Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave [HD]



You just can't keep a good man down!
Seems like people either love or hate this particular entry into the Hammer Dracula line of films. I, myself, enjoyed it very much, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the vampire genre.

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1969) has Christopher Lee reprising his role as the ultimate blood-sucking creature of the night, which is kind of strange as in the last film, Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966), he was destroyed...or so we thought. The film takes place a year after the last film, as Monsignor Ernest Muller (Rupert Davies) visits the small village near Dracula's no empty castle to see how things are getting along. Well, things aren't getting along too well as the Monsignor finds the church empty and in a rather poor state of housekeeping. Finding the priest at the local bar, he learns that the villagers believe that while Dracula may be dead, his castle projects an aura of evil, casting a malignant shadow of evil on the town. The Monsignor decides the only course of...

An atmospheric period horror piece
"Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" opens to the sounds of James Bernard's evocative, ominous main musical theme. Directed by Freddie Francis, the film stars horror icon Christopher Lee in one of his many portrayals of cinema's most celebrated vampire. This version features a lean, effective screenplay by John Elder.

The film opens in a small, pre-industrial village that had previously been terrorized by Dracula, who is presumed to have been destroyed. As the title of the film indicates, however, Dracula soon rises from his grave to begin a new campaign of bloodsucking villainy. His foes in this film are a Catholic monsignor and the boyfriend of the monsignor's lovely niece.

Bernard's solid score is complemented by good art direction. Francis makes effective use of forest and rooftop settings as Dracula pursues his ends. Lee gets solid support from the rest of the cast. Barry Andrews makes a particularly appealing young hero as Paul, the boyfriend of the monsignor's niece. I also...

Eerie and engrossing Hammer Vampire effort
"Dracula Has Risen From The Grace" is one of the highwater marks of the Hammer Dracula series and features the wonderful Christopher Lee in his third outing as the world's most famous vampire, the blood sucking Count Dracula. Made while the Dracula cycle of films were still fresh this film is one of the best that Christopher Lee did in the role and is a vast improvement over the previous effort "Dracula Prince Of Darkness". The main yardstick for measuring this improvement is that sparse as his screen time is again, Lee has dialogue in this entry which adds tremendously to the overall impact of Dracula's sinister presence.

Ably directed by veteran Hammer man Freddie Francis the film opens a period of time after the conclusion of the earlier film where a small village experiences a horrible death in the bell tower of the local church. The terrified townspeople still living in fear from the shadows cast by Dracula's abandoned castle prompt a visiting Monseignor to travel up to Castle...

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