''Dracula A.D. 1972'' is a 1972 British

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...

, directed by

Alan Gibson Norman Alan Stewart Gibson (28 May 1923 – 10 April 1997) was an English journalist, writer and radio broadcaster, best known for his work in connection with cricket, though he also sometimes covered football and rugby union. At various times ...

and produced by

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve class ...

. It was written by

Don Houghton Donald Herbert Houghton (2 February 1930 – 2 July 1991) was a British television screenwriter and producer. Career Born in Paris to Scottish parents, Houghton started writing for radio in 1951 before moving into film and television in 1958. In ...

and stars

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultim ...

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

and

Stephanie Beacham Stephanie Beacham (born 28 February 1947) is an English television, film, radio and theatre actress. Although she has a wide number of credits to her name, Beacham is best known for for playing Sable Colby in the ABC soap operas ''The Colbys' ...

. Unlike earlier films in Hammer's ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taki ...

'' series, ''Dracula A.D. 1972'' had a contemporary setting in an attempt to update the ''

'' story for modern audiences. Dracula is brought back to life in modern London and preys on a group of young partygoers that includes the descendant of his nemesis,

Van Helsing A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across ...

. It is the seventh Hammer film featuring Dracula, and the sixth to star

in the title role. It also marked the return of

as Van Helsing for the first time since ''

The Brides of Dracula ''The Brides of Dracula'' is a 1960 British supernatural horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film stars Peter Cushing, David Peel, Freda Jackson, Yvonne Monlaur, Andrée Melly, and Martita Hunt. ...

'' (1960), and was the first to feature both Lee and Cushing in their respective roles since ''

'' (1958). It was followed by the last film in Hammer's Dracula series to star Christopher Lee, ''

The Satanic Rites of Dracula ''The Satanic Rites of Dracula'' is a 1973 British horror film directed by Alan Gibson and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is the eighth film in Hammer's ''Dracula'' series, and the seventh and final one to feature Christopher Lee as Dr ...

'', which similarly utilized a modern setting and featured most of the same central characters.

Plot

In 1872,

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some ...

and his nemesis Lawrence Van Helsing battle on the top of a runaway coach. The carriage crashes and Dracula is partly impaled by one of the wheels. In the struggle, Van Helsing manages to fully push the wheel into the vampire's chest, staking him. This done, Van Helsing collapses and dies from his own wounds. At that moment, a follower of Dracula arrives, collects Dracula's remains and, a few days later, buries them near Van Helsing's grave at St Bartolph's Church. A century later, Jessica Van Helsing, granddaughter of

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

expert Lorrimer Van Helsing and descendant of Dracula's old nemesis, and Johnny Alucard who closely resembles Dracula's disciple from 1872, are among a group of young

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

s. Alucard persuades Jessica and the others to attend a

black magic Black magic, also known as dark magic, has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes, specifically the seven magical arts prohibited by canon law, as expounded by Johannes Hartlieb in 14 ...

ceremony in the now abandoned,

deconsecrated Deconsecration, also called secularization, is the act of removing a religious blessing from something that had been previously consecrated by a minister or priest of that religion. The practice is usually performed on churches or synagogues to ...

