School of the Damned is a Scottish horror comic published by Black Hearted Press.

It could be described as being something of a cross between Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentleman and the X-Men.

Written and drawn by John Howard, James Devlin, Dave Alexander, John Farman, Jason Mathis and David Braysher. This series has so far produced six issues as well as its own spin off series, “Tales of the Damned.”

Its easily one of the most inventive and interesting horror comics I’ve had the good fortune to discover in a long while and that’s why I have decided to look at it first in my horror comic reviews series.

I will give an overview of the series, pick out my favourite issue and also say who I would like to see cast in an adaptation of it should it ever happen.

Overview

The series is set during the second world war. It revolves around a school similar to Xavier institute for gifted youngsters, except rather than mutants its supernatural creatures it helps, Vampires, Demons, Werewolf’s, Witches, even a Frankenstein Monster named Franken Jenny.

The school attempts to teach these creatures to try and control their Demonic nature’s and use their great powers for the good of humanity and to battle the Nazi’s.

The school is run by a reformed Count Orlok and among its staff include Damien the Demon child from The Omen (who is called Moloch), a Raven named Nevermore, Medusa, Doctor Caligari and Professor Victor Frankenstein.

Aside from battling Nazi’s the school also has to contend with Professor Abraham Van Helsing a deranged Vampire hunter who seeks to exterminate all supernatural creatures regardless of their alignment.

As you can see the series has quite an interesting premise, casting traditionally villainous horror movie characters like Damien as the good guys whilst making Van Helsing into a brutal and sadistic villain.

There are of course shades of the X-Men and League of Extraordinary Gentleman in its premise. Famous film and literary characters fighting Nazi’s, a school for gifted youngsters run by a bald, wise old man. Van Helsing can be seen to fulfil a Striker type of role of the fanatic that wants to exterminate all of the mutant’s/supernatural’s.

Still the strip is able to carve out its own identity enough to be an interesting story in its own right.

All of the characters are fairly fleshed out and interesting and they fulfil their own roles within the story. They are not merely expy’s of other characters, and the writers and artists I feel are able to bring something new to these old iconic characters which is no mean feat.

Its interesting seeing Count Orlok cast as a loving husband who still talks with his deceased wife’s ghost and is desperate to help other supernatural creatures not only use their power for good but also not feel alone like he did.

Professor Victor Frankenstein is also portrayed as arguably the most compassionate figure there meanwhile. Now the professor in all fairness is not usually portrayed as an out and out villain. The Universal version was even cast as a heroic figure whose experiments would have succeeded had it not been for a bumbling assistant Fritz, who was also the one that relentlessly tormented the Monster too when it was chained.

However what’s interesting here is that this version of the Professor is clearly based on Peter Cushing’s performance in the Hammer movies. Cushing’ Frankenstein was an out and out monster, more so than any of the creatures he created.

He was willing to murder and even rape innocent people throughout the course of the 6 films he appeared in.

In School of the Damned however the Cushing Frankenstein is shown to be a deeply caring individual who loves his creation FrankenJenny like a daughter and is appalled at some of the actions of the other members of the staff.

We see this when Clarrisa Van Helsing, a Vampire arrives at the school and the others subject her to an intense interrogation just to make sure she can be trusted much to Frankenstein’s horror who intervenes and demands they stop this inhuman treatment at once.

Again its a great twist to see one of Horror’s vilest villains be such a likable caring character.

You can see how heavily the School of the Damned Frankenstein draws on Cushing’s appearance.

There are lots of wonderful little nods to old classic horror movies and old comic books a well throughout the series. For instance each cover is an homage to an old classic comic book cover. Issue one for instance is an homage to House of Mystery issue 174’s front cover whilst issue 2’s is an homage to House of Secrets 92 which was the very first appearance of Swamp Thing.

However again these homages don’t weight the stories down to the point where they just feel like pastiche’s of other works.

The stories are very well written with a mix of brilliant action, such as in the first issue where we get to see the likes of Moloch, Orlok and Medusa use their powers to dispatch a squad of Nazi’s.

We are taken deep into the relationships between the students at the school, such as the romance between FrankenJenny and the werewolf Connor or the bitter rivalry between Jean, a Vampire and Connor. It seems Vampires and Werewolves can never get along.

Of all the characters in the school I’d say that FrankenJenny and Clarissa Van Helsing are the most interesting however both of whom are tragic, sympathetic yet engaging figures.

The artwork for the series meanwhile I think is really able to capture the feel of these old classic horror movies that it takes inspiration from. It helps that it is in black and white of course, but still I feel the various artists of the strip are able to conjure up quite a gloomy and strong atmosphere that suits the darker nature of the strip.

Sadly I have been unable to collect all 6 issues so far or any of the spin off series yet. The series is hard to get hold of. I am not even sure if its available in shops outside of Scotland. You’re best bet is to try and order it online which you can do from its official wix website. Sadly the first two issues have been sold out, but a trade paperback that collects the first 6 issues is scheduled for release sometime soon.

I hope the creators continue with the series as whilst its early days yet I think they have the potential to make this really special.

My Favourite Issue

Behind Blue Eyes is the third issue of School of the Damned and so far of the issues I have had a chance to read it is by far my favourite.

Its plot sees Clarissa Van Helsing arrive at the school asking for help. Naturally Orlock and the others are mistrustful of her and interrogate her about her past.

We see through flashbacks how Clarissa had a strained relationship with her father legendary Vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing who used to regularly beat her mother. L

Things became so bad that she eventually left and encountered a dying Dracula. As a punishment to his archenemy Dracula sired her. As a Vampire she ended up fleeing her murderous father and eventually ended up with another young woman whom she made into a Vampire. The two became lovers and after many years together hunting and killing Clarissa overcome with guilt burned her lover to death to free her from the curse. Unable to finish her own life she eventually ended up in the School.

I love this story as I think its such a clever inversion of the old Hammer Dracula’s. In the original Hammer Dracula’s we would always see how Dracula would try and punish his enemies by turning someone they loved into a Vampire, always a young woman.

Here we see a similar idea, but its turned completely on its head in so many ways. First of all we focus completely on Clarissa. Both Dracula and Van Helsing are actually hardly in this story. Instead we get to see how Clarissa is changed when she becomes a Vampire not only into a brutal killer who eventually murders the woman she loves, but also into someone who is full of self loathing and constant inner torment. In the Hammer movies we would often barely focus on the female characters after they became Vampires. They’d just become sexy Vampires and they be disposed of and that was that.

Also in films such a Dracula AD 1972, and The Satanic Rites of Dracula where Van Helsing was a pillar of virtue he loved his grand daughter Jessica and did all he could to save her. Here however whilst Van Helsing is horrified at the idea of his daughter becoming the thing he hates most, he actually doesn’t care for her at all. Its more of a “I don’t want any member of my family becoming a Vampire because its humiliating” than out of any affection for his daughter.

Also whilst Dracula is normally portrayed as an alluring, powerful presence here he is a dying, pitiful character that Clarissa finds repugnant and is only able to trick her through pity more than anything else, as well as her own hatred of her father.

This is a brilliant Dracula story that completely deconstructs all of the classic tropes of the story whilst remaining true to its basic blueprint. You wouldn’t think anything new could be done with Dracula in 2012 but the writers of this series managed it with this strip.

Highly recommended.

Fan Cast

Now in 2012 it was reported that there would be a film adaptation of School of the Damned. Sadly nothing has come of it since, but if there ever is a film or tv version of it then this is who I think should play some of the characters.

Professor Frankenstein/ Peter Capaldi

I think Capaldi would have the necessary moral strength, authority, charisma and certainly the right look to play Frankenstein. He has a real Peter Cushing look to him and I hope after he leaves Doctor Who he spends the rest of his career doing Peter Cushing type roles. Its about time someone did.

Medusa/ Michelle Gomez

Now please don’t take this the wrong way. I am not for one second saying Michelle Gomez is ugly. I would never make fun of anyone’s looks anyway and I certainly wouldn’t start with someone as beautiful as Michelle Gomez.

However having said that whilst she is a very good looking woman I think she is kind of like the late great Rik Mayall in that she is someone who can often make herself look hideous for a laugh.

Check out her deliciously grotesque performance as Margaret Thatcher to see what I mean. It doesn’t surprise me that Michelle Gomez a working class Scots woman who lived through the Poll tax gave us a lot less sympathetic (but much more accurate) portrayal of Thatcher than a Hollywood Bimbo like Meryl Streep!

Anyway with this in mind I am sure she could come up with an equally hideous and insane portrayal of Medusa that would be absolutely glorious and a joy to watch.

Van Helsing Brian Cox

A great villain, and as seen with his excellent performance as Striker in X-Men 2 he could play  a fanatical xenophobic character like Van Helsing superbly.

Count Orlock/ Robert Carlyle

Obviously one of my favourite actors, Carlyle I think would be quite good for the Vampire as he has quite a wirey build and is quite small. He also has a lot of gravitas a a performer and can act under heavy make up as seen with his role as rumplestiltskin brilliantly.

FrankenJenny/ Maisie Williams

Based on her performance in Game of Thrones I think she could inject alot of pathos and character into this character. Also her proven chemistry with Capaldi would work to the benefit of the how too.

Thank you for reading

 

 

In this article I am going to talk about why I think Hammer Studios should produce a tv series based on their old Dracula film series.

I don’t just want any old version of Dracula or Van Helsing I want it to be based on Hammer’s versions of the characters. Follow their mythology and history and style and direction. Hopefully after reading this article you may agree with me.

Van Helsing Has Rarely Been Used As A Leading Character

I feel that the Van Helsing character deserves some focus. He is a major literary character, arguably the first Vampire hunter, yet there have only ever been two films that feature him as the central character, the Brides of Dracula and Van Helsing (2004).

Sadly Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing was the character in all but name. I don’t mind a young dashing Van Helsing. Indeed Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing was essentially that, but I think the character should always be an expert on the occult. That is kind of the core of the character and I feel that was missing from the Hugh Jackman version who actually had another character there with him who was an expert on the occult.

Thus I think it would be interesting to do a tv series that focused on Van Helsing.

There’s a lot of scope in Hammer’s version of the character.

Like I said Cushing’ Van Helsing is a younger character and thus still capable of being a dashing action hero, but at the same time he isn’t just a bog standard Hollywood leading character like Jackman ‘s Van Helsing.

There are lots of avenue’s you could explore with this Van Helsing. In the Hammer movies they have quite an interesting idea that prior to Van Helsing virtually no one really knows about Vampires. There are so many different myths and legends and so many different species of Vampire that no one is sure which myth is true.

Someone for instance might hear a story about Vampires being killed by running water but then encounter a Vampire that is completely immune to that weakness and would therefore write it down that a Vampire can not be killed by running water.

At the same time however someone else who had encountered a Vampire that could be destroyed by running water would write it down that that was a fatal weakness.

We even see this happen to Van Helsing in the first two Dracula films. In Horror of Dracula he says that Vampires cannot change into bats as he has never encountered a Vampire species that can, yet in Brides he discovers a Vampire species that can shape shift after all and has to change his notes.

It could be interesting seeing how Van Helsing travels the world to provide a full account for other people on the ways of the many different types of Vampire.

In things like Buffy and Blade everyone always knows about Vampire lore. There are books about the origins of Vampires, how to kill them, even about famous Vampires lives like The Master, Angelus, Spike etc.

However I often wonder who wrote those books? Its easy for Giles and Buffy fighting Vampires now because they know just to shove a stake in him, kick him threw a window in the daytime, but what about the people who wrote the book that told them about that?

They’d have to have fought monsters they didn’t know anything about and write down what they discovered for future generations.

This is what the Cushing Van Helsing’s adventures are like. He has no library on the occult like Giles to draw on, only his own notes and often he will encounter a new breed of Vampire that is unlike anything he has ever fought before.

I think it could be very interesting to show us how Van Helsing slowly learns about the many different types of Vampires, about their weaknesses, strengths, nature, origins and provides a full account of it which leads to him being ridiculed and ostracized from the scientific community, but at the same time we can see how his work still becomes popular and helps other people battle Vampires and has a lasting impact.

There are also other areas that you could explore that weren’t seen in the Hammer series, such as why Van Helsing became a Vampire hunter in the first place, and also how he had time to have a family in the middle of his Vampire hunting escapades? What happened to Leyland Van Helsing’s mother for instance?

It Would Feature A More Terrifying Dracula

Sadly despite the immense influence of the Hammer movies on Vampire fiction and how we view Dracula in popular culture I don’t think that anybody else has ever really made a version of the character like Hammer’s incredibly enough.

Most versions of Dracula that I see I think tend to borrow from other versions of the character such as Lugosi, Langella and even Gary Oldman more so than from Lee’s.

Lee’s Dracula was a total monster. He was dangerous to everyone and everything around him, his enemies, the villagers he terrorized, even his own brides and servants! He strangled them, beat them, tore their throats out, cut them to pieces, burned them, tortured them, made them infect themselves with a lethal plague that ate them away slowly away into nothing, strung their corpses from the ceiling, boiled them in acid.

He never EVER pursued his victims because he was in love with them. He did so either out of hunger or worse to make them suffer by becoming Vampires or more often than not to make someone they love suffer. Whilst there was a sexual element to Lee’s Dracula it was not presented in a romantic way. Lee’s Dracula would burst his way into his victims room’s take them over with hypnosis, have his way with them and then savagely kill them.

His treatment of them really is rape as he takes control of their minds forcing them to sleep with him and perversly enjoy being killed by him!

Those unlucky enough to be made his brides would be beaten, mistreated and abandoned at best and savagely killed like Tania and Zena at worst!

Sadly we never see a Dracula like that any more. Every version we see tends to either be the more restrained otherworldly gentleman like Lugosi with or have a  romantic, somewhat misunderstood, tortured element like Langella and Oldman or maybe be a bit of both.

Look at the Dracula in the recent short lived HBO series for instance starring Katie McGrath or the version seen in the recent film Dracula Untold. Both though still villainous offer up more sympathetic portrayals of Dracula.

I want a Dracula that isn’t sympathetic at all. I want a bloodthirsty monster like Lee’s Dracula that not only kills its victims but tortures them too in the most brutal and inhuman ways. I want a Dracula that at its worst is literally like a hissing animal, screeching and roaring at its prey, who isn’t after some woman who is the reincarnation of his long lost love, who isn’t moping about Mina. Lee’s Dracula tried to bury Mina alive!

There is a lot of Lee’s Dracula in other performances, the fangs, the bloodshot red eyes, the sexual, seductive aspect, but like I said the actual characterisation of Lee’s version of the character as the ultimate monster with no humanity whatsoever is sadly I feel something we haven’t ever really seen since Lee.

Such a Dracula would of course be the perfect adversary for the Van Helsing of the series. He would be a suitable threat and would make Van Helsing seem all the more heroic when he managed to slay such a brutal monster.

At the same time however much like the Hammer Dracula this version of the character could be brought back from the dead which would make Van Helsing’s struggle against the monster all the more tragic that he knew he would never triumph over the Demon as he would always find a way to return sooner or later. Even if he was gone for the rest of Van Helsing’s lifetime he would be back eventually.

Thus Dracula can feel almost like a curse upon the earth in this series, an evil that will truly never die.

We Could Explore Different Vampire Myths

The Hammer Dracula films as well as other Hammer Vampire films such as Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter explore the idea of there being several different Vampire species giving rise to all of the different Vampire myths around the world.

Some even incorporate other culture’s Vampire legends like Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires which focused on Chinese stories about the Jiang Shi or hopping Vampires.

The Van Helsing series would similarly feature hundreds of different species of Vampires which would naturally allow the writers the potential for a huge variety of stories.

Among the alternate Vampires from mythology I would like to see in the series are the Nelapsi.

