Movies That Suck/Franchises: Hammer's Dracula Series. The Satanic Rites of Dracula (Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride) (1974)

This came close to being the first Hammer movie I ever owned in any format, as I saw a VHS copy with the alternate Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride title at a Wal-Mart in Winchester in the spring of 2001. In the end, though, my growing James Bond fandom won out that day and I bought The World Is Not Enough on VHS instead, leaving The Curse of Frankenstein open to become the first Hammer flick I owned that summer. However, this did end up becoming the first of the Hammer Dracula series I both saw and owned, as I ended up with two public domain copies of it during my teens. The first was through a Christmas gift from my late aunt's live-in boyfriend in 2002: a DVD set called Great Blood-Sucking Vampire Movies, where it was packaged with The Devil Bat with Bela Lugosi and The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price. Since it was the first of the three, and also because it was the one I knew of the most, Satanic Rites was the one I watched when I popped that DVD in... and I never made it to the other two movies, as I thought this was absolutely awful. I got rid of that DVD shortly afterward but then, a couple of years later, I ended up with a public domain copy of this film by itself (again, it was Christmas gift, courtesy of my Mom this time) and I decided to just keep it, which I have ever since. Once I saw the other, and, for the most part, much better, movies in the series, Satanic Rites became one I didn't revisit that often, although I was originally expecting this turn out to be an installment of "B to Z Movies," given how ludicrous the plot and concepts behind it are, and I even hinted to as much in the initial draft of my Dracula A.D. 1972 review. I have since made some necessary alterations to the statements I made in that review, because upon rewatching The Satanic Rites of Dracula for the first time in a while, I can say that, like its immediate predecessor, this is just plain bad. While it does do some things slightly better than Dracula A.D. 1972, such as being a bit more ambitious with its story and the combination of genres it goes for (even if it is a colossal mess in the end), as well as giving Peter Cushing more of a role in said story, it is, ultimately, a pretty wretched watch and another prime example of how much Hammer had lost its way by this point.

After being caught and tortured, Hanson, an undercover British Secret Service agent, manages to escape from Pelham House in the British English countryside and is brought back to headquarters. Badly wounded and on the verge of death, he manages to report to his superiors that the residents of the house hold satanic rituals, with several prominent members of British society, government, and science in attendance, before succumbing. Since one of the men, John Porter, is a government minister, Colonel Matthews brings in Inspector Murray of Scotland Yard to work on the case unofficially. They go through five photographs developed from Hanson's hidden watch camera, which confirm the presence of Porter at the house, as well as General Freebourne, Lord Carradine, a prominent landowner, and Prof. Julian Keeley, a Nobel Prize-winning expert on viruses and bacteria; the fifth photo appears to have been a mistake, as it only shows an empty doorway. Given the occult implications, Murray decides to bring in his colleague, Prof. Lorrimer Van Helsing, Listening to a recording of Hanson's final report, Van Helsing determines that the ritual was one of vampirism, and things become complicated when the professor reveals that Keeley is an old friend of his. He goes to see him to find out if he's truly involved, and when he does, he finds his old friend severely disturbed and unstable, going on about the power of evil and the devil, as well as that he's been working on a project that was to be made ready by the 23rd of the month. Looking through his notes, Van Helsing discovers he's been commissioned to strengthen an extremely lethal, new strain of bubonic plague, but before Keeley can tell him who commissioned him, Van Helsing is knocked unconscious by one of Pelham House's motorcycle-riding guards. When he comes to, he finds Keeley dead and the strain taken. Meanwhile, Murray and Secret Service agent Peter Torrence investigate Pelham House, accompanied by Jessica Van Helsing, the professor's granddaughter, who sneaks into the cellar and finds it filled with vampire women. Barely managing to escape, they meet back up at Van Helsing's home, where they learn that the money-man behind Keeley's foundation is the mysterious and reclusive tycoon, D.D. Denham. Given that the Denham Corporation's headquarters has been built on the site of what was once St. Bartolph's Church, Van Helsing deduces that the one behind the plot is actually Count Dracula, resurrected by one of his followers and now planning to begin spreading the deadly new plague across the world on November 23rd, which happens to be the date of the Sabbath of the Undead.

As it was a direct sequel to the previous film, Hammer brought Alan Gibson back to direct The Satanic Rites of Dracula, along with screenwriter Don Houghton, but as we'll see, he did very little in his direction to bring the movie to life, with Dracula A.D. 1972 ultimately being the more visually and technically sophisticated of the two (and as you read yesterday, that's not saying much in and of itself). Afterward, Gibson left the rapidly disintegrating Hammer (though he would direct a couple of episodes of the Hammer House of Horror television show in the 80's) and went back to directing television for the most part, only making two more theatrical films: 1977's Checkered Flag or Crash, with Joe Don Baker, Susan Sarandon, and Larry Hagman, and 1985's Martin's Day, with Richard Harris and Lindsay Wagner. Some notable television work of his during this time include 1982's Witness for the Prosecution, with a noteworthy cast of Ralph Richardson, Diana Rigg, Deborah Kerr, Beau Bridges, Donald Pleasence, and Michael Gough, and, the same year, A Woman Called Golda, with Ingrid Bergman (who died just a few months after it aired), as well as Ned Beatty, Robert Loggia, and Leonard Nimoy, as well as The Flipside of Dominick Hide, one of the highest rated episodes of the television series, Play for Today. Unfortunately, Gibson's career and life were cut short in 1987 when he died of cancer at just 49; several months later, his last piece of directing, the television serial The Charmer, was aired.

Like I said, one thing that Satanic Rites does better than Dracula A.D. 1972 is that it gives Peter Cushing's Lorrimer Van Helsing a much more active role in the story. Brought in by Inspector Murray when he notes the possible occult aspects of the case, Van Helsing tells agent Torrence that what Hanson witnessed was more than just a black mass; rather, it was an ancient ritual portending to the glorification of blood, i.e. a vampiric ceremony, and one of the prominent men he secretly photographed could be the motivating force behind it. He also discovers his own personal stake in the case, as one of the men, Prof. Julian Keeley, is a friend of his. Shocked at the thought of him being involved in something so horrific, Van Helsing decides to go see Keeley and find out if he is really is, which Murray and Torrence decide would be a good idea. In doing so, he finds his old friend extremely tense, mentally unstable, and erratic, as well as secretive about a project he's been working on, which he says he was due on the 23rd of the month. He's especially disturbed when Keeley rambles about the awesome power of evil, to the point where he refers to Satan as the "supreme being," and when he looks at his notes and finds he's discovered a new, deadly strain of bubonic plague, one which he's made even worse through radioactivity. Van Helsing tries to get Keeley to reveal who commissioned him to do it, but is grazed by the bullet of an armed man who walks in on them and finds Keeley dead when he comes to afterward. When he meets back up with Murray and Torrence that night, after they witnessed for themselves the horror at Pelham House, and convene with Col. Mathews, Van Helsing lays it all out for them. He tells them of how his family has battled the cult of vampirism for generations and he believes that Count Dracula, resurrected at some point after he destroyed him at St. Bartolph's Church two years before, is behind it all, plotting a revenge on all of mankind by spreading the plague across the world on November 23rd, the Sabbath of the Undead, when the devil is in total command.

Knowing the mysterious and wealthy property owner D.D. Denham is a vital link, as he funded Prof. Keeley's foundation and his company headquarters is built at the site of what was St. Bartolph's, Van Helsing decides to pay the reclusive millionaire a visit, armed with a silver bullet he created from a crucifix. Allowed up to Denham's private apartment in the building, Van Helsing, after a tense conversation with the man, who keeps his face hidden by pointing a light right at his guest, eventually confirms what he suspected: Denham is actually Dracula himself. But the Count's conspirators stop him from shooting him with the silver bullet, and Dracula, wanting Van Helsing to suffer, has him taken to Pelham House. There, as midnight approaches on the Sabbath, Dracula prepares to begin his ultimate revenge, revealing that he's chosen Van Helsing to replace Keeley as one of his "four horsemen" to infect the world with the plague. On top of that, he intends to make Jessica Van Helsing his vampire bride, to stand at his side while the rest of the world dies a slow, horrible death. Van Helsing manages to cause dissension in the ranks when he reveals Dracula's apocalyptic plan to his conspirators, who'd expected to use the plague as a means of blackmailing governments, but with the ritual room sealed off from the rest of the house and Dracula forcing John Porter to infect himself with the plague, it seems to make little difference. Fortunately, the intervention of Murray, who also rescues Jessica, allows Van Helsing to escape the house, but with Dracula in pursuit. Fleeing into the woods, Van Helsing comes upon a hawthorn bush, deadly to a vampire because of its ties to Jesus Christ, and lures Dracula into becoming ensnared in it, before using a fence post to stake him and deliver the final blow.