St Bartolph's, where he performs a bloody ritual involving one of their group, Laura Bellows. Jessica and the others flee in horror, after which Dracula is resurrected and kills Laura. Laura's body is discovered, drained of blood, and a police investigation begins which is headed by Inspector Murray. Murray suspects an occult element and interviews Lorrimer, who is shocked to learn the details of Laura’s death. He realises that Alucard (whose name is Dracula written backwards) is a disciple of Dracula, and that the Count must have returned. Meanwhile, Alucard brings another of Jessica’s friends, Gaynor Keating, to St. Bartolph's, where she is killed by Dracula and Alucard volunteers to become a vampire. The vampiric Alucard kills a passerby and lures Jessica’s boyfriend, Bob, to a café they frequent, where he turns him into a vampire as well. While Lorrimer is out, Bob goes to the Van Helsing house and persuades Jessica to come to the café, where he and Alucard capture her and take her to Dracula. Aided by one of Jessica's friends, Lorrimer tracks Alucard to his flat and battles him. Alucard accidentally kills himself with the running water in the bathroom shower. At St Bartolph's, Lorrimer finds Bob's dead body, slain by sunlight before he could reach his resting place, and Jessica in a trance, with Dracula planning to take his revenge on the Van Helsing family by turning her into a vampire. Lorrimer sets a trap for Dracula by placing a pit of stakes underneath the graveyard and waits for him to return at nightfall. The two have a struggle in which Lorrimer attempts to kill Dracula with a silver knife, but the knife is pulled out by Jessica, still under Dracula’s command. As the pair go outside, Lorrimer throws

holy water Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from ...

at Dracula, which burns his hands and causes him to fall into the pit of stakes. Realising Dracula is still barely alive, Lorrimer uses a shovel to push Dracula into the stakes even further. Dracula dies, his body crumbling into ashes, and his spell over Jessica is broken. As Jessica embraces her grandfather, the title "Rest in Final Peace" is shown.

Cast

as Lorrimer Van Helsing / Lawrence Van Helsing *

as Count Dracula *

as Jessica Van Helsing *

Christopher Neame Christopher Neame (born 12 September 1947, London) is an English actor now living in the United States. UK career Neame's UK film credits include appearances in two Hammer Horror films: '' Lust for a Vampire'' (1971) and ''Dracula AD 1972'' ...

as Johnny Alucard / follower of Dracula (1872) * Marsha Hunt as Gaynor Keating *

Caroline Munro Caroline Munro (born 16 January 1949)McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. p. 538; is an English actress, model and singer known for her many appearances in horror, ...

as Laura Bellows *

Janet Key Janet Key (10 July 1945 – 26 July 1992) was an English actress with a varied career in theatre, film and television from the late 1960s until her death. Career Key was born in Bath, Somerset, and trained at the nearby Bristol Old Vic Theatr ...

as Anna Bryant *

Michael Kitchen Michael Roy Kitchen (born 31 October 1948) is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle in the ITV drama ''Foyle's War'', which comprised eight series betw ...

as Greg * Lally Bowers as Matron Party Hostess * Flanagan as Go Go Dancer (uncredited) * Stoneground as Themselves * Michael Coles as Inspector Murray * William Ellis as Joe Mitcham * Philip Miller as Bob * David Andrews as Detective Sergeant * Constance Luttrell as Mrs. Donnelly * Michael Daly as Charles * Artro Morris as Police Surgeon * Jo Richardson as Crying Matron * Brian John Smith as Hippy Boy *

Penny Brahms Penny Brahms (born Penelope K. Brams in 1951) is a British model and film and television actress whose career was active in the 1960s and 1970s. She co-starred with Joanna Lumley in the 1971 sex comedy '' Games That Lovers Play''.Limbacher p.859 ...

as Hippy Girl

Production

Following the success of the modern-day vampire film '' Count Yorga, Vampire'', Warner Bros commissioned two Hammer Dracula films set in the present day, which were to become ''Dracula A.D. 1972'' and ''

''. The film was inspired by the events surrounding the

Highgate Vampire The Highgate Vampire was a media sensation surrounding reports of supposed supernatural activity at Highgate Cemetery in London, England, United Kingdom, in the 1970s. The most thorough account of the story is given by folklorist Bill Ellis in the ...

case. For the Black Mass segment, the film used the track "Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell" by the pioneering electronic group

White Noise In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines ...

, from their 1969 album ''

An Electric Storm ''An Electric Storm'' is the debut album by electronic music group White Noise. The band recorded the first two tracks with the intention of producing a single only, but were then persuaded by Chris Blackwell of Island Records to create an entir ...

