DraculaHasRIsenfromtheGrave

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)

This is the 2nd of the Hammer Dracula movies starring the legendary Christopher Lee in the titular role as the undead count. It has been a year since the events of the first movie and we see that there is something still happening in the small village next to Dracula’s castle. A local girl turns up hanging in the church steeple with her blood drained by what appears to be a vampire. In an effort to sort things out and calm the locals the Monsignor treks up the mountain with the local priest to bless the castle. The short version is that the Monsignor, his name is Mueller, manages to bless Dracula’s castle, but the priest chickens out and waits further down the path. He manages to fall and sure enough the blood from his head wound awakens the sleeping count. Finding his castle blessed and his entry barred Dracula chases off after Mueller to get some payback. Finding that Mueller has a niece he is very fond of Dracula decides to take his revenge out on her. This leads to both Mueller and the girl’s fiancé Paul to do battle with him.

Hammer movies are a mixed bag for me. While most of them are worth watching I don’t always have the same love for them that others do. Plus I tend to like Hammer movies that other fans don’t dig as much (the under appreciated Curse of the Werewolf comes to mind). While the first Dracula movie from Hammer is still my favorite I do think that Dracula Has Risen from the Grave is a pretty decent entry as well. The story starts off a bit slow and it takes far too long for Dracula to snack on anyone. But once the story gets rolling it is a fun ride until the end. Again not trying to beat a dead horse here but the Dracula character is played very much as a monster in this one. Really you get the distinct impression that Lee’s vampire will kill anyone that gets in his way. Ruthless, heartless, and deadly is how I like my vampires and that is what you get here.

Much like the first movie though I think that this one succeeds with the strength of it’s non undead characters. As strong as Lee’s Dracula performance is he really doesn’t get that much screen time. Here the movie focuses on Monsignor Mueller, played nicely by veteran actor Rupert Davies, and the Paul character played by Barry Andrews. Both are perfectly cast and make the movie almost as interesting when Lee isn’t on screen as when he is. Notice I said almost because again the movie does drag in parts (mostly character background and the love story between Paul and Mueller’s niece). But I would be completely remiss if I didn’t mention Ewan Hooper as the local parish priest who becomes Dracula’s servant. If you watch him carefully the character seems to be struggling with what he is doing nearly the entire time. Much of this struggle is non verbal and done completely with body language. Nicely done if you ask me.

Special effects wise there isn’t much to be said about the movie. You get a bit of blood here and there. Other than that and a cool looking corpse as Dracula gets his home away from home not much to mention. Other things I wanted to mention was how nice the movie was shot. This is one of the cooler looking Hammer flicks, and that is saying a lot because many of them are beautifully shot. This shouldn’t be a surprise though considering the director was cinematographer Freddie Francis. I also wanted to say that the sets are very cool. It isn’t very often that I even notice the sets in a movie that I’m watching, but here the whole rooftop setting as well as the sewers looked very cool and added something special to the movie.

If you can’t tell I’m going to recommend Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. While it isn’t a perfect movie it does have a lot going for it and you can get it cheap. The copy I have is on a 4 pack with 3 other Hammer Dracula movies, including The Horror of Dracula and can be had for less then 10 bucks. If you are a horror fan and you haven’t sampled the fun that is Hammer Studios then you really should do so right now.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer