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63 comments in total

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15 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Work of accidental genius, 17 February 1999

Author: aled williams (al@fullgoat.freeserve.co.uk) from Cardiff, Wales

Although it feels a bit thrown together, with its day as night shots, total lack of continuity and dreadful soundtrack, this film succeeds as a comic masterpiece. It's difficult to describe the amount of pleasure that can be gained through Christopher Neame's outrageous performance as Johnny Alucard (Van Helsing's solving of the anagram is one of many magnificent unintentionally comic moments, worthy of Tom Baker at his most insincere).

Both Cushing and Lee try desperately to bring a sense of gravitas to the lunatic proceedings (how do vampires survive when it's raining?), but it does become apparent that the series was reaching its natural conclusion.

I've laughed so much it's been impossible to stand up during this. Memorable quotes include: "Dig the music, kids", "Foul, ghastly, horrible, obscene murder" and "A black mass? I mean, honestly." And while we're on it the black mass itself is absolutely wonderful.

How did they ever think this wouldn't date? By 75 it was hysterical.

Rush and see it, you'll be mightily rewarded.

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10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Tell Us About The Blood, Johnny!, 1 February 2004
Author: crockettuk

I don't understand why people constantly put-down this movie (and its sequel Satanic Rites Of Dracula) They're both great fun and much more enjoyable than the stodgy Taste The Blood Of Dracula (in fact Satanic in my opinion is the best of the whole Hammer Dracula cycle in my opinion!)

I've noticed lots of people pointing to the 7O's factor as feeling very dated- (well, what else were people supposed to be playing in 1972- 90's techno music?) I quite enjoyed Stoneground's little performance and to knock the soundtrack by Michael Vickers is unfair as it is constantly enjoyable and funky to listen to. Add the ever-reliable Peter Cushing and a Christopher Lee who DOESN'T look like he's going through the motions (even if he had doubts about doing the movie) and a well-off-the-wall- but enjoyable nevertheless performance by Christopher Neame as Johnny Alucard and you get a lovely slice of 70's horror nostalgia! And I'm sorry anybody with a spirit of fun about them has got to love a movie with lines like "Tell us about the blood, Johnny!" By the way I noticed a previous reviewer was confused by the beginning of the movie and whether Christopher Neame was a descendant of the character in the 1880 prologue- well of course he was! I thought that was made clear.... (by the way, interesting note of trivia, Mr Neame claims that when he was bit by Christopher Lee in the movie he did indeed become a full-fledged initiated vampire- he even lists it on his CV as a proud fact! See the Flesh and Blood Hammer Documentary for the full story.....)

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Hammer Masterpiece - "Something new yet as old as time", 26 February 2006

Author: FSCARAMANGA from The Last Valley

I have recently managed to finally secure this film on DVD after a long wait and am delighted to have been able to do so. A much maligned later addition to the Hammer Dracula saga, this was a magnificent attempt by Hammer to propel new life into the oft told story of the Count and his many appearances over passing years. It was logic that he would eventually end up in modern time and to this end on the budget available to Hammer at the time, this was without doubt a superb entry into the series. Despite being set in the early 1970's, Hammer made us well aware of the Gothic element still, by utilising an abandoned Churchyard for may scenes and also include an interesting opener at the beginning of the film, set in Victorian times to allow the old and new to join comfortably. Both Lee and Cushing gave sterling performances as Dracula and Van Helsing respectively and the soundtrack although updated is great to, very reminiscent of the period with the correct touch of the creepies also. The supporting cast is also very good and each has enough time to develop filling out the plot, particularly that of Christopher Neame, who plays Draculs disciple in a role that was sadly unable to develop further as Neame showed distinct and early signs of contesting the masters crown although one thinks perhaps that is why ultimately he was cut short! One of the best and for all of the critics out there, ask yourself when condemning films such as this on the basis that we saw Hammer go downhill etc form here out, what indeed we are left with today instead. On that basis this deserves post award ceremonies by the dozen. Long live the studio from Bray!