''; Neame's dialogue was later sampled by Orbital for "Satan Live" and "Tension".

Filming

''Dracula A.D. 1972'' began production in September 1971 as ''Dracula Today'' and was filmed in Chelsea and Hertfordshire.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by former

Manfred Mann Manfred Mann were an English rock band, formed in London and active between 1962 and 1969. The group were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two diffe ...

member

Mike Vickers Michael Graham Vickers (born 18 April 1940) is an English musician who came to prominence as the guitarist, flautist, and saxophonist with the 1960s band Manfred Mann. He was born in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey. At the age of seven, his famil ...

, and is in a funky, "

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president ...

" style that reflects the early 1970s setting of the film. It was first released commercially in 2009 on CD. The film also featured two songs, "Alligator Man" and "You Better Come Through for Me", by the American band Stoneground (a late replacement for

the Faces Faces are an English rock band formed in 1969 by members of Small Faces after lead singer and guitarist Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie. The remaining Small Faces—Ian McLagan (keyboards), Ronnie Lane (electric bass, vocals), and Kenn ...

), which were included as bonus tracks on the CD. * BSX Records (BSXCD 8855) * Release date: 4 May 2009 * Limited edition of 1,500 copies ;Track listing # "Warner Bros. Logo (Theme from ''Dracula'')" – 0:09 # "Prologue/Hyde Park 1872" – 4:28 # "Main Theme: ''Dracula A.D. 1972''" – 2:04 #"Johnny Looks at Ring/Legend of Dracula" – 1:01 # "Devil's Circle Music" – 3:52 # "Baptism by Blood" – 5:18 # "Dracula Rising/The Blood Ritual/Laura Screams" – 2:37 # "Dracula Returns/Dracula Bites Laura" – 2:55 # "Alucard = Dracula/Not the One!/Give Me the Power!" – 4:15 # "Dumping the Body/Van Helsing Prepares/Jessica Walks Into the Trap" – 2:09 # "Van Helsing Heads to the Club" – 1:35 # "Van Helsing Confronts Johnny/Johnny's Ignoble Death Scene" – 3:56 # "Johnny Be Really Dead!/Van Helsing at the Church/Van Helsing Confronts Dracula/Rest in Final Peace/Main Theme: Dracula A.D. 1972 (Reprise)" – 11:50 ;;Bonus tracks

"You Better Come Through for Me" – 3:29 :Composed by Tim Barnes (ASCAP), performed by Stoneground
"Alligator Man" – 3:29 :Written by Sal Valentino (BMI), performed by Stoneground

* Total duration: 53:07

Continuity

The film's opening sequence was not in the previous film, ''

Scars of Dracula ''Scars of Dracula'' is a 1970 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker for Hammer Films. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, along with Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Patrick Troughton, and Michael Gwynn. Although disparaged by som ...

'' (1970), but is completely new and sets up a new short series of the

Hammer Horror Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic fiction, Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of thes ...

Dracula chronology finishing in the following film, ''

'' (1973). This film's prologue takes place in 1872 and therefore is impossible to reconcile with the previous films in the series, the chronology of which starts in 1885 as described in the 1958 original. While the two present-day Dracula films star both Lee and Cushing, they do not correspond to the chronology established in the Victorian/

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

-era films; the first Hammer Dracula film, ''

'', is set in the 1880s, whereas the flashback sequence of the last battle between Van Helsing and Dracula in ''Dracula A.D. 1972'' is set in 1872—long before the first meeting of Van Helsing and Dracula in the original film.

Release

''Dracula A.D. 1972'' was marketed with the taglines "Past, present or future, never count out the Count!" and "Welcome back, Drac!". When it was released in the United States, a brief clip was played before the film in which actor

Barry Atwater Garrett "Barry" Atwater (May 16, 1918 – May 24, 1978) was an American character actor who appeared frequently on television from the 1950s into the 1970s. He was sometimes credited as G.B. Atwater. Life and career The son of the landscape pai ...