The Nelapsi were said to be a second race of super Vampires. They were completely and utterly indestructable and could only be defeated by performing certain rituals and placing herbs around its coffin during the daylight hours to prevent it from rising.

It has bright red eyes and can kill its victims with just a glare. It has limitless strength, speed, doesn’t feel pain, and it is known to torture its victims,sometimes being able to prolong the agony for months on end. They have been known to destroy entire villages of people their insatiable desire for destruction is so great.

A monster like this would be a perfect enemy for Van Helsing.

Another Vampire myth I’d like to see explored in the series is the Draugr myth. These Vampires are ocean dwelling Vampires that rise from the sea at night and drag  their victims back to the ocean. They also can phase through solid objects and have blue, rotting faces.

The Strigoi are ghostly Romanian Vampires that have the ability to possess their victims and can even appear invisible.

The Moroi meanwhile are ghostly Vampires that drain souls from people. Sometimes they target people who wronged them in life.

The Pricolici meanwhile is a Vampire that is like a cross between a man and a wolf and absolutely savage to its core.

Then of course there are the Indian myths about Vampires. The Vetala, hideous, deformed, Demonic creatures that hang upside down from trees like bats, Kali a Vampire Goddess with six arms who wore a necklace made up of the skulls of her victims, or the Pishacha flesh eating Vampires that can be only turn the most evil, demented and insane people into members of their kind.

There are also Vampires from Jewish mythology too such as Lilith, the Demon king Ashmodai and Astryiah a female Vampire that drains the blood from its victims using its long hair! As silly an idea as this sounds I think this would be quite an interesting opponent visually for Van Helsing.

Then there are of course the Chinese Vampires, the Jiang Shi, Hopping corpses, that have limitless strength, massive fangs and tear their victims limb from limb.

Aside from actual Vampire myths they could also draw on the different depictions of Vampires throughout the Hammer movies. We would obviously have Dracula’s Vampires who sleep in coffins, have super human strength, are hypnotic and the Vampires from Vampire Circus who can change into Panthers, the Golden Vampires, and the Vampires from Twins of Evil.

These Vampires can only be killed by being staked. If their bodies are burned their souls will be able to leave their old body to take over someone else. The idea of possession is not something we generally associate with Vampires and again could open up new avenue’s for Vampire fiction.

Then there are the Vampire that drains people’s youth from Captain Kronos.

You could also explore how these different races of Vampires interact with one another. For instance how do Dracula’s Vampires view mindless beasts like the Nelapsi? Do they fear them or in their arrogance look down on them as nothing more than animals?

I think you could do an interesting story arc that saw Dracula attempt to unite the different Vampire races in order to overrun the earth. We’d see him have to work with the kings and Queens of the other Vampire races whose power might rival or even exceed his.

We’d have to see Dracula try and find a way to get power over them or deal with any Vampires who might be his enemies. Perhaps the Golden Vampires in this series could be 7 kings of 7 different Vampire races who have united and thus brought their 7 different races together which is why Dracula hopes to make an alliance with them in the hopes that they can serve as examples to the other Vampire races.

Of course it wouldn’t just be Vampires that Van Helsing would fight. The series would put him up against many different types of monsters, but again there are thousands of different myths about Zombie, Werewolves, Demons and Witches that the show could exploit.

It Could Make Use Of Many Hammer Characters

Aside from their versions of Van Helsing and Dracula there are many other characters from their Vampire movies that they could use.

Father Sandor would make a brilliant foil for Van Helsing. Sandor was in many ways created to be the anti Van Helsing. He was rough, loud and rude and socially awkward where as Van Helsing was polite, soft spoken and a perfect gentleman. Van Helsing would always keep his cool, whilst Sandor would often shout and scream! Sandor was also a man of god, whilst Van Helsing was a scientist. Even in terms of appearance, Van Helsing was waif thin, clean shaven, looked really smart and finely turned out, whilst Sandor had a big massive beard, was a bit more unkempt and had a larger more hearty build.

Finally in terms of their methods both were very different. Sandor in the spin off comics is shown to utilize black magic in order to fight the paranormal whilst Van Helsing never used it under any circumstances. Indeed the ending of Brides of Dracula was originally to have had Van Helsing use a spell to summon up a squad of bats to destroy Baron Meinster, but Peter Cushing himself rejected it as he felt it was too out of character for Van Helsing to use the black arts to destroy his enemies.

Thus we could have a lot of interesting confrontations between Van Helsing and Sandor over their different personalities. They’d certainly clash over Sandors use of magic. You could perhaps have Van Helsing learn that magic is not necessarily a force for evil. There could be some instances where we would see Sandors magic save the day when nothing else could. Van Helsing’s work mentioning magic being vital in the battle against the forces of darkness after his experiences with Sandor could be seen as a revolutionary break through for hunters around the globe.

Captain Kronos could also be an interesting character. I think that Kronos would balance out Van Helsing and Sandor in many ways. Captain Kronos would be the person who hunts Vampires because he despises them. His back story in the film is that his mother and sister were turned into bloodsuckers. Thus he would be more intense and perhaps more vicious in dispatching the undead.

Van Helsing would be very much a scientist who looks at things in an empirical way, who tries to find a rationale way to explain the ways of the Vampire and feels this is an area of science that is not explored and thus wants to provide a full account for future generations, whilst Sandor is a holy man who feels it is his moral duty to protect people from evil. Kronos however would be the one who wants revenge on the Vampires and shocks even Van Helsing with how brutal he is in dispatching them. Kronos could also clash with Sandor too as Kronos would despise his use of magic even more so than Van Helsing.

Kronos would also be more of a traditional dashing leading man too and also more of a romantic character too in contrast to Van Helsing who would be more dedicated to his work (though you would explore his family later)

Kronos’s companion would probably have to be changed to Carla, his love interest from the film played by Caroline Munro. His actual companion Professor Grost wouldn’t work in this series as he would clash with Van Helsing, as he is essentially the same type of character an expert on Vampires. Also for variety it would probably be better to have a female character among the team. Carla is nothing more than a damsel in distress in the film, but for modern audiences you could flesh her out, make her a strong and capable heroine in her own right who has to deal with the sexism around her that would be present in Victorian times.

You could still have Professor Grost be part of the series canon, but he would only appear in flashbacks as Kronos’s mentor. You could have it that he was killed by the main Vampires from Captain Kronos the Durward family who could become Kronos and Carla’s archenemies. These Vampires could also be linked to the Karnstein family as they are said to be Karnstein’s and thus through them we could introduce those characters from the Hammer canon.

Another character from Hammer canon who could be a good foil to Van Helsing is Sir James Forbes from The Plague of the Zombies. Now Forbes is an expert on the occult like Van Helsing, but he wouldn’t clash with Van Helsing as he is an expert on Zombies. In Plague of the Zombies Forbes was played by Andre Morrel who interestingly enough played Watson to Cushing’s Holmes in Hammers The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Just as there are many different kinds of Vampires you could have there be many different types of Zombies and incorporate many different myths about Zombies and ghouls and flesh eating reanimated corpses. Also his archenemy could be Clive Hamilton the main villain from the Plague of the Zombies who had survived his confrontation with him at the end of that film and was now mutilated and even more deranged and determined to make Hamilton pay.

I think the main cast of the series would be Van Helsing obviously as the lead, travelling the world with a team of Vampire hunters made up of Father Sandor, Captain Kronos, Carla and Clive Hamilton. Van Helsing would gather them all together as his team as he would know of them by reputation and hope that by gathering these experts together he could learn from them and obviously use their talents. Father Sandor would have a greater knowledge of the black arts, Hamilton a greater knowledge on Zombies, whilst Kronos and Carla would be the two greatest physical Vampire hunters, however of the two Carla would be the more disciplined fighter than Kronos as she lacks his hatred of them. At times this could make her a worse or better hunter than Kronos.

There are many colourful heroes and villains that you could utilize from the Hammer canon for this film.

There Could Be A Sequel

The Van Helsing series set in the 19th century could be followed by a sequel set in modern times.

Now you’d have two options here. Either you would set the series in the 1970’s or even the 60’s or you’d set it in modern day. Dracula AD 2016? Personally I’d prefer the 70’s setting. I think you could do a real old school Jon Pertwee era Doctor Who style thriller series that blended fantastical monsters with James Bond style Spy, espionage stories like The Satanic Rites of Dracula.

Lorrimer would be the main character of the second series of course alongside Jessica who much like Carla would be fleshed out more. I see them having a relationship akin to the Third Doctor and Liz Shaw.

You could make the series a franchise by showing us Van Helsing’s from different time periods and decades all played by different actors who could all play the Van Helsings in a different way. It would be like the different Doctors except they would actually be different characters.

You could also utilize characters from the modern day Hammer horrors too such as Duke De Richelieu.

Cast

Lawrence Van Helsing/ David Tennant

Yes I’m calling him Lawrence instead of Abraham as that is his name.in the Hammer movies remember. All the male Hammer Van Helsing’s name’s begin with an L for some reason. Lawrence, Leyland and Lorrimer.Van Helsing.

Now Tennant I think would be a good choice for Van Helsing for a number of reasons.

To start with I think he has the right look for Van Helsing. Like I said before the Hammer Van Helsing should be young, but not too young. About middle aged in his 40’s (Tennant is actually close to the same age Cushing was when he first started playing Van Helsing). Van Helsing should look mature, but at the same time young and fit enough to be able to chase the Vampires.

Van Helsing also rather than be a big buff action hero should look wirey and agile. He can’t match the Vampires inhuman strength as no one can so he should look like someone who is more light on his feet.

Also Tennant I think can play the somewhat oddball expert on paranormal quite well. Now don’t get me wrong I am not saying that I want him to pay it like the Tenth Doctor. Quite the opposite in fact. I see his Van Helsing as being a very calm, restrained character. Someone who would be the definition of a stiff upper lip type who holds his emotions in check as opposed to the manic Tenth Doctor.

I think in some ways Tennant, unless he is playing a villain, is at his best when he is being more calm and more understated. Compare the look on his face when he loses Rose in Doomsday to the notorious “I don’t want to go” and tell me which is better?

Thus I think Van Helsing though another hero part would give him a new type of character to play one that in some ways would be more tailor made for him.

Initially Tennant’s Van Helsing would start out as a more vulnerable and inexperienced character who learns about Vampires the more he encounters them and by the end of the series after he had been on his adventures we would see him as an old man near the end of the 19th century when he was the Van Helsing from the novel who now knew everything there was to know about Vampires.

I think the last series would have to take place decades after the rest of the series and feature more of an adaptation of Stokers novel. You would have Dracula arrive in London in order to use the British Empire to take control of the world.

Dracula and a now elderly Van Helsing would resume their feud which would end with a recreation of the fight atop the horse and carriage in Dracula AD 1972 between the Count and Van Helsing. This would obviously see the deaths of both Dracula and Van Helsing like in Dracula AD and would bring about the end of the original Van Helsing series. Thus you could tie the younger Cushing Van Helsing into Stokers older character quite nicely that way.

I think it would be a interesting to see how Tennant would develop the character from his early years to eventually becoming the famous  Vampire hunter from Stokers novel.

Count Dracula/ Peter Serafinocwiz

I think Peter would be a great Dracula. He kind of looks a little bit like Christopher Lee as you can see from the picture above. He’s also huge about 6 foot 4 inches tall (same height as Christopher Lee) and a has a large imposing build.

I can totally see him and Tennant fighting each other and it being a similar image to Cushing and Lee grappling with each other. Tennant is about the same height as Cushing, just over six feet, has a lighter build, is quite thin, has a long thin face, whilst Serafinocwiz is 6 foot 4 and has darker looks like Lee. Serafinocwiz is a good serious actor. Check him out in Guardians of the Galaxy. He also has a deep, booming voice too and a formidable on screen presence.

I think he’d make a terrific Dracula. Dracula’s story I think would pan out over the course of the series. He wouldn’t be in every episode of course, you’d give plenty of other villains a chance to shine but Dracula would overall be the main villain of the entire series.

Dracula would start out as ruling over Klausenberg trying to unite the different vampire races and dispose of Vampire kings that could be a threat to him. Van Helsing and his clan would finally bring his empire down after which they would then have to hunt the Vampire which would eventually lead to his forming an alliance with the Golden Vampires.

There would then be a battle with the Golden Vampires which would see Dracula die. Years later he would be brought back and travel to London to take over the British Empire which at that point was the largest Empire in the world where he would have his final battle with Van Helsing. Dracula would then return in the modern Van Helsing series where we would see him be dragged even further into madness leading to his attempt to destroy the world with a plague ala Satanic Rites of Dracula.

This Dracula much like the Lee Dracula would remind us that this is a monster based on Vlad the Impaler. He would be an absolutely sadistic, savage killer who has no affection for anyone or anything. He’d spit on his Vampire brides, hit them, abandon them, kill them! He’d flog his servants, he’d send bats and wolves to eat children and pull people’s eyes out. He’d think Vampires were the master race simply because he is one.

Peter Serafinocwiz whilst known for his roles in Shaun of the Dead and Spaced and Black Books sadly I think is very under used and I’d love to see him play a really big, strong villainous character like this.

Father Sandor/ Brian Blessed

Brian Blessed would obviously be a good choice for the loud, boisterous, hearty character with a massive beard.

I think Sandor would be one of the shows more interesting characters. He would be someone who was ejected from the priest hood due to using the black arts, something which he only did to protect mankind as he realized that sometimes you need to fight fire with fire.

You would also follow the comic book continuity by having him become infected by a Demon and eventually transform into one himself.

I think you would need to have this happen in the last series. After Van Helsing retires to London Sandor gets infected and later asks Van Helsing for help. Unfortunately there is nothing Van Helsing can do for him and so Sandor is forced to go on the run, cut off from human society.

In the sequel series set in modern day you could have Sandor still being alive, by this point having been completely transformed into a Demon but still using his powers in modern day to help people.

I think Brian would really capture the intensity of such a character superbly.

Captain Kronos/ Michael Fassbender

It seems doubtful that Hammer would be able to get him as he is fast becoming a big Hollywood star, but hey since this is a fan cast I can suggest anyone I bloody well like.

Fassbender is the best choice for Kronos for me because Kronos to start with I think should look more Germanic as that is after all how he was portrayed in the original film. I also think that helped him stand out from Van Helsing. Van Helsing looked much more mature, thin, cerebral and had darker hair, whilst Sandor was obviously older, with white hair and a thick bear. Kronos meanwhile had long blond locks, was more buff and also more of your typical square jawed hero.

At the same time not only would Fassbender look the part more but he would also as demonstrated through his stellar performances as Magneto be able to capture Kronos’s fanatical desire to destroy the Vampires and bring an edge to the character.

Kronos would definitely be the more unpredictable member of the team.

Carla/ Alison King

Now we’d probably have to change the name of this character as Alison’s character in Coronation Street that she is best known for playing is called Carla, but since I can’t be bothered thinking of another name I’ll just list her as Carla here.

The Carla of this series would obviously have to be a more complicated and interesting than the one of the film and I’m sure Alison King could really inject a lot into the character. I’d definitely rank her as one of the best British actresses on tv at the moment who has managed to make Carla Connor in Coronation Street into more than just a stereotypical ruthless ice queen and add real depth to her.

In terms of appearance Alison King obviously would have the right look for the character as she is not only stunningly gorgeous but she also has raven hair and more exotic looks with piercing eyes.

Sir James Forbes/ Julian Barratt

Julian Barratt is a very underused talent. I think he would be a good choice for this character for many reasons.. Firstly I think he is quite good at playing more old fashioned characters, and he also has a strong, commanding voice too.

I think Barratt would should us that this character was a very different type of hero to Van Helsing as he is obviously more unconventional in how he acts than Tennant would be, but in his own way he would be just as smart and charismatic.

