[HorrorScience] Dracula A.D. 1972 – Dracula 73 (1972)

Reading time: 8 minutes

Qualification

Dracula A.D. 1972

Year

1972

Duration

96 minutes

Director

Alan Gibson

Script

Bram Stoker (original work), Don Houghton

Distribution

Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Stephanie Beacham, Marsha Hunt, Janet Key, Caroline Munro, Christopher Neame, Michael Coles, Michael Kitchen, Lally Bowers, Maureen Flanagan, Penny Brahms

I continue with the Dracula saga produced by Hammer Productions and starring Christopher Lee in the role of the vampire, which would be the fifth film (or the fourth if we do not count the second, where Van Helsing appeared, but not Dracula).

It is about Dracula A.D. 1972 (also known as Dracula 73) where the lack of ideas causes the action to take Dracula to the present day (of the moment), a new scenario for the Count that opens up several interesting possibilities for viewers, doesn't it?

Before starting to talk about the film itself, I would like to remember the previous chapters of this saga, to avoid confusion:

After Horror of Dracula (1958), Dracula's Brides (1960), Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966) and Dracula returns from the grave (1968) and The power of Dracula's blood (1970).

This film begins with a scene where we see Lawrence Van Helsing and Dracula fighting in a horse cart that is going at full speed, ending in a tragic accident where Dracula is impaled by a piece of the carriage. The badly injured Van Helsing presses that improvised stake against the vampire's chest, ending his life and falling faint after seeing his enemy die, thus closing his list of confrontations forever.

[HorrorScience] Dracula A.D. 1972 – Dracula 73 (1972)

However, Lawrence Van Helsing did not expect that a follower of Dracula would take his master's remains to preserve them and try to resurrect him in the near future. And that future turns out to be the 1970s, where a descendant of Van Helsing and her crazy friends live their lives doing all kinds of stupid things to enjoy life to the fullest. This leads them to participate in a satanic ritual in an abandoned church, led by Johnny Alucard, a descendant of the man who collected Dracula's remains at the beginning of the film.

And from that moment what we can expect happens, Dracula returns from his grave once again, kills the girl on duty to regain strength and after discovering that there are still living members of the Van Helsing lineage, he decides to begin his revenge.

Moving the Dracula saga to the 70s is a somewhat strange move, since on the one hand it brings a certain novelty to this almost exhausted saga, but on the other, it makes everything a little more ridiculous, especially due to the general tone of the film. It almost seems like we are watching two different movies mercilessly joined together and honestly, I think they were more interested in showing the beautiful actresses than telling a story about Dracula.

The general idea of the film turns out to be somewhat disappointing, since they repeat the same thing that we saw in the previous one (The power of Dracula's blood) without any shame. So we will see a young boy, knowledgeable in the dark arts, convinces people who seek strong emotions to do a ritual and take advantage of it to resurrect Dracula. We could almost say that it is a remake of the previous film, but set in another era.

Using Peter Cushing as the new Van Helsing sounds desperate, but I think it's one of the best things they've done in the film, since without him, the entire police investigation part would have been quite tedious.

The “seventies” scenes of the group of young protagonists are somewhat ridiculous from the first minutes of the film, but I understand that they tried to represent what was seen in those years, so I can understand why they were included.

The same could be said about the soundtrack, which adds a hilarious touch to the film. I can understand using it for most of the movie, in the youth group scenes, even in the parts of Van Helsing and the police investigation, but was it necessary to use that seventies music for LSD addicts in the final confrontation between Van Helsing and Dracula? Of course not!

I perfectly remember the soundtrack of the final part of Horror of Dracula where Van Helsing and Dracula faced each other. It was disturbing, frenetic, nervous. It gave that curious duel greater dimensions and you knew that everything was about to end. When you listen to the soundtrack of the final part of this movie, it makes you laugh at best.

However, not everything is bad in the film. The character of Johnny Alucard is interesting (although he is the 2.0 version of Klove) not for himself, but because he belongs to a family of mortals that has remained loyal to Dracula, thus creating a “rival” family for the Van Helsings, an interesting concept that I wish had been exploited in a different way (I would have liked very much if they had made a film that ended just where this one begins, with the confrontation between Lawrence Van Helsing against Dracula, closely followed by a Alucard's ancestor). About using the name Alucard, The Son of Dracula (1943), is a fun wink and is appreciated.

It is also curious that in this film he makes several boys vampires, not only to break the taboo of only using girls (although they were not very brave either, because it is not seen how Dracula bites any of the boys) but for the fact that this way Dracula can count on henchmen to help him in his misdeeds, but once again this is not exploited too much (although some benefit is taken from it).

Overall, this movie is pretty forgettable. It's funny to imagine Dracula in the 70s and it's great to see Peter Cushing as Van Helsing again. I would even say that it is very interesting to create the “Alucard family”, but the first ends up being ridiculous, the second arrives too late and the third will not be exploited in the last films of the saga. This film only confirms that Hammer no longer knew what to do with the character.

In any case, if you have seen all the previous ones, you are prepared to see this one without suffering too much. Anyone who wants to see a Dracula movie in an exaggerated seventies style might have a better time watching Blacula (1972).

Curiosities:

This film breaks the chronology with the previous ones, since its prologue takes place in 1872, while the first film of this saga begins in 1885 and it is there where the Van Helsing-Dracula duel begins. In addition, the multiple resurrections and deaths of Dracula in the previous films would break the connection between his death and his resurrection in this film.
Model Maureen Flanagan appears as a dancer, but was not included in the film's credits.
This was the last film in which model Penny Brahms appeared.
The band Stoneground appears in the film.
Part of the soundtrack belongs to the band White Noise, specifically from his album An Electric Storm of 1969.
Despite introducing Dracula in the 1970s, the character does not interact with her, since he remains in the cathedral, making the whole idea of changing the era useless.
There is a model of Dracula impaled by the wagon wheel, just as it happens at the beginning of the film.