Among other things, The Satanic Rites of Dracula was the movie that finally tore it for Christopher Lee; in his autobiography, he described it as the point where, "I reached my irrevocable full-stop." In fact, he was down on this one even before shooting began, saying he was doing it "under protest," adding, "I think it is fatuous. I can think of twenty adjectives: fatuous, pointless, absurd." It's not hard to understand why he felt this way. While Hammer had long since driven him to his breaking point by continually forcing him to play Count Dracula in movies where he had less and less meaningful to say or do, this particular film is where he's glossed over the most. Not only does he, again, have a very tiny amount of screentime (you first see Dracula just after the thirty-minute mark but, following that, he only truly enters the story when there's less than half an hour left), they don't even bother with a resurrection scene; instead, they just have Van Helsing explain that vampires can live again after being destroyed and suggests that, like before, Dracula was probably revived by one of his disciples. Moreover, the way they fit Dracula into this mixture of espionage thriller and vampire horror flick is an odd one. After establishing that, rather than a spy ring as the Secret Service originally expected, Pelham House is being used as a site for satanic rituals involving several prominent British government officials and businessmen, and that they have a cellar full of vampire women, the story concentrates on this mysterious character of D.D. Denham, a Howard Hughes-like figure who's reclusive, conducts all of his business from his company headquarters, and is the one financing Julian Keeley's foundation and research. It's so obvious, especially with its being established that Denham's headquarters were built at the site of what was once St. Bartolph's Church, where Van Helsing defeated Dracula in the last movie, that the reveal he actually is Dracula is a massive, "No, really?", moment. And yet, can you name another movie where a classic horror character like Dracula poses as a wealthy businessman and has a Bond villain-like plot developing in the background? I sure can't!

However, while it is bizarre, I'm glad that Dracula is actually doing stuff in this story, even if it is mainly behind-the-scenes. Also, his plot to wipe out mankind with a hideous and lethal new strain of bubonic plague he's commissioned one of England's most brilliant scientists to create brings him to a whole new level of evil. Though Van Helsing suggests his ultimate goal may be to end his own cursed existence by wiping out humankind and leaving nothing for him feed on, and Dracula's own words during the climax do hint at it, any sort of pathos goes out the window when the third act rolls around and Dracula prepares to enact his plan. He absolutely revels in the horror he's about to unleash upon the world, describing to Van Helsing the agony he himself is going to experience in the days to come once he's infected, as he's been especially eager to make him suffer for the trouble his family has caused him over the years. Besides physical torment, Dracula also plans to make Van Helsing suffer emotionally, telling him how he's going to make his beloved Jessica his consort, untainted by the plague and by his side forever. Though he seems momentarily put off when Van Helsing asks him if making the world a completely dead place is his own  personal death wish, Dracula doesn't waver and cruelly shuts down his conspirators when they realize he intends to make them the carriers of the plague, having told them it was only meant as a threat to gain control of nations. He even goes as far as to take control of Minister John Porter and force him to break the tube containing the plague in his hand, leading to him being infected and dying a slow, horrible death. But, thanks to Inspector Murray, Dracula's plans are foiled, as Van Helsing, Jessica, and the two uninfected conspirators manage to escape, and the plague is destroyed in an ensuing fire. Dracula, however, still intends to accomplish at least one part of his revenge, and pursues Van Helsing into the surrounding woods.

So, how does Christopher Lee's Dracula go out for the final time? Through the use of a holy object that I've never heard mentioned in any other vampire movie: the hawthorn bush, from which Jesus Christ's crown of thorns was made. Coming upon such a bush in the woods, Van Helsing calls to Dracula and tricks him into getting ensnared in it. Not only was it dumb for Dracula to not suspect that Van Helsing might have been tricking him but, when he first walks into the hawthorn bush and realizes what it is, he doesn't just back out of it and try to find a way around. Instead, he just forces his way through, cutting himself repeatedly, and even though he makes it to the other side, he stumbles and falls when his foot gets caught in the bush, giving Van Helsing the opportunity to stake him with a fence post, leading to his body disintegrating. Yeah, it's another lame death, even more so than his defeat at the end of Dracula A.D. 1972 because of how much of an idiot Dracula comes off as.

Besides the hawthorn bush, this movie also reveals that, like a crucifix, a vampire can't even touch a Bible without being burned, as seen when Van Helsing uses one to prove that Denham is Dracula. As James Rolfe mentioned in his CineMassacre's Monster Madness video on this movie, it's amazing just how vulnerable Dracula is. They also reuse the pure, running water method from before, with Murray using Pelham House's sprinkler system to kill the vampire women in the cellar (like Johnny Alucard dying in a running shower in the previous movie, the result comes off as really silly), as well as the idea of silver, with Van Helsing creating a silver bullet out of crucifix, despite having said in the previous movie that, "Silver bullets are impractical." Also, for the first time in this series since The Brides of Dracula, it's noted that vampires don't cast reflections in mirrors and, by extension, can't be captured on film, as seen when Dracula's image doesn't show up in one of Hanson's secret pictures and when he doesn't appear when Murray watches the security monitor linked to Pelham House's ritual room. In truth, the only new addition to the series' lore of vampires is how they're made to be more demonic and satanic than ever before, as the movie opens with a young woman appearing to become one herself when she takes part in the blood ritual at the house. Moreover, Dracula is more or less portrayed as the Antichrist with his plot of bringing about Armageddon (something else that Christopher Lee loathed).

Returning as Inspector Murray from the previous film, Michael Coles is given the distinction of being the only actor besides Cushing and Lee to appear in more than one of these films as the same character. Murray is brought in by the Secret Service to work on the case independently since one of the men involved could easily have the department shut down. Realizing the possible occult aspects of the ritual Agent Hanson witnessed, Murray, in turn, brings in Lorrimer Van Helsing, and after he details to them the exact nature of the ritual, Murray decides to have a look inside Pelham House. While Van Helsing goes to confront Prof. Keeley, Murray, Agent Torrence, and Jessica Van Helsing head to the house. But, while Murray and Torrence speak with Chin Yang, the Chinese woman who seems to run the place, Jessica sneaks into the cellar and is attacked by the vampire women she finds held down there. Since he never faced Dracula or the other vampires in the previous film, it's unclear whether Murray begins this film as the same skeptic he was before, but when he and Torrence rush to Jessica's aid, they both get all the convincing they need. In fact, Murray has to save Torrence by staking the latter's former secretary, Jane, who's now a vampire herself. Upon escaping, Van Helsing tells them of his belief that Count Dracula is behind everything and also what he feels is his apocalyptic plan, which he intends to put into action the following night. While Van Helsing goes to confront the mysterious Denham, Murray, along with Jessica, Torrence, and Col. Mathews, keep watch on Pelham House, only to be attacked by snipers who kill Torrence and Mathews and take him and Jessica captive. Murray awakens in Pelham House's cellar and is nearly seduced by Chin Yang, a vampire herself, but he manages to escape her spell and stake her, as well as kill the other vampire women in the cellar with the sprinkler system. Escaping into the house, Murray finds his way into the security room, but is unable to do much to help Van Helsing when he's held hostage by Dracula and his conspirators, until he gets into a fight with a guard. Said fight leads to a computer panel getting smashed, causing an explosion and fire, as well as unlocking the ritual room, allowing Van Helsing to escape, while Murray rescues Jessica and takes her to safety.

Had Stephanie Beacham returned as Jessica Van Helsing, she would have been in that same exclusive club as Cushing, Lee, and Coles, but she wasn't available at the time and so, was replaced by Joanna Lumley. The change in actor makes it hard enough to believe that this is the same character from Dracula A.D. 1972, as Lumley looks nothing like Beacham, but on top of that, there's the fact that she's portrayed completely differently. No longer the free-spirited, somewhat rebellious hippie teenager she was before, Jessica is now totally steeped in her grandfather's research, with Van Helsing referring to her as his "right hand" and commenting that she sometimes appears to know more about his work than he himself does. You'd think that would be the reason why Murray and Torrence bring Jessica with them when they investigate Pelham House, as she herself says she might spot something significant they would overlook, but instead, they dumbly tell her to stay by the car when they go inside. Not taking "no" for an answer, Jessica sneaks through the gate and enters the house's cellar, only to find herself in deep trouble when the place is revealed to be crawling with vampire women being kept down there. It's only through the intervention of Murray and Torrence that she escapes, but, unfortunately, despite her established occult knowledge, her role in the story doesn't improve much beyond her being a damsel in distress. After she and Murray are captured while observing Pelham House the next day, Jessica, like before, is used by Dracula as a means of getting his revenge on Van Helsing, with the Count intending to make her a vampire so she can exist with him after the plague has wiped out mankind. Remaining comatose throughout the entire climax, Jessica is taken to safety by Murray, while Van Helsing has his final confrontation with Dracula.