Jaremsheela/ Michelle Gomez

Kind of obvious casting, but that’s only because she’s so good for crazy bastards. Jaremshella is Father Sandors archenemy in the comic books and would therefore be his archenemy in the series itself. She is a very powerful Demon and thus would help the show expand beyond just being Vampires all the time. I think unlike the comic books it might be more interesting to have her curse Sandor at the end of their rivalry. Just as Sandor is about to destroy her once and for all her final act is to curse him in such a way that he is never able to live among ordinary human beings forever.

Clive Hamilton/ Reece Shearsmith

Again kind of obvious casting. Shearsmith is a very talented serious as well as comedic actor. Added to that he is a huge horror movie fan and I’m sure he would do this character justice. He could also come up with some suitably horrible and creepy make up for the monsters scarred face too.

This character would be Sir James archenemy. We could follow the plot of the film and have it that his zombies turned on him, but unlike in Plague of the Zombie he would escape, though not without being horrificly mutilated first. He would then naturally pursue Sir James using his Zombie servants all the while trying to build an army of the undead to gain power for himself. I think there would be a lot of interesting zombie and living dead myths you could explore through this character and I am definitely sure that Shearsmith could bring a lot to the king of the zombies!

Lorrimer Van Helsing/ Peter Capaldi

Peter Capaldi certainly has the right look for Van Helsing. His thin long face, with his striking cheek bones, silver hair and wirey frame all make him a natural for the classic Vampire hunter.

I think that Capaldi would be a great choice for Lorrimer Van Helsing in particular as Lorrimer has to be an older character and he has to be very paternal, yet he still has to be a very physical character too.

I think Capaldi would excel on all counts. To start with with his role on Doctor Who shows that like Pertwee before him he can still not only handle all of the physical elements that the role requires, but he practically relishes in them.

He and Pertwee both kind of remind me of Spencer Tracy’s character in Bad Day At Black Rock who gets picked on by some young punk who thinks he can take him cause he’s just an old man but gets the shit kicked out of him by the seemingly frail, one armed old man.

That’s kind of what Lorrimer should be someone the Vampires would laugh at for being just an old guy, but who would then rip them to pieces.

At the same time I think Capaldi could really capture the gentle, sweet, paternal aspects of Lorrimer too. That’s the thing about Capaldi you see in real life he is such a nice, generous even somewhat shy, loving family man.

You’d never imagine him being like that of course because he is best known for playing abbrassive bastards. I think it would actually be quite good to see Capaldi get a chance to really play himself which he would be able to do with Lorrimer even more than the Doctor as we would see a much gentler side to his persona in his dealings with Jessica.

At the same time we could also see some of the trademark Capaldi anger as Lorrrimer tended to be a more intense character than Lawrence as seen when he attacks Johnny and throws the candle stick from across the room at him.

I definitely wouldn’t see Lorrimer as being like the 12th Doctor. He’d be a perfect gentleman and a devoted family man like the real Capaldi, but he’d also would still be a very intense character in his dealings with the undead.

 

Jessica Van Helsing/ Maisie Williams

Now this is not some attempt to try and recreate the dynamic of Doctor Who. I do think Maisie would be a good choice for Jessica. I think she acts very well against older actors and I think that she would be quite good at playing a version similar to Joanna Lumleys Jessica, a brainy expert on the occult a opposed to a shallow teenager. As much as I like Dracula AD it might be better to skip to this point in Jessica’s life, though it could also be interesting to see how she goes from the shallow teenager who disregards her grand fathers work to an even greater expert on the occult than Lorimmer himself. Whatever the case I think Maisie would do a great job and already has proven chemistry with Capaldi, though in this case their relationship would be the opposite of Ashildir and 12 as they would be very close to one another.

Duke De Richelieu/ Charles Dance

Now this character originally starred in 10 books by author Dennis Wheatly and appeared in the Hammer film The Devil Rides Out where he was played by Christopher Lee.

I think it would be great to feature him in this series as an old friend of Lorrimer Van Helsing, perhaps even a rival in some ways, who again in much the same way that Sir James contrasted with him by being the expert on Zombies, De Richelieu would be the expert on Demons.

I also think Charles Dance would be good for the role not only because he is an excellent actor anyway, but also because much like Lee as De Richelieu in the original  here we would have an actor best known for playing villains finally get a chance to go against type and play a hero.

Thank you for reading and let me know what you think.

 

The 9th and final entry in the Hammer Dracula cycle and also the 5th to star Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.

Christopher Lee sadly did not reprise his role as Dracula. Still as it features Cushing as Van Helsing then every Hammer Dracula film therefore features either Cushing as Van Helsing or Lee as Dracula though only 3 feature them together.

This film also returned to the late 19th century, early 20th century setting of the previous entries in the series.

Plot

A taoist priest named Kah arrives at castle Dracula and revives Dracula from his slumber. The Vampire is angry at being awoken from his coffin.

Kah nevertheless asks for his help. According to Kah he is the high priest of the 7 Golden Vampires, but since one of their number perished the 6 remaining Vampires now sleep. He begs Dracula master of all Vampires to bring them back. As Kah was their high priest when the Vampires were awake he wielded considerable power, but now that they are asleep no one fears them any more.

Dracula is furious that a mere servant has asked him for help, spitting back that he does not grant favours. Just then however Dracula gets an idea to use the 7 Golden Vampires as tools of his vengeance on mankind. As his power is gone he decides to possess Kah. Though Kah refuses Dracula nevertheless takes him over and heads off for China to bring the 6 Golden Vampires out of their hibernation.

Some time later Van Helsing is in China teaching a class. He tells them of an old legend surrounding a village that states that it was terrorized by 7 Golden Vampires, said to be far more powerful and ferocious than regular blood suckers. These beasts are served by a horde of mindless zombies.

Every couple of nights the Vampires would venture into the village and capture several young women whom they then brutally torture and savagely kill.

All of the villagers are too scared to do anything against the monsters, but one night a farmer attempts to rescue his daughter who is captured by the Demons.

Making his way to the Monastry where the Vampires live he is unfortunately unable to rescue his daughter who is stabbed to death by one of the Vampires, but he still manages to snatch the golden amulet from one of the Vampires. 

He flees back to the village, with the Vampires and their hordes of Zombie minions in hot pursuit. Unfortunately the villagers fearing a reprisal from the Vampires shut the gates preventing the farmer from getting back in. Trapped outside with hordes of the undead after him the farmer runs through the woods but is eventually cornered by the Vampires who kill him by cutting his throat open.

Unfortunately for the Vampires as the 7th Golden Vampire goes to retrieve its amulet it discovers that the farmer has blessed it and thus made it a holy item. The Vampire is destroyed by its own amulet and the six remaining Vampires flee back to the monastry.

Van Helsing states that he believe that the Vampires still rule the village and that he wants to find it and free it from their rule. Unfortunately none of his students believe him and leave his class room. Later he is approached by one of his students named Hsi Ching who tells him that he knows the legend is true and that he knows the location of the village as his family came from there. He produces the dead Vampires medallion and agrees to help Van Helsing destroy the Vampiric menace.

Van Helsing takes a team consisting of Hsi Ching and his seven Kung Fu siblings, his own son Leyland Van Helsing and a wealthy widow named Vanessa Buren who funds the organisation.

Back in the village Dracula has revived he 6 remaining Vampire and plans to resurrect the 7th. The Vampires with Dracula as their leader resume terrorizing the village.

They later are sent by Dracula to destroy Van Helsing and his team and retrieve the amulet from them so that the 7th Golden Vampire can be revived. They attack Van Helsing’s team whilst they are in a cave, but ultimately Van Helsing’s team prove too much for them and 3 more of the Vampires are slain.

Following this Van Helsing and his team make their way to the village where they prepare to attack the Vampires.

That night Dracula summons the 3 remaining Vampires to destroy Van Helsing once and for all. A massive fight breaks out in the village where many villagers are killed and also several of Hsi Ching’s siblings. Vanessa is turned into a Vampire by one of the seven golden Vampires. She bites Hsi Ching who is forced to impale her on a stake. Before he himself turns he then impales himself on the same stake.

All but one of the Vampires are destroyed. The final remaining Golden Vampire captures Hsi Ching’s sister and heads to the temple. Tying her up the beast prepares to drain her, but fortunately Leyland Van Helsing arrives and manages to hold it off long enough for her to get away.

He proves to be no match for the monster who overpowers him and prepares to drain him dry. Fortunately Van Helsing arrives and impales the beast from behind with a silver spear and the Vampire perishes.

With all of the Vampires dead Leyland and the rest of the surviving team leave the temple, all except for Van Helsing who remains behind, sensing that something is wrong.

He soon confronts the real mastermind behind the 7 Golden Vampires, his archenemy Dracula. Van Helsing states that he knew Dracula had to be here somewhere and provokes the Vampire into assuming his original form. Dracula quickly attacks Van Helsing and effortlessly batters him across the room. As he lunges forward to strike the killing blow Van Helsing quickly grabs a silver sharp and pierces the Vampires heart.

Dracula dies and crumbles into a pile of ash and Van Helsing relieved leaves the temple having brought an end to the reign of the 7 Golden Vampires.

Review

The final Hammer Dracula in many ways suffers from including the Count at all.

To start with John Forbes Robertson is not as strong a Dracula as Christopher Lee, though I think that goes without saying. Personally I don’t actually think Robertson is bad as the Vampire. He has a reasonable presence and he looks the part at least, but still he obviously isn’t quite as good a match for Cushing’s Van Helsing as Lee’s Dracula was and thus their final fight together is rather unspectacular which is a real shame. This isn’t Dracula’s worst death scene, but its probably his most unspectacular. He just walks onto a spear and he is also dispatched far too quickly.

Dracula’s presence in the story is also completely unnecessary. He’s in it for all of 2 minutes literally and he has no real baring on the events of the story either save one brief fight at the end. You could cut out the bit at the start and the end and absolutely nothing would be different at all.

Dracula’s presence in this story also creates a massive plot hole too. At the start of the film when we see Dracula take over Kah it says its 1804. The rest of the film takes place 100 years later.

Thing is when is Van Helsing supposed to have faced the Vampire if he was hiding out in China for the past 100 years?  Its possible that Dracula may have nipped back to Klausenberg to fight Van Helsing but it doesn’t seem likely and furthermore Dracula mentions wanting to use the 7 Golden Vampires to wreak havoc on mankind, yet all he does in 100 years is use them to terrorise a small village in the middle of nowhere? Not summon up an army of Vampires to overrun the earth or destroy your enemies, just stand about and terrorise one little village?

Also why does Dracula need to posses Kah anyway?  Why has he been confined to his little coffin at the start? I didn’t even know Dracula could posses people anyway.

Dracula’s scenes feel like a first draft in this film. Its like they were scribbled down and added in at the last minute and thus nothing about them makes sense. Its literally like in the middle of the film they thought “oh wait we better have Dracula in it” and tacked him on. Really this movie would have been better if it had just been Van Helsing fighting the 7 Golden Vampires.

Other than the Dracula problem however I think this is actually one of the better 70’s Hammer films.

The film shows Hammer branching out and trying new things. It incorporates Chinese myths about the Jiang Shi, hopping corpses.

These monsters were said to move by hopping up and down on both feet. They were as single minded as animals and would rip their victims limb from limb and had hideous repulsive,  rotting faces. They also were capable of consuming their victims souls as well as their flesh and blood.

Though the Jiang Shi myths evolved independently from European stories about Vampires, as western stories about Vampires and Zombies made their way to China and stories about the Jiang Shi made their way to the west they began to become associated with one another.

This movie manages to include most pieces of Chinese Vampire lore. The Golden Vampires minions hop up and down, all of the Chinese Vampires are animalistic and savage. They never speak, they just roar and hiss and scream and they are also hideous too, with rotting faces, and they also have the power to steal people’s souls and turn them into living husks.

Whilst some see the movie as nothing more than a cheap cash in on the Kung Fu craze that was sweeping the world at that point, and in many ways it was. At the same time I think it shows how Hammer were still even at the very end trying to find ways to reinvent their characters rather than just doing the same thing over and over again.

The Jiang Shi myths are fascinating and sadly they are a subject that even today is ignored largely by film makers in the west. Thus I think it was very bold of Hammer to make them the focus of this film. Remember this was before even Chinese cinema would begin to produce films featuring the Jiang Shi in the 1980’s with the classic Mr Vampire film series.

Also the idea of kung fu Vampires is something that we would see appear in many western films and tv series following this film too such as Blade and Buffy.

Once again this film despite often being seen as a sign of Hammer running out of steam is actually decades ahead of its time. Chinese Vampire myths are something that Lam Ching Ying and Sammo Hung would later capitalize on, practically creating a whole new sub genre of horror films as result, the Kung Fu Vampire or monster film which ran for close to twenty years. In addition to this we would later see Western Vampire fiction like Blade and Buffy begin to become more action oriented.

Its just such a shame that fans and critics alike always bash the final three Dracula films as really I think they represent the series at its most daring and bold after the first few films.

To me the stagnated period of the Hammer Dracula series is Dracula Has Risen From the Grave to Scars of Dracula. Now all of those films are in their own right good, solid horror stories, but really they don’t bring anything new to the Vampire story.

They are literally just the same idea over and over again. Dracula gets brought back, kills one girl usually a red head, seeks to kill a blonde, usually to get back at some older relative of her that pissed him off, there is some old guy who gives the young hero who will probably be named Paul advice on how to kill Dracula, and then Dracula will die by accident.

There’s far more creativity and originality in those final 3 Hammer Dracula’s than there is the middle 3, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula and Scars of Dracula.

So many tropes that we see in Vampire fiction come from these three films.

Things like Buffy, Blade, Supernatural, Mr Vampire all have Vampires in modern day, Vampires and Demons posing as benevolent business men, Vampires or Demons planning to end the world, lineage’s and families of Vampire hunters from the Slayers to the Mr Vampire family to the Winchester Family, and Kung Fu Vampires and Vampire Hunters.

The Golden Vampires also I think can be seen to create a new type of Vampire. The totally inhuman Vampire that looks absolutely repulsive, is seemingly unstoppable, never speaks just roars, lives only for the kill, is seemingly no more than an animal, yet has a tiny hint of intelligence.

Whenever it corners its victims there will be a little evil smile, perhaps even a little laugh that lets you know its sentient enough to enjoy the pain it inflicts on its victims. These Vampires will kill you in the most gruesome way possible. It won’t just be a quick bite on the neck, and these guys certainly will not seduce their victims. They’ll chain them up, torture them, maim them, mutilate them, shred them to pieces, cut their throats, bleed them like animals. These creatures are horrors in every way.

They are also often depicted as being another race of Vampires and are often contrasted with the Vampires who still posses their humanity to an extent whether that’s just in terms of intelligence.

Pre Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires I don’t think in film and television we had Vampires like that. We did have ugly Vampires sure, but they were not quite like these monsters, hissing, and snarling.

After 7 Golden Vampires we’d get creatures like that all the time such as the Jiang Shi in the Mr Vampire series, the Reapers in Blade 2 and the Turok Han in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They all follow the Golden Vampire pattern beat for beat.

Thus I’d say this film is an important one for helping to establish this type of Vampire. Certain prominent works help to shape particular depictions of Vampires. The Lugosi Dracula established the otherworldly, gentlemanly Vampire, whilst the Lee Dracula established the more physical, sexual Vampire and other works such as Carmilla, Interview with the Vampire and Langella’s Dracula cemented the idea of the romantic, tormented Vampire.

Thus this film definitely created the idea of the second race of more vicious, feral, wild, sadistic, outwardly monstrous Vampires.

I think far from this being a sign the series was on the way out The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires could have breathed new life into the series.

The idea of Van Helsing travelling the world and battling Vampires from different mythologies would have been a great idea for a series. The next film after Legend was intended to feature Indian Vampire myths such as the Vetala and would have featured Van Helsing battling Kali. Its such a shame that it was never made.

