Watch Taste the Blood of Dracula For Free

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

That was an excellent one.

Memorable, crazy movie

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Taste the Blood of Dracula is directed by Peter Sasdy and written by Anthony Hinds (AKA: John Elder). Out of Hammer Film it stars Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Peter Sallis, Linda Hayden, Gwen Watford and Ralph Bates. Music is by James Bernard and cinematography by Arthur Grant.Trawling through all the sequels of Hammer's Frankenstein and Dracula series it becomes apparent that opinions differ greatly, a case in point is this, the fifth of the Dracula cycle. For her we have a Dracula film thought of very highly in some quarters, most notably in one of the Hammer Films' lauded literary bibles, myself, like the other 50% of Hammer film fans, just don't see that at all.Famously it's the Drac film where Christopher Lee had to be greatly coerced into reprising the role of the blood sucking count, financial rewards doth talk it seems. His apprehension with script and stale feelings were well grounded, with the final result begging the question as to how bad was the script before Lee's intervention?Story has three upstanding English gentlemen showing themselves to be model pillars of society by day, good stern parents/husbands and all that, but by night they are purveyors of a different sordid lifestyle, kind of like members of the naughty Hellfire Club! When decadent dandy Lord Courtley (Bates) offers then something tantalisingly more dangerous, they indulge and it results in murder and the rebirth of Count Dracula.After a neat opening which tags onto the ending of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, we find Dracula once again on a daft revenge mission, being a bit part once again in a film bearing his name, and saddled with minimal lines that really aren't worth a suck of the neck. Some striking sequences apart (Dracula birth - bloody retributions etc) the film feels like a confused blend of ideas. On one hand it's taking a caustic peak behind the curtain of upper crust Victorian England, on the other it tries to be a period based revenger fronted by the iconic beast of the title.Under Sasdy's direction the look has been stripped back from the Gothic colourful splendour of previous Dracula entries, in place is a more earthy approach, which isn't as appealing. Of course there's a so-so romance simmering away, plenty of heaving bosom and blood shot eyes, and Bernard's musical score hangs around like a moody step-father. Which leaves us with a Hammer Dracula that's not bad at all, it's just ordinary and not all it can be, where they shoehorned Dracula into what is in truth a serial killer like revenge picture. 6/10

Another sequel in Hammer's long-running Dracula series, this addition is the last that has the old-fashioned feel to it. With the advent of the exploitational '70s things would never be the same again, for better or for worse. This film is a great period piece that boasts exemplary period detail and colourful, vivid photography. The only aspect I'm not sure about is the use of Yale locks in Victorian Britain – surely this must be a mistake? The storyline is familiar and straightforward with a neat twist to it, namely the destruction of the nuclear family brought about by the misadventures of the father, leading his child into sin and depravity.TASTE THE BLOOD OF Dracula has one of the greatest casts of all the Hammer films, with excellent performances from a number of supporting players. Kudos to newcomer Ralph Bates in his cinematic debut, played the depraved Lord Courtley who amusingly transforms into Christopher Lee (the result of a rewrite after the Americans refused to release a Dracula film without Christopher Lee). Lee himself is relegated to hanging around in the shadows for much of the film, solemnly chanting "the first", "the second" etc. as his victims are offed one by one. Nonetheless he's very imposing in the role as well as hypnotically mesmerising, complete with a neat trick whereby lights are shone into his eyes to make them glow. The idea originated with Bela Lugosi in WHITE ZOMBIE, I believe.The plot line sees three distinguished businessmen going to London "to do charity work in the East End". Of course this secretly means visiting a brothel inhabited by a snake dancer, where Hammer get to titillate their audience by hinting at sex and nudity. While there they meet Bates, who takes them to an antique supplier (Roy Kinnear, in a good comedy turn) who sells them Dracula's cloak and a vial of his dried blood! A black mass follows at a desecrated church (as they do), aided by some fun special effects work. The rest of the film sees Dracula bumping off each of the three men in turn by using their children against them. The film moves at a fair speed with lots of atmosphere and suspense, heightened by another great orchestral score. My only complaint is that some scenes are a little dark, but this may have been a fault of the print rather than the film itself.Geoffrey Keen, John Carson, and Peter Sallis play the three men caught up in the horror. All are very good in different roles. Keen is a drunk, Sallis a coward, and Carson the only guy who seems to have a clue as to what's going on. The children are played by the familiar likes of Martin Jarvis and even a baby-faced Linda Hayden lending some sex appeal to the proceedings. Good old Michael Ripper also turns up in a comic supporting turn as a disbelieving policeman. The film is very well-paced and particularly spooky, with bloodshed that makes an impact and is used sparingly rather than just being excessive. The finale, set in a church, makes little sense, but is still fairly dramatic and has some good acting from Lee to recommend it. Although not as good as the original Dracula, this is still a fine addition to the series and a good Hammer film in general.

