Director: Terence Fisher
Writers: Jimmy Sangster, Anthony Hinds
Stars: Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir
Run Time: 1 hour, 30 Minutes
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/32WNyHj
Synopsis
We begin with a recap of the first Hammer Dracula film, with Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing pulling down the curtain and killing Dracula with sunshine. Credits Roll.
Ten years later, we cut to a funeral procession out in the woods. It’s a dead girl, and one member of the funeral party has a stake and mallet. Her mother begs them not to stake her, but they insist on proceeding. Father Sandor rides up with his gun and runs off the priest and the men with the stake. He says he’s sure she’s not a vampire, and he orders them away.
Four wealthy travelers come to town, and they buy drinks for everyone in the pub a few times. Father Sandor comes in and gets on everyone’s case about their vampire superstitions. He warns the young people not to go to Carlsbad. He’s very serious about his warning. He especially warns them not to go to the castle.
The next day, the coachman also refuses to take them all the way to Carlsbad. Naturally, he drops them off in front of the castle. Just as they decide not to actually go to the castle, a carriage comes out of the castle. They stop the carriage, and it takes them to… the castle.
They find one servant, Klove, there, and everything appears to have been prepared for their arrival. Helen insists everything about their situation is evil, but none of the others think anything is wrong. She really does seem hysterical for no reason.
Alan spots Klove dragging a chest down the hallway and follows him downstairs, leaving Helen alone in her room. Alan finds an altar and what looks like Dracula’s clothes laying on a bench. Alan sees that the altar is actually Dracula’s tomb. Klove stabs Alan in the back and then hangs his body above Dracula’s tomb. Klove dumps Dracula’s ashes in the tomb and then cuts Alan’s throat. Alan’s blood revives Dracula, who regenerates as we watch.
Klove brings Helen downstairs, and Dracula bites her. In the morning, Charles and Diana wake up to find they are alone. Diana hides in the woodsman’s shed, while Charles goes back to the castle for some unclear reason. Klove comes to pick up Diana, and she goes with him back to the castle as well.
Meanwhile, Charles finds Alan’s body, and since it just got dark, Dracula wakes up. Vampire Helen goes after Diana, but Dracula hisses and grabs her. Helen then goes after Charles, but Dracula grabs him first. They hold off the two vampires with crosses. They run out, grab Klove’s carriage, and ride off.
The carriage crashes, and Charles carries Diana through the woods until they cross Father Sandor and his monastery. Sandor figures out everything and explains it to Charles. He takes Charles to meet Ludwig, a funny lunatic who eats flies. Sandor explains that a vampire cannot enter a building unless invited; we immediately cut to mad Ludwig inviting him in.
They catch Helen and stake her. Ludwig leads Diana into a locked room with Dracula. He hypnotizes her. He cuts himself and almost gets Diana to lick the blood, but Charles breaks in, and Dracula runs off with Diana. It’s nearly morning, so Klove loads Dracula and Diana into twin coffins and drives back to the castle in his carriage.
They run Klove off the road and shoot him. The horses run on uncontrolled and spill their cargo right outside the castle. Dracula’s coffin slides across the frozen, icy moat. He gets out, and Sandor shoots the ice, creating a hole that swallows up Dracula “forever.”
Commentary
The travelers were warned about Carlsbad and the castle, but they wound up there anyway. Normally, this would be attributed to stupidity, but it’s all actually very logical and not really unreasonable for the circumstances.
There are long periods and entire scenes with no dialogue. Dracula himself never says a word in the entire film. This is probably the lamest Dracula death ever filmed, but overall, the movie is really one of the better ones, despite having no dialog from Dracula.
The characters and plot are mostly logical, and it’s all very entertaining to watch.