Dracula and His Vampire Bride - Digitally Remastered (Amazon.com Exclusive)

"The Satanic Rites of Dracula" is a 1973 film (released 1978 in USA) about vampires (men & women), and how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Christopher Lee stars in the role of the Count; Peter Cushing is Prof. Lorrimer Van Helsing; Barbara Yu Ling portrays Chin Yang; Valerie Van Ost and Maggie Fitzgerald are vampire women; and Joanna Lumley stars as Jessica, the granddaughter of Van Helsing. Most of the actors and actresses are natives of and reside in Great Britain, so it comes as no shock the film was made at Elsteree Studios in Borehamwood, Hartfordshire, England, UK. This film was also known as "Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride" and although incredibly milquetoast in the horror genre by today's standards, the film has fairly brief but still there female nudity in it even though it bears "not rated" on the DVD case art. Of course Christopher Lee is the quintessential Dracula, then 20 years pass and in a newer version Gary Oldman stars as the Count in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (rated R) along with Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Cary Elwes, Monica Bellucci, Sadie Frost, and others, in 1992. If you know both versions, you should also check out "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" (rated PG-13) which in 1995 starred Leslie Nielsen, Peter MacNicol, Steven Weber, Amy Yasbeck, Lysette Anthony, Mel Brooks, Harvey Korman, and Avery Schreiber in a spoof of Dracula themes, but amazingly kept close to the legends in accuracy. You have to go all the way back to 1931 to find "Dracula" with Bela Lugosi as the Count; which of course points out the little detail by default that there are over 70 versions of the Dracula film theme out there, and those are not counting the spin-offs that don't include the actual character of Count Dracula. Perhaps the scariest one out there is the 1922 version with Max Schreck as Count Orlok, known as "Nosferatu the Vampire" or "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (spelling depending upon country). The Nosferatu version with Max Schreck (filmed in Germany) was purported to generate the most chilling and the longest lasting nightmares that are Dracula film based. The name Nosferatu was used because the Bram Stoker estate denied F. W. Murnau (the director) the permission to base his 1922 film on the bestseller by Bram Stoker. If you're under twenty years old, you will never appreciate the evil that exudes from the 1922 film's imagery. Contemporary young adults are more into "Twilight," "Being Human," "Moonlight," "The Vampire Diaries," "True Blood," and a few other popular made for TV series, but if you're old enough you'll remember the pioneer of TV series for the vampire theme known as "Dark Shadows" which ran from 1966 to 1971 with Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins. Purists will want to get all of these (any and all above mentioned), and I say go for it. If you don't like blood, you might want to buy something else to watch.

video playback quality is poor, but the movies are classic and enjoyable anyway. Just don't expect clear crisp images.

First off the stream version on Amazon is excellent,it is probably The Anchor Bay version which is the only one worth buying (it is expensive and hard to find).Because the film is in the public domain many people have transferred and sold it ,it is on a lot of other DVDs.Now the movie is great,some people don’t like it because it isn’t a classical horror Dracula type of film.Like a few other of the Hammer series it feels like someon added Dracula to a script to sell it.But it works here especially with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing ,he makes this film.It is sort of a sequel to Dracula 1972 A.D. ,Van Helsing has a granddaughter,the old church from it is now a finished office building for Dracula and we get the standard how to kill a vampire with some new ones added in.But then it has aspects of the novel’ The Devil Rides Out”, “I am Legend “ and James Bond films.Some people complain it it a slow burn but there are many action sequences and blood.Excellent filming and production,way better than Dracula 1972 A.D.You don’t get a How did Dracula come back explanation,he just shows up,other than the what happened for 2 years to get here,the storyline is fairly good.

Christopher Lee played Dracula quite a few times in the Hammer films and I believe several times with Peter Cushing. Christopher Lee I believe made the best Dracula however Bela Lugosi even though he only played Dracula once or twice done an excellent job to.

Good movie & follow-up sequel to "Dracula A.D. 1972" but only an "OK" DVD (actually a DVD-R). This is a review of the DVD itself, not the movie. Seems hard to get a decent copy of this film in the US (Amazon.UK has other editions) and this one, purchased on Amazon in April 2016, is from Alpha Video -- a company known for using some of the worst copies/prints of films in the public domain. This, however, is actually a pretty good print, but it's a bit grainy AND it is letterboxed 4:3, (probably transferred from a VHS master) which means you'll have black bars on the top & bottom playing this on a modern day HDTV.DVD includes a chapter menu & Alpha's "catalog" as an extra (as they do on all their DVD's). Not a GREAT edition, but if you'd rather have a DVD instead of watching it online, you can't beat it for the price.

By the time of its release, Hammer had lost all steam, was suffering from internal financial problems due to weak sales abroad ( by this time, Italian Gaillos and Spanish Eurohorror had made improvements in the genre, brought Horror into the present time, and upped the sexual fetishes and nudity quotients considerably), leaving Hammer no longer capable of surviving in the arena they created. By the time they jumped on the nudity bandwagon, they had to grapple w/ the British censors, and it was too little, too late. This film is the one Chris Lee is embarassed about making, and rightfully so. It`s trite in its execution of ideas and lacked budget to bring them to fruition, all parties seem two-dimensional if not downright disinterested in the proceedings - if Lee and Cushing can`t make a Hammer film watchable, all is lost. It`s nice to see a very young Joanna Lumley in one of her first screen roles, but now I`m stretching to say something pleasant about this lackluster fare. This 'Special Edition' comes w/ a cd of music 'inspired' by the film (tho I doubt anyone on the cd was even born when the flick was released) that did nothing for me personally. But I tend to be hyper-critical... if you`re a Hammer lover or collector, like me, then you have little choice but to imbibe, the rest of you need to skip this one entirely.

