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Exorcist II: The Heretic. 5/10.
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I did all the Hammer Draculas...finally seeing all of them in consecutive order. WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF??
The Brides of Dracula-No Dracula, odd vampire substitute but is still classic Hammer. Peter Cushing is brilliant but doesn't return until the last three sadly. 3 vampire bites seared by a hot iron out of 4 rubber bats.
Dracula: Prince of Darkness-Lee returns for this very classy sequel that unfortunately is the first of the series to suffer from acute boredom. I saw this as a kid and it certainly doesn't play as well now. Aside from Dracula getting resurrected, the only other memorable moment is the death scene (which really is great.) 2.5 icy balls out of 4.
Dracula Has Risen From the Grave-Change in directors made this one have a different feel-mostly in the visuals. The major overtone is religion so we have a priest, atheist, and Monsignor for Dracula to play with. Dracula goes on the first of his wonderfully boring "revenge" plots and people get knocked off one by one. 2 holy balls out of 4.
Taste the Blood of Dracula-Brilliant first act that was all psycholgical...and it all suddenly grids to a screeching halt to become yet another Dracula getting revenge movie. Then it also lifts untold amounts from Has Risen. And to add insult to injury the ending is confusing, stupid, and absolutely incomprehensible. 2 balls out of 4.
Scars of Dracula-intended as a reboot for the series. Essentially a whole new Drac film, but all of the budget and interest has gone completely. This is really terrible. Terrible rubber bats, a scene where Dracula randomly stabs the living hell out of a girl vampire for NO APPARENT REASON!, the most gore of any Hammer film, more cardboard stock characters that are even worse this time around, and a stupid death for the Count. At least the first 10 minutes are ok. Dracula is resurrected, girl found dead with marks in neck, villagers storm castle and burn it down, and they return to their homes to find all of the women and children slaughtered. But afterwards it's terrible. Even Lee isn't any good. And when he is awful you know it's BAD. 1 gory ball out of 4.
Dracula A.D. 1972-The one I swore I'd never watch again. It's Dracula for a few minutes and he is killed as always. Then he arises again in 1972 with yet another revenge plot! (cue funky Blaxploitation music.) Awful, but at least there is a plot and budget. Peter Cushing returns and is the only reason to watch this terrible mess. 1 groovy ball out of 4.
The Satanic Rites of Dracula-I'd never seen this one before and had wondered why it had lapsed into the public domain. Somehow this is simultaneously better and worse than A.D. 1972. Part espionage movie, part cultists movie, part Dracula movie. The budget looks to have been two sticks of used chewing gum. Truly god-awful yet it has an ingeniously clever and diabolical plot. (Drac reinvents himself as a Howard Hughes type reclusive millionaire and recruits top government officials to aid his scheme of releasing a new deadly strain of plague that will decimate all populations. He does this because he wants to die and take the whole world with him.) Once again, only Peter rescues this dreadful mess. And Dracula gets hurt by a tree. No, I'm not kidding. 1 satanic ball out of 4.
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires-the last of the cycle, a co-production with the Shaw Brothers. That's right, Kung-fu vampires! But even without Dracula and being so obviously bad, it works much better than the three previous films. Good ridiculous fun. Cushing is again a joy. 1.5 kung-fu balls out of 4.
And for some odd reason, I started writing reviews of these on my blog...
VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
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