It seems initially that the characters of Agent Peter Torrence (William Franklyn) and Col. Mathews (Richard Vernon) are also going to have a large role in the story, with Mathews being the one to bring Murray into the case unofficially, given the circumstances. Torrence isn't thrilled about this at first, but Murray's involvement proves to be valuable when he brings Lorrimer Van Helsing in and he lets them know just how obscene and hideous the ritual Hanson witnessed is. Though he thinks it unwise, since they're now on alert, Torrence goes along with Murray's plan to see inside Pelham House and also agrees that Van Helsing, being his friend, may be able to get more out of Prof. Keeley than they could. Of course, any skepticism Torrence may have had about this being a vampiric cult is washed away when he and Murray see what's in the cellar, with Torrence nearly being killed when he tries to save Jane, the secretary, unaware that she's now a vampire herself. Following that, when they reconvene with Van Helsing and Mathews, Torrence, learning that Keeley's foundation was funded by the Denham Corporation, looks up a file and discovers that the board of directors are made up of the four prominent men spotted at Pelham House. And when Van Helsing reveals that he believes Count Dracula is the mastermind behind it all, Mathews is still a bit skeptical, but Torrence tells him he wouldn't be had he been in the cellar. Van Helsing provides them with more and more evidence that both Dracula and his evil plot are real, and so, Torrence and Mathews aid Murray and Jessica in holding surveillance on Pelham House the next day. But, when Torrence returns from briefly talking with them, he finds Mathews dead in his car and he himself is shot to death by one of the armed guards.

Due to her nationality, Chin Yang (Barbara Yu Ling), the leader of the cult at Pelham House and the one who performs the ritual seen throughout the opening, can be viewed as something of a prelude to the subject matter of The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, released the same year. Being a disciple of Dracula like Johnny Alucard in the previous film, it's suggested she may have been the one who resurrected him following his defeat by Van Helsing at St. Bartolph's a couple of years before. It's also never made clear whether she's a vampire throughout her screentime or only became one right before the scene where she tries to seduce Murray in Pelham House's cellar, but there is a case for the former, since her scenes only take place at night and are all set at the house. In any case, when Murray and Torrence visit the place for the first time, under the guise of investigating reports of a disturbance there, Yang politely denies having heard anything that particular night and agrees to let them see the entire house. But their "tour" is cut short when they hear Jessica screaming in the basement and have to rush to her rescue. Later, when Murray is captured and awakens in the cellar, Yang, like a number of the vampire brides in past movies, feigns being held prisoner there by Dracula and asks Murray to help her escape. She attempts to seduce him, and he nearly falls under her hypnotic influence, only to snap out of it when she flashes her fangs and laughs evilly at him. He then manages to escape her clutches and stake her.

Of the four prominent men who act as Dracula's conspirators, only Prof. Julian Keeley (Freddie Jones) gets any scenes of note, being a friend of Van Helsing's. When Van Helsing comes to see him, startling him when he walks through the door, causing him to drop something on the floor, Keeley comes off as extremely tense and deranged, as Van Helsing having walked in on him while he was doing something he didn't want anyone to see. He tries to write it off as just his being overworked and stressed, admitting to having had something of a breakdown while trying to complete a project due on the 23rd. But, when Van Helsing looks through his notes, Keeley suddenly starts rambling in a manner that shocks his old friend: "Evil rules, you know? It really does. Evil and violence are the only two measures that hold any power. Look at the world. Chaos. It is a preordained pattern. Violence, greed, intolerance, sloth, jealousy: the deadly sins, or the deadly virtues. The supreme being is the devil, Lorrimer! Serve him, and he offers you immortality. He'll remove death, the common enemy. Nothing is too vile. Nothing is too dreadful, too awful. You need to know the terror, the horror, Lorrimer. To feel the thrill of disgust! The beauty of obscenity!" Van Helsing, having looked at his notes and seen what he's been working on, literally has to slap some sense into him when he suddenly starts praying hysterically. Begging him for help, Keeley confesses that he was forced to take the new, deadly strain of bubonic plague he'd discovered and make it all the more lethal by exposing it to radioactivity. He goes on to describe how horrific the symptoms are and how it can spread from one person to the next simply through touch. But, before he can say who commissioned him to do it, Van Helsing is grazed by a guard's bullet and falls unconscious. Keeley, after begging Van Helsing not to leave him and saying it's not his fault, tells the guard he threatened him and that he's finished his work. When Van Helsing regains consciousness, he finds Keeley's body hanging from the ceiling.

It may still be a bad movie in the end but, that said, one thing I think The Satanic Rites of Dracula does better than Dracula A.D. 1972 is that it's far more ambitious and takes more advantage of its time period, rather than simply doing the same old spiel in modern day. It's actually kind of remarkable how much it manages to pack into its 87-minute running time, starting out as a James Bond-like spy thriller, with the British Secret Service investigating an English country house that they believe is the home of an espionage ring, one which several prominent members of British government and society seem to be party to. You have motorcycle-riding guards who are quite adept at shooting with sniper rifles, a captured agent who escapes the house and manages to get back to headquarters with pictures he took with a tiny camera hidden in his watch, an additional subplot involving a monstrous strain of bubonic plague that's been made all the more lethal by radiation, the mystery of a reclusive tycoon who funded the horrific project, and a plot to bring about the end of humanity with said plague. And, as if that weren't enough, we have the actual horror aspects of the story, with Pelham House revealed to be the home of a vampire cult who perform hideous blood rituals, rituals that have turned various captive women into vampires who are kept in the cellar, and finally, Count Dracula being the mastermind behind everything, going as far as to pose as the Howard Hughes-like D.D. Denham in order to fund his Blofeld-like plot of Armageddon, with a government minister, a general, a landowner, and a noted scientist as his conspirators. I'm also not just saying his plot is like something a Bond villain would come up with in general; this idea of spreading a deadly disease across the world is similar to Blofeld's plan in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Moreover, in Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld actually poses as a reclusive millionaire!

As ambitious as it is, that doesn't mean it succeeds in what it sets out to do, and the main reason for that is how, as utterly evil as his plan makes him, Dracula truly feels shoehorned into this particular story. In fact, it might have been just as, if not more, interesting and effective if they'd left him out and gone with the initial idea of a suspected spy ring turning out to be a cult of real vampires, with Chin Yang being the true villain, and had the main plot be the Secret Service joining up with Van Helsing to destroy the cult. The addition of not only Dracula but also his posing as D.D. Denham (speaking in a voice that sounds like an Italian Bela Lugosi) and commissioning the creation of a deadly plague to destroy the world feels very tacked on and results in the movie becoming a jumbled mess. The "Denham" subplot is totally pointless in and of itself, as you could have just as easily had the entire second half of the film take place at Pelham House, with Van Helsing simply going in and confronting Dracula there, with no need for a facade since he already knows the Count is behind everything. Plus, instead of Dracula funding Keeley's research through the Denham Corporation, you could have just as easily had it be that Keeley is working on the project with money Pelham House provides. I also find it so hard to grasp the concept that the building Dracula operates from as Denham has been at the spot that used to be St. Bartolph's Church for two years, meaning that, within the span of a few months in 1972, he was resurrected, came up with this plan, had an entire fake corporation founded, and a enormous, completed office building erected there. I know he's a vampire but surely even his abilities have limits. And finally, his plan to unleash his plague on the Sabbath of the Undead ultimately comes off as pointless, despite the significance Van Helsing attempts to give the date as being when the devil holds absolute power.

