Dracula: Prince of Darkness

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Dracula: Prince of Darkness
Directed by Terence Fisher
Produced by Anthony Nelson Keys
Written by Story:
Anthony Hinds
Screenplay:
Jimmy Sangster
Starring Christopher Lee
Barbara Shelley
Music by James Bernard
Cinematography Michael Reed
Editing by Chris Barnes
Distributed by Hammer Studios
Release date(s) January 9, 1966 (UK)
Running time 90 min.
Language English
Preceded by The Brides of Dracula
Followed by Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Dracula: Prince of Darkness is a 1966 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Studios. The film was photographed in Techniscope by Michael Reed, designed by Bernard Robinson and scored by James Bernard.

[edit] Plot summary

The film begins where the 1958 film Horror of Dracula, also directed by Fisher, left off, reminding us of Dracula's death ten years ago. Four English travellers - the brothers Charles and Alan Kent and their wives - are stranded and find themselves guests at the castle of Dracula, whose servant Klove (Philip Latham) informs them that his late Master left instructions for visitors always to be welcomed. That night, he kidnaps Alan (Charles Tingwell) and uses his blood to resurrect Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) from his ashes. He then lures Alan's wife Helen (Barbara Shelley) to the Count, who bites and vampirizes her.

Dracula's servant Klove uses the blood of victim Alan Kent to resurrect the Count.
Dracula's servant Klove uses the blood of victim Alan Kent to resurrect the Count.

Charles (Francis Matthews) and Diana (Suzan Farmer) are confronted by Helen and the Count, but manage to escape, eventually finding refuge in a local monastery with vampire hunter Father Sandor (Andrew Keir), whom they had met earlier. With the help of Ludwig (Thorley Walters), an eccentric, bug-eating lunatic reminiscent of Renfield, Dracula enters the monastery and takes Diana to his castle, while Helen is captured and staked. Sandor and Charles chase Dracula back to the castle, where the Count meets his demise when the ice covering the castle's moat cracks and he falls into the running water he can't escape. The last shot shows him not dead but merely trapped under ice.

Christopher Lee as Count Dracula at the film's icy climax in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966).
Christopher Lee as Count Dracula at the film's icy climax in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966).

The film is most striking for its vivid imagery, including the pseudo-Eucharistic ritual that resurrects Dracula, the staking of Barbara Shelley and the Count's demise in the icy waters of his moat, a memorable sequence acted mainly by stuntman Eddie Powell.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Hammer Dracula films
Dracula (1958) • The Brides of Dracula (1960) • Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) • Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) • Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) • Scars of Dracula (1970) • Dracula AD 1972 (1972) • The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) • The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
v • d • e
Dracula
Characters of Dracula
Film Adaptations of Dracula
Nosferatu (1922) · Dracula (1931) · Dracula (1931 Spanish Version) · Dracula (1958) · Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) · Count Dracula (1970) · Dracula (1973) · Count Dracula (1977) (1977) · Dracula (1979) · Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) · Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) · Dracula (2002) · Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) · Dracula (2006)
Other films featuring Dracula
Stage Adaptations of Dracula
Dracula (1924)  · Count Dracula (1972)  · Dracula, a Musical Nightmare (1974)  · Dracula (1980)  · Dracula: the Musical? (1982)  · Dracula (1995)  · Dracula (1996)  · Dracula (2000)  · Dracula, the Musical (2004)
Parodies of Dracula
Dracula in video games