Been waiting for a UK and preferably restored version if this film for ages.... Sadly no one seems to be bothering at the moment, so I took the plunge and bought the Spanish release version... You are able to play it in the original English version easily via your DVD set up routine.Picture quality isn't the best and on my player at least it's not the proper screen ration you have a thick black border around whole screen.Sound is very very grainy its like listening in a cellar sadly.But as this is the only region 2 DVD readily available at the moment I will just have to put up with it for now..... So come on Canal+ or somebody get this last Hammer Dracula film starring the late Christopher Lee cleaned up and released.

This review relates to The Premium Collection Blu-Ray edition, and the technical aspects of it only.For those of us that like / love this film, at last it is available on Blu-Ray!It's in full HD, in full screen 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and fully cleaned up (unless I missed a bit; I'm very fussy about the films being cleaned up!). No other previous DVD release comes close.One lil itty-bitty thing though - The Premium Collection is an HMV exclusive (proclaimed as such on the flyer within the Blu-Ray case) and buying them direct from HMV is cheaper.

This 1973 film is an interesting entry into the Hammer Dracula series. Following the success of Dracula AD 1972, the action was once again contemporary (though it looks dated now!) pitting Dracula against Lorrimer Van Helsing, grandson of the anaemic one's stake wielding nemesis from the book.There is a real attempt to do something different here. The film opens with a scene that feels like a spy thriller, and that feeling is never really lost as the film progresses. Dracula has upped his ambitions somewhat, and there is a real thrill in the final scenes as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.Christopher Lee turns in an excellent performance as Dracula. In what almost seems like a comment in the times, he has transformed himself into an urbane big businessman. It is a characterisation that works well, and allows Lee to do something with the character. I love the way that Lee portrays the mask slipping and the Count becoming a feral force of nature as his plans start to go awry. Peter Cushing is excellent as Van Helsing, and his scenes with Lee really add a bit of crackle to the movie.This would be Lee's last appearance in the fangs and opera cape, he wisely decided not to appear in the final Hammer instalment, Legend of The Seven Golden Vampires. He puts in a committed and entertaining performance and manages to leave the series with his head held high.It's as entertaining a way to spend 90 minutes as I can think of, and a highly recommended film.This 2 disc deluxe edition is a bit of a let down the film transfer and sound are OK, but there has been no restoration. There are no extras on the film and the second disc is of third rate metal track `inspired' by the film. Not at all what the word `deluxe' brings to mind!

Growing up in the seventies, there was a certain thrill attached to watching a broadcast of a Hammer Horror film for the first time. And I was hoping to recapture a little bit of that excitement with a second viewing of this film.Made in 1973, as a direct sequal to 'Dracula A.D. 1972' this is particulary memorable for it's final pairing of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as adversaries Count Dracula and Lorimer Van Helsing.Set in seventies London and sporting all of the hairstyles, clothes and sensibilities of that era, it re-introduces Dracula to the modern world via a coven of satanists performing ungodly rites under the cover of a Psychic Research Centre in the grandeur of Pelham House.The coven consists of four prominent figures within the worlds of politics, military, science and real estate, who are exposed by an undercover agent, working for the secret service, who manages to escape.Told, through a series of flashbacks within the film's first half hour, the coven take part in a satanic ritual that results in the sacrifice of a young girl.For me, these scenes really capture the dark and seedy nature of proceedings as the girl writhes orgasmically on the black clad alter, surrounded by candles, red and purple drapes and drenched in cockerals blood as the ghastly incantation is performed.After being stabbed with a ceremonial dagger, and to the bemusement of the eminent paticipants, she rises from the alter, her wound miraculously healing, as a vampire and thus consigning herself to the confines of the wine cellar!It is worth mentioning at this point that the Platimun Disc version appears to have used the same source material as Anchor Bay, namely the UK theatrical print which, whilst cut, still includes the bare breast staking scene ommited from video prints. It also has a few annoying jumps that occur from time to time as mentioned by previous reviewers.Another returning character from 'A.D. 72' is Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) who wisely enlists the help of Van Helsing and his daughter Jessica (Joanna Lumley) to get to the bottom of the ghoulish scenario.At this point, after discovering that one of the coven is an old college friend, Van Helsing visits Professor Keeley (Freddie Jones) and finds that he has just perfected a deadly strain of bubonic plague on the instructions of an elusive recluse named D.D. Denham, creator of the Keeley Foundation and based on the top floor of an office block built on the site of St Bartolphs Church two years previously.Piecing the elements together, Van Helsing realises that Denham is Dracula and sets up a meeting at his office where the true horror of the Counts scheme is revealed.This paves the way for a terrific scene where the two meet allowing Lee to utter a few more lines than usual in a mock Lugosi accent whilst Cushing adds his thoroughly convincing dialogue into the mix.The ending of the film has been criticised in many quarters, but I disagree.Considering the number of religeous references quoted by Van Helsing and the fact that Dracula is a demon, I found it quite plausible that the Hawthorn Bush could be added to the long list of items used to combat vampires. After all, didn't he receive an excorcism of sorts in 'Taste the Blood of Dracula?'All in all then, a pretty enjoyable watch, the opening credits and music which incorperate scenes of London landmarks are excellent, Cushing and Lee are as good a pairing as ever, the vampire brides in the cellar are suitably seductive and although it didn't quite recapture those distant days of tv broadcast premieres it was certainly worth revisiting.

Although this film provides a fairly authentic telling of the story and is well acted, I found it a little tedious owing to its considerable length.