Redundant and unnecessary.

Captivating movie !

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The title is something of a misnomer. As the story goes, following the worldwide success of Hammer Studios' "The Horror of Dracula" in 1958, star Christopher Lee decided that he did not wish to participate in any possible sequel, fearing that he might be later typecast in the vampiric role. Thus, despite the sequel's title, "The Brides of Dracula" not only does not feature Lee's participation at all, but the world's most famous neck nosher is nowhere to be found. Rather, what the viewer gets here is another Transylvanian vampire, an acolyte of Dracula's dark religion, if you will. But the results, even without Lee, are still most impressive, and even though Lee would later return in the following decades to appear in no fewer than six Dracula films for Hammer ("Dracula, Prince of Darkness" in '66; "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave" in '68; "Taste the Blood of Dracula" and "Scars of Draula" in '70; "Dracula A.D. 1972 in, uh, '72; and "The Satanic Rites of Dracula" in '73), "Brides," released in July 1960, remains one of the very best of the bunch.In the film, a beautiful young teacher, Marianne Danielle (French actress Yvonne Monlaur, who, that same year, would appear in another famous fright outing, "Circus of Horrors"), travels into the wilds of Transylvania to begin her new job at a school for young girls. When her coach driver abandons her at a local tavern, she accepts the offer of the Baroness Meinster (a most impressively imposing Martita Hunt, perhaps best known to viewers as Miss Havisham from 1946's "Great Expectations") to spend the night at her nearby castle. Once there, Marianne espies, from her balcony window, a young man, who she later learns is the Baroness' supposedly invalid son (and played by the handsome, blonde David Peel). Marianne ventures into the forbidden part of the castle to talk to the young man, only to learn that he is shackled by the leg and desperate for his freedom. Thus, the softhearted girl steals into the Baroness' room and steals the key to the young man's chains, later effecting his release. But little does the young woman know that the Baron Meinster is actually an undead bloodsucker, and that his release will lead to a new scourge of nightly depredations in the village. Fortunately, for one and all, the village priest had already become suspicious of the Baroness and her castle, and had sent for one Dr. Van Helsing (the great Peter Cushing, reprising his role from the earlier film, and who, just a few months earlier, had appeared in the undersung, literate horror offering "The Flesh and the Fiends") to come to their aid....Strangely enough, despite Lee's nonparticipation with this vampire sequel, his absence is never truly missed, as the film manages to keep the viewer otherwise riveted and entertained. Director Terence Fisher, who had helmed the original film, does his usual sterling best at creating atmosphere, and the picture boasts some impressive sets (the Meinster castle is a thing of truly awesome beauty) and fine production values. Marianne makes for an appealing heroine, both gorgeous to look at (those lips might give even Angelina Jolie cause for envy!) and surprisingly spunky overall; impressively, she does not scream once, even when her fellow teacher, Gina (actress Andree Melly), rises from her coffin as the newest, toothsome inductee of the undead. Cushing's Van Helsing, needless to say, is wonderful, as always: supercool, urbane, intelligent, unflappable, and truly, anyone's idea of the idealized vampire fighter. The 47-year-old actor even gets to do some impressive physical stuntwork in the film (jumping off of a high porch, hanging from the vane of a windmill, and engaging in rough-and-tumble fighting with the Baron). I might add that the Baron himself is eliminated at the film's conclusion in a most ingenious manner (no mere staking through the heart here!), and that the film contains any number of impressive sequences. Favorites for this viewer include the highly atmospheric sequence in which Marianne and the Baroness converse over dinner in the castle, the one in which Gina reawakens and bares her fangs, and, perhaps most memorable, the one in which Van Helsing is bitten in the neck by the Baron, and is forced to cauterize his wound with a red-hot brand. Ouch! Another moment that I highly appreciated: When Marianne says to the Baroness "God bless you," and the Baroness murmurs in reply "If only He could...." Actually, I only had a single quibble with this film, and that is the matter of the Baron being imprisoned with shackles by his mother. But if the vampire Baron can easily turn into a bat at any time, would a leg manacle actually be an effective means of retainment? But this single cavil aside, "The Brides of Dracula" remains a very fine offering from the legendary House of Hammer....

