decimates the three families. Alice murders her father with a shovel and kidnaps Lucy who is bitten by Dracula. When Paxton and Secker search for the missing Lucy, they find her laid out in a coffin. Secker immediately knows to stake the vampire, but the heartbroken father has brought a gun and chases his friend from the cemetery. As the night falls, Lucy rises and both she and Alice stake the old man with his own stake. Secker wakes the next day and writes his theories in a letter to Paul Paxton. Passing out from his gunshot wound, he awakens and hands the letter to his son Jeremy who has been bitten by Lucy. Jeremy kills his father with a dagger as Dracula looks on. In the forest, the Count bleeds Lucy dry, killing her. At the Secker household, the inspector hands Paul the letter and after reading the instructions therein, he sets off in search of Dracula and Alice. Approaching the old church in daylight, he makes it Holy again by adding the correct ornamentation, a white altar cloth and candles and tearing down the dusty curtains that bring God’s light into the church. When Dracula and Alice appear, Paul tries to convince Alice to escape with him. Dracula and Paul struggle as Paul is knocked unconscious. As Alice tries to follow her master, the Count tells her that he has no more need of her and she traps him between two crosses. When Paul wakes, Dracula is trying to kill the pair by throwing large candle holders at them. His back comes into contact with the stained glass windows and burns him. The priest is heard uttering the prayer that killed him and Dracula is overcome by the ornamentation of the newly consecrated church. He falls onto the altar and crumbles to dust as Paul and Alice, now free of his power, embrace and leave the church.
Review
Taste the Blood of Dracula is my own personal favourite of the sequels in that it sets the Count squarely in the Victorian society that Bram Stoker originally envisaged. Hungarian Peter Sasdy’s deft direction made me wonder what he would have made of a straight telling of Stoker’s novel. In this film he takes many key points from Freddie Francis and blends them uniquely into his story. Most notable aspects are the furtherance of Dracula’s victims enjoying his advances and lounging on the lid of his sarcophagus in the drafty churchyard and replaying the final closing moments of the previous installment to better theatrical effect.
Opening with a coach rushing through the forest we meet Weller (Roy Kinnear), - “What a way to travel. Barbaric!” - A travelling salesman being ejected mid-run by two psychotic passengers. He awakes as it begins to grow dark and hears a series of blood curdling screams. Falling down a steep incline, he sees a man impaled on a huge golden crucifix. The man cries blood and quickly disintegrates to nothing. The blood dries to a fine red powder and, as Weller investigates, the salesman realizes he has chanced upon the death of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). This is a great opening sequence, although it fails to mention where the young lovers and the Priest from the previous film have disappeared to, but that matters little. After the credits we are introduced to three Victorian families as they leave the church after Sunday mass; The Hargoods (Geoffrey Keen, Linda Hayden and Gwen Watford), The Paxton’s (Peter Sallis, Anthony Corlan and Isla Blair) and the Seckers (John Carson and Martin Jarvis). Certainly one of the more esteemed cast lists of the whole series. The action begins when the three patriarchs meet for their monthly trip to the east end to hand out charity for those less fortunate than themselves. This consists of throwing a few coins to the beggars that surround their coach with wonder and envy as they disembark in the red light district. Felix, a very camp Russell Hunter, greets his best customers with girls and champagne. One of the girls is doll like Madeline Smith in her first Hammer role. As they indulge in their fantasies,
Review
Taste the Blood of Dracula is my own personal favourite of the sequels in that it sets the Count squarely in the Victorian society that Bram Stoker originally envisaged. Hungarian Peter Sasdy’s deft direction made me wonder what he would have made of a straight telling of Stoker’s novel. In this film he takes many key points from Freddie Francis and blends them uniquely into his story. Most notable aspects are the furtherance of Dracula’s victims enjoying his advances and lounging on the lid of his sarcophagus in the drafty churchyard and replaying the final closing moments of the previous installment to better theatrical effect.
Opening with a coach rushing through the forest we meet Weller (Roy Kinnear), - “What a way to travel. Barbaric!” - A travelling salesman being ejected mid-run by two psychotic passengers. He awakes as it begins to grow dark and hears a series of blood curdling screams. Falling down a steep incline, he sees a man impaled on a huge golden crucifix. The man cries blood and quickly disintegrates to nothing. The blood dries to a fine red powder and, as Weller investigates, the salesman realizes he has chanced upon the death of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). This is a great opening sequence, although it fails to mention where the young lovers and the Priest from the previous film have disappeared to, but that matters little. After the credits we are introduced to three Victorian families as they leave the church after Sunday mass; The Hargoods (Geoffrey Keen, Linda Hayden and Gwen Watford), The Paxton’s (Peter Sallis, Anthony Corlan and Isla Blair) and the Seckers (John Carson and Martin Jarvis). Certainly one of the more esteemed cast lists of the whole series. The action begins when the three patriarchs meet for their monthly trip to the east end to hand out charity for those less fortunate than themselves. This consists of throwing a few coins to the beggars that surround their coach with wonder and envy as they disembark in the red light district. Felix, a very camp Russell Hunter, greets his best customers with girls and champagne. One of the girls is doll like Madeline Smith in her first Hammer role. As they indulge in their fantasies,
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