This is only the first installment that Terence Fisher (undoubtedly Hammer's best director) didn't direct himself, and already the whole Hammer Dracula franchise loses a lot of its power. "Dracula has risen from the Grave" certainly isn't a bad horror movie but, compared to the previous three films about the bloodsucking count, it seriously lacks a tense atmosphere and creative story elements. The first half hour is still very moody and vintage, but then the screenplay gets very tedious and sort of like a lame allegory on vampirism and sexuality. Monsignor Ernst Muller visits the little parish were the evil count Dracula was destroyed one year earlier but when he and the local priest want to make sure Dracula is really dead, they accidentally awake him from his watery grave. Now, instead of cocooning peacefully in his castle, Dracula pursues the monsignor to his hometown and assaults his beautiful niece. This movie surely features some eerie settings and scenery, but I quickly got the impression that they were leftover attributes from other Hammer productions. There are some giant holes in the plot and director Freddie Francis obviously didn't pay much attention to continuity or pace. Christopher Lee definitely has the unequaled charisma of a true horror icon, but he already seems a little fed up with his part. Poor Christopher
FOUR more sequels would follow, and some of them are even less good than this one. The supportive cast of "Dracula has risen from the Grave" is very interesting, with decent roles for Rupert Davies ("The Witchfinder General"), Veronica Carlson ("Frankenstein must be Destroyed") and the stunningly beautiful Barbara Ewing.
Review of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
