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1972 - 96m.
Britain

Hammer tries to bring their Dracula series into modern day 1970's London with Dracula A.D. 1972 and the results aren't much to talk about but they also managed to annoy fans of the studios gothic styled horror offerings.

Things start off with a gothic Hammer vibe as Dracula (Christopher Lee) and Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) are battling it out on top of a horse drawn carriage that's racing through the wilderness. It all ends with Dracula being staked with the broken wooden wheel of the carriage when it crashes, but that's about all of the "old school" Hammer you're going to get as the movie quickly flashes forward a hundred-years to 1972 and focuses on a group of Mods led by the odd Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame) who persuades his fellow party loving crowd - which just so happens to include the latest Van Helsing's granddaughter, Stephanie Beacham - to hold a black mass in an abandoned church for thrills.

He tells them it'd certainly be better than hanging out around the coffee shop being bored and they all agree little knowing that Johnny happens to be the owner of Dracula's sacred ring and ashes. Things soon enough get out of hand as the ritual (which plays out rather silly with hypnotic beatnik music and various forms of swaying) brings back Dracula from his century long slumber. He kills off one of the crowd while the others flee and takes Johnny under his wing as his humble servant - who he proceeds to send out to gather victims to restore his power.

The police suspect it's just the work of a Jack The Ripper type killer and they turn to professor Van Helsing to try and help them with the case. From there Van Helsing puts the clues together and has to try and convince the police that Dracula is alive and well in modern day all the while trying to stop the bloodsucker from taking the life of his granddaughter.

Dracula A.D. 1972 is an interesting misfire at least. Hammer's decision to rework the series into current times doesn't quite work but you have to give them credit for attempting to resurrect a series that was starting to wane (this was the seventh entry after all). Of course, giving it this setting does only manage to horribly date the proceedings but it's fairly amusing to see Lee's classy Dracula amongst hippie flavoured fashions and a quite bad (and out-of-place) disco tinged musical score. Speaking of Lee and Cushing, it's certainly great to welcome them back to the series but they're both fairly absent for the first hour or so and Lee isn't given a whole heck of a lot to do (and has only about ten minutes of screen time tops).

This one is for Hammer completists only and the closing text line: "Rest in final peace." turned out to be a lie as The Satanic Rites Of Dracula would follow this (and hammer the final nail into the series coffin). (Chris Hartley, 10/20/05)

Directed By: Alan Gibson.
Written By: Don Houghton.

Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Stephanie Beacham, Christopher Neame.


DVD INFORMATION

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Warners transfer here looks great for a movie that's over thirty years old and it's an all-around solid looking picture even if the finale does fall victim to a few moments of fuziness.

Extras: As with the other releases in Warner's 2005 "Halloween Havoc" line (that includes Night Of The Lepus, Demon Seed, Private Parts, and A Stranger Is Watching) the only extra here is a trailer.