray comments, "Of course. Otherwise, we wouldn't need a police force, would we?", before admitting that what he just told him was the last thing he expected to hear, although he adds that he doesn't take Van Helsing to be a crackpot. Van Helsing asks Murray what the other reason he wanted to speak to him was and he tells the professor he wants to speak to his granddaughter, saying she's somewhat involved. Not expecting this, Van Helsing is downright horrified.

Outside, Jessica returns home with Bob, to see the police car sitting outside her home. Bob asks her if she wants him to come in with her, but she says it's okay. He advises her to be careful about what she says, and then, again, suggests coming in to see what it is they want, but Jessica stops him and kisses him good night. He tells her he'll be at Joe's if she needs him and she quickly crosses the street and walks through the door. She tries to slip upstairs but her grandfather catches her and asks her to come into his study. She reluctantly complies and is introduced to Murray. Acting rather flippant when Murray questions her about the previous night, she says she, "Tooled around with the group," and tries to get Murray to tell her what's going on. She's pressed into giving up the names of the people she was with, all of whom line up with the list of names the sergeant has, but tries to evade the question of where they went specifically. Finally, she's told that Laura has been murdered and she sinks down onto the couch. She starts to tell her grandfather and Murray what happened, while back at Johnny's place, he has Gaynor thoroughly smashed and smiles evilly at it. Later, Jessica has told the police everything, breaking down crying about how Laura was yelling for help when she last saw her, and Murray asks her where the group is now. She tells them they're likely at Joe's and, since they have his address, and given how Van Helsing insists that Jessica has had enough questioning, Murray decides to head out. On the way out, he tells Van Helsing to talk with her again at some point and see if she gives up anything else. Before they leave, Murray tells the sergeant that he's sure they'll find some drugs at Joe's place, meaning he'll have an excuse to hold the kids for questioning. Inside, Van Helsing stops Jessica from trying to call and warn the others about the police, and comforts her when she becomes upset over not knowing what happened. He asks her about Johnny Alucard and she says he joined the group at a party a few months before and kind of took over. Van Helsing also notes his eye-catching surname.

While Johnny drives the totally out of it Gaynor to St. Bartolph's and pushes her through the fence, Van Helsing does some figuring and discovers that Alucard is "Dracula" spelled backwards and, looking at the painting of his grandfather, realizes, "A disciple of Dracula. Oh, my God!" Meanwhile, upstairs in her bedroom, Jessica tosses and turns in her sleep, appearing to experience what's happening in another part of the city: Johnny brings Gaynor into the church and presents her to Dracula. Looking at Gaynor, as she slinks to the floor in terror, Dracula growls at Johnny, "She is not the one. You have not learnt to obey. She is not the one!" Johnny says, "But, Master, you promised me...", only for Dracula to cut him off with, "I promised you nothing!" Johnny swears to bring Jessica to him, as Dracula then entrances the scared Gaynor, making her come to him and put her arms around him, before he opens his mouth and bites her neck. Again, seeming to experience this in her dream, Jessica wakes up with a terrified scream, one which brings her grandfather running into her bedroom. Van Helsing tries to comfort her, telling her she's alright, but Jessica embraces him, sobbing in fear. He tells her that she's awake now and, leaning her back down on her pillow, assures her the nightmare is over. But, as he rubs her head, she quietly intones, "No, I don't think it is." Back at St. Bartolph's, Dracula has completely drained Gaynor of blood and walks back up to the altar, when Johnny exclaims, "Master, I did it! I brought you here! I released you! In return, I was to be given the power! Now, I demand the power of immortality!" That's when Dracula swings around and puts Johnny firmly in his place, telling him he demands nothing of him and that he is merely to help him enact his revenge on Van Helsing. Johnny, again, tells his master he'll bring Jessica to him, but says it would be easier if he was given the power of vampirism and begs him for it. He also promises to dispose of Gaynor's body afterwards and Dracula, walking down the steps towards him, finally relents.

