Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The eighth film in Hammer's Dracula series and the third of that series to feature both Christopher Lee as the Count and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, "The Satanic Rites of Dracula" is a rather seamless continuation of the last film in the series, "Dracula A.D. 1972." That alone is unusual for the series, which frequently altered its locations and vampire facts from film to film. "Dracula A.D. 1972," for instance, with an opening sequence set in 1872, entirely disregarded the prior six films, which were set after that date. This time, there's a different actress playing Van Helsing's granddaughter, but the film is otherwise quite faithful to its immediate predecessor. And, fortunately, that didn't include continuing the depiction of hippie youth culture that partially ruined the former film.Although a rare competent Hammer sequel in this regard, it's otherwise a not very interesting Dracula feature. The premise of a centuries-old vampire rising to the top of a corporation and amassing a satanic cult is promising, but handled poorly here. Given the frequent use of flashbacks of a satanic ritual, the filmmakers seemed to think it more intriguing than I did. According to the time frame given within the narrative, Dracula managed these tasks within the span of little more than a couple years since the last time he died, and before that brief period of life, as it were, he'd been dead for a century. And, his plan is foiled even more quickly once Van Helsing is alerted to it. Apparently, Dracula is brilliant enough to master capitalism and cultism within a couple years despite most of his experiences being from the Victorian age and, perhaps, even more ancient than that; yet, he's also stupid enough to easily be defeated time and again by a family with an expertise in occultism. Contrary to Bram Stoker's novel, this Dracula isn't vulnerable to modern inventions; here, he uses the newest in surveillance technology, including trip alarms and cameras, and the inability to photograph him helps to temporarily foil the surveillance methods employed by the police. Dracula also employs modern science to increase the old threat of plague. Most incredulously, we're to believe Dracula does all of this because he's suicidal and wants to bring about Armageddon.Although "The Satanic Rites of Dracula" raises the stakes in the series--making Dracula a truly existential threat to all of humanity, Hammer's vampires remain quite weak. The supposed purity of running water being fatal to them, which the last film started, results in a scene where a herd of female vampires chained in a basement are wiped out by a sprinkler system. Once again, Van Helsing lists the ways vampires can be defeated, and you can take to the bank that the new one he mentions will turn out to be important by the end. This time, it's hawthorn bush-a particularly lame way to catch a vampire, I must say. Also, after a hiatus in the most recent Hammer Dracula films, the trope of a makeshift cross makes a comeback here.

Secret agents are investigating a disturbing case which could have profound implications. VIP's including a government minister are taking part in satanic rituals involving human sacrifice in a country estate, Pelham House, which masquerades as a legitimate psychiatric research group. Colonel Matthews (Richard Vernon) calls in special branch's Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) to assist his agent Torrence (William Franklyn) who in turn calls in Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) since he is an expert on the occult. It so happens that Van Helsing knows one of the VIP's involved, the biochemist and expert in bacterial warfare Professor Keeley (Freddie Jones) whom he discovers is developing a new strain of the black death. But, before he can discover who for and why he is murdered and the test tubes containing the cells stolen. The trail leads to a reclusive tycoon called DD Denham who lives in a skyscraper penthouse who turns about to be none other than Van Helsing's old adversary Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) himself. The Count is plotting to release the plague thus destroying all life on earth and bringing about the end of his own tormented existence. He intends to use the VIP's, whom he conned into believing that the disease would only be used as a means to hold the government to ransom in order to take power, but really he intends them, plus Van Helsing, to be its carriers. In addition, he threatens to make Van Helsing's granddaughter Jessica (Joanna Lumley) his bride...Hammer's most satisfactory attempt to relocate Bram Stoker's character to the present day following the failure - albeit a glorious one that was Dracula AD 1972. It has an ingenious script by Don Houghton (Dr Who) which combines an attractive combination of espionage/political thriller/mystery and straightforward horror in the Hammer tradition. The idea of prominent people involved in satanic rituals for personal gain has great appeal and adds to the intrigue. Unlike its predecessor in which Dracula was stuck milling around in an abandoned church, which meant that he wasn't seen in modern times at all (something that critics commented upon), he has a greater part in the plot here as a fiend attempting to bring about the destruction of the world. The idea of him being a reclusive tycoon Howard Hughes style is also quite imaginative. Christopher Lee was still the cinema's best Dracula and he turns in a performance of an illusive silent evil waiting to pounce upon an unsuspecting world that is really unsettling here. Peter Cushing plays the descendent of the original Van Helsing with his customary authority and there is an excellent supporting cast on hand too. William Franklyn is truly believable as a sophisticated spy as is Richard Vernon as his chief an ex-serviceman with a distinguished record. Michael Coles, here reprising his role from Dracula AD 1972, makes a convincing hero getting plenty of action such as staking a couple of female vampires plus destroying a whole lot of them in a cellar with running water. Joanna Lumley, in an early role as Van Helsing's granddaughter, is particularly noteworthy giving the part played by Stephanie Beacham in the previous film more to do. Whereas in the last film she was solely a teenager out for kicks with her "gang" that dabbled in witchcraft and brought the vampire back to life, here she is more academic and has a working knowledge of her grandfather's lifetime study of the occult and vampirism. Another plus is Alan Gibson's no nonsense direction, which makes the film seem like a fast paced hard hitting thriller. Maligned much for many years, The Satanic Rites Of Dracula is a Hammer horror that deserves wider appreciation.