OK - I start out the usual 9 out of 10 for the film getting the usual Hammer treatment - great sets, obsessed art direction, hard working and talented actors who treat the script like Shakespeare, wonderful costumes, etc. As in most of the best Hammer films, the director knows just how long to hold a shot, just how long to hold a scene, and just how to frame and block his actors. As an exercise in atmosphere and production craftsmanship, this is top notch.However, the series was beginning to suffer from sequel-itis and staleness, and when Dracula keeps getting killed over and over again, he loses some of his impact as a dark force of nature. Given that in one of the later Hammer Dracula films he was killed by a bush (sure, it was a hawthorn, the stuff composing Christ's crown of thorns, but still...a bush), I tend to imagine that I myself could destroy Dracula on a boring Sunday afternoon if I happened to have a cross at hand and some holy water. I hate to see Dracula just turned into another pesky monster who gets dispatched in increasingly trivial ways as the number of films about him mount up over the years.And the plotting has a pedestrian "set them up and knock them down" quality that bring things down a few more notches - Lee doesn't have very much to do, and he doesn't get very many lines. He just kind or lurks around and gets his hypnotized servants to kill his victims for him. The plot also raises more questions it never gets around to answering: what did Ralph Bate's character THINK was going to happened when he and the three businessmen drank the count's blood? How did the last of the three businessmen all of a sudden become a hero and a vampire expert (at least as his voice-over/letter advises the romantic hero on what to do next?) So, great looking film and I really enjoyed the actors' performances, but some ludicrous dialog and lack of inventiveness in the way the storyline progressed and the previously mentioned sequel-itis keeps this from being a GREAT Hammer film. But if you enjoy the Hammer style, you'll want to see this one on principle.

It's funny how I really wasn't into this movie at first but still ended up really liking it! Thing that makes this movie a bit unusual and different is that it's being a part of the Hammer studios Dracula series but it really doesn't feel or look like a Hammer movie at all! Director Peter Sasdy did an handful of movies for the Hammer studios but only in its later years and he never impressed with any. He obviously wasn't that accustomed to its approach and style of film-making, or perhaps he simply really preferred to do his own thing. But anyway, if you're really into Hammer films, just prepare yourself for something totally different. You might end up disliking it at first, just as I did but don't give up on it! It's really a worthwhile and original enough little horror movie. I can also honestly say that this was the best movie I had seen, that got directed by Peter Sasdy.The movie and story all first starts out as something very simplistic and formulaic but as the movie goes along, you actually start to realize how great its premise is. It has a premise that really adds to the movie its tension and for once isn't all about Dracula and the horror that he does. It might very well be true that this movie would have a better reputation if it didn't featured the character of Dracula in it, since this movie really doesn't feel like a typical Dracula movie at all and its story and atmosphere perhaps called for something totally different, outside of the Dracula universe.And as often is the case with these late Hammer Dracula movies, Dracula himself is hardly in it at all. It was because Christopher Lee got fed up with the role and was also afraid he was going to get typecast because of it, for the rest of his life. He still needed a paycheck, so he kept on playing the character for a couple of years, under the condition that his role got limited down and in some cases he doesn't even have any lines. In this movie he does still speak however and once more shows why he was such a great and charismatic Dracula at the time.It's the more slower sort of horror movie, which doesn't really work out that great for the movie at first but about halfway through it picks up some more pace and things start to get far more interesting and original. It's then that the movie suddenly starts to take form and makes its intension clear. It also provides the movie with some really solid horror moments and the movie has a very constant horror like atmosphere to it as well, that really adds to the tension and mystery of the overall movie.Once you start to realize that this isn't being your average formulaic and simplistic Dracula production, the movie becomes surprisingly good, effective and original to watch!7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/