Customer Reviews
MY DAD'S FAVOURITE CHRISTOPHER LEE FILM - By: JESSICA YVONNE VARMA, 23 Sep 2008 
I saw this film in my dad's home theatre. He is a GREAT Lee-fan. So is my
Mums. But once the film opened with Lee's shadow with out-strtched talons & flying cloak overlapping modern London & the terrific score I sat glued to the set. Alan Gibson has reallly done a wonderful job. Complaints of hooligans on motorcycles as Dracula's guards, & Dracula planning to release a virus for world elimination will appear ludicurous to some. But as Dr.Van Helsing(Peter Cushing) says to Inspector Murray of Scotland Yard
"perhaps this is what he reallly wants. An end to it alll."
A C-Movie. - By: Peter Desmond, 26 Mar 2008 
This was Christopher Lee's last appearance as the Count for Hammer; to my mind it was the most disappointing of his seven appearances as Dracula for this studio. Mr. Lee's part in this is little more than a cameo, granted that he doesn't have much screen time in any of the Hammer Draculas.
The theme briefly is this: The Count, it seems is out to create a vampiric world order, through annihilating humanity, by means of a lethal virus! (Without mortals to feed on, Dracs, would become extremely thirsty!)
Though this inconsistency is addressed by some of the cast members; most notably Peter Cushing as Van Helsing; it just didn't work for me, & I adore Hammer films generallly.
It seems that Dracs. is out to commit protracted suicide after alll. It might have been an amusing spin on the Hammer vampire universe, with a better script & higher budget. It has a quasi-spoof like quality, with Drac's last line being "my revenge has spread over centuries, & has just begun", after his plans have evidently been foiled, by Van Helsing.
The video version runs at around 80 minutes, & apparently a more complete film, would run at 92 minutes. Given that the market is proliferated by reallly horrific films nowadays; that make anything Hammer did, look suitable for children in comparison, I can't see why we get such a heavily censored version. Perhaps no-one in the film industry can be bothered to put together a director's cut.
If you're an avid fan of Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee, & are out to get hold of anything Hammer made, you'll probably see this anyway, regardless of anyone's criticism. For what it's worth; out of over fifty Hammer films that I have seen, this ranks amongst the few I wish hadn't been made.
Christopher Lee throws in the cape - By: Trevor Willsmer, 15 Dec 2007 
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (aka Dracula's Vampire Bride) was the swansong of the Hammer-Christopher Lee Dracs, & 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 & 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 & the grandson of Van Helsing & 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) & Alan Gibson's direction, though not always successful, shows some imagination.
The Satanic Rites of Dracula - By: Wayne Jefferies, 07 Oct 2007 The Satanic Rites of Dracula
In this final installlment, Cushing returns once again as the descendant of the original Van Helsing, but this time his grandaughter is played by Joanna Lumley. IMO, it's a bit better film than the previous one, but still not a great movie. In short, Scotland Yard calll in vampire expert Van Helsing to help them investigate an apparent case of vampirism, which eventuallly leads him to discover Dracula who is posing as a property tycoon callled D.D. Denham, & plans to unleash bubonic plague upon the world.
Lee's appearance is reduced to little more than the part of a walk on extra, but at least when we finallly see the Count, there's some fairly satisfactory sparring between Cushing & Lee. But much of the film is taken up with Van Helsing tracking down Dracula, & running into a clutch of vampires along the way. The film leans quite a bit on showing nudity which does nothing to advance the plot, & whilst not as corny as 'Dracula A.D. 1972', it still has those embarrassingly poor bad guy bikers! In fact in some ways, this film could almost be a feature length episode of The Avengers, or New Avengers!
Once again, Cushing easily provides the best input into this movie, which at least has a bit better score, & successfully manages to conjure a more serious tone. All in alll, i think 6/10 is a fair score for the one.