In his study, Van Helsing removes a crucifix from his desk drawer and, looking at his grandfather's portrait, says, "God grant I can find your strength. God grant I destroy this devil." Meanwhile, Johnny puts Gaynor's body in the passenger seat of his car and drives off, two bite marks now visible on his own neck. Van Helsing is then shown putting the crucifix around Jessica's neck as she sleeps, kissing her on the cheek afterwards, and while Dracula lingers in the church in a shot that is nicely composed and atmospheric, Johnny drives Gaynor's body to Hyde Park and pushes her out the door in one spot. She tumbles down the hill and lands in a river below. Once he's back in London, Johnny watches a woman in a laundromat, keeping an eye on her as she walks out and heads down the sidewalk. As he watches her, he smiles and reveals his new fangs, before turning off his car's radio, getting out, and following her. The next morning, Van Helsing goes to a church and fills a small flask with holy water, before going to see Murray at his office. There, Murray, again, tells him he doesn't see him as a crackpot and that he's impressed with his qualifications, but then says he should try telling his superiors his theory of a vampire being behind the murders. Van Helsing catches that Murray just mentioned "murders," as in plural, and the inspector tells him of the discovery of two more bodies: Gaynor, informing him that she's another of Jessica's friends, and a woman named Marjorie Baines, whose body was found within sight of St. Bartolph's. When pressed, he says that Gaynor's body wasn't as badly mutilated as Laura's, and that the only marks on Marjorie's body were two puncture wounds on the neck. Van Helsing says, "You see?", and Murray, in frustration, gets up and, drawing the blinds of the windows behind him, says, "No, Prof. Van Helsing, I don't see! I'm just a plain, run-of-the-mill copper! Put me up against a villain, I'll run him down. Thief, conman, thug, murderer, sooner or later, I'll nob him, because that's what I'm trained to do. I know the way they work. I know the way they think. I know what makes them tick. But this? This is something else again. Three murders in two nights, and a bunch of spaced out teenagers as my only suspects. A bunch of kids whose way of life is as foreign to me as..." Van Helsing adds, "As that of a vampire?" He goes on to tell Murray that he's studied vampires his entire life and knows everything about them, adding that they have no real lifespan and can live again, that Dracula was in London a hundred year before, was supposedly buried in some desanctified corner of St. Bartolph's, and that he could be revived if the stake were removed from his heart.

Murray's phone buzzes and, after he answers it and speaks briefly, he tells Van Helsing they've been forced to release the kids they detained the night before. Van Helsing says they'd be safer in jail, and adds that he believes there's a pattern pertaining to how Jessica and her friends became caught up in the situation, as well as that the key to it is Johnny Alucard. Telling Murray the secret about Johnny's surname, he also tells him of a vampire's vulnerability to a silver-bladed knife and by supposedly being immersed in clear, running water. He goes on to say, "A vampire attacks for two basic reasons. Now, firstly, it needs human blood to nourish itself. Secondly, it will attack to curse its victim, to make him or her like itself: the living dead. This monster is strong again. It has drunk blood. Now, it will infect others, may have infected others already. Unless it is stopped, it will continue to infect others. Please, let me help." Admitting that his superiors would have them both certified if they overheard their conversation, Murray says he's going to officially ascribe the murders to a dangerous lunatic, before asking Van Helsing what course he should take in the meantime. The professor tells him to remove the police guard from St. Bartolph's, saying that Dracula must return there each night before the dawn, and that they should also contact him when they find Johnny. He also mentions the Cavern, but Murray says the place will be closed down by the drug squad, as there's evidence it was being used as a distribution center for pot and LSD. Lamenting that it may have been a good place to start, Van Helsing shakes Murray's hand and says, "Let's just hope I'm right about St. Bartolph's," to which Murray retorts, "I just hope you're wrong about this entire business, professor." Van Helsing, in turn, says, "I wish I was, Inspector. I wish to God I was," and leaves the office.