I had already seen the third film from British Hammer (Horror) Studios, Prince of Darkness, before this second film in the series of sequels, but it doesn't really matter, I was just looking forward to watching it, directed by Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Mummy). Basically it continues where Dracula left off, the count, monarch of all vampires, is dead, but his disciples live on to spread terror to victims of Transylvania. Young French schoolteacher Marianne Danielle (Yvonne Monlaur) is heading to a small village to take a teaching position, but she is abandoned by the coach driver at a village inn, locals there are giving her warnings, which she ignores. Out of the blue, Baroness Meinster (Great Expectations' Martita Hunt) invites Marianne to stay the night at her castle, she accepts, the only other person there is her servant Greta (Freda Jackson). However during the night, Marianne sees a man in a balcony, she learns it is the son of the Baroness, the Baron Meinster (David Peel), who has become insane. Later Marianne sees the Baron standing over the balcony, looking like he will jump, she goes to his room and finds he is chained, he claims his mother has imprisoned him. Convinced he is the victim, Marianne decides to help the Baron escape and steals the key to his chains, but this was a trap, he reveals himself to be a vampire, Marianne runs away from the castle in terror, and collapses in the woods. Marianne is found exhausted by Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), who has been invited to the village by a local priest Father Stepnik, she has no memory of what happened, and is not familiar with vampire terms that Van Helsing tells her, he takes her to the school she is to be employed. Van Helsing visits the young girl he has been called to see, who has died, he recognises she has been bitten by a vampire and requests she is not buried, later Greta visits the coffin and helps her to awaken from the dead as a vampire herself. Meanwhile the Baron turns his mother into a vampire also, biting her neck, Van Helsing realises "vampirism" is spreading in the village, he sees ladies becoming "undead" monsters, with the ability to turn into bats and fly away, so one by one he cures them of this terror, when he gets the opportunity to drive a stake to the heart. Following the deaths of Greta and the Baroness, Van Helsing is left to face Baron Meinster, who has abducted Marianne, a chase ensues and a fire is started at the windmill, where the Baron had been hiding, in the end the Baron is defeated when the windmill sail is positioned to form a gigantic shadow forming a crucifix which goes over the Baron, he dies, Van Helsing comforts Marianne as the mill burns down. Also starring Miles Malleson as Dr. Tobler, Henry Oscar as Herr Lang, Mona Washbourne as Frau Lang, Andree Melly as Gina and Victor Brooks as Hans. Cushing gives a good performance as the man who will thwart all vampires to stop the spread of the "disease", Peel is a dull substitute for Sir Christopher Lee, he did not reprise his role as he worried about being typecast, but he returned for the following film, and many more after, Dracula only appears in the title and is mentioned once. Disciple of Dracula was suggested as an alternative title, this would have made more sense, "brides" don't really come into the story, it has the classic Gothic elements expected, and the atmosphere is fair, I don't know if I fully agree with critics ratings, but it is a good enough horror. Worth watching, in my opinion!

