DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE

UK, 1968, 92 minutes, Colour.
Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Veronica Carlson, Michael Ripper.
Directed by Freddie Francis.

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave is a fairly standard description of what Dracula always does. However, it has a rhetorical ring about it.

Christopher Lee had been performing the role of Dracula in Hammer horror films since the late 50s – and would continue to do so into the early 1970s. However, his nemesis, Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is absent from this particular episode. Instead, Rupert Davies is a monsignor who exorcises the castle of Dracula. In revenge, Dracula wants to make his niece (Veronica Carlson) a bride of Dracula. The expected then ensues.

The film was directed by Freddie Francis, an award-winning cinematographer (Sons and Lovers, The Elephant Man) who directed a number of horror features in his time off from his cinematography work. Freddie Francis won Oscars for his cinematography for Sons and Lovers, 1960, and Glory, 1989. (The IMDB notes out of interest that this was the first film to receive a classification from the newly-established Motion Picture Association of the United States. )

1. The appeal of horror films and their conventions?

2. The impact of the Dracula legend, its meaning? How plausible? how plausibly translated to the screen? Aspects of superstition and fear?

3. The film’s use of colour, blood, atmosphere, locations, storms?

4. The character and personality of Dracula, his hold over people? The nature of his evil and power? His influencing the priest, the girls? His need for blood? His revenge, fascinating victims, the significance of his death?

5. Themes of evil, religion, rituals?

6. The role of the Monsignor in the film, religion versus evil? The personality of the Monsignor and his style? The victim of Dracula’s revenge? The contrast with the priest who was willed to evil by Dracula?

7. The conventional hero and heroine? The romantic aspects, their plight? How interesting, how plausible? The hero and his atheism, confronting Dracula, final conversion? Maria as the monsignor’s niece, her danger, Dracula’s menace? Her resisting and being saved?

8. Zena and her role with Paul, being bitten, her death?

9. The contribution to atmosphere of the townspeople and characters?

10. Fear, fright, the initial violence, the exorcism, the effect on Dracula, his seeking revenge?

11. A satisfying variation on the Dracula theme?