Remember what I said about Dracula A.D. 1972 being the flattest-looking Hammer movie we've yet had? I think I might have spoken too soon, as Satanic Rites is even less visually appealing. Alan Gibson may have had some occasional instances of interesting direction before, but here, he does little to make the movie stand out. It's all shot competently enough but it's just so average, with few camera angles, setups, and visuals of note, aside from how Van Helsing's confrontation with Keeley is filmed through a number of low angles and close-ups; Dracula's first appearance being when he barrages into the room Jane is being held in, with mist streaming through the doorway in his wake; the way the camera is placed in the hallway and slowly pans in when Van Helsing is in his study, preparing to make his silver bullet; the noticeably oppressive way in which the Denham Corporation's headquarters is shot when Van Helsing heads there to have his fateful meeting; and, hearkening back to the common motif of the previous film, how his reflection appears in a close-up of the property's nameplate as he walks toward it. Editing-wise, while it's passable for the most part, with the buildup to when Dracula bursts into Jane's room in particularly being done fairly effectively (with various cuts to a banging window shutter and a twirling overhead light), there are also occasional unnecessary and cheesy moments of slow motion. Moreover, during much of the first act, the film keeps cutting back and forth between the characters investigating and callbacks showing you all that happened in the ritual room the night Hanson escaped, which you see only a glimpse of during the actual opening. While that kind of non-linear editing usually when Christopher Nolan does it, it gets old really fast here, and you're glad when it's done. And there's a bizarre moment when Murray kills the vampires in the Pelham House basement and the image suddenly becomes very stark and washed out in how it looks, as if that one part of the film was put through the bleach bypass process.

That leads me into the movie's worst visual problem: it's just bland. Even if you manage to find a really good print, rather than the low quality, public domain versions that have circulated for years, you're going to get very little in terms of a color palette. Once in a while, you'll get some noteworthy instances of color, like deep blues in the scene between Van Helsing and Keeley and when he tells the others of Dracula's plan, or how the ritual room at Pelham House is always bathed in an aura of red (though, it's not an appealing shade of red), but for the most part, the movie is virtually bathed in whites, silvers, and grays, with most of the other colors very subdued. The cinematography by Brian Probyn is totally uninspired, as the movie looks more like an early 70's television show, with very little atmosphere. Even when they shoot the scenes where Dracula is masquerading as Denham while talking with Van Helsing, trying to back-light him to make him come off as a silhouette, it doesn't work, as you can still clearly make out Christopher Lee's unmistakable form. Really, the only accolades I can give to the cinematography are how there's not a single instance of day-for-night, how nice the panoramic views of London early on in the movie come off, and how lovely they make the countryside around Pelham House look during the daytime.

The art direction and production design duties this time fell to Lionel Couch, but with the very low budget and dismal shape Hammer was in at the time, with their staff whittled down to only a handful of people, he had very little hope in making any truly memorable sets. Case in point, the interiors of Pelham House, the most notable location in the film, are not that remarkable: a foyer that makes it look like any other wealthy English country house, a bland-looking upstairs with a run-of-the-mill control room connected to the ritual room downstairs, a cellar that's meant to be both a dungeon as well as a storage area but is just another boring-looking set in the end, and the aforementioned and rather small ritual room, with a little table with a pentagram, a fireplace, and an altar surrounded by candles. None of the other sets are much better, with the room at the Secret Service headquarters where Hanson is questioned looking being especially unappealing in how sheer white it is; Van Helsing's study and sitting room are fairly lovely but nothing special; and nothing stands out about the main lobby of "Denham's" headquarters, save a headless statue that Van Helsing walks by, nor his private office, except the red carpet and the way he keeps a table lamp pointed at any visitors to keep them from seeing his face. Oddly, the set I think about the most is Keeley's laboratory, which I kind of like because of all the usual laboratory equipment, the blue carpeting, and the genuine feeling of despair and uneasiness that hangs over the place.

Like its predecessor, Satanic Rites features a good amount of real location footage, such as some material shot on the streets of South Kensington in London that appears in the opening credits and in the first act; Freston Road, which serves as the location of the scene where Jane is chased down by Pelham House's motorcycle-riding guards; and Queen's Gate Lodge, used for the exterior of the Keeley Foundation. However, there are two locations that stand out in particular. One is Centre Point in Soho, used for the exterior of the Denham Corporation building, which was abandoned for some time even after construction was complete, a fact that adds all the more to its ominous air, and High Canons in Hertfordshire, which stands in as the exteriors of Pelham House and helps it come off as an innocuous and quite lovely upper class home in the middle of the English countryside, a stark contrast to the horrors that go on within it (though the woods surrounding it are rather eerie at night).

Also like its predecessor (perhaps more so), there's a good amount of blood and violence to be found here, mostly from the satanic ritual you see at the beginning, where a cockerel is killed and its blood drained into a chalice, before then being poured onto the abdomen of a naked young woman who lies on an altar. Said blood is then used by those who initiate themselves into the cult to mark their foreheads with inverted crosses, and the combination of bloodletting and sexuality here is so blatant, with the naked woman (whom you see plenty of) gasping like she's having an orgasm whenever one of the men touches the blood on her, that it's about as obscene and smutty as what had been seen in the erotic vampire movies Hammer produced during this same period. The ritual concludes with Chin Yang stabbing the woman in the gut with a knife, seemingly killing her, but she puts a black cloak over her and, when she removes it, the woman returns to life and you see her bloody stab wound heal through a simple series of effective lap dissolves. There are other instances of bloody effects and violence afterward, like the nasty bruises on Hanson when he's brought back to headquarters, the vampiric Jane being staked in the cellar (you get a look at her bare breasts due to her open top), Keeley being found hanging from his lab's ceiling by Van Helsing (his tongue sticking out makes it a bit unintentionally funny, though), and various gunshot wounds, but the other truly impressive makeup and gore effects occur during the third act. First, you see the horrific effects of the plague when Dracula forces John Porter to break the vial containing it in his hand, instantly infecting him. Keeley said that the flesh literally rots on the bones and that's precisely what it looks like is happening, as patches of flesh along his body turning brown and hideously diseased, as he screams in agony before ultimately burning to death in the fire that erupts through the room. And finally, you have Dracula's death, involving him getting scratched up when he pushes through the hawthorn bush (Christopher Lee claimed a lot of that blood was real), and after Van Helsing stakes him, you get the usual effect of his body rotting and disintegrating, which looks about as good as you'd want it to.

The opening credits, which, like the previous movie, play over a montage of modern day London, has the interesting feature of a silhouette of Dracula appearing near the lower-right portion of the screen and slowly but surely growing and growing until it encompasses the entire screen by the time the credits are over. It's actually not a bad, symbolic visual. In any case, the movie truly begins at Pelham House, where we see a satanic ritual in progress in one of the rooms, with several men in white robes sitting across from a black altar, as Chin Yang stands behind it and raises a chalice in her hands. This prompts the men to rise, as she proclaims, "Hear ye, great demons of hell! Watch over these, thy disciples. Give them thy power over frail mankind. Thus do we dedicate ourselves to your service and your command." While speaking, she removes the black cloth covering the altar, revealing a naked young woman lying underneath it. Meanwhile, upstairs in the control room, the guard monitoring everything pours a cup of coffee and takes it down the hall to another room, giving it to the guard there. Said guard is watching over the captured spy Hanson, as he lies on a cot, groaning softly. As the guard is preoccupied with the magazine he's reading while drinking his coffee, Hanson manages to free his hands, which were bound behind his back, and then groans again, appearing to murmur in his sleep. The guard gets up and inspects him, and when he turns his back and looks at his tied feet, Hanson rises up behind him and throws the rope around his neck. He pulls back onto the cot and manages to strangle the struggling guard, rolling onto the floor with him before finishing him off. Untying his feet, he slips through the door and quietly makes his way down the hall, creeping past the control room when the guard has his back turned. He then heads downstairs to the foyer and walks through the front door, but he triggers an alarm when he does.

Realizing what's going on, the guard alerts those in the ritual room with another alarm but Yang motions for everyone to remain calm, although the men quickly wipe bloody inverted crosses off their foreheads when they hear it. Upstairs, the guard discovers his comrade's body, while outside, Hanson makes his way to the gates, when another guard races after him on a motorcycle. Reaching the gates, Hanson sees a car approaching from the other side but is forced to take cover when he sees the motorcycle coming for him. Fortunately for him, one of the men in the car manages to shoot the motorcyclist off his vehicle, causing him to crash through the gate. Hanson staggers through, but another motorcyclist is on him within seconds, only to be shot as well when he gets off the bike and attempts to kill Hanson. Hanson then limps towards the car but is so weak from his injuries that he has to be pulled into the backseat, before the car speeds off into the night. Once he's back at headquarters, Hanson, despite his horrible injuries and barely being able to speak, is questioned about what he witnessed and his words are recorded on tape by Agent Torrence and the secretary, Jane, while a doctor monitors his condition. He confirms to Torrence that John Porter was there and goes on to say, "They have filthy, obscene rights. I saw the altar. A young girl, naked. She lies there, waiting for the sacrifice, a cockerel, to be killed." As he speaks, the films show the ceremony in action, with a woman dressed in red taking a dagger and chalice from a table that also holds a ceramic skull. The followers watch as Yang holds the cockerel above the chalice and slits its throat with the dagger, pouring its blood into the cup. Hanson says, "They call on the name of the devil. They seem... seem to take strength from their own blasphemy. You want... proof? I've got photos. Five of them... all involved." As Hanson's watch is removed, Torrence tries to get him to speak more about the ritual but the doctor advises him that he can't speak anymore and decides to let it go for the time being.