That night, Bob sees that the Cavern is closed and there's a police guard marching out in front, but he also notices Johnny's car parked nearby. He crosses the road and, after getting a closer look at the car and confirming that it is Johnny's, he sneaks down the alleyway down the sidewalk from the Cavern, while at his home, Van Helsing arms himself with the necessary weapons with which to battle the vampires. Bob climbs over a fence in the alley and manages to reach the Cavern's back entrance, right before the police guard comes walking down the alleyway. Inside, Bob approaches the screen door leading into the place and calls for Johnny. He gets a response: "Hi, Bob. I've been waiting for you." Van Helsing is then shown attempting to find the hole in the fence in front of St. Bartolph's, while Bob calls on Jessica at her home. Mrs. Donnelly answers the door, but Jessica rushes downstairs to see Bob, ignoring the housekeeper's reminding her what her grandfather said. Once Mrs. Donnelly has left the room, Bob mentions Laura and tells Jessica that they also found Gaynor dead as well. He goes on to tell her that they've got Johnny down at the Cavern, the other members of the gang are there, giving statements, and he was sent to bring her down there. Jessica agrees to go, despite Mrs. Donnelly's objections, and rushes out the door with Bob. Meanwhile, Van Helsing finds the gap and heads back.

Bob pulls his car up in back of the Cavern, telling Jessica when she asks that the front is for the "geeks and newspapermen." They walk through the backdoor and into the center of the building, only for Jessica to become confused when she sees there's no one in there. Suddenly, Johnny emerges from the shadows, brandishing his fangs, and Jessica backs up against Bob, asking what's going on. Turning around, she sees him staring at her, and then, he reveals that he's now a vampire by showing her his own fangs. She backs away from Bob, only to be cornered by Johnny. Bob grabs her from behind and holds her arms behind her back, as Johnny walks towards her and, as she screams helplessly, rips off the crucifix from around her neck. Predictably, this causes him pain, as the holy object burns into his hand. Jessica attempts to run but Bob manages to grab onto her again and, bending her over the jukebox, bares her neck and prepares to bite her. But Johnny stops him, telling him, "She's not for us. She belongs to the Master. He commands." Jessica, who fainted from fright, collapses to the floor. Elsewhere, in a phone booth, Van Helsing calls his house, only for Mrs. Donnelly to answer and tell him that Jessica went out with Bob. He asks her if they said where they were going and she said she overheard them mention a "cavern." Realizing the implications, Van Helsing hangs up and runs out of the booth and down the street behind him, rushing to the Cavern. But, when he sees the policeman guarding the front, he casually walks past, only to duck down the alleyway and find his way to the place's back entrance. Inside, while using his cigarette lighter to penetrate the dark, he calls for Jessica, but doesn't get an answer. He's then terrified when he sees her crucifix lying on the floor. He takes it and flees the scene, running so frantically down the sidewalks and across the street that he nearly gets hit by a car. To his surprise, the driver, Anna, gets out and talks with him, telling him she was looking for him. Though she doesn't know where Jessica is, she says she thinks she's with Johnny Alucard, admitting that she went to his place once. Of course, Van Helsing asks for the address.

