Dracula A.D. 1972

All of this just works. ― Todd Howard

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Dracula A.D. 1972
"Dig the music, kids!"
Genre: Horror Directed by: Alan Gibson Produced by: Josephine Douglas Written by: Don Houghton Starring: Christopher Lee Peter Cushing Stephanie Beacham Christopher Neame Michael Coles Photography: Color Cinematography: Dick Bush Distributed by: Columbia-Warner Distributors Release date: September 28, 1972 Runtime: 96 minutes Country: United Kingdom Language: English

Dracula A.D. 1972 is a 1972 British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions, and is the seventh film in the Hammer Horror Dracula film series. The film stars Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Stephanie Beacham, and Christopher Neame, written by Don Houghton, and directed by Alan Gibson.

Why It Sucks Blood

1. Terrible story with a wasted concept; this film could have been Dracula terrorizing then-modern English towns but instead it focuses on annoying hippie characters.
   • Fortunately, this concept of Dracula in a modern setting was similarly (and better) utilized in The Satanic Rites of Dracula.
2. Cheesy acting, with Christopher Neame as Johnny Alucard taking the cake for his over-the-top villainous acting.
3. The horror comes off more as unintentionally humorous, coupled with the fact that the main threat for most of the movie is the incredibly unintimidating Johnny Alucard.
4. False advertising: Dracula himself barely has any screen time in the film despite being featured on the posters. He only appears in three scenes (the opening fight scene with Van Helsing, the ritual scene in which he is resurrected, and the final battle where he dies again) and spends most of his time in the now-abandoned St Bartolph's.
5. Characters that serve no purpose nor care about other than to progress the plot:
   • Johnny Alucard is incredibly annoying and hard to take seriously as a villain, especially when he becomes a vampire and later gets himself killed by running water in a shower.
   • Jessica Van Helsing has a bland personality, being nothing more than a generic Scream Queen who just happens to be the descendent of Dracula's archenemy. You would think that she would be the next protagonist to fight Dracula, but she barely does anything in the movie.
   • Lorrimer Van Helsing is just Lawrence Van Helsing (even being played by the same actor) but put in a then-modern setting, although he is still likable as ever.
   • Jessica's friends are filler characters who exist to pad out the runtime.
6. Johnny Alucard's (Christopher Neame) death scene is incredibly ridiculous over how played up it is (as mentioned above, he is killed in a shower).
7. Alucard is Dracula backward. The fact that Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) has a scene of him figuring this out by writing up his name and rearranging the letters is just pointless.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Good cinematography.
2. Dracula's deaths in both the pre-title sequence and the film's climax are pretty awesome.
3. The opening track (while out of place) is quite catchy.
4. The late Christopher Lee is great as Dracula, even though he's barely in the movie.

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