So this is how Hammer Dracula ends, not with a bang but with a … cheesy 70s Kung-Fu film?! Yes, “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires” was a co-production between Hammer and a Hong Kong film company, seeking to blend horror with the booming martial arts genre. Peter Cushing was all for… a free trip to China, but Christopher Lee had finally had enough so Dracula was instead played by John Forbes-Robertson (no idea either). So is this any good, either as a horror film or as a martial arts film? … Not really. Let’s take a closer look anyway, because it’s Halloween and nothing is more spooky than karate guys thrust-kicking vampires!

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The Satanic Rites of Dracula is an odd one. It’s the final Christopher Lee Dracula film but it honestly feels like a completely different movie that they forced Dracula and Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing into for the hell of it. It’s more like a thriller to do with a satanic cult being investigated than anything else, complete with lots of sitting around, developing photos, making plans and other such espionage stuff… plus a world ending threat, for added over-the-top cartoon villainy! Does this mishmash of genres work? … No. Let’s have a look anyway!

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As the title of the film suggests the next entry in the Hammer Dracula series sees the titular count resurrect in then-modern day England, though instead of following on from Scars it rewrites the continuity entirely, opening with a new showdown between Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing and Christopher Lee’s Dracula from 12 years before the original film was set. Is this reboot any good? Let’s find out!

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Scars of Dracula is a weird one. It was originally written as a reboot but when Christopher Lee agreed to reprise the role once again it was slightly rewritten to act as a follow-on… and I mean SLIGHT. Anyway, it has some good moments. It’s another one of those “generic B movie” entries that’s fun but undoubtedly flawed. It’s also the only other entry after the first one that’s I’d seen before this marathon after randomly catching it on TV in the late 2000s. With that all being said, what’s it like now?

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After such a fun film in the previous outing I’m sad to report that this film is the opposite. Full of unlikeable characters, uninteresting scenes and a really flat finale, this is the first of the Hammer Dracula films that I really didn’t enjoy. … Hooray! Let’s take a look!

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Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, or more accurately, Dracula Has Risen From The Ice, is the next film in Hammer’s Dracula series and sees Christopher Lee return once again, though at least this time he mutters a few words and sees to actually give a crap, plus the story actually isn’t that cliché either! Intrigued? Read on!

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Dracula: Prince of Darkness is an odd film. Christopher Lee is back as the titular Count but his role is reduced to a silent stalker like a Michael Myers or Jason. The actual plot is as cliché as it comes too, focusing on a unit of four ending up taking refuge in Dracula’s castle and getting picked off. Still… is it good to watch anyway?

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The first official sequel to the Hammer classic Dracula doesn’t actually feature Dracula at all, instead one of his old victims is still around and eventually freed. Thankfully it does include the return of Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing and once again his gravitas and refusal to do anything other than taking the role super-seriously really helps the film. Let’s take a look then!

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When um-ing and ah-ing over what horror series to review this Halloween I eventually landed on the Hammer Dracula films, as to me this original Dracula was THE classic version. Obviously the Universal films from the 30s and 40s are the actual originals but I never saw them growing up but I did see this film at some point late at night in the 90s and I loved it, it’s what I always mentally refer back to when some property or another mentions Dracula. Given I’ve only seen one of the EIGHT sequels this should be quite the experience in the lead up to October 31^st, so let’s get started, shall we?

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