I tend to look at Hammer as being like the original Doctor Who series in the sense that much like Doctor Who the Hammer movies started out brilliantly and ran for many years, but then towards the end they begin to decline with awful stories like Timelash or films like Lust for a Vampire, before finally finishing. In both cases however there was a big improvement towards the end and in actual fact it was a shame that they both finished when they did.

Sadly however in both cases it was assumed that they had just burnt out, but in Doctor Who’s case the later years were re evaluated and are now for the most part highly regarded. Sadly however this has not happened yet with the later Hammer films like the final three Dracula movies which I think in spite of all their faults are decades ahead of their time.

Aside from its importance and originality this film still holds up in a number of other ways.

Peter Cushing is fabulous as ever as Van Helsing. By this point he could play the character in his sleep. Despite his advanced age he copes well with some of the more physical scenes too. Van Helsing is older, but still tough like an old turkey in this film. This movie also casts Van Helsing in a more interesting role by showing him in take on Vampires who he is unfamiliar with in the East.

The film’s action sequences are very entertaining too. The choreography is not quite as strong as the later Mr Vampire films of course, but there are still lots of great moments. Hammer seem to have fun coming up with over the top and creative ways to kill each of the Golden Vampires, we have one get set on fire, one impaled, one sliced to bits by an angry mob.

There are some quite interesting shocks in the story. I was very surprised the first time I watched this film to see Hsi Ching die. He’s the young hero of the film and his death is quite brutal as he is forced to impale himself after being infected by his lover.

The direction of this movie is also somewhat superior to some of the other Hammer horrors. One impressive shot in particular is when the Vampire/Zombie army is chasing after the farmer. Its a never ending line of monsters emerging from the darkness, screaming and roaring. This scene gave me nightmares when I was young. I used to dream that much like the farmer I was locked out of the village begging and screaming to get back into the village and I could see the army of the undead coming in from the distance getting closer and closer and I knew there was nothing I could do to fight them or plead with them as they were such savage monsters.

Overall I’d rank this as an excellent Vampire film overall. I’d give it 4 and a half stars.As a Dracula film it doesn’t work, but as a good send off for Van Helsing its superb and and its a very original and important horror flick overall.  A great finish to the series.

Kali Devil Bride of Dracula

Hammer intended to produce a sequel to The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires called Kali Devil Bride of Dracula. It would have seen Peter Cushing reprise his role as Van Helsing and the plot would have had Van Helsing travel to India to battle Dracula who would have entered into an alliance with Kali. It would have explored Indian Vampire myths such as the Vetala. Apparently it would have also featured eyeless zombies (as can be seen on the poster) who would have been Kali’s minions.

It is not known who would have played Dracula, but it is possible that Hammer would have gone for a younger actor. Sadly however Hammer’s money troubles meant that the film was shelved.

Vampirella

Hammer planned to produce an adaptation of this popular horror comic about a Vampire super heroine. Caroline Munro was among the names selected to play the character.

This series would have been linked to the Dracula films as it would have seen Peter Cushing reprise his role as Van Helsing, though given the stories were set in modern day then it would most likely have been a sequel to the modern day Dracula’s rather than Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires.

Sadly this movie was also axed as Hammer ran into troubles.

Vampire vs Vampire

Though there was no sequel ever made this Chinese horror movie was a loose sequel. This film was part of the classic Mr Vampire film series.

The Mr Vampire films began in the early 80’s. They revolved around the character of Kau, a Vampire hunter whose nickname was Mr Vampire. Mr Vampire was played by the late Lam Ching Ying in all of his appearances. The character proved to be very popular not only appearing in a number of sequels, but also a television series and a number of other films such as The Dead and the Deadly which saw him take on other supernatural creatures such as Demons, Ghosts, Mummies and Zombies, though he also fought non Vampires in the Mr Vampire films anyway. A Ghost is featured in the first Mr Vampire movie alongside the Vampires whilst the third film does not feature Vampires at all.

Still the Vampires were obviously the focus of the series. These Vampires were obviously based on the Jiang Shi. They were hopping corpses, didn’t speak, tore their victims apart, had hideous rotting faces and had different weaknesses to European Vampires.

This film meanwhile is really the same idea as The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires but in reverse. A European Vampire is brought back to life in a small Chinese town and begins to slaughter the inhabitants. Mr Vampire is called in to defeat it, but just as Van Helsing found it difficult to combat the Golden Vampires, Mr Vampire finds his normal Chinese Vampire repellents not working against the European Vampire.

Now this film was inspired by The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, but it was also intended as a loose sequel. The Vampire in the film though not named on screen was intended to be Dracula. Furthermore he was intended to be the Dracula from THIS film. This Dracula was slain in China and the Dracula in this movie’s remains are found in China. Furthermore this Dracula is brought back to life when blood is spilled on his remains which is how the Vampire was always brought to life in the Hammer films. He is also shown to have a silver sharp imbedded in his heart which is how Dracula died in this film, he also has the power to control bats just like the Dracula in Scars.

Ultimately however as the European Vampire is never actually named in the film its open to interpretation as to whether or not it is the same Dracula as the one in this film.

One discrepancy between this Dracula being the one in Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is that at the end of Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires Dracula crumbles to dust whilst the remains of the Vampire in this film are a skeleton.

Where Does This Take Place In The Hammer Dracula Series

There is some debate among fans as to when this film takes place in relation to the other Hammer Dracula’s.

Some fans believe it to be a stand alone due to the goof at the start that states Dracula left for China in 1804 and spent 100 years there leaving no room for Van Helsing who is around in 1904 to have previously fought him. It doesn’t even make sense within itself never mind other films of the series.

Still this is why I ignore all the dates in the series. To me its like the UNIT dating controversy in Doctor Who there’s no way to make sense of all the different dates or timelines.

So instead I personally view the Hammer Dracula timeline like this

Horror of Dracula: Dracula’s century long reign of terror comes to an end as Lawrence Van Helsing manages to destroy the Vampire.

The Brides of Dracula: One of Van Helsing’s many adventures later where he continues to learn about the different species of Vampires.

In between this and Dracula Prince Van Helsing’s books on Vampires become more widespread allowing others to learn about their weaknesses.

Dracula Prince of Darkness: The Vampire is brought back to life only to be slain by Father Sandor. Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, and Taste the Blood of Dracula all take place not long after this. Also before the events of Scars of Dracula the Father Sandor series takes place explaining why he isn’t there in Scars of Dracula to oppose the Vampire.

Scars of Dracula: The Vampire returns to Klausenberg after a bat brings him back in London after his death there in Taste the Blood of Dracula. His second reign of terror begins and lasts for a few years until he is destroyed by lightening.

At some point after Scars another one of Dracula’s servants brings him back but perhaps the resurrection goes wrong and he is weaker. Dracula is reduced to a mere shell of his former self, perhaps his appearance also changes too as a result of the resurrection going wrong explaining why he looks like John Forbes Robertson.

Weak and depressed Dracula consigns himself to his coffin, having had enough of his constant deaths and resurrection he wants it just to end forever and hides in his coffin.

Later he is awoken by Kah. Kah inadvertantly gives Dracula a new lease of life as the Vampire having grown bored with his existence up until now decides he has a new purpose to destroy mankind and make it suffer for all of the deaths it has inflicted on him. This marks the beginning of his desire to destroy mankind. Dracula still too weak to be a threat himself takes over Kah.

He then heads to China and revives the 6 surviving Golden Vampires and hopes to use them to build an army of Vampires that he can use to sweep the earth and destroy mankind. Whilst there in Kah’s body he also drinks enough blood to restore his strength.

He’s only in China for a short while however (this ignores the 1804 date) and Van Helsing soon destroys the Golden Vampires and Dracula himself just as he has regained his former strength and sheds Kah’s body.

Vampire vs Vampire: What the hell I’m including it. Dracula is revived by accident in China and battles Mr Vampire who barely manages to defeat him (this means that all of the Mr Vampire Franchise takes place in the Hammer universe which is cool). At some point after this the Vampire now back in his original form arrives in London. Just like in Stokers novel Dracula plans to use the British Empire to spread the cult of Vampirisim around the world and take control of it. He is opposed by an elderly Lawrence Van Helsing and the two have a final fight atop a moving carriage in London where Dracula is destroyed.

Dracula AD 1972: The Vampire is brought back from the grave in modern london where he is obsessed with destroying the Van Helsing family above all else. He is ultimately destroyed by Lorrimer Van Helsing, grand son of Lawrence.

The Satanic Rites of Dracula: Dracula is revived again and tries to destroy the world. He now has the means to do so much more quickly using chemical warfare and thus finally plans to exterminate humanity something he has wanted since after the events of Scars of Dracula. Fortunately he is stopped once again by Lorrimer Van Helsing.

Chinese Vampires

This movie continues the idea of there being many different species of Vampire an idea begun in The Brides of Dracula and continued in Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter.

This movie reveals that each continent has its own set of Vampires. The Chinese Vampires that we see in this film are repulsive creatures with rotting faces, long fangs, and inhuman strength. They enjoy torturing and killing innocent people and are incapable of speech, though they are intelligent enough to use weapons and ride horses. They have the power to make people into Vampires like them through a bite, though according to Van Helsing they can also steal a persons soul and turn them into zombie like creatures who obey their every command. They are served by hordes of these Zombies who are shown to hop up and down on both feet when they move.

The Vampires Zombie servants

These Vampires also have the power to change into bats as well.

They do share some weaknesses with European Vampires. They can be killed by a wooden stake or a silver sharp through the heart like European Vampires as well as fire. They are also vulnerable to holy items, though in this case it is the symbol of Buddha that drives them away rather than the cross.

Notes and Trivia

• This marks the 5th and final time Peter Cushing plays Van Helsing in a Hammer movie. Cushing also played a Vampire hunter in two other Hammer films, The Vampire Lovers which saw him slay Carmilla Karnstein and Twins of Evil which saw him play a more villainous Vampire/Witch hunter. To this day Cushing is associated with the role of Van Helsing more so than any other actor. His name has become almost as associated with Vampire hunting as much as Van Helsing’s himself. Lam Ching Ying’s character Mr Vampire was inspired by Cushing’s Van Hesling. He was even referred to as China’s answer to Peter Cushing many times. The character of Peter Vincent in Fright Night is named after Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, though he is more heavily based on Cushing as Peter Vincent is known for playing Vampire killers. There is also a reference to Peter Cushing in the British sitcom The Young Ones when the four main characters lock a Vampire in their bathroom one of them states “I got it Peter Cushing! We got to drive a stake through his heart!” Similarly in From Dusk Till Dawn directed by Quentin Tarrantino when talking about Vampire weaknesses someone mentions putting two sticks together to create a cross to which another character replies “He’s right Peter Cushing does that all the time”  In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book Tales of the Slayers Van Helsing appears and his first name is revealed to be Peter rather than Abraham as an homage to Peter Cushing.
• This is Peter Cushing’s final Hammer Horror film, though he made one more for the studio Shatter.
• The last Hammer Dracula

The 7th and last Hammer Dracula to star Christopher Lee as the famous Vampire as well as the 4th  Hammer film to star Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, this is also the 8th entry in the series overall.

It was a direct sequel to Dracula AD 1972. Though lambasted by fans and critics alike and even by its own star Christopher Lee, personally I find it to be the best entry after the original and also in some ways one of the most innovative and original of the Hammer films.

Plot

2 years on from the events of Dracula AD 1972 Lorrimer Van Helsing continues his research into the occult, with his grand daughter Jessica now helping him with his work after her experience in the previous film which saw all of her friends die at Dracula’s hands. According Lorrimer Jessica now knows more about the occult than even he himself does.

Meanwhile a Secret Service agent investigates a secret cult. There he not only discovers several demonic killings but also to his surprise four prominent members of society, a General, a Government Minister, a peer and a famous scientist. Though he manages to escape with photographic evidence of all involved he is mortally wounded in the process and dies soon after.

Despite having evidence inspector Murray (who helped Van Helsing battle Dracula in the previous film) and secret service agent Torrance decide to deal with the case independently in order to avoid any reprisals by the minister.

Murray consults Van Helsing due to his expertise on the occult. Van Helsing agrees that there could be something supernatural about the cult. He recognizes the scientist among the four prominent members of the cult, Professor Julian Keely who is an old friend of his and decides to visit him.

Unfortunately he finds Keely to be a babbling lunatic. Still Keely shares with him knowledge of what he has been creating for the mysterious leader of the cult D. D. Denham. It is a new form of the bubonic plague that is far more dangerous.

Not only is it spread through touch, but it also literally eats its victims flesh from their bones slowly. Its victims die over the course of several days in the most excruciating agony possible as the plague stimulates every single pain receptor in the body to the maximum amount of pain it can feel.

Finally the plague also has the power to infect any form of life in exactly the same way and thus if it is unleashed it could potentially wipe out all life on the planet.

Van Helsing is horrified that his friend has taken part in the creation of such a virus. Keely tells him that he had no choice and that even now a dark force is controlling his thoughts and making him do things he doesn’t want to do.

Unfortunately before he can tell Van Helsing what this dark force is he is killed by a member of the cult who also very for some reason does not kill Van Helsing.

Jessica Van Helsing, Inspector Murray and Torrance meanwhile investigate the house the agent travelled to earlier and find a cellar full of Vampires. After barely escaping the monsters (all of whom are made up of people on the missing persons for two years) Van Helsing is able to deduce that this is the work of his old archenemy Dracula.

Dracula was brought back from the dead not long after the events of Dracula AD 1972 by another one of his servants. The Vampire soon went under the alias of D.D. Denham head of Denham industries and established a cult which eventually under Dracula’s orders developed the new form of plague.

Van Helsing states that he does not believe Dracula wishes to use the plague to conquer the world. He instead wishes to use it to destroy every living thing on earth. Van Helsing believes that the Vampire has grown tired of his existence and wants to go out in one last act of horror and violence, bringing down everything with him.

Van Helsing goes to confront D. D. Denham at his office in Denham industries (which is built over the church Dracula was killed in in the previous Dracula film)

Van Helsing after exposing the powerful reclusive Denham as Dracula prepares to kill him with a silver bullet, but is foiled by Dracula’s servants who wish to kill Van Helsing. Dracula however states that it cannot be made so easy for Van Helsing or for his grand daughter Jessica, both of whom he has a much worse fate in mind for which explains why Van Helsing was spared earlier.

Jessica and Murray are captured by Dracula’s minions whilst Torrance is shot dead. Murray is thrown to Dracula’s Vampire brides in the cellar whilst Jessica and her grandfather are taken to the main room of the house.

There Van Helsings suspicions about Dracula’s master plan are proven to be correct. Dracula has grown tired of his immortal existence and wants to die permanently. However just as Van Helsing predicted he wants to go down in one final blaze of glory and thus plans to take the whole world with him. He also tells Van Helsing that he plans to make him one of the four carriers of this new plague. He also plans to make Jessica a Vampire. As a Vampire Jessica will survive the plague and witness the destruction of the earth.

The Vampire will achieve his perfect revenge against his most hated enemies the Van Helsing’s this way. Lorrrimer Van Helsing will suffer the worst possible death as the virus kills him slowly, but he will also die knowing that his gran daughter became a Vampire and that as one of the carriers he helped spread a virus that destroyed all life on this planet. Jessica similarly will suffer as she will not only become a Vampire the very thing she hates the most, but she will also as  Vampire witness the entire world, everyone and everything she ever cared about come to an end with the knowledge her grandfather caused it.

Just as Dracula is about to put this monstrous plan into action his followers turn on him. They were tricked into thinking that he wanted to use the plague as a deterrent in order to force the world leaders to adhere to his demands. Dracula’s followers plead with him and try to make him see sense but the Vampire sadistically forces one of them using hypnosis to infect himself.

