Dracula A.D. 1972

It's one of only two films starring Christopher Lee as the good old Count that have been released on DVD in this country, so I wasn't too sure I wanted it, and just hoped that I wouldn't need to know the six (five?) previous ones to enjoy it. It didn't. Actually, even the slightest knowledge of the subject would probably be useless, because Dracula A.D. 1972 is something so special that it's better not to think about Bram Stoker. It begins in 1872 with the spectacular deaths of Dracula and Van Helsing and, after the funeral, cuts to a jet plane and moves forward a hundred years to a party of debauched British youth that looks like something Stanley Kubrick couldn't fit into A Clockwork Orange. Later, bored teenagers, dispersed by the police, decide to summon the powers of hell, and the leader of the gang, Johnny Alucard (a sly misdirection, but Van Helsing uses a first-grade elementary school method to reveal it), finally brings his sharp-toothed grandfather back to life, Christopher Lee begins to enjoy himself, Scotland Yard launches an investigation, Peter Cushing's Van Helsing polishes a silver knife and prepares holy water, and his granddaughter gradually disposes of unnecessary items of clothing. It's a good and entertaining film. Actually, it doesn't really matter that Dracula paradoxically didn't get much space, because there's still something interesting, thrilling, even funny happening from time to time (the duel between Dracula and Van Helsing, backed by a groovy soundtrack, that's one of the things you'll either like or not, there's no other option)... And boredom is almost non-existent. (04/09/2015)

The film "Dracula of 1972" is already the seventh film about vampires, or with reference to Count Dracula, which was made under the banner of the Hammer studio. Thanks to the change of setting, but keeping the classic actors, the film manages to captivate and maintain an atmosphere that is very good in places, still with reference to the classic previous parts. This is definitely not a film for which the studio should be ashamed. (15/01/2016)