Quantcast
Channel: MOVIES and MANIA
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 12629

Scars of Dracula

$
0
0

sod0

Scars of Dracula – also known as The Scars of Dracula on promotional material – is a 1970 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker for Hammer Film Productions.

It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, along with Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Patrick Troughton, and Michael Gwynn. Although disparaged by some critics, the film does restore a few elements of Bram Stoker’s original character: the Count is introduced as an “icily charming host;” he has command over nature; and he is seen scaling the walls of his castle. It also gives Lee more to do and say than any other Hammer Dracula film except its first, 1958’s Dracula.

The film opens with a resurrection scene set shortly after the climax of Taste the Blood of Dracula, but is set in Dracula’s Transylvanian homeland rather than England, as that film was. The British Film group EMI took over distribution of the film after Warner Brothers and other American studios refused to distribute it in the U.S. It was also the first of several Hammer films to get an ‘R’ rating. This was Michael Ripper’s 27th and final appearance in a Hammer film.

sod3

Deep in the Count’s lair, a vampire bat drizzles blood from its fakely-fanged mouth onto the ashes of the deceased vampire, giving Christopher another opportunity to do not-so-very-much but retain top billing. Skip forward an unspecified period of time and local villagers are frantic that yet another of their number has died in horrible circumstances at the hand (and mouth) of the resurrected Dracula. The timid and constantly at the rear priest gives his blessing to an assembly of the men-folk who set off armed with burning torches to his castle, leaving their wives in the sanctuary of the church. After a spot of ‘knock-knock’ with castle serf, Klove (Patrick Troughton, The Omen), entry is gained and the building is left to burn. However, on returning to the church they find their loved ones have been messily savaged and killed by vampire bats.

scars-of-dracula-b

Having enjoyed the pleasures of the burgomasters’ daughter, libertine Paul Carlson (Christopher Matthews, Scream and Scream Again, Blind Terror)  flees her father (an ‘enthused’ Bob Todd of Benny Hill fame) and the Kleinenberg authorities by jumping into a nearby coach which, though driver-less, heads off at great speed. He is deposited near Count Dracula’s mountaintop castle. Initially he is welcomed by the Count and a beautiful woman named Tania who later reveals herself to be a prisoner of Dracula as his mistress. Paul later has a liaison with Tania who concludes their lovemaking by trying to bite his neck. Dracula enters and, casually throwing off Paul’s efforts to stop him, savagely stabs Tania to death with a dagger for betraying him – Dracula partakes of several weapons in the film, unusually. Klove, Dracula’s mortal but obedient servant, dismembers her body and dissolves the pieces in a bath of either holy water or acid. Trapped in a room high in the castle, Paul uses a sheet to climb down to a lower window but the line is withdrawn by Klove and he is trapped in a dark room with only door locked and a coffin at the centre of the room. Unfortunate.

sod9

In the sensible corner are Paul’s brother, Simon (Dennis Waterman, Fright and many a British TV programme) and his other half, Sarah (Jenny Hanley, who it’s impossible not to picture on her regular slot on kid’s TV show, Magpie) and they both set off to find the absent Paul. Repeatedly having the door shut in their face, they eventually find he’s loitering in the castle after landlord’s daughter can’t resist letting slip against her dad’s better advice, the always tremendous, Michael Ripper. At the castle, Dracula dispenses more of his hospitality wine and starts making a vampiric move on Sarah but hasn’t bargained on the oafish Klove taking a shine to her too. Refusing the relieve her of the crucifix around her neck to allow the Count to feast, he is brutally branded by a red-hot sword, an addition to the whip-marks he already sports.

sod2

With the priest we met earlier in tow (Michael Gwynn, Village of the Damned, 1960), Simon returns but the holy man soon meets his end, another to suffer at the teeth of the rampant bats. His is next betrayed by Klove and ends up in the same room his brother, we now find, met a particularly grisly end. Unable to finish the count as he slumbers in his coffin due to some dithering and some hypnotism, we move on to the final act, Simon realising the Count is somewhat quite inhuman and the surviving foursome reconvening on the Castle’s battlements. Klove is thrown to his death and just as Dracula takes aim with a handy metal spike, a storm is brewing…

sod8

Scars is the sixth of Hammer’s Dracula films (the fifth for Lee) and is derided in some quarters for the flimsy effects and notable lack of budget. What the film does have is lashings of gothic silliness – how forgiving you are of the capers, not least Bob Todd essentially jumping up and down on a whoopee cushion for five minutes, is entirely down to you. The film has little in the way of traditional blood-sucking action but if you’re after bat brutality, you’ve come to the right place – the aftermath of the church attack is one of Hammer’s biggest ensemble slayings. The bats themselves are another matter entirely – if horror films up to this juncture had taught us anything, it was that the manufacture of believable bats was akin to turning blood into wine. Scars is perhaps not an all-time low…but it’s close.

bat

The perception of the film’s ‘cheapness’ (the budget of around £200,000 was not that trifling and was the same as Taste the Blood of Dracula) can partly be attributed to the castle’s set, which, in fairness, is necessarily sparse due to the first scene’s fire attack. What is less helpful is the cinematography, which shows the flimsy walls and rarely allows the viewer to suspend belief and accept it to be a genuine location. If anything, the film lacks the traditional fog which normally permeates Hammer fare, covering a multitude of sins.

sod10

It seems pointless to appraise Lee’s performance, the supporting cast should certainly stand up and be counted though. It seems incredible in retrospect that homely Jenny Hanley should star in one of Hammer’s first real forays into blood and boobs but she performs adequately and not a little alluring. Far worse is Dennis Waterman, absolutely hopeless as a brave, romantic hero and is awfully Scrappy Doo at best – his appearance in Fright is a step up, thankfully. Roy Ward Baker has said in interviews he thought Waterman was badly miscast, his appearance being entirely down to the studio. Equally, Matthews could hardly be more annoying and it is left to the old hands – Ripper and Troughton to carry off the plaudits, pitching their performances as louche and barking as they need to be.

sod15

The film’s conclusion is one of the more inventive of Hammer’s – it’s the one with the lightning. Ward was already an old-hand and had come straight off the back of The Vampire Lovers and was ready to launch straight into Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde. James Bernard returns as the composer of the score, shifting the well-known ‘Drac-u-laaaa!’ motif to a new but still distinctive fanfare for the Count’s appearances. The film was released in some markets on a double feature with The Horror of Frankenstein, partly in a (failed) attempt to reinvent the Frankenstein strand as a hip and sexy venture.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

sod7

 

 

sod1

 

sod4

sod12

sod14

sod17

sod21

sod6

Anouska Hempel  Christopher Matthews. Scars of Dracula. Hammer Films, 1970.

sodbook

sod16

 

sodgif

sodgif2



Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 12629

Trending Articles



<script src="https://jsc.adskeeper.com/r/s/rssing.com.1596347.js" async> </script>