Dracula watches in glee as his own minions screams in agony as the virus begins eating his flesh from his bones, whilst Van Helsing can barely watch in horror.

Inspector Murray meanwhile manages to escape from Dracula’s Vampire brides whom he dispatches by setting off the sprinklers (clear running water is enough to destroy a Vampire) Upstairs Murray gets into a fight with one of Dracula’s human servants. He ends up causing a fire. The infected minion of Dracula is consumed in the flames whilst Van Helsing makes sure that all other samples of the plague and all notes on it are destroyed in the blaze. Whilst Van Helsing holds Dracula off, Murray gets Jessica to safety. As the house goes up in flames all of Dracula’s plans for world domination are destroyed . Van Helsing barely manages to escape the Vampire and flees through the woods with Dracula in hot pursuit.

Van Helsing manages to beat Dracula by luring him into a hawthorn bush. A hawthorn bush is a weakness of Vampires as the Hawthorn tree provided Christ with his crown of thorns. Dracula is mutilated by the thorns, but manages barely to make his way through them. Now however so weak he can barely stand Van Helsing easily thrusts a wooden stake through the Vampires heart. After Dracula crumbles into dust Van Helsing picks up his ring. 

Review

The Satanic Rites of Dracula I think is one of the most underrated British horror movies ever made.

It baffles me that it has such an overwhelmingly negative reputation among fans? I struggle to find any good reviews of this film on line or in books and I just don’t understand why?

I’m not saying the movie is completely perfect. It has its faults sure, but then again so does every movie ever made!

Still I wont deny that there are some problems with the film. I think this movie suffers from giving the Vampires too many weaknesses. I despise having Vampires be killed by running water. Really how scared can you be of a monster that you can beat by just throwing a glass of water in his face.

Granted this is not the first movie to establish that Vampires can be killed by being immersed in clear running water, but still in Dracula Prince of Darkness at least the Vampire was drowned, whilst in the previous movie when Johnny Alucard fell into the shower you could argue that the sunlight also killed him.

In this film however we have it that sprinklers killed the Vampires which is just absurd. It means that Vampires not only can’t go out at day time but at night if its raining which further limits their effectiveness. On top of that they give them yet another weakness the Hawthorn tree.

The ending of this film is definitely one of the silliest in the Hammer Dracula series too. Dracula literally just walks into something that can kill him? I mean why, why would he walk through the Hawthorn bush when he could have walked round it?

The image of Dracula trapped in the bush, bloodied and reaching out to grab Van Helsing is a striking image, but its just too silly how he gets in there. It would have been better if they had him and Van Helsing fighting with each other and Van Helsing kick Dracula into the Hawthorn bush. Sadly there is no real big final fight between Cushing’s Van Helsing and Lee’s Dracula either which is a shame after their climactic showdowns in Horror of Dracula and Dracula AD 1972.

The character of Jessica Van Helsing is terribly wasted which is a shame as they actually develop her quite well here. In the first movie we saw her as a more shallow, care free character who didn’t take her grandfather’s research into the occult seriously. To his chargin she even mocked it. However after she lost her boyfriend and all of her friends like Laura and Gaynor, Jessica has now devoted her life to studying the supernatural and now has a greater understanding of paranormal creatures than her grandfather herself.

Added to that they have Joanna Lumley one of the UK’s most talented actresses playing her.

Sadly however in spite of all of this Jessica is still a complete non entity in this story. She just stands about getting groped by female Vampires, gets captured, screams. We don’t get to see her use this fantastic knowledge on Vampires and Demons to any use whatsoever.

Other than these minor faults however I genuinely don’t see anything wrong with this movie, whilst at the same time I also find it original and innovative in many ways too.

To start with the modern day setting doesn’t bother me. I like the idea of an ancient evil resurfacing in modern day, in a society that doesn’t know about it. Like I’ve said before that is actually closer to what Bram Stoker had in mind with the original Dracula. Stokers Vampire was a monster that travelled to London because he could feed on the unsuspecting population, with his mistake being that he didn’t count on people like Van Helsing who still believed in the paranormal.

This key element of Stokers novel was completely lost in the 19th century movies where like I said everyone in Klausenberg was aware of Vampires.

I think this movie explores the idea of a Vampire in modern day much better than Dracula AD 1972. In AD 1972 Dracula actually doesn’t leave his church and interact with the modern world at all.

In this movie however we see how he integrates into the modern world and uses it to his advantage, so much so that he is actually able to remain hidden from Van Helsing for 2 years.

Dracula uses the identity of D. D. Denham the powerful recluse who no one expects to see in the daylight hours, and he uses his vast wealth to cover up his killings and activities for 2 years.

I find this to be a very interesting idea that a monster could live in the modern world and remain completely undetected, also once again Dracula’s high status as D. D. Denham is closer to Stokers Vampire than the Dracula of the 19th century sequels.

Stokers Dracula is a monster that has to have influence and power, he is COUNT Dracula after all. He stays in a castle when he gets to London he has his gypsy body guards, his hired help etc. He wouldn’t be content to just to skulk about in an old pub cellar like in Dracula Has Risen From The Grave. If he were in modern day he would have an alias like D. D. Denham that gives him influence and power to cover his tracks, to protect him during the day, he would have guards who could protect him. Dracula’s minions wielding guns are just the modern version of his body guards in the novel who wield knives.

It not only makes Dracula more menacing to give him power like this, but it also makes more logical sense that a creature that has lived this long, and is this powerful would have followers and would prefer a much higher standard of living too. The king of all Vampires is happy to spend time in a smelly pub cellar? I don’t think so.

Dracula’s plan to exterminate the entire human race has long been reviled by fans, but again personally I think its a brilliant idea.

To start with it helps the movie break out of the repetitive formula the Dracula series has been stuck in since well the first film where Dracula wants to kill a young blonde woman either because he is horny and hungry or to get back at her older male relative, and he manages to kill another girl first (usually a gorgeous red head) before being killed either by her boyfriend or an old Vampire Hunter.

Say what you will at least this film tried to do something new and also at least this film gives Dracula something big to do. That was a real problem in previous Dracula’s the way Dracula who is again supposed to be the king of all Vampires would waste his time on such small matters like getting back at a local priest who pissed him off.

Also I think Dracula’s motivation for ending the world makes sense. Dracula has grown tired of his immortal life having lived for centuries on nothing but violence and misery and secretly seeks to end his life, but naturally being the ultimate Vampire he isn’t just going to want to go quietly is he?

He’s going to want to get back at Van Helsing, his grand daughter, all of humanity. Plus I like the idea that Dracula is such a supreme egotist that he is not going to like the idea of the human race just going on without him and being forgotten. If he’s going down he is damn sure going to take everyone else with him.

This far more how I’d imagine a monster like Dracula to view his death than wanting to be killed by his lover like the Gary Oldman Dracula is it?

Remember that Dracula is a monster based on Vlad the Impaler, one of the most evil men who ever lived, a bloodthirsty maniac who killed and tortured thousands of innocent men, women and children, who bathed in their blood.

Thus he should be a vicious, savage monster. He shouldn’t be an angst ridden, sympathetic love struck character like the Frank Langella Dracula or the Gary Oldman Dracula or the version in that recent HBO tv series.

The version of Dracula in this film who is arguably the least romantic depiction of the character there has ever been. His reasons for pursuing Jessica aren’t out of love or even lust, they are so that he can torture her by making her into a Vampire who will not only loathe herself, but also be able to watch the world around her and everyone she cares about die.

I’d say this film has Dracula at his most menacing after Scars of Dracula. Both of these films don’t just show him simply biting his victims, but inflict much more gruesome fates upon them which again ties into the Vlad the Impaler influence as we all know Vlad didn’t like going for a quick kill.

The scene where Dracula forces one of his followers to infect himself always terrified me. It looks absolutely disgusting as we see his skin turn green and begin to peel from his body. In fact I’d say its one of the most horrific images in any Hammer horror and it highlights how inhuman and monstrous Dracula is, the way Van Helsing and the rest of the people in the room are practically being sick at the sight of it, whilst Dracula just looks on smiling calmly..

A lot of critics have said that Dracula’s plan is too silly as he would not have anything to eat if he destroyed humanity, but this point is actually raised in the film itself. He wants to die remember, so he wants to kill off his food source.

The idea of a Vampire wanting to destroy or take over the world has actually been featured in many of the most prominent pieces of Vampire fiction. Indeed ironically Bram Stoker’s Dracula tried to take over the world. The reason he arrived in London was so that he could use the British empire to spread Vampirisim across the world like never before and eventually allow his kind to dominate mankind.

Thus all of the things fans rake this movie over hot coals for are ironically true of Stokers novel. Being set in modern day, yes. Stokers Dracula was set in the time it was written. Dracula wanting to take over the world, yes, and in both cases they are planning to use aspects of the modern world that weren’t available to them centuries ago to do it. Dracula in the novel plans to use the British empire which has made it easier to travel the world to spread Vampirism that has only been confined to Transylvania around the globe like never before, whilst in this film he plans to use chemical warfare to destroy mankind. I love the idea of monsters actually being able to take advantage of aspects of the modern world, like technology in a way that makes life easier for them than hundreds of years ago.

The idea of Vampires in modern day, and of Vampires wanting to take over the world is something that we see in just about every modern day Vampire story too.

That’s the great irony about this film is that fans knock it as being a sign that the series was running out of steam and being just too ridiculous, yet its arguably the blue print for the modern Vampire story.

Lets see ancient Vampire returns from the dead,  poses as the head of a company that has a secret evil plan, plans to bring about the biblical prophecy of armaggedon, is opposed by two members of a lineage of Vampire hunters. And its set in modern day?

Hmmm yeah not at all like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer that has many Vampires and supernatural creatures plan and destroy the world. The Master an ancient Vampire king in season 1 of Buffy plans to unleash the Old Ones from their hell dimension, who will wipe out humanity, Spike and Dru two Vampires plan to rebuild the Judge an ancient Demon who will burn humanity, also Angelus a Vampire in season 2 of Buffy plans to destroy the world by sucking it into hell. In all cases these Vampires are opposed by Buffy and Giles two modern day members of of a long line of Vampire hunters, and the series is set in modern day in a big modern city. There are also monsters who poses as powerful figures of society and heads of companies like The Mayor in season 3, a Demon who becomes well the Mayor, Wolfram and Hart a Demonic lawfirm, that’s not so different from D. D. Denham industries, or Russell Winters a Vampire from the first episode of Angel who lives in a massive mansion and has human body guards armed with guns just like D. D. Denham in this film.

Then we have Being Human which has Herrick a Vampire king who similar to D. D. Denham has a high profile position in society, a police officer, which he uses like Denham to cover up his Vampiric killings. Like Denham he also plans to bring about an end to the world by leading a horde of Vampires to overrun humanity. Series 4 meanwhile introduces us to a Vampire King named Mr Snow who plans to destroy humanity as well and rule the earth. Added to that the series also plays with the idea of some monsters being able to use aspects of the modern world to their advantage. In the season finale the Devil uses television to broadcast his hypnotic message which will make millions of people watching at home kill themselves.

Also Supernatural has had plenty of monsters try and bring about the end of the world, only to be opposed by the Winchester brothers, modern day members of a Demon hunting family that goes back generations. In season 7 we have an ancient monster that takes on the alias of a business man named Dick Roman who secretly plans to create a plague that will help him conquer the human race. Earlier in the series a Demon also takes over a business man who plans to destroy the earth using a plague. Many episodes of Supernatural also explore the idea of monsters using modern technology to their advantage too. Vampires use the current obsession with romantic Vampires and facebook to lure young teenage girls away to their death, whilst another episode sees a monster who is able to mimic people’s voices utilize technology such as phones to lure its victims away. The monster describes how in the past it would have to hid in bushes to lure people out, but now things like the phone make it much easier to trap prey.

Finally there are also the Blade films all of which feature Vampires planning to destroy the modern world and also the Whistler family, yet another family of Vampire hunters one of whom is an old man and the other a young woman.

As you can see this movie features ideas that would later become much loved staples in subsequent prominent works. Dracula’s plan to bring about the end of the world is a forebear to Angelus’s scheme to destroy the world in Buffy, or the Leviathans plan to use a plague to bring about the end of humanity, whilst Van Helsing in this film is Rupert Giles, Bobby Singer, Abraham Whistler the older mentor to the next generation of Vampire hunters who knows everything about them, and the Van Helsing family is like the Winchester family, the Mr Vampire family the Whistler family, the long line of Vampire hunters who are feared and reviled by the monsters.

Obviously I am not saying that this film inspired all of these works (though it was an influence on Being Human) but the point is you can see far from being the tired and dull entry at the end of the series, this film actually was decades ahead of its time and was the first to feature ideas that would come to define not just the modern Vampire story, but the modern day paranormal story too.

So then why is it so slated? Why do people say that Dracula’s plan to destroy the world is ridiculous, yet praise Buffy which has exactly the same idea?

Well perhaps a large part of that is because a lot of the reviews I have read of this film are by older fans who perhaps haven’t seen some of the more modern Vampire stories? I can understand some of the concepts in this film feeling a bit wild compared to the previous Hammer Dracula’s but really compared to modern day Vampire fiction like Buffy and Supernatural there is nothing ridiculous about this film at all.

Watch it as a big long episode of Buffy or Supernatural.

I think that part of this films negative reputation comes from Christopher Lee himself. Now obviously I love Christopher Lee, but I think he was definitely too hard on these films. I understand that as a fan of Stokers novel Lee wanted them to be closer to the book (though ironically as I pointed out this film is actually closer in some ways to Stokers novel) Still its just such a shame that he couldn’t see how original this film was and sadly I think his slating of the film kind of set a negative attitude towards it.

Lee’s desire for the Dracula movies he was in to be more authentic was incidentally parodied by Jon Pertwee in the movie The House That Dripped Blood where Pertwee played an actor appearing in a Vampire movie that he looked down on for being trashy. Pertwee was a good friend of Lee’s in real life and so the parody was affectionate, but still according to Pertwee so many people who knew them both said that his impression of Lee was spot on!

Speaking of Doctor Who, many critics have compared this film to the Pertwee era Doctor Who. After all you have Peter Cushing a former Doctor Who technically playing a special adviser on the paranormal to the British government battling, alongside his brainy female companion, his archenemy who dresses in black, is hypnotic, and plans to destroy the world.

Christopher Lee at one point even says “I AM THE MASTER”

Remember that this film was released during the height of the Pertwee era’s popularity and thus its not so inconceivable that perhaps it borrowed some elements from the Pertwee era. Don Houghton who wrote the film also wrote two Pertwee era stories, Inferno and The Mind of Evil which featured Delgado’s Master.

Personally I don’t mind the Doctor Who similarities. I think it adds to its 70’s charm and I also think that Van Helsing and the Doctor are somewhat comparable characters anyway, both eccentric professors who know about strange things, whilst Dracula was always to be fair evil and hypnotic and always dressed in black so really I think Pertwee Who and Dracula mesh quite well together.

All of the performances in this film are great. Peter Cushing as ever is brilliant as Van Helsing though sadly he doesn’t get any big fights with a Vampire, other than a brief scuffle with Dracula at the end, he is as commanding as ever as the Vampire hunter.

Lee I think despite his distaste for the script also puts in a good show. This Dracula is more weary, worn down, yet at the same time just as vicious and cunning as he ever was.

This film actually gives Lee more to do than many of the other Dracula’s and best of all it gives Lee and Cushing a chance to play off of one another as Dracula and Van Helsing more than any other Hammer Dracula.

In the previous two films they only had one scene together and though both of those scenes were fantastic, its a shame that we only got really a fleeting glimpse of the most iconic Vampire and Vampire Hunter in cinema history together.