As dawn breaks, Johnny is in his place, packing clothes and other items found in his coffin into a satchel, when Van Helsing shows up. He demands to know where Jessica is, and while Johnny denies knowing what he's talking about, Van Helsing stomps down the stairs towards him and notes the cross-shaped burn mark on his hand. He then sees what Johnny is packing and demands to know what they're for. Johnny tells him, "Can't you guess, Professor? A wedding, man! Aren't you going to give the bride away?!" Enraged, Van Helsing throws something at Johnny, who decides to stop playing around and shows him his fangs. He charges at Van Helsing and pins him to the couch, attempting to bite him, when he sees the sunlight peeking through the section of window that isn't covered up. Johnny backs away and Van Helsing, seeing his coffin, tells him, "It's sunrise, Johnny. You should be back in there." He then throws a small Bible wrapped in the crucifix into the coffin, causing Johnny to scream at the sight of them. Unable to remove the holy objects himself, he begs Van Helsing to do so but he, again, demands to know where Jessica is. Enraged, Johnny grabs a knife from his satchel and comes at Van Helsing, who grabs a stick from the pool table and smacks him with it. He manages to stab Van Helsing in the right arm and prepares to stick him again, when his hand is exposed to a beam of sunlight reflecting off a small mirror. He drops the knife and Van Helsing, seizing his chance, grabs the mirror and angles the beam at Johnny, causing him to recoil and fall over a dresser behind him. Van Helsing drives him up the stairs as he tries to escape the sunlight and he stumbles into his bathroom. He accidentally opens the drapes on the skylight above him, flooding the room with sunlight, and he collapses backwards into the bathtub, hitting the faucet and causing the shower to pour down on him with clear water. Van Helsing comes upstairs to find Johnny convulsing in the tub and, yet again, asks where Jessica is. Remaining defiant, he tells him, "You'll never find her! You can rot in hell!" One last time, Van Helsing yells, "Where is she?!", and Johnny exclaims, "You'll never find her!", before expiring.

The police arrive and Inspector Murray enters the apartment, along with his police doctor. Seeing Johnny lying dead in the bathtub, Murray and the others attend to Van Helsing, the doctor seeing to his arm wound. He tells Murray that Dracula now has Jessica and intends to get his revenge against the family of Van Helsing making her into a vampire. As the doctor wraps a tourniquet on his arm, he also tells Murray to keep his men away from St. Bartolph's, saying they wouldn't find anything there in the daytime, and asks for one hour there alone after sunset. Murray agrees to follow other leads in the meantime, while the doctor advises Van Helsing to have his wound checked out at the hospital before he does anything else. Murray helps Van Helsing out the door, as the doctor walks into the bathroom and sees Johnny's body. Late in the day, Van Helsing heads for St. Bartolph's, carrying a sack and a shovel, and enters the churchyard through the opening in the fence. He finds Bob's pale, dead corpse lying there, having been drained completely by Dracula, and then enters the church to find Jessica lying atop the altar, now clothed in a white gown. Rushing to her, he checks her neck and finds no bite marks, and finds that she still has a pulse, much to his relief. He tries to waken her but she doesn't rouse when he taps her face and he tells her, "Jessica, darling, I can't wake you from this. Nobody can, except him." He puts the crucifix back around her neck and whispers, "I have to leave you for a little while, but it won't be for long." Kissing her cheek, he heads back outside and gets to work, digging a large pit, brandishes his silver knife, and sharpens some stakes, all while the sun rapidly sets. By nightfall, he's managed to line the pit's bottom with the stakes, pointing them upwards.

Dracula rises and walks up to the altar where Jessica sleeps. As he looks at her, Jessica's eyes snap open and, entranced, she sits up. But, when she does, Dracula sees the crucifix and recoils and hisses at the sight of it. Without looking directly at it, he reaches for it and rips it off her, groaning in pain and quickly tossing it away, watching as steam rises off his palm. Regardless, he lies Jessica back down and prepares to bite her, when he hears Van Helsing yell his name from the other end of the church. The professor tells him, "Look on me, Dracula. Look on me, and remember." As he does, Dracula does, indeed, flashback to his death at the hands of Lawrence Van Helsing a century before and snarls at his descendant. He moves around the altar, grabs a metal candle-holder, and tosses it at him, before rushing and blocking the entrance when he tries to run outside. Van Helsing walks backwards up the spiral staircase behind him, with Dracula stomping after him. After being startled when some birds up there fly in his face, Van Helsing walks out onto the balcony above the church floor and grabs a chair and tries to hit Dracula with it, only for the Count to duck back, causing him to smash it across the doorway. Dracula then backhands him and sends him flying against the wall, and when he staggers towards the edge of the balcony, Dracula comes at him, grabs him by the throat, and tosses him against the wall. He smiles evilly, thinking he's cornered Van Helsing, when the professor pulls out his silver knife and sticks it into Dracula, who falls over the edge and onto the floor below. Van Helsing looks down and watches as Dracula tries to pull the knife out of him, when he notices Jessica walking towards him. Realizing Dracula is communicating with her to come to him, Van Helsing yells at her to stay away, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. He rushes back down the stairs but, when he gets to the floor, Jessica has removed the knife and Dracula is back on his feet.