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10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Hey man , this movie is so far out ........., 19 June 2006

Author: pandkduke from Melling Merseyside England

Been reading the other comments of this film For some reason over the years various film critics and horror film book authors have been unjustly mean to this film. I mean you have Peter and Christopher together which is always a good start. A couple of smashing birds ( note the 70's lingo ) in Stephanie Beacham and Marsha Hunt and an absolute corker in the very sexy Caroline Munro ( who of course also advertised Lamb's Navy Rum , did a Bond Movie and perhaps the pinnacle of her career appeared as one of the hostesses with Ted Rogers and Dusty Bin on 3 2 1 ) I love the music too all very 70's. Christopher Neame's death scene was superb as was the final fight between Pete and Chris ( with that crazy 70's music once again ) is very well staged. Although Mr. Cushing looks as he's going to collapse going up and down those spiral steps.

The hilarious 70's costumes on the blokes look like they might have once belonged to Richard O'Sullivan in Man About the House. One chap spends the whole film dressed as some kind of 'kinky' monk.

The crazy 70's lingo is very funny and the group at the beginning at the party 'Stoneground ' well I'm just lost for words.

All in all I think this film is an absolute corker. If you haven't seen ignore the negative comments sit down and enjoy it.

I think it's a corker.

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
"Weird, man. Way out. I mean, spooks, hobgoblins, black magic. All that sort of stuff.", 9 October 2005

Author: bensonmum2 from Tennessee

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In 1872, Dracula was finally put to rest by Professor Van Helsing. One hundred years later, a group of young people thinks it might be good for a few laughs to perform a Black Mass. Unknown to them, a member of their group is a decedent of one of Dracula's disciples who has been waiting for this opportunity to bring Dracula back from the dead. Alive in modern day London, Dracula now seeks revenge against the Van Helsing family and plans to get that revenge by making Jessica Van Helsing one of his kind.

Take a look around the internet and you'll notice that on almost every list of favorite Hammer vampire films, Dracula A.D. 1972 is at or near the bottom. I don't get it. I actually had a bit of fun with this one. The scenes of the Black Mass were sufficiently creepy, much of the hip 70s music and vibe were infectious, Stephanie Beacham made a great heroine as Jessica Van Helsing, Christopher Neame was perfectly cast as Dracula's disciple Johnny Alucard, and the final showdown between Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing is one of the better match-ups they had in these roles. I enjoyed it so much that I have no problem placing Dracula A.D. 1972 among my three favorite of Hammer's Dracula films.

It just goes to prove that while recommendations on the internet can be useful, taking a chance on a movie with a less than stellar reputation can sometimes payoff.

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8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Good fun, but not up to scratch., 29 January 2003
Author: FoxRyan from Newcastle, UK

An interesting entry into the series, but really, I feel there was still life in the 19th Century time frame. Bringing Dracula to the 70s was, I think a mistake. Christopher Lee seems to be mostly forgotten and never gets the opportunity to get out and do what he does best. He remains in an old disused church for the whole film and only has a few decent scenes. We have Peter Cushing here, of course, playing an excellent part as Van Helsing, which somewhat saves the film. Decent portrayals by Lee, Cushing, Beacham, Munroe and Neame are worth watching. The 2 best things about this movie are , 1, the opening. Hyde Park, and Dracula and Van Helsing and racing through on a horse drawn carriage battling it out. The carriage crashes and they are both thrown. Van Helsing recieving fatal wounds and Dracula impaled on a broken wheel. Pretty good stuff, although not enough lighting was used so the carriage top battle and following events are rather hard to see. 2, the finale. As Van Helsing plans to destroy Dracula he drives a silver bladed knife through the Count's heart, only to be removed by his Granddaughter Jessica. Van Helsing then lures Dracula out to his death. The first few moments between Lee and Cushing in this final battle are classic, and for the first time in the series history, the 2 main characters speak to each other. The film is worth a look, if you`re a fan of modern horror then Lee and Cushing will seem a little lost, but if you`re a fan of the old Hammer Dracula films, take a look, with the beginning and the end, you just might like it.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Like, Taste the Blood of Dracula, kids!, 9 June 2008

