Violence/Gore: Some stakings and an ignominious end for the erstwhile king of the vampires as he is entangled in a hawthorn bush and dispatched by Van Helsing, presumably once and for all…at least as far as Lee is concerned. And a guy dies graphically of plague too.

Sex/Nudity: A naked blonde is utilized in a satanic ritual, but you’re not missing much.

Best Line: “My revenge has spread over centuries and has only just begun!”

Score:

Oh, Hammer’s beloved Dracula series, how far you’ve fallen. First they steered you out of the historical period in which you were best suited to provide atmospheric thrills and chills and into the incongruously “mod” ’70s instead (with a movie that I still like for various reasons, two of them being Caroline Munro), and now they’ve turned you into a pseudo-Bondian romp involving corporations and viruses and a prince of darkness who now feels he has to hide behind a ridiculous fake accent while wearing a suit and tie! This is making me long for Gary Oldman’s lunatic rendition of the Count, and that’s not a good thing.

Van Helsing (the modern incarnation first introduced in DRACULA AD 1972, not the ancestor seen in the rest of the series, but both played by Peter Cushing) is called in to assist when a mysterious CEO named D.D. Denham is revealed to be planning the release of a deadly new strain of bubonic plague. It’s our old pal Dracula (Christopher Lee just picking up a check) up to his not-so-usual evil tricks, so Van Helsing has to do battle with the fanged one yet again, with his daughter still in tow (this time played by Joanna Lumley as opposed to 1972’s far more appealing Stephanie Beacham). Dracula plans to destroy the world, but for some reason he also intends to make Van Helsing’s daughter into his bride - what he expects to do when the rest of the planet is an infected mass of rotting flesh is another matter.

There is one pretty effective sequence in the film, that being the somewhat creepy basement scene in which we encounter a bevy of chained vampire wives. If ever there was a solid recruitment campaign for ditching your soul and giving in to the dark side, it’s a bunch of buxom Hammer vampire babes baring their fangs - and other assets - and calling you into their web of corruption. Mmm…sorry, I was miles away.

There is also something to be said for the rather original twist on the old premise - that Dracula has now decided he’s so tired of his eternal existence that he wants to eradicate himself and the rest of the world in one final vengeful act. Presaging similar terrorist-themed tales of viral outbreaks by a decade or two, SATANIC RITES certainly can boast one of the most unique plotlines of any Dracula movie, but that doesn’t mean it accomplishes anything all that well. And apart from one last distaff installment with another actor taking over the vampire role, this would be the last time that Hammer resurrected Lee’s Dracula for another showdown with his long-time nemesis, Cushing’s unflappable Van Helsing. It’s a shame the Lee series had to end with such an uncharacteristically ‘modern’ and disappointingly flat adventure.

NOTE: Believe it or not, this is one of many horror classics now in the public domain, which basically means that any idiot with a DVD burner can try to release an edition of this film - and apparently quite a few fly-by-night outfits have done just that. For the sake of quality and a decent viewing experience, stick with a known quantity like Anchor Bay. The edition pictured above is a double-movie set that also includes the far superior 1966 entry in the series, DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS.

DVD Extras: A brief documentary on Hammer vampire films.

ATB