Van Helsing quickly rushes out the door, into the churchyard, and Dracula chases after him. He rushes and appears to fall to the ground, causing the covering to fall off his deathtrap. As Dracula notices the pit full of stakes, Van Helsing takes out his small flask of holy water, intones, "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost!", and flings it at Dracula. The vampire tries to shield himself but yells when the water hits him and causes his flesh to burn, and slips and falls into the pit. Jessica grabs her head in horror at the sight of this, as Dracula looks back around at Van Helsing and seems to attempt to get at him, but helplessly turns back around. Van Helsing then takes the shovel he left by the pit, jams the tip of the spade into Dracula's back, and forces him down, causing one of the stakes to go all through him, with blood pouring through the wound and spurting. As she's released from Dracula's control, Jessica screams, seeming to be in pain, while Dracula groans as he's impaled and falls silent. His form then disintegrates and rots, just as it did when Lawrence Van Helsing killed him a hundred years before, and Jessica, now completely free, runs into her grandfather's arms. Jessica apologizes for the acts she committed while under Dracula's influence and stands in shock when she sees the Count's form completely disappear. Van Helsing gives her his coat, when she sees Bob's body nearby and nearly falls in despair upon seeing it. Her grandfather moves her away from the sight and comforts her when she sobs, telling her, "Jessica, Requiescat in Pace Ultima." The English translation, REST IN FINAL PEACE, appears on the screen in big, red letters, and Van Helsing and Jessica leave the churchyard, the movie ending on one last shot of Lawrence's tombstone.

Though you hear a brief piece of James Bernard's familiar Dracula motif at the very beginning of the movie, the actual music score, composed by Mike Vickers, is nothing at all like what you should expect from Bernard. While the opening features a traditional-sounding, elegant, and heroic horn piece for the final confrontation between Lawrence Van Helsing and Dracula, once those main credits start rolling, you're thrust into the very funky, almost blaxploitation-like style that pervades for the rest of the movie. The main title theme, which is basically the same music heard during the opening, only in a much funkier version that's played on a saxophone with an electric guitar backup, is heard many times throughout, often played at a much faster tempo for the more action-oriented scenes, and can even be heard in a softer, slower version for a few of the quiet, contemplative moments. While it's one of the most derided aspects of the movie, like I said before, I can't help but smile when I hear this music because of how utterly cheesy it is. I will admit that it doesn't really fit the climax, where you hear it while Lorrimer Van Helsing is battling Dracula just like his grandfather did (they probably should have reverted back to the old style from the opening for that moment), but it's one of the few things that I can say I genuinely like about the movie and does it work in many other moments, particularly those involving Johnny Alucard. You also get some songs sung by the Stoneground during the scene at the party, You Better Come Through for Me and Alligator Man, but those are the parts of the score that actually don't do anything for me, especially that latter song. And the music played during the black mass is an actual track called Black Mass: Storm in Hell, which was created by an electronic band called White Noise.

It may have some prominent proponents but I myself can find little in Dracula A.D. 1972 to recommend it, other than Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who do the best they can with the lackluster material, a very entertaining performance by Christopher Neame as Johnny Alucard, some instances of fairly impressive gore and bloody violence, and a charmingly cheesy early 70's setting, right down to the soundtrack. Aside from that, the movie does nothing original beyond moving the series to modern day, few of the other characters are as memorable, the direction, cinematography, and production design are serviceable but nothing amazing, and, above anything else, it's just boring, with Cushing and Lee's final confrontation coming off as a very lame and anticlimactic cap on a movie where they barely had anything noteworthy to do anyway, especially Lee. All in all, no matter how much you love Hammer or how big of a fan you are of Cushing and Lee, this is one I would say you may want to skip.