Taking care of business.
"The Satanic Shite of Dracula," more like..
All good things must come to an end, and this film was one of the undeniable harbingers that Hammer's era of glory was well and truly over. As with the previous entry, gone are the atmospheric Gothic sets and fog-shrouded forests and cobblestone streets, instead swapped out for the modern (translation: cheaper) England, and with that loss the soul of Hammer bit the dust.
For his last turn as Hammer's Dracula, Christopher Lee is given a dire script in which an apparently suicidal Dracula presides over a Satanic cult while seeking to take out humanity via a super-powerful version of the bubonic plague whipped up by a biochemical engineer in his thrall. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing is along for the ride, but at this point its all a case of too little too late.
A rarity in one of these films: an Asian vampire of the European variety (as opposed to the Chinese jiāngshī, of hopping vampire)
THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA is as lifeless as its titular character and could easily be ignored altogether if not for its historical position as Lee's final outing in the role that made him an international star. An ignoble fate for the count, but it is what it is.
When you are bereft of ideas, it's time to break out the tiddies.
And wwith that we close out this year's 31 DAYS OF HORROR essays. See you next year and HAPPY HALLOW\WEEN, o my fellow Cine-Miscreants!
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