When I was a kid by the late 70s I had the chance to see on TV some of Hammer's horror flick from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. But I had developed a special king of passion for the Dracula series. I remember the foggy atmosphere, the old castles and the Gothic Victorian era. Hammer movies were really well done and very elegant. "Taste the Blood of Dracula" starts where "Dracula has raised from the Grave" ended, when traveling salesman by the name of Weller (played by Roy Kinnear) is pushed from the wagon he was traveling in. After a brief moment he gets his self together and hears a loud scream from deep in the forest. He goes and investigates and finds the Count impaled in a golden cross and while he sees in horror Dracula is disintegrated in a red powder like substance. Weller, quickly decides to take the powder with him and all of Dracula's belonging. Later we see a group of three English businessmen with their families in church but that's only a cover when the three Englishmen leave their families every Sunday night, apparently to help the poor and feed the hungry instead they seek pleasure to satisfied their personal desire by visiting a night club. While the three businessmen are having their usual fun they are interrupted by Lord Courtley (played by Ralph Bates) how is a black magic practitioner and invites the three businessmen to participate in a satanic ritual promising them that he will expand their pleasures. But first they must buy from Weller, Dracula's blood and artifacts for him to perform the ritual. First the businessmen hesitate but they are easily deceived by Lord Courtley and later they perform the ritual in an abandoned church. After Courtley drinks the blood he falls to the ground in pain and the businessmen in fear start to beat him up to death. After leaving the body of Courtley lifeless on the ground the body of Courtley transforms in the Count Dracula. After this Dracula promise the revenge of his servant (Courtley) by hypnotizing the daughters of the businessmen and making them murder their own fathers. Dracula is like a puppet master in this movie and his participation is more in the shadows but still has a good feel to it. The acting by the entire cast was superb, especially for Ralph Bates. The costumes, art direction, photography, and directing was one of the best in the Dracula series. I had the chance to buy this classic in 2004 on DVD and later the rest of the Hammer's Dracula series. But "Taste the Blood of Dracula" still my overall favorite. Atmosphere and the great performances makes this a must see. Unfortunately Taste the Blood of Dracula was (in my opinion) the last good Dracula of the series. After that they started to do Dracula more too present day and kind of lost its touch. If you are a Hammer fan and want to make your own Dracula movie marathon this movie should be in your collection.
Review of Taste the Blood of Dracula