This movie however has them interact many times and get a chance to play off of each other in new and exciting ways like when Van Helsing is so horrified at Dracula’s scheme that even he tries to reason with him. This shows how far Dracula has gone that even Van Helsing who knows the Vampire and what he is capable of more than anyone else is still in shock that he could carry out this genocide.

This film also takes the Dracula/Van Helsing feud to a whole new level as Dracula’s plans for Van Helsing are absolutely horrific. They go beyond just simply turning his grand daughter into a Vampire and we get to see Lee really capture Dracula’s burning hatred for his archfoe “In the months to come you will long for death” this also gives Lee a chance as an actor to do something more than just snarl and bite some gorgeous young actress.

Freddie Jones also puts in a very memorable performance as the deranged Professor Keely. He is able to really make him seem like a man driven over the edge at the guilt at what he has been forced to carry out on Dracula’s orders. Its a very nuanced performance as you can’t help but pity him, yet be unnerved by him at the same time as he is such a babbling lunatic you don’t know what he could do next. Cushing plays well off of him too, showing concern from his friend, shock at what he has been a part of and at the same time a strong desire to learn the truth from him for the greater good.

Michael Coles who plays Inspector Murray also is fairly likable and good as the straight forward hero.. He is given more to do in this film than its predecessor, but he copes just fine and he and Cushing have a good chemistry with each other. It is very much like the Doctor and one of his male companions like Ian and Jamie. There is another interracial kiss in this film as well between Murray and a Chinese Vampire who seduces him. Once again like in Dracula AD 1972 the interracial kiss is not highlighted as anything special, with Murray instantly giving into the Vampire’s charms.

Overall I’d rank this as easily being the best of the Hammer Dracula’s. In fact I’d say that its the second best entry in the series after Horror of Dracula and I’d give it 5 stars.

I just don’t understand why its so badly regarded? It gives Lee and Cushing more screen time together in their most iconic roles, it actually does manage to capture certain elements from Stokers novel and its sets the blueprint down for so many classic Vampire and Supernatural series that came after.

I just don’t understand why the fans prefer Dracula Has Risen From the Grave that is just the same old story over again, Dracula comes back kills a sexy redhead, tries to kill a blonde to get back at some guy and then dies himself, to this film that clearly tries to do something new and actually does manage to lay down the tropes that acclaimed works like Blade, Being Human, Buffy, Angel and Supernatural would follow for decades afterwards.

I keep waiting for the general view of this film to change, but sadly everyone still in spite of things like Supernatural, that have Demons try and wipe out humanity, this film is still seen as ridiculous for having Dracula want to wipe out the earth. I only hope one day this film gets the credit it deserves.

Notes and Trivia

• This film marks the 9th time Peter Cushing kills Christopher Lee on screen.
• Both Peter Cushing and Joanna Lumley have played the Doctor in Doctor Who in non canon productions. Cushing in the two Dalek films and Lumley in The Curse of Fatal Death.
• This marks Christopher Lee’s 7th and final time playing Dracula in a Hammer movie. He played the role a grand total of 11 times on the big screen. Aside from his performance as Dracula, Lee has also played a wide variety of iconic villains and characters. He played the Frankenstein’s monster in The Curse of Frankenstein opposite Peter Cushing as Professor Victor Frankenstein in 1957. He also played the Mummy in the 1959 film simply called the Mummy again opposite Peter Cushing who played the main Professor who destroys the monster. He also played Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the Amicus movie I Monster again opposite Cushing who played the Professor that eventually destroys Mr Hyde. Other prominent villain roles Lee has played include Francisco Scaramanga, a Bond villain in the movie The Man With the Golden Gun, Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series, Count Duku in the Star Wars prequel film series, Rasputin in Rasputin the Mad Monk (this version was depicted as far more depraved and vicious than his real life counterpart as he was shown to hypnotise women into killing themselves and burn his victims faces with acid!)  and Lord Summerlise the main villain in the iconic British horror film the Wicker Man which he regarded as one of his favourite films, so much so he played the role for free as felt the script was so strong. Though primarily remembered for playing villains, ironically in real life Lee was known to be the kindest and most perfect gentleman. Lee did get a chance to play a few prominent sympathetic characters throughout his long career. These included Henry Baskerville in Hammer’s adaptation of The Hound of the Baskerville’s opposite Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes. He also went on to play Mycroft Holmes in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and the detective himself in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady with close friend Patrick Macnee (best known as John Steed in the Avengers) as his Watson. Lee considered his greatest performance to be that of Muhammed Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinna in 1998. In the later years of his career he worked with Tim Burton who cast him in a variety of different roles including as the voice of the Jabberwocky in Alice in Wonderland. Aside from his extensive acting career Lee was also an accomplished heavy metal singer and released his final heavy metal album at the age of 91! Lee passed away at the age of 93 on the 7th June 2015.
• The final Hammer film to feature both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing together. Though they were often sworn enemies on screen, off screen the two were the best of friends.

In 2003 the BBC initially were planning on bringing Doctor Who back as an animated series that would be shown online.

The planned series boasted a very respectable cast with Richard E Grant as the Doctor, Sir Derek Jacobi as a reformed Master who travelled with the Doctor (whilst he was no longer evil he still wasn’t exactly nice!) and Sophie Okonedo as the Doctors companion. The first story titled the Scream of the Shalka was also written by Paul Cornell who had written many pieces of Doctor Who spin off material during the wilderness years and was a very acclaimed writer.

This proposed animated series was for all intents and purposes supposed to be the official continuation of the original Doctor Who series, with Grant’s Doctor identifying himself as the 9th Doctor.

Despite this however many fans reacted negatively to the announcement of the series as they felt that it was proof that Doctor Who would never return as a mainstream live action series, now that the BBC were seemingly content to bring it back as a niche cartoon.

Still in a surprising turn of events by the time the first animated story was completed the BBC had already decided to bring Doctor Who back properly and thus any further animated stories were shelved with only Scream of the Shalka being completed.

Since then Scream of the Shalka has been disregarded from canon. The official 9th Doctor is now Christopher Eccelston (well technically its John Hurt) and thus the Grant Doctor is now simply referred to as the Shalka Doctor and joins the likes of the Curse of Fatal Death Doctor, the Big Finish Unbound Doctors and the Cushing Doctor an unofficial Doctor.

Personally however I loved the Shalka Doctor and I think he should be brought back into the tv series itself. Don’t worry I am not saying that they should get rid of Peter Capaldi. Not only do I want Capaldi to stay, but I also don’t simply want Richard E Grant to play the mainstream Doctor I want him to play the Shalka Doctor.

In this article I am going to run through a way that I think the Shalka Doctor can be brought into the series and why I think it would be a good idea. Let me know what you think about my ideas and also the Shalka Doctor in general.

How the Shalka Doctor Could Be In The Series

Obviously we couldn’t try and insert him into the main timeline, but I think you could have the Shalka Doctor appear as an alternate universe version of the Doctor. He would be an alternate version of the 9th Doctor specifically.

Perhaps in this reality the Doctor never met Cass and never became the War Doctor and later he and the revived Master were able to defeat the Daleks together before the war escalated to quite the same extent, though the 8th Doctor still met his end and regenerated into Richard E Grant instead of John Hurt as he never consumed the Sisterhood’s potion. Maybe the Daleks were not quite as powerful in this reality?

The revived Master was then spared being put to death by the time lords provided he agree to travel with the Doctor and help him battle evil. The Master agrees and his consciousness is placed in an android body that resembles the current flesh and blood body he had and that can’t leave the TARDIS just in case he tries any more tricks. This of course then leads to the events of Scream of the Shalka.

You’d have there be some big threat that would endanger all universes bringing the Doctors from two different universes together, or perhaps the Shalka Doctor would just fall into our universe by accident, through a wormhole or something.

Richard E Grant and Sophie Okonedo and Sir Derek Jacobi would all reprise their roles as the characters from Scream of the Shalka.

I think this would be an interesting new take on the multi Doctor story having the Doctor meet an alternate version of himself who he wasn’t sure he could trust completely. One who would be working alongside the Master, who had a completely different history to his.

It would be interesting I think to see how the two Doctors compared their histories to each other, particularly during the time war. Maybe the Shalka Doctor would be appalled at the 8th Doctors decision to become a soldier and some of 12’s recent actions such as risking the universe in order to save just one person, Clara.

I’d love to see Richard E Grant and Peter Capaldi play off of each other. They are both similar in some ways, both older, more respected thesp’s, both known for being quite cantankerous and grumpy, but obviously at the same time they have very different styles too.

Capaldi is working class and Scottish,  Grant is obviously posh and very proper and English. Even in terms of physical appearance, Grants hair is jet black and slicked back, whilst Capaldi’s is white and messy and all over the place.

I can imagine the Shalka Doctor getting a bit frustrated with Capaldi playing his guitar and trying to smash it even!

However at the same time I can see the two of them despite these initial differences finding a lot of common ground as they are both much older, more emotionally mature Doctors in contrast to say 10 and 11. They could end up having a bromance like 10 and 11 did by the end of their adventure together. Though what do you call a bromance with yourself?

I think this would be a good way of having Capaldi play off of another Doctor without having to bring back Matt Smith or David Tennant. I don’t hate multi Doctor stories, (Day of the Doctor is top 10 for me!) but I am not too keen on having older Doctors pop up in non anniversary stories as I feel they somewhat undermine the actor playing the current Doctor as they kind of thrive on nostalgia. That’s okay for an anniversary story as the whole point of an anniversary story is to look back and celebrate the past. Still in a non anniversary story it does just kind of feel like “hey remember when this guy was the Doctor. Wasn’t it so much better than it is now?”

With the Shalka Doctor you wouldn’t run into that problem however as Grant never had an era. Hardly anyone has ever seen Scream of the Shalka and even for those who did it wouldn’t bring back any nostalgia as it was a time when Doctor Who seemed dead as a live action series for good.

To most people it would simply be an alternative Doctor, and unlike the War Doctor it wouldn’t change the numbering or use up any regenerations either.

You’d get the best out of the multi Doctor stories as you could give Capaldi a chance to play off of another actor playing the role, but without all of the baggage of fans of said Doctor saying “I wish they would come back permanently”.

Added to that we would also give Sir Derek Jacobi a chance to play the Master again. Jacobi I thought was the best out of the three modern Masters. A case could be made for him ironically despite his brief tenure in the role being one of the best.

At the same time however Jacobi appearing would not be in danger of conflicting with Michelle Gomez the current Master as even though he was in it before, this version of the Master would be a good guy and therefore not fulfilling the same role of the archfoe as Missy.

It Could Help Establish New Who And Classic Who As Taking Place In Different Universes

Okay now please hear me out on this one.

Personally I prefer to think of New Who and Classic Who as taking place in alternate universes to one another. Its not because I dislike New Who, but I simply feel that the two shows work better if they are in different universes to each other.

I don’t like a story that goes on and on and on. Unlike the 11th Doctor I like endings. An ending is one of the most important parts of the story, it enables you to wrap up characters storyline’s and resolve and tie up any loose ends.

Sadly in something that just goes on and on like Doctor Who I don’t feel that you can change the status quo too much. That might sound a bit odd to say that about Who, something that thrives on change, but still I’m talking about real fundamental changes to its core, rather than simply changing the lead actor.

For instance you could never kill off say the Master, the Doctors archenemy and bring his story to an end. Someone could come up with the best story ever to finish his or her storyline, but then some time later it will be completely undone and the Master will come back as a villain again, simply because the Master is such an iconic enemy he can never be finished off. People are always going to demand his return and fans who grow up to become writers who work on the show will want to bring him back. Thrice the character has been finished off in a way that really rounded his story off perfectly. In Planet of Fire he was burnt to a crisp with no hope of return, in the tv movie he was sucked into the eye of harmony and in The End of Time he redeemed himself whilst sacrificing himself to save the Doctor. In all three cases however he had to come back like nothing had happened.

You could even argue that the return of Gallifrey was like that. Personally I loved Gallifrey returning, but I can see how to people who preferred the Doctor being the last of his kind it would seem like a slap in the face.

Now if you were to establish that New Who and Classic Who were in different universes then you could finish both of their stories. I’m not saying you’d instantly finish New Who of course, but this would allow it when the time comes to maybe have a resolution and also be able to make long lasting changes.

This is why I prefer DC to Marvel. Marvel follows the one big story and thus I feel isn’t able to make as many long lasting changes as DC at least used to be able to using its multiverse format.

In Marvel similarly they can kill off major characters like say the Green Goblin Spider-Man’s archenemy in The Night Gwen Stacy Died, which was the perfect end to the character, but then someone will bring him back later because the Goblin is too big a character to stay dead.

Also look at how many times Captain America has died and come back.

DC comics meanwhile followed a different format where they made out that all of their stories from the 30’s to the 50’s took place in a different universe to the stories from the 60’s to the 80’s.

This wasn’t a simple reboot where they ignore everything that came before. They had the 60’s-80’s versions of characters like Superman and Wonder Woman and the Flash cross over into the other universe where the 30’s-50’s versions lived and met them.

The Flash of the 30’s-50’s Jay Garrick meets the Flash of the 60’s-80’s Barry Allen, when the later accidently, whilst experimenting with his super speed, crosses over into Jay Garrick’s earth. The 30’s-50’s earth was christened earth 2 whilst the 60’s-80’s earth was christened earth 1.

The multiverse format for DC not only allowed it to do cool crossovers like the one above but it also I feel enabled them to bring the original versions of their characters to a close.

The Earth 2 Batman for instance married Catwoman, had  a child with her named Helena (who later became the hero known as the Huntress after Catwoman’s death) and eventually died in battle with an evil sorcerer. This was not just any old Batman remember, this was the one who had starred in every comic from the 30’s to the 50’s. Yet DC were able to kill him and keep him dead, unlike Doctor Who with the Master or Marvel with Captain America as the multiverse format allowed them to still do stories with the earth one Batman who at the same time wasn’t bound by 30 years of continuity and could be a different character in some ways. Also unlike a standard reboot the 30’s-50’s Batman was not simply forgotten about. The Huntress his crime fighting daughter not only starred in her own series but regularly crossed over into Earth 1 and met and worked with an alternate version of her now deceased father.

To me the DC multiverse format would be good for Doctor Who. This story would establish that Classic Who took place in a different universe to the revival. The revival universe had a similar history yes, explaining the presence of the classic era Doctors in the 50th, but ultimately its a different universe and the Shalka Doctor is the 9th incarnation of the classic era Doctors.

Now I realize that this would piss so many fans off more so than anything else in the shows 50 year history, the war Doctor, gender bending timelords, the half human bit etc so I think there should be a compromise.

The story that features the Shalka Doctor wouldn’t outright say that the Shalka Doctor is the classic era Doctor. Well to be honest he couldn’t unless he actually said “By the way I’m the Doctor you saw from 1963-1989 and in 1996, but NOT the one from 2005-present”.

You’d simply establish that he had the same history as the version in New Who. His first 8 incarnations would be Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, Davison, Baker, McCoy and McGann too. Thus it would be left up to the viewer to decide if the Shalka Doctor was the one from the Classic Who universe or the new Who Doctor was. Nothing in the show would suggest otherwise.

I think that would be the perfect compromise as it would allow classic who fans who dislike the changes new who has made to classic who canon to view the new series as not being connected to it. Who knows some people might even appreciate it more that way.

It can’t be denied that New Who doesn’t mesh with Classic Who a lot of the time.

Yes there were continuity blips in classic who, but its not quite the same as new who’s changes.

Take for instance the Great Intelligence in New Who. His story doesn’t mesh with the classic who intelligence.

The Classic Who Intelligence is an alien from another universe that enters our reality through the monks in Tibet’s meditation which acts as a psychic bridge into this universe. It then spends 200 years in Tibet until the 1930’s building a robot army to take over the world. It never has a true form its just a voice in the air.