Author: TrevorAclea from London, England

For reasons known only to the author, Bram Stoker's Dracula never included the line "Sergeant, I'll bet you a pound to a pinch of s**t that there's a little piece of hash at that party, and if there is, I've got them.", but the early 70s saw that particular oversight put right. Dracula A.D. 1972 saw Hammer trying to pump new life into the old Count with a new creative team whose big idea was basically to rehash the plot of Taste the Blood of Dracula in the 1970s with Christopher Neame in the Ralph Bates role as Johnny Alucard, here conning a thrill-seeking group of with it kids (Michael Kitchen and Caroline Munro among them) into making a date with the Devil with a Black Mass at the deconsecrated church that not only holds Lawrence Van Helsing's body (Lawrence? Whatever happened to Abraham?) and Dracula's ashes. "Okay, okay. But if we do get to summon up the big daddy with the horns and the tail, he gets to bring his own liquor, his own bird and his own pot." As with the Godzilla films, the main attraction is kept off the screen for most of the running time – top-billed Christopher Lee's role is probably smaller in this than any other in the series, four brief scenes probably totalling no more than ten minutes. Worse still, looking more like Peter Sellers than Transylvanian aristocracy, he brings nothing except continuity to the part: he does what is asked of him with professionalism, but that's about it. Instead the bulk of the film is carried by Neame's Malcolm McDowell wannabe, second-billed Peter Cushing as Van Helsing's grandson Lorimar, Stephanie Beacham and Michael Coles' open-minded cop ("There is a Satan." "Of course. Otherwise we wouldn't need a police force, would we?"). Yet despite the clumsily handled prologue and finale it's fairly entertaining even if it is completely derivative, perhaps even more entertaining now than when it was released because its hip and happening trappings are far funnier than the intentional comic relief – not least Johnny Alucard urging "Dig the music, kids!" during the black mass – and it's a lot better than Dracula 2000. The DVD also includes the wonderfully over the top trailer - "Are you ready? He's ready. He's waiting to freak you out – right out of this world!" – but not the short making of documentary from when the picture was still called Dracula Today (other rejected titles included Dracula Chases the Mini Girls and Dracula Chelsea '72!).

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Oh, yeah! Sock it to me, Dracula!, 12 July 2009

Author: Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) from Chicago, Illinois

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

One thing in life that I always enjoyed in my childhood was me and my mom watching the old Hammer Dracula films, they were always a blast to watch how Dracula would get himself back out of the coffin once again for the next sequel. I was able to find a DVD set with 4 Hammer Dracula movies which included one that I hadn't seen: Dracula AD 1972. I didn't even hesitate to buy the DVD and watch Dracula AD 1972 first thing when I got home. I know that these movies are technically bad and very silly, but still I enjoy watching them, Christopher Lee as Dracula in the 70's, you can't go wrong. Although I thought it would have been funnier if he went out into the city to see how people would react to him dressed in that same outfit, just watch the movie Love At First Bite, that's a great example of Dracula existing in a modern world and is absolutely hilarious. I think this movie was mainly made though because of the small success that was Count Yorga, another 1970's vampire movie that is pretty good, they wanted to ride the same roller coaster and see where they could take Dracula next.

In1872, Count Dracula and his enemy Lawrence Van Helsing battle on the top of a runaway coach. It crashes and Dracula is impaled by one of the wheels. Van Helsing dies from his wounds. One hundred years later, we are introduced to a group of young hippies that includes Jessica Van Helsing, granddaughter of Van Helsing, a descendant of Dracula's old nemesis and an expert on the occult, and Johnny Alucard, who is a disciple of Dracula. Alucard persuades Jessica and the others to attend a black magic ceremony in the now abandoned, desecrated St Bartolph's, where he performs a bloody ritual involving one of their group, Laura. 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, headed by an Inspector Murray. Van Helsing, who is shocked to learn the details of Laura's death. Alucard is turned into a vampire. The vampire Alucard lures Jessica's boyfriend, Bob, and 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, dun dun dun! Dracula in the 70's man, how groovy.

