Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Dracula A.D. 1972 Blu-ray Movie Review

No Bite

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 16, 2018

Here's the good news: Warner has resumed releasing Hammer horror films on Blu-ray. The bad news: They're starting at the bottom of the barrel (and hopefully working their way up). Dracula A.D. 1972 represented an attempt to bring the bloodthirsty count into what was then the present. It looks ridiculously dated now, forty-six years later, but it probably already looked that way at the time. The film reunited Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as a latter-day Van Helsing—which is about the only good thing one can say about it.

In a prologue set in 1872, Van Helsing slays Dracula, but dies in the attempt. A disciple (Christopher Neame) collects the count's ring and some of his ashes, planting the latter near Van Helsing's grave in a scheme to bring back the master. One hundred years later, a descendant, Johnny Alucard (also Neame), fulfills his ancestor's mission, with the unwitting assistance of a group of London's rebellious youthful set that he's infiltrated. The group includes the youngest descendant of the Van Helsing family, Jessica (Stephanie Beacham), whose grandfather (also Cushing) is a world-renowned expert on the occult. Jessica and her buddies are supposed to be teenagers, but they don't even do a convincing impersonation.

The film's portrayal of swinging London youth was ridiculous even in 1972, and it's only grown more so with time. If the campiness of the whole affair had been deliberately played up, the film might have become a minor comedy classic like Love at First Bite, but when Lee's Dracula finally reappears—over a third of the way into the running time—he plays the role as if he were still inhabiting ancient castles of centuries past, never leaving the crumbling church where Alucard raises him from the dust or confronting the challenges of modernity. Cushing's Van Helsing follows suit, inhabiting an antique house and study that don't appear to have been updated since the Victorian era.

The most convincingly modern element of Dracula A.D. 1972 is the skeptical detective from New Scotland Yard (Michael Coles). Otherwise, the film's inventiveness is limited to details like the antagonist's family name, which is "Dracula" spelled backwards, an obvious puzzle that Cushing laboriously solves in closeup on paper as if it were an anagram. The humor is limited to touches like a quick shot of a restaurant sign that says "Steakhouse" during the opening credits.

Dracula A.D. 1972 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dracula A.D. 1972 was previously released on a German Blu-ray based on the same transfer created for the 2005 DVD released in multiple regions. The Warner Archive Collection reviewed that transfer and rejected it as unusable. WAC's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray has been made from a new 2K scan by Warner's MPI facility of a recently manufactured interpositive. Color correction was performed using Ektrachrome transparencies as a reference, and thousands of instances of dirt, scratches and age-related damage were repaired by hand, frame by frame. The resulting image is comparable to the later three films in the previously released Hammer Horror Classics collection, which were shot in roughly the same time period (though by a different DP; here, it was Dick Bush, whose later credits include Victor/Victoria). The Blu-ray aptly captures the colorfully stylized artificiality of the film's version of early Seventies London, which contrasts sharply with the more familiar Hammer horror style of the church in which Dracula is reborn (and where, it seems, he must remain). Detail, blacks and densities are all superior, and the film's grain pattern has been finely rendered. Capable compression at WAC's customarily high rate of just under 35 Mbps completes the film's 1080p resurrection.

Dracula A.D. 1972 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's mono soundtrack has been taken from the magnetic master and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. I am told that the source was in excellent shape and required minimal cleanup. The dialogue is clearly rendered, as are the basic sound effects. By far the best audio element is the lively score by Michael Vickers (At the Earth's Core), who sounds like he's channeling Henry Mancini (in a good way).

Dracula A.D. 1972 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The film's only extra is a trailer, which has been remastered in 1080p (1.78:1; 2:54). Warner's 2005 DVD was similarly bare. The trailer is funnier than the film: "The year is 1972. A leap year in horror. A vintage year . . . for vampires!"

Dracula A.D. 1972 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some projects can't be rescued even by a combination of talents as storied as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Dracula A.D. 1972 is one of them. It's strictly for Hammer completists. On their behalf, WAC has provided a good presentation, which is recommended solely for its technical merits.