In New Who the Intelligence is created by Doctor Simeon at a much later date in Victorian England and its only able to survive outside of its case at the end of the story. Also it assumes the form of Walter Simeon which it keeps until the end of its life.

As you can see this is completely at odds with Old Who. In one it is an alien that enters our reality in the early 18th century in another it is created from a human in the mid 19th century. In one it is in Tibet, in another it is in Victorian England. In one it always used Walter Simeon as an avatar, in another it is just a voice.

Also its character is completely different in both cases. In old Who it is a cold logical being that seeks knowledge and is also somewhat cowardly. When the Doctor asks it if it wants revenge it says the revenge is a petty human emotion and shrieks in panic that the Doctor wants to destroy it when he makes a plan against it.

In New Who however the creature is driven by revenge. It seeks to destroy the Doctor above all else, and far from being cowardly it kills itself just to torture and kill the Doctor.

In many ways the two are polar opposites to each other.

The Master is similarly a totally different character in New Who. In Old Who he was a villain who sought power and started out as more of a sociopath who viewed life as expendable. We saw him go more insane due to a variety of reasons over the course of classic who, but he didn’t start out as a maniac.

In New Who however it is established that he was insane since the beginning due to the constant drumming in his head. This not only tosses about 16 years worth of character development for the original Master out of the window, but it also doesn’t make sense as why didn’t any previous Masters or Doctors mention the drums the thing that tormented the Master for his whole life?

Also it changes the Doctors entire relationship with him. In old Who because the Master was not a raving lunatic the Doctor held him accountable for his actions and tried to kill him, in fact in the Mind of Evil he goes out of his way to kill him even when he is fleeing. He also views him as a monster and despises him.

In New Who however the Doctor believes that the Master is a good person underneath and that he is not accountable for his actions such as when he says “you don’t want to do this” or when he says that he is not here to kill him but help him.

Why did the Doctor never have this attitude for hundreds of years? Why did he never try and get through to him in that amount of time?

Also Davros’s story is different in New Who. In The Witch’s Familiar it is established that he programmed a tiny bit of mercy into the Daleks DNA. This completely contradicts the whole point of Genesis of the Daleks where we see that he removed all concept of mercy and pity from them. If you take the Witch’s Familiar as canon to Genesis then the ending where the Dalek says “PITY I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD” can’t be taken literally.

Finally even the Doctor himself, his reason for running away was because of a prophecy about the Daleks and the Time Lords.

To start with that changes the whole point of the character. The Doctor was meant to be someone who was actually at his core quite straightforward. He was bored and he wanted a nice life so he fled and went exploring the universe because he wanted to. That’s a big part of the characters appeal that he just does what he wants.

Now however he didn’t want to leave Gallifrey, he was just scared. Also why did he not recognize the Daleks in the first Dalek story if he fled because of a prophecy about them?

Why also did he never mention or investigate this prophecy for 50 years?

This isn’t just a little blip like the UNIT dating controversy. This is entire characters history’s characterisations and motivations changing and becoming completely contradictory to one another.

Thus for me its better if New Who is a different universe and the Shalka Doctor would give me that option, yet at the same time it would allow those who want Who to all be one story to still view it that way.

We Could Have Other Versions of Characters 

We could explore alternate universe versions of other classic Who characters through the Shalka Doctor.

See the other roads our favourite characters might have gone down.

Or if the Shalka Doctors universe was the Classic era Doctors universe we could have the classic era versions of old characters return.

Again you wouldn’t say that they were specifically the classic era versions of those characters but you would just portray them in such a way that they could be seen like that.

You’d have Davros for instance in his old Emperor casing from Remembrance of the Daleks, and you’d have Terry Molloy who played Davros in Classic Who play the role again, opposite Julian Bleach who would play the new who Davros still in his black Dalek base.

After all it never was explained how he went back to looking like he normally does when he had removed the last vestige of his human form.in Remembrance. Maybe he didn’t if The Stolen Earth/  Journeys End and The Magicians Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar took place in a different universe to Remembrance? Or to those who wanted them to take place in the same universe well maybe this is just a Davros who stayed like that.

Similarly we could have retro Classic Daleks. Specifically the ones from Remembrance of the Daleks as that was the last appearance of the Daleks from classic who opposite the Daleks from the revival.

I think you could do a very interesting story involving the two races of Daleks. I’d imagine that the classic era Daleks would find a way to travel to the other universe. As they are behind the New Who Daleks in terms of technology maybe this would be the first time they explored another universe. Naturally when they found the New Who Daleks they would wish to exterminate them as after all nothing pisses a Dalek off more than an impure Dalek.

The two races would war with one another for a long while until they decided to call a truce. The Daleks would do this simply because they would realize that by pulling their resources together they could destroy every universe after which they who would be the only survivors on a ship like the crucible would fight it out to see who was the only true Dalek race.

Whilst the New Who Daleks did manage to nearly destroy every universe on their own in Journey’s End you could have it that they have fallen on hard times after the Twelfth Doctor sabotaged their city in the season 9 opener and thus they needed the Classic era Daleks resources. This would also explain how the Classic era Daleks could take the New Who Daleks in a war as they would have greater numbers.

Naturally as both Daleks were building a weapon that could destroy all universes, both the Shalka Doctor and the New Who Doctors would be forced to travel into the Shalka reality where both Daleks were working together and be forced to team up to stop them.

We could see how both Davros’s work together and give Bleach and Molloy a chance to play off of each other. Molloy’s Davros is the emperor of his race of Daleks, whilst Bleach’s Davros is basically a pet of his Daleks locked up in a cage somewhere.

You could have Molloy’s Davros think that he was superior as he was in command of his race of Daleks, whilst Bleach’s Davros would think that he was superior as his Daleks were no longer completely dependent on him and had in many ways triumphed over the time lords who were now in hiding from them.

It would also be interesting to see the original Daleks work with the new ones. The original Daleks would obviously be more primitive, but they would also perhaps be more ruthless. Unlike the new Daleks they would have literally no concept of mercy (perhaps that’s where the timeline’s diverged in the new and old Who universes. In the New Who universe the 12th Doctor instilled that tiny bit of mercy in Davros who in turn placed it into the Daleks which leads to them sparing him at the end of Genesis. They don’t kill him but they keep him around like they later do as a pet and use him for his scientific genius.

As a result of this these Daleks progressed a lot faster than the Classic era Daleks. Not only were they able to make use of Davros’s scientific genius unlike the original’s who had to start from scratch after 4 sabotaged them, but these Daleks were also never divided by a civil war that Davros later instigated in Classic Who in Remembrance of the Daleks which not only split the race down the middle, but led to the destruction of their entire home planet.

Here Davros was their prisoner and thus they remained a united race building a far greater empire. Though obviously at some point Davros managed to escape in the New Who timeline and tried his scheme on Necros which is why we saw the clips of Colin with Davros in The Magician’s Apprentice. However his plan failed and he was captured and imprisoned, with his Necrosian Daleks being destroyed. The events of Resurrection and Remembrance of the Daleks did not happen in this reality. As for why we heard Davison threatening Davros and McCoy mocking him well perhaps Davison threatened him at another point and McCoy used that taunt at another point.

Genesis still happened in this universe, but again its ending was different as rather than memorably zap Davros instead they just took him prisoner.

The events of other Dalek stories may have gone differently as a result of this. For instance the first, second and third Doctors would have most likely have met Davros. Perhaps Davros was the commander of the Dalek invasion of earth and had his first battle with the first Doctor in that adventure.

Thus with all this in mind the Classic era Daleks were naturally far behind the new who Daleks. Though they still launch a war against the Time Lords and gave them a run for their money, ultimately it was not as devastating a conflict as the time war in new who’s reality which is why the Doctor never needed to become the war Doctor and ultimately why the Doctor and the Master were able to best the Daleks.

Thus the war saw neither the Daleks or the time lords wiped out, but the Daleks were set back as was Gallifrey with the war still seeing billions of casualties.

Aside from seeing the two different Dalek races we could also see their servants from classic who and new who meet.

The Classic era Daleks would have Robomen, Ogrons, Varga plants and Dalek troopers.

The New Who Daleks would have Dalek puppets, Colony Sarff’s and Pig men.

Granted all of these guys couldn’t have a major role or else it would get to cluttered. I think you’d have to give some of them cameos on the bridge of the Dalek ships and also perhaps have a flashback sequence of when the two Dalek races first met and began warring with each other. That’d be a brilliant sequence seeing millions of Remembrance and Bling Daleks blast each other in the sky whilst millions of Colony Sarfs wrap themselves around Robomen, and Ogrons blast Dalek puppets and Pig men with their ray guns on the planet’s surface. .

Still personally I’d love to see all of these different monsters and characters

In a story together.

You could also have an alternate version of Kate Stewart and have her be played by Beverly Cressman who originated the role in Downtime a video spin off in the 90’s which featured Nicholas Courtney.

Beverly Cressman the original Kate Lethbridge Stewart in Downtime.

I think it would be great to see Beverly return to the role of Kate. In contrast to Jemma Redgrave her version of the character was more compassionate and less willing to sacrifice innocent lives for the greater good. She also surprisingly had quite a cold relationship with her father. Prior to the events of Downtime the two hadn’t seen each other in years and the Brig wasn’t even aware that he was a grandfather. Compare this with Redgrave’s Kate who practically worships him.

We could also have the character of Major Kennet who appeared in Scream of the Shalka and was voiced by Jim Norton an Irish actor best known for playing Bishop Brennan in Father Ted appear alongside Kate as well.

As for how you could work UNIT into the story well I suppose you could have the Daleks arrive on the earth perhaps to use the Rift as a weapon. After all it could exist in this reality too. Perhaps they had found a way to make it become so unstable it would rip apart all of creation itself, whilst they would survive in the nothingness between universes?

Thus their base of operations is on earth, albeit in secret and UNIT (who in this reality control the Rift as there is no Torchwood.) and the two Doctors have to team up to save all universes from the Daleks.

Personally I think that would be an excellent story. It would have Peter Capaldi and Richard E Grant playing off of one another, Terry Molloy and Julian Bleach two different Davros’s, the Classic  era white and gold imperial Daleks meeting the Bling Daleks from New Who, we could see the original Kate Stewart, Sir Derek Jacobi as the Master and Bishop Len Brennan!

Hell we could even have the retro TARDIS back as the Shalka Doctors TARDIS would look like that on the inside.

And of course like I said this story would leave it open to viewers to decide what New Who’s relationship to its predecessor was.

If you wanted you could say that Classic Who took place in a separate universe to the revival and the Shalka Doctors universe is the classic Doctors universe with the Shalka Doctor being the Classic Doctor then that’s fine. The classic Daleks, Davros, Kate, TARDIS interior would all back you up.

Or if you wanted you could see the Shalka Doctor as being just an alternate universe version of the original then that’s fine, this could just be a universe whose history split off from the main one and the retro Daleks who are merely more primitive.

Personally I hope the producers of Doctor Who capitalize on the Shalka Doctor and we get a story like this. Obviously I’d trust the writers of New Who to come up with a better story idea that brings the two Doctors together. Still I’d like to see a story that uses the premise of the two Doctors from different universes and has both universes Daleks meet up.

I think this story could open up lots of interesting story ideas as it would give the writers a whole new Doctor Who universe to play with. You could even have the Doctor meet his alternate self once every Doctor, with the alternate Doctor having regenerated and changed companions since we last saw him too.

A story featuring the two Doctors battling the Master from New Who’s universe for instance would be another interesting story as the Master in the Shalka Doctor’s universe is reformed and a companion of the Doctor who has helped him save the day. Thus we could have both Masters meet each other and both be appalled at the way their counterparts have gone. Missy, or whoever was playing the Master at this point as this would be the Doctor after Capaldi so it all depends on if Chibnall wants to use Gomez? Possibly due to the warm reception to her performance? Maybe not however as he might just want a clean slate. Anyway Missy would be appalled at her goody two shoes counterpart whilst the Jacobi Master would loathe the degenerate sociopath he had become in this reality. A monster that butchers young people for no reason, the Jacobi Master would be even more grateful to the Doctor for saving him from damnation.

I’d love to see a scene where the Jacobi Master sees Missy killing someone completely defenceless and innocent for literally no reason at all like Osgood and be utterly horrified at his counterpart being capable of such senseless cruelty and really try and destroy her.

This could contrast the senseless cruelty of the New Who Masters like Simm and Gomez with the more logical, ruthlessness of the Classic era incarnations. the Ainley Master for instance, the murder of Teegan Jovanka’s Auntie aside I can’t ever imagine doing anything like murder Osgood or Chantho for no reason. Even he had his limits as seen when he is genuinely horrified at what happens to Luke or in Survival when he even says he’d rather die than just be a savage animal killing for fun. So with this in mind if the Shalka Master is the original Classic era Master it would be interesting for him to see Missy and realize that is what he could have been if he had let the Cheetah virus consume him.

The possibility of the alternate Doctor would also give actors who might not be able to play the Doctor a chance to do so. Actors whose schedule might be too busy or would be too expensive for a full series could play the role for say two episodes that feature the alternate Doctor working alongside the New Who Doctor.

Thanks for reading.

 

The seventh entry in the Hammer Dracula series. This film saw Peter Cushing return to the role of Van Helsing (and his descendant).

It also saw the setting of the series change from sleepy villages in the 19th century to London in the swinging er 70’s.

Definitely one of my favourite Dracula films, this is more what I’d call a camp classic in that it may not be quite as scary as Scars of Dracula or as well made as the original, but damn is it fun!

Plot

The year is 1872. Count Dracula and his nemesis Lawrence Van Helsing are fighting one another atop a moving carriage. Dracula gets the better of his adversary and throws him off the top of the carriage which crashes into a tree seconds later.

Dracula is impaled on the wooden wheel. Van Helsing with his last ounce of strength attacks the Vampire and manages to push the wooden wheel through his heart, staking him.

After Dracula crumbles into dust Van Helsing dies from his injuries. Later as Van Helsing is being buried, one of Dracula’s followers buries his remains nearby. This follower having now been freed from his masters influence buries his ashes in the church, holy ground to prevent his resurrection and leaves to continue his life.

Flash forward to 100 years later in 1972 and we follow Van Helsing’s great, great grand daughter, Jessica Van Helsing and her friends, which include a girl named Laura and Johnny Alucard.

Johnny suggests to the gang try something new and exciting in an old abandoned church, a black mass ritual.

Jessica’s grandfather Lorrimer Van Helsing (who looks identical to the original Van Helsing at the start, his grandfather, as both are played by Peter Cushing.) is an expert on the occult. He has an extensive library on supernatural creatures and is a known expert on the occult having even been called in by the police to help them deal with Demonic killings in the past.

Jessica however does not take her grandfathers work seriously and accompanies Johnny and her friends to the abandoned church to perform a black mass ritual. The church is actually where both Van Helsing and Dracula’s remains are buried.

Johnny Alucard is in fact the descendant of the man who buried Dracula. Unlike his ancestor Johnny is evil and seeks to bring Dracula back so that he can gain immortality.

Johnny performs the ritual using Laura and blood pours all over her which horrifies everyone so much that they flee leaving a terrified Laura behind. After they all leave Dracula rises from the dead in he churchyard.

He does not thank Alucard, telling him that it was his will influencing him from beyond the grave that made Alucard bring him back.

Dracula subsequently kills Laura and her body is then mutilated by Johnny to cover up her cause of death. When the police find her body they call in Van Helsing suspecting it is a cult killing. Despite Johnny attempting to cover up her cause of death Van Helsing is able to deduce that it is the work of a Vampire. He is later after questioning Jessica able to work out that Dracula is involved as Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards.