Dracula AD 1972 isn't a bad movie, it did make me laugh quite a few times, to think that this is what my parents were like in the 1970's is just disturbing, lol. But the script was such a blast to be displayed on the screen. You got very pretty actors including the gorgeous Caroline Munro, who is very under rated and Christopher Neame who I swear is Malcolm McDoweell's under appreciated brother because all those looks that Chris gave to the camera I think was inspired by A Clockwork Orange. Over all if you are into the old Hammer Dracula films, this is definitely worth the look. Even if you're not, I think this is a fun little time capsule to see how scary the 1970's were in the fashion world and how they spoke, what was so "groovy, man". Sock it to me, Dracky, baby! I had a good time watching Dracula AD 1972.

7/10

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Time has been kind...., 21 September 2007

Author: futes2-1 (futes2@hotmail.com) from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Where to begin?? Well, going against the grain, I actually enjoy this film a great deal and have watched it several times. Not because it's a great film by any means, but just because there is something hugely enjoyable about it. It starts off well with the closing sequence of a film that was never made but which could, at a stretch, be perceived as related to 'Taste the Blood of Dracula'. The Count and Van Helsing are caught in a death struggle atop a horse drawn coach hurtling through Hyde Park. We know that the Count ended up in England during Taste the Blood so it seems fitting that he has somehow been revived, headed for London, and come to the attention of his arch nemesis Van Helsing. Indeed, I would have liked to have seen the movie that I imagine this sequence to have come from. A disciple of the Count gathers up some of his remains and artifacts, proceeding to bury them just outside the walls of the graveyard where Van Helsing has just been interred. Their fate is sealed; somehow they will meet again!!!

OK, so it's pretty much down hill from there, but it's not an irreversible slope; there are still some decent moments to come. I find it quite interesting that Dracula remains in the old church, caught in a kind of time warp, almost oblivious to the strange new world outside. Also caught in a time warp are the group of young people on whom the majority of the story focuses; they seem already anachronistic in 1972, some of their references seeming around ten years out of date. Nonetheless they serve their purpose, which is slightly more evident in the recent DVD release that includes several scenes missing from other versions.

As usual the finished product differs from the original outline. For example there were plans to reveal that Dracula is, in fact, the Devil. An unfilmed piece of dialogue involved Dracula explaining his status to Johnny Alucard; 'I was always here… Always… since the dawn of time. Since the rebel angels descended into hell. Since darkness followed light… I am Dracula, Lord of Darkness, Master of the Walking Dead! I am the Curse, the Apollyon, Angel of the Destroying Furies! I am the Apocalypse!'. Interesting because this film is often decried in comparison to those being produced in America within the next couple of years, most notably 'The Exorcist'. Yet here were Hammer thinking of bringing Old Nick into the mix in 1972! Such lines were apparently dropped at Christopher Lee's insistence due to the extent to which they removed the character from Stoker's original concept, but aspects of this speech, or at least certain implications, are evident in the concluding stages of 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula'. The vampire had been pretty successfully integrated into modern times by American film makers, the most notable examples being 'Count Yorga, Vampire', the excellent 1972 TV movie 'The Night Stalker' (pilot for the old TV show) and a couple of years later the much maligned, but actually pretty good, 'Blacula'. But unlike these films, Hammer were agents of change in a different way; moving from Victorian Gothic romances to which movie goers had become accustomed over the past 14 years to an environment in which the loss of the Gothic could result in the loss of the audience, consequently the ruined and neglected St. Bartolph's church successfully represents the death of the old and its imminent demolition suggests that there's no going back, which, indeed, for Hammer, there really was not.

There is much to enjoy in this film; Lee and Cushing are, of course excellent, and some of the supporting players acquit themselves well. But now, I guess, one of its most appealing features is the sense of nostalgia it induces… it just seems like simple, harmless fun now.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
I Can Dig It!, 5 August 2000

Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

I love this film. It is a wonderful Hammer vampire story put in the seventies, with swinging girls and guys, the hippie culture(of sorts), and ancient old nemesises Dracula and Van Helsing. The opening is one of the best in the Hammer tradition as we see Dracula and Van Helsing battling in the 1800's on a carraige. Now, do not get me wrong. The film is dated very much, and it is somewhat implausible. But Peter Cushing is in top form and his performance as the descendant of Van Helsing is worth seeing the film alone. Add some very pretty(and busty) Hammer beauties like Caroline Munro and Stephanie Beacham...and Christopher Lee as the antogonist and it's a can't-miss.

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