I have to agree with those who point out that this movie was probably put out as Saturday matinée or drive-in material. As someone who was a kid in that era, I'll go out on a limb here and say that it was the "daring-do" that appealed to most kids of the era, and the good guys winning over the bad ones. You went to the movie to be entertained. The target audience of this movie wasn't going to sit there and analyze every scene and all the set decor, and the Hammer crew knew that. They knew most people weren't experts on European architecture, so their representation of castles and inns were pretty rudimentary in some ways. They went about trying to create a relatively believable world in which to tell their story, and as far as I am concerned they did a pretty good job. So, it is a good idea to remember that when looking at this movie through 21st century eyes.One thing I'd like to address is the fact that so many reviews have people criticizing the movie because the vampire, Baron Meinster, is being held captive by shackles when he should have been able to just turn into a bat and escape. However, there is some folk lore where iron can be used to repel or incapacitate a vampire, and I expect that is what is being implied here. Also, vampires being "super beings" is also really a modern idea, so I think the criticism of Van Helsing holding his own against Meinster is also unfair.I believe that the story here is pretty straightforward. You have the decent young lady traveling to a school for other younger ladies to become an instructor there. Since she's traveling alone, she probably is supposed to be without any family, since that is something that would have been realistic at the time-since respectable families wouldn't let their female members travel alone because of safety concerns. Also, there's been criticism about the guy who shows up, pays the driver, and then disappears. I think we can logically deduce that this guy is on the Baroness' payroll to watch the roads, and if a vulnerable young lady(as in, alone)is spotted in a coach, then he pays the coachman to abandon the girl at the local inn. Then the Baroness shows up and offers the young lady lodging for the night. Hey, the local aristocracy shows up and offers you a stay in their elegant castle. How many people would turn that down? Of course, the young lady, Marianne, never realizes that the Baroness intended for her to be her vampire son's next meal. Instead, Marianne is enticed through her own curiosity to see just exactly what the weird deal is with the son, and then is tricked by him into helping him escape. She soon learns what a big mistake that is, and then all heck breaks loose until the hero, Van Helsing, shows up and saves the heroine, vanquishes they enemy, and makes everything okay.I'm not going to give a play by play of the movie, as there are plenty reviews here that do that. I do think that David Peel made a convincing and very menacing villain. Once Marianne was duped into helping him escape, it didn't take long to see that the fear in his mother's eyes was totally justified. That was one cold-hearted dude.I enjoyed the action scenes in this movie. I thought that Cushing and Peel were very convincing as antagonists determined to destroy one another.The ending is another thing that gets criticized. According to an interview I read by the director, Terence Fisher, the idea was that the "truth" of the cross was just as effective as a physical crucifix. This of course, is based on the Christian doctrine that, as a result of Christ's supernatural sacrifice by dying by crucifixion, all things on earth are subject to his spiritual authority-especially evil spirits or beings controlled by evil spirits. So, when Van Helsing twisted the windmill sails to resemble a cross, Meinster died from divine retribution, since Van Helsing was basically calling upon Christ to deliver them by invoking the symbolism of the cross. The character did the same thing in The Horror of Dracula, by using two candlesticks in the shape of a cross-though in that case it just slowed Dracula down. There is a later Dracula movie where someone also uses objects to form a cross, but I can't recall which one at the moment.This is a good movie, and one I think can be enjoyable if you just let yourself enter into world they create and let them tell you a story, with no other expectations. Yes, it's a product of it's time, but I think even now it still can entertain on the level that it was created to entertain on.

Ah, how have the films deteriorated - especially visually! Mythical 19th century Mittelland of brilliantly lush colors and sets, completed by gorgeous costumes, is a wonderful antidote to drab, flat digital colors and CGI. This IS, after all, visual medium. There are no gross-out filth in imagery or dialogue, either, just interesting story and characters and atmosphere. The cast is superlative. David Peel, although looking silly in his most overtly vampiric moments, is excellent as Baron Meinster pretends to be human. Peter Cushing is better than ever as Van Helsing - he was excellent villain, but I prefer him as these good guy roles. Old Baroness Meinster is not - thankfully! - "monstrous, tainted matriarch" of Jimmy Sangster's re-written script "Disciple of Dracula", but much more complex, as well as gorgeously elegant, character. Red-haired Marianne, dressed in pure, lush shades of lilac and red, is ravishing heroine with some actual personality: although she innocently releases the evil, she does that when she goes to help mentally ill suicidal man... or so she thinks. Logic is sometimes weak, but this is fairy tale, anyway, not a documentary. This is pure 100 % fun. And even bats are charming!