Dracula: Prince of Darkness begins with a recap of the end of Dracula (1958) as Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing defeats Christopher Lee’s Dracula. A spoken narration informs us that “after a reign of terror spanning more than a century the King of the undead was finally traced to lair high in the Carpathian mountains. Through the decades many have sought to destroy him, all had failed. Here at last was an adversary armed with sufficient knowledge of the ways of the Vampire to bring about the final & absolute destruction. This then was his fate, thousands had been enslaved by the obscene cult of Vampirism. Now the fountain head himself perished, only the memory remained, the memory of the most evil and terrible creature whoever set his being on civilisation!” We see sunlight turn Dracula to dust. Cue credits. Afterwards we are introduced to four English tourists, two couples Charles (Francis Matthews) & his wife Diana Kent (Suzan farmer) plus Charles older brother Alan (Charles Tingwell) & his wife Helen Kent (Barbara Shelley). They begin to talk with a monk, Father Sandor (Andrew Keir) who warns them not to go to Carlstad, and if they do stay away from the Castle. The two couples decide to ignore his advice and travel onwards regardless. After falling behind schedule their coach driver (John Maxim) refuses to go any further in the dark and leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly a horse drawn carriage pulls up, they decide to get in and try to get to Carlstad. the horses have other ideas and they take them to Castle Dracula. Once at the Castle they decide to accept the hospitality shown by Klove (Philip Latham) the Butler. The girls feel a little uneasy but they bed down for the night. During the night Alan is disturbed by a noise and goes to investigate. Klove stabs him, hangs him upside down over Count Dracula’s ashes and slits his throat which covers the ashes in blood. Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) has been resurrected! No one is safe as Dracula starts to sink his fangs into anything with a skirt and killing anyone who tries to stop him. Eventually Father Sandor discovers that Dracula has risen from the dead, but is it already too late?

Directed by Terence Fisher this was the third Dracula film produced by Hammer coming after the Brides of Dracula (1960) & before Dracula has Risen from the Grave (1968) but only the second to feature Christopher Lee as Dracula & the first not feature Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. I thought this was a decent enough horror film, the script by Jimmy Sangster as John Sansom is a little slow to get going. Dracula isn’t introduced until well past the 45 minute mark, and why is Dracula silent throughout? Lee does not say a single word during the film, surely this is a real waste of a great actor? Having said that Lee is excellent as Count Dracula and has a real menacing screen presence about him when he dons the cape & fangs. I must admit that I missed Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, too. The rest of the cast turn in respectable performances. I thought the way Dracula was defeated was rather low-key & unsatisfying, I’d have liked a slightly more memorable death sequence. The atmospheric sets are terrific as you would expect from a period piece from Hammer. Dracula’s richly furnished Castle as well as the barren Monestary. The resurrection sequence is great and probably one of the best in the entire series of films. Don’t expect much blood or gore, pouring blood, a female Vampire staked through the heart and a cut open chest is about as strong as it gets, but don’t let that put you off. I am in two minds over the booming orchestral score by James Bernard, I found it got annoying that every time anything happened this really loud music started to play, on the other hand it’s well composed and certainly adds to the film. If anything I would say Dracula: Prince of Darkness is over-scored. Technically the film is very solid and well made throughout. Overall I liked it but I just thought Dracula should have been introduced earlier, given more to do & perhaps a few lines of dialogue! Worth watching for sure, but maybe not quite the classic many make out.