Dracula A.D. 1972 (DVD)

Dracula AD 1972 is a Hammer Horror film directed by Alan Gibson and written by Don Houghton. The film is - as the wonderful title suggests - an attempt by the studio to give their (by then) somewhat tired vampire series some new life and zest with a funky, modern twist, transplanting Dracula (Christopher Lee) from his usual gothic period surroundings into an era when large cravats and bright yellow wallpaper were still perfectly respectable. We begin with a great prologue - which literally drips with Hammer residue - set in 1872 where Van Helsing and Dracula scuffle around on a speeding runaway horse carriage in some spookily dark and foggy forest somewhere. Dracula ends ...  Read the complete review

Hammer once ruled the world of horror films. From the late Fifties to mid Sixties there really wasn't anyone who held a candle to them. Their gore and cleavage films revolutionised a tired genre. Unfortunately, by the late Sixties things had moved on. Horror films were getting nastier and more socially relevant. Hammer's traditional costume drama approach stopped packing them in like it used to. To combat this slip in popularity, Hammer tried to make films that appealed to a younger, hipper audience. Unfortunately, Hammer was run by the same middle-aged men who had made the earlier stuff. So their wild attempts to revive their fortunes weren't ...  Read the complete review

To update the series, Hammer moved Dracula into the 70's. The move was needed at the time as the series was beginning to get quite poor - although Scars of Dracula was one of my favourite of the Hammer Dracula's. This move would have been seen as qui...(read more) te revlutionary at the time, but now looks extremely dated. Dracula has no part in the funky 'peace man' 70's scene, and may as well have been in his own little film. It has its moments and the dialogue is much better than previous efforts, but Dracula AD 1972 fails on many levels. Its good to see Cushing back in the series - but Lee looks tired and bored of the whole thing - and it shows. Its a shame that the ...  Read the complete review

This is one of the long running Hammer horror films featuring Dracula, and is set in swinging London in the seventies (as if you didn’t guess). It stars the usual hammer pairing of Christopher Lee as the Count and Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing, his nemesis. The film starts in Victorian times with Van Helsing killing(?) Dracula, and then jumps a 100 hundred years to seventies London where a group of hippies think it is a good idea to mess with the occult in an old church, and one of their number (Johnny Alucard – think about it!!!), who happens to have a vial of the ashes of Dracula decides to raise him from the dead, upon which Dracula ...  Read the complete review