Taking the watch, Torrence joins Col. Mathews, telling him that it was a bad idea to send Hanson in as a guard, while Mathews becomes preoccupied with Hanson's insistence that John Porter was one of the men there, knowing that he could have the department dissolved in a second. Taking apart Hanson's watch, Torrence removes the tiny rolls of film hidden inside, suggesting they may have legitimate proof within, but Mathews says that even so, there's no guarantee they can use it. At that moment, the doctor informs them that Hanson is now dead, adding that it's a miracle he lasted as long as he did. While his body is taken away, Jane rewinds the tape of his report and takes it to Mathews. Torrence gives her the microfilm and tells her to have the photo lab make prints of anything found within. Mathews then tells Torrence that he's bringing in Inspector Murray from Scotland Yard to work on the case independently, much to Torrence's chagrin. Later, they meet up with Murray and, preparing to show him slides of the photos developed from Hanson's camera, tell him the background of the case, which began with their learning that certain VIPs were visiting a country house regularly. Torrence projects a slide, a photo of Pelham House itself, and tells Murray how it was always believed to be the home of a "harmless" research group. As he tells him that Hanson witnessed some bizarre things while undercover there, the film cuts back to the aftermath of the cockerel being slaughtered, with Yang pouring its blood onto the naked woman's abdomen, as she gasps upon feeling it touch her. Yang proclaims, "Thus, by this baptism of blood, we walk in the eternal footsteps of the cursed, to know the inner secrets of those who move beyond the realms of the unknown, and into the precincts of Hades." Back in the present time, Torrence tells Murray of Hanson's being discovered and tortured in order to make him talk. Jane them comes in and gives Torrence the photos, telling him that there were five exposures in all. She's then sent home to get some rest.

Viewing the photos, the first slide shows an image of a man whom Mathews identifies as General Sir Arthur Freeborne, of the Imperial General Staff; we then see the moment where he marked himself with the blood on the woman's midsection, with Chin Yang declaring, "Thus, by the 6,000 terrors of hell are you anointed." The second slide confirms Hanson's claims about John Porter, whom Murray recognizes and with Torrence adding, "Minister with special responsibilities for our... 'security' services,"; his anointment is then depicted, with Yang telling him, "Thus, by the nameless monsters of the lower depths are you called." Mathews then comments, "A nod from him, and a thousand civil service pensions go out the window, including mine." The third photo reveals the form of Lord Carradine, one of England's biggest landowners, and when he's shown marking himself, Yang declares, "By the seven lords of darkness are you damned." The fourth shows Prof. Julian Keeley, whom they know as having once won a Nobel Prize, with Torrence mentioning his expertise in bacteriology, germ warfare, and diseases of the blood. When he puts his finger into the blood, he clearly hesitates to mark himself, as Yang declares, "And seven times, seven damned again... thus to defy the common laws of man and righteousness." With that, the men decide to have a look at the fifth photo, only to be surprised when the slide shows nothing but an empty doorway. Torrence feels it was a mistake on Hanson's part, though Mathews notes how he was sure there were five men. Deciding that Hanson may have been so out of his mind that he didn't know what he was talking about, Mathews leaves the room, telling Torrence and Murray that he'll release the dossiers on the four men they know were there. Torrence notes how nervous Mathews is, while Murray comments, "Perhaps the colonel has never had quite so much provocation before."

On her way home, Jane stops momentarily behind a milk truck making a delivery in a back-alley before heading on when it moves, not paying attention to the man on the motorcycle parked to her right, who's staring at her. When she heads out onto the main street, another motorcyclist is waiting for her there, taking off after her when she passes him. They don't unnoticed by her, and it doesn't take her long to realize she's being followed, especially when she makes a right down another street and they continue following her. She heads off the highway and down a back-road, only to realize too late that she's come to a dead end. She swerves her car around, as the two men trap her and disembark from their motorcycles. One man pounds on her windows, which she manages to close and lock in time, while the other runs out in front of her car, brandishing a blunt instrument, which he uses to smash the windshield and then reach in for her, as she screams helplessly. Back at headquarters, Murray starts listening to Hanson's tape again, as he says, "The baptism of blood, it acts on them like some kind of drug." We're then shown the next part of the ceremony that took place, as Chin Yang takes the dagger used to kill the cockerel and brings it down on the young woman, stabbing into her abdomen. She screams in pain, as flashes of lightning illuminate the room from the outside, and appears to die, as Yang holds the dagger above her body. Hanson's voice says, "The girl dies. The woman puts a cloak over her, over the blood. There's blood p-p-pouring from the wound. There's blood..." Murray switches off the tape and, noting the emphasis on blood in this ceremony, tells Torrence of someone who knows about this sort of thing: Lorrimer Van Helsing. He tells him how Van Helsing is an authority on the occult, saying, "He really knows about the black arts, satanic rites, and... other things."

They go to Van Helsing's home and allow him to listen to the tape, as Hanson's voice says, "Crosses. They have inverted crosses, marked in blood, and, as the woman goes to the altar, there's a strange power there, filling the whole house. I felt it: strong, weird power." For the final time, we go back to the ceremony, as Chin Yang places her hands on the black drape covering the woman's body, telling the disciples, "Death is no prison to those who have given their souls to the prince of darkness." She removes the covering, again revealing the woman, only for her eyes to snap open, despite the bleeding wound in her stomach. She sits up on the altar, turns and smiles at the men, before looking down at the wound, which disappears completely within seconds. Again, she smiles at the men and turns her body so they can get a better look at the healed wound. Finishing the tape, Van Helsing thinks for a second, smoking a cigarette, when Torrence comments, "Hobgoblins and witches and things that go bump in the night?" Van Helsing clarifies, "Well, hobgoblins are fantasy creatures of the nursery, Mr. Torrence. As for witches, they certainly exist, although 90% of them are charlatans. But things do go bump in the night, quite often." He goes on to explain to Torrence and Murray that there were cults in the Dark Ages that worshiped all sorts of natural substances, but that those that glorified blood were the strongest of all, specifically those that did it with human blood. He tells Torrence that the ritual Hanson witnessed was a very ancient one, as well as that it's not unusual for grown, sophisticated men like those he observed to be caught up in such a cult. As Van Helsing's eye is drawn to the photo of Prof. Keeley, Murray talks about attempting to see inside Pelham House, when Jessica Van Helsing walks in with a tray of coffee for them. She's introduced to Torrence, Van Helsing telling him that there's little use in trying to hide things from her. Jessica recognizes Keeley when she sees the picture and reveals that her grandfather knows him. Van Helsing admits to it, saying he was shocked when he saw the picture, and says he was thinking about seeing him and finding out if he is truly involved. Murray decides it would a good idea, as Keeley would be more likely to speak with an old friend rather than him or Torrence.

Van Helsing then heads to Keeley's institute and rings the doorbell, but receives no response. Looking up at the second floor and seeing a window open, he goes around to the side of the building and enters through a door there, unaware that he's being watched by one of the motorcyclists, who gets off his vehicle and walks into a phone booth on the curb where he's parked. Up in his lab, Keeley is shown looking through a microscope, before taking out the slide and preparing to put the sample into a petri dish on the counter. There's a knock at the door, though he doesn't respond to it, but suddenly swings around when Van Helsing comes through the door and says his name. He stands up, stammering that he's "finished it," and accidentally knocks a test tube onto the floor, where it breaks. Van Helsing walks into the room, closing the door behind him, and makes Keeley realize who he is. He asks him what it is he's working on but the man acts evasive, not answering his question, and when he spots him picking up the pieces of broken glass of the floor, he growls, "Leave that, will you?!" Sensing that something's wrong, Van Helsing asks Keeley, who turns on the lights in the dim room and says he's just a bit tense from some sleepless nights, a result of having to complete his unnamed project by the 23rd of the month. He tells his friend, "All the answers just came... quite suddenly. It happens occasionally like that, doesn't it?", before asking him to clarify that there is still time before the 23rd. Van Helsing turns and looks at the petri dishes Keeley has on his counter with a suspicious and concerned expression. The film then transitions to Pelham House as the sun sets, where Jane awakens to find herself in a small room with a single cot. Noting a window shutter that's banging on the outside, she then turns to see the door jiggling from the other side, as mist starts to seep into the room from the edges and the door's underside. The door then swings open and the dark form of Count Dracula enters the room, the mist billowing behind him. He walks over to Jane's cot, sits on the edge, and immediately seduces her, rubbing the side of her face sensually before bending her down and biting into her neck, as she lets out a yell that's one of both pain and ecstasy.