I am a huge fan of the Hammer Dracula series, but this final installment to the series is in my least favorite and the worst film to boot. While Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee return as Van Helsing and Dracula, the film is barely a horror movie and lacks any ambiance or suspense. This film is a sequel to Dracula AD, which is also set in the then modern era and is directed by the same guy. I like Dracula AD, but this movie is a mess, playing off a lame conspiracy theory/end of the world plot. The Satanic Rites Of Dracula is a great title and Cushing and Lee are great, but the film is crap. The James Bond spy/60's/70's action thrown in a Dracula film does not do this film any favors. There is a quite a bit of nudity and blood, but that does not save this either. However, some fans of exploitation might find this enjoyable or awesomely bad entertainment. However, for me this is one entry I'd wish to ignore in the series.

This is the final film Sir Christopher Lee made for Hammer as Dracula, the role that brought him to the attention of so many. Derided by many over the years, not least by its leading actor, and released at a time when interest in Hammer productions had waned considerably, this once more reunited Lee with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.This was one of the films horror films I ever saw, and I am happy to say I loved it then (when it was shown on television in the late 70s) and I love it now. This is the second time Hammer made a picture featuring Dracula in the modern day, and this time they got it absolutely right. The Count had been secretly recruiting people to his cult for years by the time the story starts, so he is already in a position of power. Living as the reclusive DD Denham, he is very rarely known to leave his tower-block office empire. What better place for a modern day vampire to exist, hiding in plain sight? Van Helsing (and daughter Jessica, now played by Joanna Lumley) is brought in by the police when it appears that Denham doesn't show up in photographs, suggesting something sinister. At first Van Helsing is treated with scepticism, but this changes when it appears The Count, sick of his undead unlife, is planning to sweep a plague across all of the Earth.I love that anyone who comes in to contact with Count's plan dies (Freddie Jones' Professor Keeley is the most memorable); I love that he doesn't dirty his hands with the mundaneness of his mission, rather leaving all that to the various political members of his cult. I love that an effort has actually been made to integrate Dracula into society – even when he is not in the story, he directly influences everything that happens. Equally, his victims are confined to Pelham House, which is not a shambling church or sprawling castle. His seduction/attack on Valerie Van Ost's Jane takes place in a seedy back-room prison, lit only by a swinging bulb. Into that scene Dracula enters, back-lit and surrounded by mist, and his impressive frame lights up the dilapidated chamber and Alan Gibson's fine direction encourages the allurement to be an almost hallucinatory experience.The ending, and Dracula's final dispatch, has also been slated by 'fans', but again, I like it. No elaborate theatrics (that is left to Michael Cole's Inspector Murray's spectacular rescue of Jessica), just two deadly, veteran rivals, slugging it out alone. The hawthorn bush is added to the list of 'all things deadly to a vampire' (it provided Christ with His crown of thorns after all), and that together with a stake through the heart and Hammer's Dracula is gone for good. This final, and significant film, is the only one of the series – and possibly Lee's only picture – that doesn't currently enjoy an official DVD release. There are low quality efforts available, but this surely deserves a release more worthy, allowing more people to re-value it.