The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) dir. Alan Gibson, Hammer Film Productions
By now Hammer was almost in a free fall. Emotionally blackmailing Christopher Lee to keep doing the Count with ever decreasing returns had finally crapped out and this would be the last Hammer Dracula Lee would headline.
Agent Hanson (Maurice O'Connell) breaks out of a stately manor home out in the country. He manages to get back to HQ but he dies shortly afterwards. Before he kicks off though, he passes them the film he took of the place and the cult that runs it. Five pictures are developed, four of them showing some very prominent people while the fifth is only an empty doorway.
Not wishing to cause a scene, Col. Matthews (Richard Vernon) dumps the cult investigation onto the desk of Inspector Murray (Michael Coles), who in turn calls in his old friend Professor Lorimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing).
The cult, officially lead by the sinister Chin Yang (Barbara Yu Ling), decide to move their timetable up. Secretary Jane (Valerie Van Ost) is kidnapped and dumped before the cult's true leader: Count Dracula (Lee). Murray, agent Torrance (William Franklyn) and Jessica Van Helsing (Joanna Lumley) arrive at the house in search of Jane. While the men present a warrant and act official, Jessica slips in through the basement. She finds Jane but it seems Dracula has been a bit hungry, judging from the large number of brides lounging around. Hearing Jessica's screams prompt the two men to rush downstairs. Jane is staked and Jessica recused.
Professor Van Helsing has been busy too. He visits the lab of his old friend Dr. Keely (Freddie Jones), who's picture we last saw among the cult members. Keely is clearly losing his mind and mentions his latest work, developing a nastier version of the bubonic plague. Before the conversation can get into the why, Van Helsing is shot. He comes to sometime later and finds Keely dead and his work gone. Patching himself up, Van Helsing decides to follow the money. The man funding Keely's work is the oddly reclusive D. Dentham. Dentham is an odd one. No photographs, never seen in the daylight, plus his new office complex was built over the church where Dracula died last year.
Yeah, Dentham is Dracula. Van Helsing didn't come totally unprepared though and whips out a pistol loaded with silver bullets. Pity he didn't count on Dracula having helpers. Van Helsing is beaten senseless and taken to the manor home.
By now the Service is mobilizing. Matthews, Torrance, Murry, and Jessica are watching the house and are prepared for anything vampire related. Shame they didn't count on the vampires using guns. Matthews and Torrance die while Murray and Jessica are dragged off. Chin Yang, however, take a special interest in Murray.
Murray manages to stake Yang and sets off the sprinkler system. Vampires do poorly against running water after all. Johnny Alucard was taking out with a shower in the last film. With Dracula arriving with Van Helsing in tow, what will the Lord of the Undead do and how can Van Helsing stop him?
As a grand finale goes, very weak. Lee still commands the screen even when he is clearly wishing to be anywhere else.
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