Back at his institute, Keeley tells Van Helsing his belief about how evil rules, while the professor goes through his colleague's notes and examines one of the petri dishes. Following his monologue, Van Helsing, shocked at what his friend has been talking about, rises to his feet and exclaims, "Julian, in God's name!" He demands Keeley explain what he's working on but he, instead, suddenly starts praying, forcing Van Helsing to smack him across the face a couple of times to snap him out of it. Keeley falls into a chair and Van Helsing confronts him about how his notes refer to a new strain of bubonic plague, as well as a means of accelerating its spread. Keeley explains, "I found the new strain: bacillus pestis, but more virulent than any known specie." Saying that he grew the bacilli and then exposed them to radioactive neutrons, Keeley recoils and turns away from Van Helsing, telling him, "An infected creature suffers the most indescribable symptoms. The flesh... literally rots on the bones, and the contagion spreads by touch like wildfire. Everything accelerates beyond any imagination. Within seconds, the disease takes over the whole system." Noting the petri dishes, Van Helsing asks if that's where the bacilli is growing, and Keeley answers, "They're now fully matured. They can live in the saline solution indefinitely." At a loss, Van Helsing demands Keeley tell him who commissioned him to work on such a project, as well as what's so special about the 23rd, saying he'll go to higher authority if he doesn't. Unbeknownst to Van Helsing, a guard, armed with a silenced pistol, walks in, and when Keeley reacts to him, he turns around in time to see him take aim. The man fires, grazing Van Helsing across the forehead, after which he collapses to the floor, with the frightened Keeley grabbing his hand and begging him not to leave him. Before he loses consciousness, Van Helsing hears Keeley tell the man he's finished his work. A quick cutaway shows Dracula carrying Jane through the halls of Pelham House, and then, Van Helsing is shown awakening to the horrifying sight of Keeley's body hanging from the ceiling. Before leaving the place, he also notes that the petri dishes have been taken.

Elsewhere, Murray, Torrence, and Jessica arrive at Pelham House, the two men refusing to allow her to accompany them, despite her insisting that she may spot something they could overlook. Murray tells her that, should they not be back within an hour, to go for help, and also asks her to be quiet. The men walk up to the gate, where they find an intercom, and buzz it. A female voice asks them to state their name and business, and when Murray does so, the gate opens. But, when they walk through, neither of them notice Jessica slip in behind them, and while they head to the house's front door, she sneaks about the grounds. When they reach the door, it opens by itself and Torrence presses Murray to go first, telling him, "Well, you are the law." In the foyer, they're greeted by Chin Yang when she comes down the stairs and tell her they got a report of a disturbance outside the gates the previous night and that it was believed those causing it may be using the house as a rallying point. Yang allows the men to search the house, while outside, Jessica finds a wooden door in the back that she unbolts. She also notes a beam of light going across the width of the doorway near the bottom and steps over it to avoid tripping an alarm. Inside, she finds the place to be an old wine cellar, filled with large boxes and chains on the walls. She spots another door on the other end of the room and heads towards it, but finds it locked. She flips a switch on the wall that turns on the cellar's lights, awakening Jane, who's chained to the wall. With the lights on, Jessica spots her, but with her head turned away from her, she's unable to tell if she's dead or alive. Jessica feels her wrist for a pulse and then tries to undo the chains, when Jane turns her head to her. When Jessica sees her, Jane reaches out and caresses her hair and face, before showing her fangs and lunging for her. Jessica manages to just escape the range of her bite and backs away, as she futilely reaches for and hisses at her. Unbeknownst to Jessica, Jane is far from the only vampire down in the cellar, as others, including the woman from the ritual, rise from the large boxes they use as their coffins and reach for her. Despite their chains, they manage to corner and get their hands on her, ripping at her clothes. Though she backs out of their reach, she ends up trapped between them and Jane and lets out a scream as they swipe at her.

Her screams echo throughout Pelham House, and bring Murray and Torrence running to the nearest door leading down into the cellar. Jessica collapses to the floor and the vampire woman clamor for her, with one managing to crawl on top of her and go in for the bite. Murray and Torrence, after running down a flight of stairs, find the other side of the door to the room. Unable to get it open, Torrence shoots the doorknob, distracting the vampires, who turn and watch as they kick the door open. Jessica takes advantage of the distraction and runs to them on the small stairs leading down from the door. They're about to leave, when Jane calls for Torrence, pleading with him not to leave her. Not even knowing she'd been kidnapped, Torrence is surprised and runs to Jane's aid. Jessica warns Murray that Jane is a vampire, and while Murray yells for Torrence as he tries to undo the chains, Jane grabs his shoulders and tries to bite him. He's able to, like Jessica, lean out of the range of the bite, but is unable to escape Jane's grip on him, prompting Murray to frantically search for a makeshift weapon. He finds it when he tears off a splintered spike of wood from one of the boxes and then charges in and jams the tip of it right into Jessica's heart through her open top, causing her to let out a horrifying scream of pain, which the other vampires recoil from as much as the humans, before she collapses along the wall and dies. Murray has to force the distraught Torrence to come with him and the three of them rush back up into the house, where Chin Yang begins alerting the guards. Making sure the coast is clear, the trio rush to the foyer and out the door. Rather than run down the driveway, they instead run across the grounds, hearing an alarm sounding inside the building. Several guards chase after them on their motorcycles but Torrence, being a crack-shot, manages to down one of them. The trio run to the wall, with Torrence giving Murray and Jessica a boost over it, before climbing over himself.

Once they, along with Col. Mathews, meet back up with Van Helsing at his home, the professor tells them of the deranged state of mind Keeley was in, how he appeared to be haunted by something outside himself. Mathews, in turn, asks Murray why he didn't have Pelham House raided but Van Helsing tells him that the police would have found nothing when they arrived, adding that the people they're dealing with have abilities he couldn't begin to imagine. Going back to Keeley, Mathews mentions that a reclusive tycoon named D.D. Denham is the one who funds the Keeley Foundation. Torrence hits upon something when he hears the name and goes and looks through a file, where he finds that the board of the directors of the Denham Corporation are made up of the very men seen at Pelham House. Murray realizes Denham may have been the fifth person Hanson claimed to have photographed there, while Van Helsing tells them of how his family has battled the cult of vampirism over the generations, explaining, "Each time it was destroyed, so it has risen again, like the phoenix, hellbent on revenge. Only this time... this time, I believe it's not merely a personal vendetta, but something infinitely more far-reaching. The plague bacillus, Pelham House, the mental destruction of intellectuals such as Prof. Keeley and the others, it is all an integral part of a means to a definite end." He then proclaims, "The real force, the shadow I spoke of, is more sinister, more obscene than any monstrosity you can think of. Lord of Corruption, Master of the Undead... Count Dracula," before turning to look at the painting of Dracula on the wall. Though initially skeptical, when Torrence reminds him of what they saw in the cellar, Mathews is dumbstruck at the notion that everything that's going on, including the dissolving of his department, is the work of a vampire. After Jessica joins them, even though her grandfather believes she should be in bed, Van Helsing tells Mathews of how he destroyed Dracula at St. Bartolph's Church two years before but that he could have been resurrected by one of his disciples, possibly Chin Yang. He goes on tell them of how, on his way back that night, he passed by what was the site of St. Bartolph's but is now an office block that's about two years old and belongs to the Denham Corporation. Finally, he mentions how vampires cannot be captured on film, motioning to the photo Hanson took of a supposedly empty doorway, suggesting it might not be the mistake it seems to be.

