Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Taste the Blood of Dracula Blu-ray Movie Review

Savor the Aftertaste

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 6, 2015

The second Dracula sequel in Warner Home Video's first volume of Hammer Horror Films is 1970's Taste the Blood of Dracula (or "TtBoD"), the fourth followup to the famed British studio's successful 1958 release, Horror of Dracula, and the next in line after the Blu-ray in the volume, 1968's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (or "DHRftG"). While DHRftG is notable for the brevity of the title character's appearance, he doesn't even appear until the halfway mark of its immediate sequel, except for a brief prologue that recycles footage from the previous film's end. In the initial conception of TtBoD, Dracula was not supposed to appear at all. Christopher Lee was tired of the role, and his salary was getting too rich for Hammer's budgets. A new story was created in which a successor could assume Dracula's mantle and continue his legacy of horror. The bones of that narrative are visible in the finished film, but Hammer's American distribution partner (i.e., Warner Brothers) refused to accept a Dracula film that couldn't use Christopher Lee's name on the marquee. With appropriate rewrites (and, presumably, payments), the star returned.

But although there's even less of Lee's Dracula in TtBoD than in its immediate predecessor, TtBoD is the better film. Because scrivener Anthony Hinds (still writing under the name John Elder) began with the notion that he couldn't depend on Lee's presence alone to create an atmosphere of dread, he was forced to dream up something new. As a result, TtBoD is thoroughly infused with discomforting elements of Victorian prurience that would shortly fuel the Seventies exploitation bonanza. The Dracula legend has always thrived on linking sex and bloodlust, but Hinds spiced the mixture with a large helping of sadism, a general flavor of depravity and a strong hint of incest, all of it cloaked in a veneer of hypocrisy. Initially trimmed for both its U.K. and U.S. releases, TtBoD was eventually released in its uncut R-rated version on a Warner DVD in 2004. The same version now appears on Blu-ray.

A brief prologue reprises the death of Dracula (Lee) from the conclusion of DHRftG. Unbeknownst to viewers of that film, however, there was a secret witness to the vampire's gory demise, a traveling English salesman named Weller (Roy Kinnear), lost in the woods after being unceremoniously ejected from his stage coach by a fellow passenger. (Some people don't respond well to haggling.) It is Weller who, as we will later learn, gathers up Dracula's remains, including his desiccated blood, and brings everything back to London, where our story continues.

Three respectable gentleman of unspecified profession have formed a kind of secret society. One day a month, they leave their families and sedate homes on the pretext of doing "charity work" in the East End and seek extreme sensations at a fancy brothel overseen by the fey Felix (Russell Hunter). The men are the bookish Jonathon Secker (John Carson), the clerkish Samuel Paxton (Peter Sallis) and the leader of the group, the stern and ill-tempered William Hargood (Geoffrey Keen, who will always be best known as Sir Frederick Gray, Minister of Defence, in every James Bond film from The Spy Who Loved Me through The Living Daylights). Hargood is an especially nasty piece of work, who is abusive to his wife, Martha (Gwen Watford), and seems unnaturally preoccupied with the sexual maturity of his daughter, Alice (Linda Hayden), whose flowing blonde locks instantly mark her as a likely target for Dracula, when he eventually arrives.

In contrast to their dissolute fathers, the adult children of these men are lively innocents, flush with the glow of youth and new love. Alice Hargood wants to marry Paxton's son, Paul (Anthony Higgins), but her father won't hear of it. Paxton's daughter, Lucy (Isla Blair), is engaged to Secker's son, Jeremy (Martin Jarvis). The script neatly arranges these two sweet couples in opposition to their randy elders with the geometric efficiency of an Oscar Wilde tale—and then the fun begins.

After a brothel scene that was no doubt considered risqué by the standards of 1970, Hargood pronounces himself bored with the group's activities and strikes a deal with a reputed satanist, Lord Courtley (Ralph Bates), to find them more novel and extreme sensations. (Where is Pinhead and his box when you really need him?) Using the relics brought back from the continent by Weller, Lord Courtley leads Hargood, Paxton and Secker in a black mass that culminates in the drinking of Dracula's rehydrated blood. But something goes wrong, and the three adventure-seekers go scampering into the night. Unseen behind them, a familiar figure rises from the darkness, vowing to hunt them down for revenge—though what they did wrong isn't entirely clear, since Dracula did manage to crawl back into the world.

As usual, the dreaded count's instruments are young women, which in this case are Alice Hargood and Lucy Paxton. One must admit to a certain satisfaction, on which the filmmakers no doubt counted, at seeing the sanctimonious parents undone by their own sins, especially Hargood through the agency of the daughter he so grievously mistreated. (His demise is immediately preceded by a drunken attack on Alice that borders on sexual abuse.) The fact that Dracula is controlling the proceedings allows for some measure of salvation at the end, but not everyone is saved. Nominally the film is a Dracula tale, but at the core it's more a story about the sins of one generation being suffered by the next.

Hungarian-born director Peter Sasdy may be best remembered for directing wannabe starlet Pia Zadora in the Harold Robbins adaptation, The Lonely Lady (for which he won a Razzie as worst director), but he also directed several Hammer films, of which TtBoD is one. It's a well-crafted blend of horror and exploitation cinema with a number of clever visual touches, such as the repeated encounters between Alice and Paul that are staged to mimic Romeo with Juliet on her balcony. The film may not rank high on the list of vampire thrillers, but Sasdy understood that horror works best when it stays close to home.

Taste the Blood of Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Although Hammer staple Arthur Grant shot both Taste the Blood of Dracula and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, the two films look very different, because DHRftG was directed by cinematographer Freddie Francis, who had Grant use colored filters for key portions of the film. TtBoD has no such effects, and its photography is more consistent with the typical Hammer style.

Warner's MPI facility has newly scanned TtBoD at 2k from a recently created IP, and the results on this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray are very good indeed. The sedate Victorian (or, technically, if we go by the date of DHRftG, Edwardian) houses and the dark ruins where Dracula is reborn provide a suitable contrast with the painted ladies of the East End brothel and the bloody deeds of Dracula's various "servants". The transfer has picked up copious fine detail in closeups and medium shots, while long shots tend to soften, depending on either lighting conditions or depth of field. Colors are excellent, especially the deliberately overstated reds of blood that bubbles and swirls in the goblets prepared by Lord Hartley for Dracula's resurrection (and later spurts from several victims). Blacks are deep and solid, which is essential for a film with so many night scenes and decrepit interiors. A fine grain pattern is readily observable throughout.

Like its accompanying sequel in the first volume of Hammer Horror Films, TtBoD has been mastered with an average bitrate of 29.94 Mbps, which far exceeds the historical WHV approach, and the compression has been skillfully performed.

Taste the Blood of Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

TtBoD's original mono track is encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 1.0, and to my ear the source material is somewhat superior to that of DHRftG. Dialogue is always clear, as are the sound effects. The melodramatic score by Hammer regular James Bernard has a somewhat fuller and less brittle quality than on some of the earlier films, though it by no means sounds like a modern recording.

Taste the Blood of Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Other than a trailer (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 2:26), the disc has no extras. Warner's 2004 DVD was similarly featureless.

Taste the Blood of Dracula Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Four more sequels followed TtBoD, though the last (The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires) did not feature Christopher Lee. For Hammer Films, Dracula became an early version of the hockey-masked Jason; no matter how often people killed him, he kept coming back for his fans. Despite Dracula's minimal presence, TtBoD is one of the more effective sequels and, and for fans of the Hammer style, is highly recommended.