Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786305183402
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 6305183406
Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Starz / Anchor Bay
Release Date: November 17, 1998
Running Time: 87 minutes
Sales Rank: 98063
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Theatrical Release Date: 1978-10
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - 70's Drac Attack
I just caught this movie on the late late show at 3am. Its a Hammer production so I had high hopes. Then I saw the names of legendary Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (the two stars in this review are for them only.) The movie went downhill after the opening credits. There is the usual Satanic ritual going on which shows how popular the Devil was in the 70's. But what really didn't work for me was the modern setting. Seeing Van Helsing walking around in London without all the old style gothic settings of past Hammer films didn't sit with me. It reached the point of being absurd when Van Helsing is sitting at a desk with a dark figure speaking to him and then the figure is revealed to be Lee as Count Dracula. Seeing Dracula in a corporate setting lost all crediablilty to me. The other problem is the waka cha waka cha disco soundtrack. I know Hammer was trying to appeal to a young audience in swinging London, but it doesn't really work at all. I could see that soundtrack in a Kung Fu film and it would have been fine, just not here.
Despite all that, there are so cool moments. When Van Helsing's daughter Jessica, is surrounded by female vampires, who procede to throw her to the ground and leap on top of her, that was a scary moment. You know the heroes would come in any second to break it up but for those few minutes that scene did work.
The ending confrontation between Cushing and Lee was good too. No matter how bad the storyline can get, seeing those two titans clash, is always worth ... Read More
Rating:  - Dracula...Shaken not Stirred.
Almost everyone comments on how this Dracula movie is a bit like a Bond Film. It is in a way, and I have to say I like it. It adds another level of fun and excitement. And we get to see "Mod" Britain. And although some people say Dracula lives through the ages because he is undead, I think the real reason is that he, or rather his collaborators reinvent him as needed. This is a Drac for the 70's. The traditionalists will always have "Horror" and "Brides" and other great movies and modernizing the Count won't take anything away from those movies. But if anyone knows about surviving by keeping up with the times it's a guy who's revenge "reaches through-out the centuries", to paraphrase the Count.
I really enjoyed seeing a different type of Drac movie. I liked the intrigue and subterfuge, the high-ranking powerful members of gov't involved in a horrific Doomsday plot. Epic stuff. And considering it was his last Hammer film its fitting Dracula wanted to go out with a big bang instead of a whimper. Instead of merely waylaying knucklehead tourists who are too stupid to avoid Dracula's castle AT NIGHT, or terrorizing some Bavarian hamlet with a bratwurst based economy, Dracula wants to take out the entire world. He's doing it right too. Instead of just unleashing one of the most dreaded plagues in human history on the world, Drac has gotten a bio-weapons expert to expose it to radiation, making it hundreds of times more deadly and painful. It's not just Super Bubonic Plague; it's Mutant Radioactive ... Read More
Rating: - Christopher Lee throws in the cape
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (belatedly released in a cut version as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride in the US) was the swansong of the Hammer-Lee Dracs, and while not a classic it is a much more interesting attempt to do something new with the material in a modern-day setting than it's predecessor, Dracula AD 1972. Here Dracula is a reclusive Howard Hughes-like tycoon weary of immortality but determined to take the world with him when he goes by unleashing a new and improved Black Death, developed with the help of key government figures who think it's just a bargaining chip to create a new world order. Pitted against him are a couple of British secret service agents whose own boss is one of Dracula's Four Horsemen of the new Apocalypse, a special branch officer and the grandson of Van Helsing and his own granddaughter. The low budget is apparent, but the ideas go some way to compensate (certainly Drac's plan is a more convincing Armageddon than anything Damien Thorn planned in The Final Conflict) and Alan Gibson's direction, though not always successful, shows some imagination.
The extras package is less than impressive here, with only trailers for the UK and US releases and the same Hammer clip show included on Dracula Prince of Darkness, but it is a very respectable widescren transfer of the uncut UK version.
Rating:  - "What's this then...............?"
........asks an amused British police inspector when shown a slide of a barren doorway where there should have been a figure of a man, but that of course is not possible when that man is the spectral presence Count Dracula. The slides are of 4 prominent men who have been to Pelham House wherein curious lurkings have been exposed. A dossier is promptly ordered and secretary Jane is set forth to meet her fate.
I did not think i was going to like "Satanic Rites..." as much as I've come to. I thoroughly enjoyed Dracula A.D. 1972 and reading that "Satanic Rites..." was a sequel I rushed out and watched it but it didn't seem to have the same spark as "..A.D..."
And then I gave it another shot when I rented it again by accident. And this time I couldn't put it down, so to speak.
The film opens with a vast panning shot of Trafalgar Square (?) in central London with an ominous shadow of the Count hovering over all. The musical main theme is introduced-very early 70's blacksploitation sound.
We are then wisked off to the aforementioned Pelham House where the sacrifice of a young maiden(wait.....are there old maiden's?)is being witnessed by the 4 prominent men cloaked in white robes and the blood of the cockerel upon their foreheads. They seem to take a perverse pleasure in the naked sacrifice as a dagger is thrust into the girls' body. This entire unfortunate business is leaked out and during a briefing at police headquarters we meet the 3 inspectors that will head this case. The actors playing ... Read More
Rating: - The Last Chris Lee Hammer Dracula
Alan Gibson directed this 'final' entry in the Hammer Films(UK)'DRACULA' film category. Many movie reviewers(Leonald Martin, Mick Martin & Marsha Potter etc..) have considered this one of the 'turkeys' in their reviews.
To TRUE LEE-ADMIRERS(people born in the Fifties) who have not seen or rather heard of actors like Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr.,etc..,CHRIS LEE was the Definitive 'Dracula'. And to Mr.Lee's Credit, even though he is seen in fewer and fewer scenes in the later Hammer Films, he speaks lines
not included in the script but quotations from the original Bram Stoker book. Eg.: "Already the ones you love are all mine. Through them you shall yet do my bidding.." "My revenge is just begun. I spread it over Centuries.." These lines show us how much Mr.Lee has read and adapted the Original Character of Stoker. Then in all other productions (including UNIVERSAL and AMERICAN ZOETROPE) films, Dracula is shown as a love-lorn Vampire which Stoker's creation is NOT. The 'real' creation is a tall thin
man, dressed all in black with sharp pointed teeth(Lugosi looks tooth-less)and burning red eyes. He is a totally EVIL man/undead with no time for frivilous activities like love-making. He is(according to Stoker) a vampire with the strength of 20 men, hypnotize victims with his piercing looks and craves for blood. He has no time for lovemaking, raising a family and paying taxes. He is EVIL INCARNATE. That is what true lovers of Stoker's book want and that is what we get from Mr.Lee. The so-called world ... Read More
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