Torrence, realizing the implication, asks how someone fights a vampire and Van Helsing lists off a number of methods: the crucifix, the word of God written in the Bible, clear running water, silver, the hawthorn bush, daylight, with Jessica adding the traditional stake through the heart. Torrence then asks of the significance of the 23rd and Van Helsing answers, "That, I fear, is the worst of all. It is the Sabbath of the Undead... There are satanic circles which govern our fate, and the fate of this Earth, perhaps even the universe." Pulling out a folded piece of paper illustrating the circles and laying it out on his desk, he continues, "Now, throughout history, there are certain times, certain dates which are marked by awesome catastrophes. Each event is carefully plotted, and a definite pattern emerges. Every disaster this world has ever suffered coincides with a point wherein these circles meet and cross. In this century alone, they heralded the outbreak of two devastating world wars." Van Helsing specifies that whatever is coming will occur at midnight the following night, as it's when the devil holds a balance of power, marshaling his disciples, both living and dead. Noting that Keeley said the bacteria had to be ready by the 23rd, Van Helsing states that he believes it's when Dracula has decided to unleash the plague upon the world. Murray and Torrence both note how such a plan would leave Dracula with no other living people to feed on and suggest that he would likely die himself eventually. Van Helsing suggests, "Perhaps, deep in his subconscious, that is what he really wants: an end to it all. He is a cursed immortal, existing on violence, fear, and dread. Now supposing, now just supposing, he yearns for final peace. What then? He'd want to bring down the whole universe with him! The ultimate revenge. Thousands dying of the plague, like the shadow of death itself, one figure scything its way through the terror and anguish: Count Dracula. It is the biblical prophecy of Armageddon."

The next day, Murray and Jessica keep watch on Pelham House from the edge of a field, but they see no sign of activity. Torrence shows up to tell them he's down in the car with Mathews and that Van Helsing is still at his home. Murray makes it clear he's not content with all this hanging around but Torrence simply heads back to the car. Opening up the driver's door, he tells Mathews of Murray's impatience, but is surprised when the colonel doesn't respond at all, but merely keeps staring ahead in the passenger seat. Torrence leans in and taps his shoulder, only for his body to slump over in the seat, revealing a bullet-hole in his forehead. Pulling back out of the door, Torrence takes out his firearm, but it does him no good, as a nearby sniper easily picks him off, shooting him multiple times in the torso and causing him to fall onto and slide off the hood of the car before he dies. Meanwhile, in his study, Van Helsing places a silver crucifix in a small smelting pot and, placing another cross and a Bible on his desk, has a cigarette as he waits for it to do its thing. At Pelham House, Jessica and Murray are concerned that night is quickly approaching, with Murray saying they should have heard something at this moment, while Van Helsing finishes melting down the crucifix. He then molds the liquid into a bullet and prepares to load it into a small revolver, glancing at the painting of Dracula on the wall. Back at the stakeout, something hits the side of the tree Jessica is standing next to. Murray quickly forces her down to the ground, telling her they're being fired upon by a sniper using a silencer, meaning he could be anywhere. Another bullet hits the ground right in front of them and Murray pulls Jessica to her feet and tells her to run for it. They run as fast as they can across the field, as the sniper moves along the treeline behind them. He stops and fires another shot, hitting the side of another tree as they reach the forested end of the field. Frightened and out of breath, Jessica stops and leans up against another tree. Murray tries to get her to come on, saying the road can't be far, when she's freaked out by another shot right next to her head. Murray tells her the sniper is toying with them and could pick them off at any moment, which motivates her to get up and run off with him through the woods. Reaching the road, Murray is relieved to find that Mathews' car is still there, but when they rush for it, they realize the man sitting in the passenger seat, reading a newspaper, is one of the guards. Before Murray can do anything, he's knocked unconscious from behind, while the guard in the seat prevents Jessica from climbing out of the back, which she hastily got into.

That night, Van Helsing heads to the Denham Corporation building and enters the lobby (that shot of him going through the revolving door was actually used in a Spanish class tape teaching and illustrating for us various phrases; they also used a clip from Night of the Living Dead). He walks up to the guard on duty and asks to see Denham. The guard tells him that no one ever sees Denham, and when Van Helsing suggests he mention his name, the guard tells him it would be a waste of time. His telephone rings and, when he answers it, Van Helsing looks and notices a security camera on a nearby wall fixed on him. The guard is surprised by what he's told over the phone and, hanging up, tells Van Helsing he's been asked to come up to Denham's private apartment. He further tells Van Helsing to press the elevator's red button, which will stop right outside Denham's door, and asks if he has a camera on him. Van Helsing says, "No. No camera," and heads over to the lift. After a quick cutaway that shows Murray lying unconscious on the floor of the Pelham House cellar, with Chin Yang watching over him, Van Helsing is shown riding the lift, taking off one of his gloves and touching the spot where his gun is holstered, preparing for when the lift stops. When it does and the door opens, he sees a figure sitting behind a desk on the other end of a large room, his form in silhouette due to a lamp on the desk that's pointing at the elevator. Van Helsing walks into the room, as Denham says he's been expecting him and asks him to take a seat. He does and removes his other glove, as Denham says he's been expecting him since Keeley "took his own life," adding, "He was a servant of this foundation. I am the master. His nerves failed him... It is merely a deterrent, nothing more. There is a group of us who are determined that the decadence of the present day can, and will, be halted. A new political regime is planned. To lend weight to one's arguments amid the rush and wail of humanity, it is sometimes necessary to be persuasive... There are a few vague rituals, it is true. A little occultism, a touch of mysticism at Pelham House. Nothing more."

Van Helsing, however, isn't swayed. He tells Denham, "Evil begets evil. There is an unholy aura in this place, and it is not a question of a little occultism, or a touch of mysticism, Mr. Denham. It is vampirism, and there's a host of damned souls at Pelham House." Seeing Denham lean back in his chair, Van Helsing, taking out a cigarette, asks him what he plans to do with him, noting that he can't allow him to go, as he knows too much. Asking if he minds if he smokes, saying it helps him concentrate, Van Helsing uses the lighter on Denham's desk. When he places it back, he "accidentally" knocks some books and files off the desk. Bending down to retrieve them, he takes out the small Bible he had before and puts it among the books before placing them back on the desk. He then asks if he's to suffer the same fate as Keeley and Denham, leaning forward and wagging his finger, warns him, "You are an interfering man, Professor. Do not meddle, or you will have to deal with me." He brings his fist down, touching the edge of the Bible, and recoils as his hand is suddenly burned and steams. Seeing this, Van Helsing exclaims, "You are Count Dracula!" (Think about how lucky he was that Dracula just happened to put his hand there.) Standing up, he takes out his crucifix and pieces it all together, saying how this setup is perfect security for him, as no one expects to see the reclusive Denham. He turns the lamp around and points it at Dracula, who stands up behind his chair. Van Helsing recites a prayer, then removes his revolver and cocks it. Dracula sneers, "Foolish man. A bullet cannot harm me," but his expression changes when Van Helsing informs him it's a silver bullet. He aims and prepares to fire, when he's shoved from behind and misfires as a result. It's the intervention of Porter, General Freeborne, and Lord Carradine, who also restrain Van Helsing when he tries to escape. Porter and Freeborne suggest that Dracula kill him but the Count declares, "It cannot be made so simple for him. Not for Van Helsing. Nor for his granddaughter." Initially resigned to his fate, Van Helsing lunges at Dracula when he says that but is yet restrained, as the Count smiles at him.

At Pelham House, Murray regains consciousness in the cellar, as a light comes on above him. Slowly sitting up, as his vision focuses, he sees Chin Yang show up nearby and quickly gets to his feet. He asks where Jessica is and Yang says she's hidden her away. Approaching Murray and backing him up against the wall, she claims to be a prisoner at the house as well, and he begins to fall under her spell, as she speaks Chinese to him. Mesmerized, Murray leans in and kisses, as well as embraces her. But, in a moment where he regains his senses, he looks at her and sees her brandishing fangs and laughing at him. He pushes her away and grabs and throws a small net he finds over her when she charges at him. He then tackles her to the floor, holds her there, grabs a mallet that happens to have a splintered handle, and uses another mallet to stake her with it. Once she dies, Murray leans up against the wall, thinking he can relax, when he's attacked by one of the other vampire women down there. He escapes her clutches and manages to fend her and another off by creating a makeshift cross out of some pieces of wood. He makes his way to the door that leads up into the house, threatening any vampire that shows up with the cross. Reaching the doorway, he spots the sprinklers in the ceiling and remembers what Van Helsing mentioned about vampires being vulnerable to clear running water. He turns a knob on a pipe on the wall, activating the system and sending water raining down on the vampires, who scream and grimace from it before collapsing to the floor. Murray makes his way up into the house and down to the foyer. Coming upon the ritual room, he looks inside and sees Jessica lying on the altar. He goes to her and finds that she's alive, but won't awaken. Knowing he can't do much for her, he notices the camera in the corner and decides to find the control room, quickly rushing back upstairs when he hears a vehicle pull up outside. Van Helsing is led inside and to the ritual room by the conspirators. Spotting Jessica, he tries to run to her but is restrained again, as Dracula walks in and heads behind the altar. He motions his hands above Jessica's body and then, with a flick of both wrists, the black candles on each end of the altar light instantly. General Freeborne closes the door, while upstairs, Murray finds his way into the control room. Flipping a switch, he gets the video feed from the ritual room on a monitor, though Dracula's image doesn't appear on it.