Unfortunately Johnny meanwhile is able to seduce a friend of Jessica’s Gaynor who he brings to Dracula. Dracula is furious that she is not Jessica. Dracula only came back from the dead to make the Van Helsing family, the kin of his now deceased archenemy pay by turning one of them into a Vampire the thing they hate the most.

Dracula nevertheless kills Gaynor after which he then agrees to make Johnny a Vampire when Johnny convinces him that it would be easier to bring Jessica to him if he had the power of a Vampire.

After killing a young woman Johnny makes Jessica’s boyfriend into a Vampire and the two bring Jessica to Dracula.

With his job done Johnny flees whilst Jessica’s boyfriend is killed by Dracula. Unfortunately for Johnny before he can skip town and enjoy his new found immortality Van Helsing tracks him down with the aid of one of Jessica’s friends. Van Helsing demands to know where Jessica is, but Johnny refuses and attacks him. Very nearly tearing his throat out with his teeth, the sun begins to rise and Van Helsing uses it fight Johnny off driving him up the stairs and into his bathroom, there whilst dazzled Johnny pulls open the blinds by mistake and sunlight floods the room forcing him backwards into his shower which he accidently turns on.

The combination of the sunlight and the clear running water kill Johnny who in his dying breath still refuses to tell Van Helsing where Jessica is, sneering at him that he’ll never find her.

Van Helsing however is able to deduce that Dracula is using the resting place of the original Van Helsing as the place of his revenge.

Van Helsing goes there during the day and finds Jessica in a trance. Knowing that he can’t wake her from it and that he will not be able to find Dracula during the day Van Helsing spends all night preparing for a final showdown with the Vampire.

He gets a bottle of holy water, a silver knife, digs a massive pit full of wooden stakes, and places a cross round Jessica’s neck.

That night as Dracula arrives to make her into a Vampire Van Helsing confronts him.

The two enemies battle it out with Dracula pursuing Van Helsing up to the top of the church. Van Helsing is no match for the Vampires inhuman strength. Dracula effortlessly batters his nemesis across the room, but just as he is about to kill Van Helsing, he strikes Dracula in the heart with a silver blade sending him tumbling over the edge of the upper level of the church.

Unfortunately Van Helsing doesn’t strike it in deep enough to actually pierce the Vampires heart and Jessica still under the Demons thrall removes it from his chest. Now completely recovered Dracula chases Van Helsing outside.

There Van Helsing almost falls into his own pit of stakes. With Dracula noticing the trap he is somewhat cautious and once again Van Helsing manages to catch him off guard and throws holy water in his face. Dracula lets out an ear piercing scream and tumbles backwards into the pit. Landing on one of the stakes Van Helsing uses a shovel to push the Vampire further down onto one of them. The stake goes right through his heart and Dracula dies once again.

As he crumbles to dust Jessica is released from his thrall and she and her grandfather embrace.

 Review

Dracula AD 1972 is arguably one of the most maligned entries in the series alongside its immediate sequel The Satanic Rites of Dracula.

As much as I love it I can see why its not quite so highly regarded. This movie was clearly an attempt by Hammer to appeal to the younger crowd. Sadly its clearly written by people in their 40’s who are somewhat out of touch shall we say with the younger generation.

Really a lot of the dialogue that the young characters come out with reminds me of this scene from Still Game.

The movie was clearly about 5 years out of date in terms of styles and fashion and general attitudes when it was first released. It would make more sense if it was set in the mid 60’s, though ironically whilst it might have seemed somewhat dated at the time, if anything nowadays it has a certain kitsch appeal due to its setting as it almost feels like an Austin Powers movie with Vampires at certain points!

Its basic plot is somewhat derivative of previous Dracula’s in that once again we have Dracula try and get revenge on one of his enemies by turning their loved one, who happens to be a gorgeous young woman into a Vampire. He’s lucky his enemies like the Monsignor, Hargood and Van Helsing’s relatives aren’t sweaty fat guys isn’t he.

This film does in fact owe quite a bit to Taste the Blood of Dracula. Once again we have a group of people who are bored with their usual antics who are approached by someone from outside of their little group who promises them new thrills, which leads to them preforming a blood ritual in a Church which brings the Vampire back from the grave. Dracula in both films goes on to make the abandoned church his base of operations before being destroyed in it at the end of the film.

In addition to this the films score can seem somewhat inappropriate at times. Its a funky jazzy, blaxsploitation type theme which does fit the 70’s setting, but at the same time it doesn’t seem to mesh with Dracula and Van Helsing.

As a piece of music in itself I actually really like the theme for this film, but again it does feel more like either a blaxsploitation film or the theme to something like the Sweeney.

Finally another big fault with this movie is that Christopher Lee is given very little to do. In fact I’d say that this and Taste the Blood of Dracula are the two films in the series that waste Lee the most. This makes slightly better use of him than Taste as it at least gives him a climactic fight scene with Peter Cushing, his greatest on screen adversary, though other than that Lee spends all of the film basically skulking about a church, jumping out and biting women and nothing else.

Still despite these negative qualities overall I’d still rank Dracula AD as one of my favourites as I think in some ways it refreshes the series.

I for one like the modern day setting. Okay yes in this film Hammer maybe don’t use it as well as they could, but still the basic idea of bringing Dracula into a modern setting is an inspired one.

A lot of people (including the star of the film Christopher Lee himself) hated the idea of Dracula in modern times, but I think it was the right thing to do for many reasons.

To start with after 6 films the 19th century setting had become stale. Really there is only so many times I can watch the villagers of Klausenberg live in terror of a single Vampire and really I think Scars of Dracula took that idea as far as it could go.

The count needed a change of scenery at least and really a big flashy modern day setting is about as different to the quite sleepy little village in the middle of nowhere as you can imagine.

Also I think the modern day setting offers up several interesting ideas that you couldn’t really explore in the previous 19th century setting.

In the modern day you can see how a creature like a Vampire is able to operate more freely in a society that no longer is aware of the paranormal. In the village of Klausenberg Dracula had to do all he could to terrify the villagers into not crossing him, as every single last person in the village knew what a Vampire was. Similarly just about every priest Dracula ran into knew what a Vampire was too.

In this film however Dracula is able to commit his killings with nobody but Van Helsing being aware of his existence. Its kind of a nice take on the whole, “the worst trick the devil did was convincing you he didn’t exist” idea.

In actual fact in this respect this film is closer to the original Novel than its predecessors.

People forget that Stokers Dracula much like this film was actually a modern day Vampire story. It no longer seems like that because obviously a century has passed, but at the time it was a contemporary horror story that similarly explored the idea of an ancient evil venturing into a society that had no idea it existed, and preying on the unsuspecting population. In this respect this film captured that prominent theme far more than any of the previous films, which featured Dracula living in remote little villages where everyone was aware of the occult.

The best thing about this film however is the long awaited return of Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. In some ways I actually like the modern Van Helsing as much as the original.

He’s a fascinating character that sadly I feel we are only able to really scratch the surface of. In many ways I think he is a precursor to the character of Kolchak the Night Stalker. He is a special advisor to the police on supernatural cases, and in the movie its said he has helped them out before in dealing with other paranormal cases involving other creatures such as Demons.

I would love to have seen more films with Lorrimer Van Helsing fighting monsters and Jessica as his sidekick. It would have been an interesting companion piece to Kolchak that started a few years later.

The idea of there being a lineage of Vampire hunters is also a fascinating concept too, and again one that would be utilized in many later works such as in the Tomb of Dracula which featured the Van Helsing lineage, and the Mr Vampire film series which saw the descendants of Master Kau carry on his Vampire hunting legacy.

This movie also I feel fleshes Van Helsing out more than the earlier films through his relationship to his grand daughter Jessica. I think we see a much more vulnerable side to the iron willed Vampire hunter here, as this battle is more personal, with Dracula now going after the person he cares about more than anything else. In the previous films Van Helsing always kept his calm, but here he is brought close to tears.

I love his confrontation with Johnny, where Johnny taunts him about Jessica and he just loses his cool and throws a candle stick at him. It would have been unthinkable in the previous movies with Cushing as Van Helsing to have seen him just blow his top like that.

Unlike with Lee as Dracula this movie actually allows Cushing to do something new with the character and explore a more vulnerable side to Van Helsing. This just clearly goes to show that Hammer were more interested in exploring Van Helsing’s character than Dracula, which just makes me wonder why they left him out of the past 4 films?

Peter Cushing is of course excellent as Van Helsing. Unlike Lee whose enthusiasm was clearly long gone by this point, Cushing really gives it his all. He absolutely loved the role of Van Helsing even once stating “Give up playing Van Helsing in the Dracula’s? Over my dead body”.

He really carries the film and helps elevate it above being just a standard horror flick. If nothing else I’d say that this movie is a minor classic simply because it has one of the best performances of an actor playing Van Helsing you are likely to see in any adaptation of Dracula.

What’s quite remarkable about this film is how despite his advanced age Cushing is every bit as capable as he was in the first Dracula movie. Remember this was a good 12 years after Horror of Dracula, also Cushing was pushing 60 at this point.

If anything the role of Van Helsing was even more demanding in this film as he has three massive big fight scenes including one atop a moving carriage.

He is kind of like Jon Pertwee as the Doctor here in that, even though he is an older man he can still kick some serious ass. He is an action grandpa.

The final fight between Van Helsing and Dracula is definitely the highlight of the film, its well staged and choreographed. You can tell that Lee is a lot more enthusiastic in these fight scenes when given a strong actor like Cushing to play off of in such a dramatic way. Of course that’s not to say that Lee phones it in in the other scenes in the movie, but still you can tell in the scenes where he just jumps out and kills people he is kind of going through the motions.

Its understandable as he has done this kind of thing dozens of times before. Stand, look scary, kill some beautiful woman etc. With the Van Helsing fight however you can see Lee relishes the chance to really show us how much the Vampire despises Van Helsing above all else. He snarls like an animal when he first sees him, there’s an evil little smile when he thinks he finally has him cornered, and finally the sheer desperation when he is in the pit struggling to get up and tear Van Helsings throat out.

Its just such a shame that there aren’t more scenes in the film between Dracula and Van Helsing, but fortunately this is still a spectacular confrontation none the less.

This fight also clearly shows what was wrong with the previous films in the series as here Dracula given a foe who is worthy of him seems like the towering presence of evil he should be. Van Helsing the worlds greatest expert on Vampires, whose fought Demons and all manner of monsters flees from him and has to use every single resource and weapon he can to bring him down.

If this film had been like the previous few entries in the series then the lead character would have been Jessica’s boyfriend (probably named Paul) and either he would have killed Dracula, which would have completely undermined him, or Dracula would have died in some ridiculous way like tripping and falling onto a well placed piece of wood.

The presence of Van Helsing however makes the Vampires seem far more threatening as here the only person who can face them is the expert monster hunter and even for him its a dangerous, drawn out experience killing them. Johnny Alucard seems more difficult to kill in this film than Dracula did in Taste the Blood of Dracula.

I must admit whilst I can understand the criticisms this film gets, I would have thought that seeing Cushing and Van Helsing in their most iconic roles in such a long, thrilling brutal fight would have at least been something that would have given this a higher reputation.

Aside from Cushing and Lee the other stand out performance in this film is definitely Christopher Neame as Johnny Alucard. Neame is an actor I have always rated highly as he is always good at playing really over the top villains.

I admit at times he does go a bit too over the top, but still for the most part he is very charismatic as Johnny Alucard. Indeed I’d say he helps carry the film along with Cushing. He creates a character that seems like almost as big a presence as Dracula himself in the film.

Unlike Dracula’s other servants Johnny isn’t just content to sit around as a lapdog for Dracula. He brings him back for his own purposes as he wants to be a Vampire. I like the way Johnny is shown to be so single minded in his quest to become a Vampire, being willing to sacrifice all of his own friends just to get it.

Its also interesting the way Dracula underestimates Johnny. He thinks that his will has influenced Johnny to bring him back from beyond the grave, but clearly Johnny is not someone he can manipulate and use and the proof of that is that Johnny is able to actually trick Dracula into giving him what he wants. Also unlike Dracula’s other servants he is smart enough to realize that Dracula will dispose of him. Thus after bringing Jessica to him he flees, unlike Jessica’s Vampire boyfriend who is typically disposed of by Dracula.

His final fight with Cushing’s Van Helsing is also another highlight. I actually do like the music here I think it goes well with the intense struggle between both characters.

An interesting thing to note about Johnny is that he is actually one of cinema’s first characters to have an interracial kiss.

The Omega Man was one of the first ever films to have an interracial kiss and it came out the previous year, within a few months actually of Dracula AD 1972.

What’s interesting about this interracial kiss however is that its not a big deal. Its not presented as a huge moment between the two lead characters like in The Omega Man.

Its just a casual moment between Johnny and Gaynor played by Marsha Hunt, and we actually see several kisses between them too.

Watch other films from this time and you will not see anything like that.

Its actually probably one of the first interracial kisses in British media. Prior to this the only other kiss between a black woman and a white man in any form of British entertainment I am aware of was in Emergency Ward 10 in the early 60’s almost ten years before this.

The cast overall for this film is very strong. Stephanie Beacham, Marsha Hunt and Caroline Munro are all absolutely gorgeous!

I feel that the main characters are also a bit more fleshed out here than in some of the other hammer horrors. For instance we actually get to see Jessica’s reaction to Caroline Munro’s characters death and its a very moving moment. Its not like when Julie was killed in Scars of Dracula and we never heard about her again, or when Zena is killed in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and we never hear about her again even from the people who worked with.

Michael Coles who plays Inspector Murray is also a very likable character. He is kind of like the Brigadier to Van Helsing’s Doctor Who. He’s the stiff upper lip ordinary head of the police who is a bit taken a back at Van Helsing’s suggestions that it is the work of a Vampire, but he is smart enough to realize that there is something unusual going on and trust Van Helsing. Coles and Cushing also have a great rapport and chemistry with one another too.

Overall whilst I am not going to deny that this movie is flawed at the end of the day its fantastic entertainment. Indeed I have probably watched this one back more than any other.

Really at the end of the day if you want just a fun Hammer film this is a great choice.

Its got Peter Cushing in one of his absolute greatest performances, arguably the best Van Helsing/Dracula fight, great hammy over the top villains, the most beautiful Hammer actresses of all time and plenty of blood and gore. What the hell more could you want if you are a fan of Hammer horror?

I’d rate this with all its faults as one of the best Hammer flicks. I’d give it 4 and a half stars. Its 70’s cheesiness doesn’t weigh it down too much and if anything like I said almost gives it an Austin Powersesque charm.

Continuity and place within the Hammer Dracula cycle

This movie presents a continuity blip with the other Dracula movies. Horror of Dracula is set in the year 1880, which means that all of the other 19th Century Hammer Dracula’s take place in the 1890’s as Dracula Pince of Darkness takes place ten years after Horror. However this film establishes Van Helsing and Dracula’s final battle as taking place in the year 1872.

This coupled with the fact that it does not follow on from the ending of Scars of Dracula has led many fans to see this as a reboot that is not set in the same universe as the original Hammer Dracula’s.

Personally however I still say that its a sequel to the original films. As far as I’m concerned the conflicting dates to me are just like the UNIT dating controversy in Doctor Who. Yes they its a continuity blip, but I just put it down to the fact that this was before video or DVDs were released.

I think that this does take place in the same universe as the original Hammer Dracula’s. I think that the Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires meanwhile takes place in between Scars and Dracula AD, though I’ll explain more on what I think about the Hammer continuity in my review for Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires review.

Notes and Trivia

• Tim Burton listed this as one of his top 10 favourite films. Kim Newman also listed this as one of his top 10 favourite Vampire films. He also named a character in the Anno Dracula series after Johnny Alucard.
• This movie was also an inspiration on Mr Vampire 2. Both feature a similar plot of a descendant of a famous Vampire Killer (who looks identical to them) having to face the Vampire that killed their ancestor in modern day.