(the vampire Janos Skorzeny in '' The Night Stalker'') rises from a coffin and swears the entire audience in as members of the Count Dracula Society.

Reception

Critical reaction to ''Dracula A.D. 1972'' has been mixed to negative. Upon the film's release,

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film only 1 star out of 4, while Clyde Jeavons of ''

The Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' called it "an abortive and totally unimaginative attempt to update the Bram Stoker legend to present-day Chelsea," adding that "the attempt to reconcile Transylvania with S.W.3 merely sends the script haywire ('Close the devil's circle—dig the music, kids!') ... even that old stand-by, unintentional humour, has been torpedoed by an arch script which insultingly begs for laughs with lines like, 'She's a bit drained,' and 'Come in for a bite.'" Dennis Prince of ''DVD Verdict'' said, "''Dracula A.D. 1972'' is definitely one of the weakest installments in Hammer's horror catalog and will likely only have strong appeal to Dracula completists." ''Eccentric Cinema'' wrote, "One can have a fun time with this movie—mostly because of its faults. It's cheese all right, professionally made cheese that's much better acted and staged than it really has any right to be." ''The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review'' called the film "a major disappointment" and "the low-point of the whole Hammer Dracula series" despite "minor positive aspects". George R. Reis of ''DVD Drive-In'' wrote, "Considered a low point in Hammer's roster, ''Dracula A.D. 1972'' is hardly that. ... e film has a number of things going for it. ... Cushing's exceptional Van Helsing pretty much carries the film. ... Christopher Neame is charismatically evil as Johnny Alucard ndhis stirring fight scene with Van Helsing is a highlight. ... How can Hammer fans not like this stuff?" In his 2017 book on vampire films of the 1970s, author Gary A. Smith wrote that looking back on the film, "what seemed like a terrible idea back in 1972, really isn't so dire after all. Now, so far removed from its contemporary setting, the swinging London of ''Dracula A.D. 1972'' seems as much a period piece as the Victorian settings of its predecessors. The main problem with the film is that Dracula is confined to the ruins of a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

church and never really interacts with the modern world." The film, despite its generally mixed reception, has some prominent admirers and supporters. American film director

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...

at one point claimed it to be among his favorite films, and English author, film critic and horror expert

Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at ...

chose it as one of his top 10 favorite vampire movies. In the 2020 BBC/

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

''Dracula'' miniseries, the third episode is in itself an homage to the film, taking place in present day. It also includes references to it along with many other Hammer Dracula films.

Home media

The film was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

in 2018 by the Warner Archive Collection. The film was released on DVD in 2005 by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

in the United Kingdom, United States and Germany. It was released as ''Dracula A.D. 1972'' in the UK and US and as ''Dracula jagt Mini-Mädchen'' in Germany. On 6 November 2007, the movie was released in a set along with ''

'', ''

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave ''Dracula Has Risen from the Grave'' is a 1968 British supernatural horror film directed by Freddie Francis and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is the fourth entry in Hammer's ''Dracula'' series, and the third to feature Christopher Lee ...

'', and ''

Taste the Blood of Dracula ''Taste the Blood of Dracula'' is a 1970 British supernatural horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Peter Sasdy from a script by Anthony Hinds, it is the fifth installment in Hammer's ''Dracula'' series, and the fourth to ...

''.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * *
Featurette for ''Dracula A.D. 1972''
at the Internet Archive, includes behind the scenes footage and an interview with Christopher Lee {{Alan Gibson 1972 films 1972 horror films British horror films Columbia Pictures films Dracula films 1970s English-language films Films directed by Alan Gibson Films set in 1872 Films set in 1972 Films set in London Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios Hammer Film Productions horror films Films about Satanism Warner Bros. films Dracula (Hammer film series) Resurrection in film Films produced by Josephine Douglas 1970s British films