Dracula A.D. 1972

Behold! The underrated classic of the Hammer Dracula movies!

You either look at this movie and say it's one of the worst or one of the best. Me personally? I love it! It's my 2nd favorite Dracula movie from Hammer, next to Horror Of Dracula. And it doesn't take anytime to kick off the right way, opening scene is a fight between Van Helsing and Dracula and that's how you announce Peter Cushing is finally back. Then we jump ahead 100 years, in 1972 with bellbottoms, teenagers grooving with some funk music, and shenanigans. We're introduced to Jessica Van Helsing played to greatness by Stephanie Beacham, granddaughter of this generation's Professor Van Helsing. And it must be noted it is so wonderful to have Peter back, he plays the part wonderfully as always, combining occult expert but now bringing in a new dynamic with a granddaughter that I have to say is super sweet to see. You get the feeling he loves and cares for his granddaughter deeply as she does for him, which never ceases to make me smile. Christopher Lee is very good as always, and though he doesn't have much screen time it's still great and he has some dialogue, good dialogue even. And now I can definitively say, this movie has the best ressurection scene in all of the Hammer Dracula movies, you can see the sheer fear on people's faces and the atmosphere is doomy and dark. Surprisingly, even though the film takes place in the 70s the gothic and creepy sets are ever present, and I noticed there is a lot of great sets, really good use of camera angles, the colors are bright and vibrant (Again, the 70s.) which clash with the dark and gloomy sets, the music is funky and I love it, you can really enjoy this movie. There might not be much in terms of plot, but the characters and the action is fantastic, and the final fight between Van Helsing and Dracula is very good with tension and there's this one scene where you really see the hate and passion to kill Van Helsing in Dracula's eyes, it's one of my favorite scenes of the entire series. For a movie with the title of Dracula A.D. 1972 you would expect a ridiculous, cheesy, not even slightly good movie but the movies is great compared to others, it took a chance by setting it in the then modern day but it paid off, at the very least for me. I love this movie, it's just a really damn good movie and I doubt many people have seen this movie. I really have to say give it a shot.