With midnight quickly approaching, Dracula declares to his conspirators, "On this, the eve of the Sabbath of the Undead, I call upon you to witness my supreme triumph." He then says to Van Helsing, "I choose the spawn of your blood to be my consort." Van Helsing rises to his feet but Dracula uses the power of his will to force him to sit back down. He then motions for Porter to walk over to a box on a table, from which he removes a test tube containing the plague. Dracula declares, "The instrument of my final conquest, swifter, more awesome than the Black Death. The plague." Having seen this from the control room, Murray attempts to make his way downstairs, but finds a baton-wielding guard down in the foyer, forcing him to retreat. Dracula goes on to describe, "In the first moments, every muscle, every fiber will be a fire with torment and agony." He tells Van Helsing, "In the days to come, you will pray for death. Release." Van Helsing, in turn, tells him that his plan will leave him with a dead, empty world to command, asking, "Is that what you want, Count Dracula? A last blaze of utter horror and violence? Ghastly annihilation of an entire planet? Is this your own death wish?" Though his words seem to have given Dracula a moment of pause, the Count continues, "I have chosen four messengers of death, four horsemen of my created apocalypse, four carriers of the plague who will infect their miserable brethren. You, Van Helsing, are now one of the four." He then looks down at Jessica and says, "The body of your granddaughter will never be corrupted. It will be her joy to walk at my side." At this point, his conspirators realize that he intends for them to be his "four horsemen" and mention how loyally they served him and how he said they were to use the plague only as a means of blackmailing governments. Dracula yells at them to be quiet, and turns back to Van Helsing, telling him that, through Jessica, he will do what he says. He prepares to make her his bride, with Van Helsing unable to do anything, when Porter yells, "In your name, for you, everything! We did exactly as you commanded! In return, you promised..." But then, Dracula uses his hypnotic influence on Porter, who then looks at the vial in his hand. He's aware of what Dracula is manipulating him to do, but is unable to stop himself. The clock strikes midnight and he forces Porter to break the vial in his hand. Porter gasps in shock, and then doubles over in agony, as Van Helsing, Freeborne, and Carradine back away from him.

In the control room, Murray is surprised when a guard walks in. Threatening him with his metal baton, he approaches the phone to call for support, when Murray punches him in the gut and then the face, knocking him back towards the door. Murray then has to dodge the swipes of his baton, managing to elbow the guard in the side at one point, only to be kicked towards and falling over the chair. Down in the ritual room, Porter rips open his suit collar, revealing the grotesque effects of the plague, with Dracula watching with an evil smile, while upstairs, the fight continues. Murray rips the phone out and tosses it at the guard, and then rushes for the door, only for the guard to stop him. He then rushes at him and forces him back, causing his baton to smash into a part of a control panel, but the guard puts the baton on his neck and starts to push. Gagging, Murray grabs his face and is able to swing him around, only for the guard to knee him in the groin, sending him back against the wall. He dodges a swing from the baton, but then gets thrown against the control panel. When the guard comes at him again, he grabs his arm and forces his baton into the panel, causing it to short out and electrocute him. It explodes as he screams in pain, with Murray taking the opportunity to escape. By this point, the disease has spread to Porter's face and hands, and he reaches out to the others for help, though they back away immediately. The explosion up in the control room rips through the ritual room's ceiling, setting a corner of the room on fire. The door unlocks and Freeborne and Carrdine flee, while Murray heads down to the foyer and enters the burning room. Van Helsing tells him to get Jessica out, and he and Dracula face off as Murray does so. Van Helsing flips a table over at Dracula, only for the Count to fling him against the altar. Dracula declares, "My revenge has spread over centuries, and has just begun!" (another line from the original novel that I'm sure Christopher Lee insisted on). Porter collapses against the altar next to Van Helsing, and comes close to touching his hand. Recoiling and running away from him, and as Murray carries Jessica into the woods, Van Helsing grabs a chair, smashes a nearby window with it, and climbs out to the grounds. Unwilling to let his foe escape, Dracula climbs out as well and follows him into the woods. Meanwhile, Murray returns to the rapidly burning Pelham House, only to find no one in the ritual room except Porter, who burns along with the plague.

Murray rushes back to Jessica's side, attempting to revive her, while Van Helsing, fleeing from Dracula, runs into a hawthorn bush. Remembering Dracula's vulnerability to it, he makes his way around to the other side and yells for the Count. Hearing him, Dracula creeps through the woods until he spots Van Helsing. Storming towards him, he ignores the bush between them and tries to push through it, only to then realize what it is. Despite bleeding and getting more and more ensnared in it as he tries to go through, Dracula presses on, ripping through the thorny branches and clawing at Van Helsing. Realizing the bush itself isn't going to stop him, Van Helsing spies a fence nearby and rushes to it, as Dracula manages to get through the bush. However, his foot gets caught up in a snare and he falls on his back. Watching him as he tries to free himself, Van Helsing rips one of the posts, which has a sharp tip, out of the ground and then takes it over to Dracula. He jams it into the helpless vampire's chest, forcing it all the way through him, as he groans from the pain before giving out. Van Helsing stumbles away and falls to the ground, watching as Dracula's form disintegrates and rots, with steam rising off his crumbling remains (I actually saw this scene when I was quite young, on an episode of AMC's Cinema Secrets about horror films). Soon, he's nothing more than a skeleton, and that disintegrates in and of itself, leaving behind nothing but a powdery residue. Once it's all done, Van Helsing walks over and picks up Dracula's ring. The movie ends on a freeze frame of him looking at it.

The music score was composed by, of all people, John Cacavas, who was mainly a television composer, having done the music for shows like Hawaii Five-O, The Bionic Woman, and Kojack, among many, many others. Though he was no stranger to film scores, having scored both Airport 1975 and Airport '77, as well as Horror Express, another Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee vehicle, his music for The Satanic Rites of Dracula is yet another weak aspect of the film. As corny as Mike Vickers' funky music for Dracula A.D. 1972 was, at least it was memorable; Cacavas' work here comes off as pedestrian. He tries to come up with different pieces to suit the movie's various genres, such as a jazzy sort of riff for the espionage sequences, electronic organ-like music for the satanic rituals, blasting horns for the horrific scenes (particularly when Porter is experiencing the effects of the plague), and a soft, otherworldly, whittling piece for Dracula's disintegration, but it all comes off as generic and is clearly the work of someone who doesn't typically score for movies. The main theme tries to be a mixture of both adventure and horror, with a touch of the funk from the previous score, especially when it's reprised for the ending credits, but it's not as cool to me as the stuff Vickers did. Save for some lovely, religious pieces for scenes like when Van Helsing makes his silver bullet, this score is about as useless as the movie it accompanies.

It really pains me to say that I can't recommend either of the last two films in Hammer's Dracula franchise but, alas, The Satanic Rites of Dracula is another lackluster production from the studio's final year. It may do much more with its modern setting than the previous movie, to the point where it does get rather ambitious with the number of elements it combines in the story, give Peter Cushing much more to do, offer up some good gore and grisly makeup effects, and elevate Christopher Lee's Dracula to an unprecedented diabolical level, but it's not a very entertaining watch, all in all. Sadly, for what would be his last portrayal of Dracula (not counting the French horror-comedy, Dracula and Son), Lee, again, has very little screentime, with his character being very awkwardly shoved into the story; the direction and cinematography aren't very memorable, and neither is the production design; the music is forgettable; and, above all else, the movie is a mess that's not as fun as you would expect a combination of espionage thriller and vampire movie would be. It's small wonder why this is the film that tore it for Lee as far as Dracula and Hammer were concerned, and it's also not surprising that it didn't get released in the U.S. until 1978. And yet, sadly, it's probably the Hammer movie most people have seen, given its public domain status. The idea that this movie may have scared away people from checking out Hammer's other films is a sad one indeed.