DRACULA A.D. 1972 Dated? Duh! If a series goes on long enough, it's gonna slide into total camp, intentional or not. There's just no avoiding it. Sometimes the results are fun, like with the sixth Friday The 13th movie, pretty much what that series needed at that point. Sometimes the results are horrible, like Jaws: The Revenge. Dracula A.D. 1972 is not as bad as the latter film, and doesn't seem to be as intentionally goofy as the former. But with this film, the Hammer Dracula movies definitely reached that point. Dracula A.D. 1972 ends up kinda so-so, and could've been worse than it was. While it's not often overtly comic, the way it wallows in its goofy setting puts it in the difficult position of being too goofy to take seriously, and it kinda hurts to see Christopher Lee starring as Dracula in a movie that can't be taken seriously. One stares at the screen in awe that such a time, with such fashions and slang, actually existed outside of the Austin Powers movies. (I know, late 60's, 1972...you probably would've had to have been there to be able to tell the difference) Dracula A.D. 1972 starts by rewriting a bit of Hammer history, depicting the "final battle" between Dracula and Van Helsing (too-late returning Peter Cushing), grappling with each other on a moving carriage. In the resulting crash, Drac is impaled on the spokes of one of the wheels, which is almost as funny as his impalement at the end of Dracula Has Risen From The Grave. A foul fiend snags Dracula's ring and scoops up some powdered blood, to return later and bury the blood in the soil near Van Helsing's own grave site. Fast-forward to the "modern" day, and a descendant of that fiend named Alucard (grooooan) convinces a bunch of hep cats - or groovy babies, or something - to participate in that Dracula-resurrecting ritual from Taste The Blood Of Dracula. (even the motivation for it is the same, to experience something wild and different) Among this crowd is Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beacham, sporting a truly dreadful hairstyle), whose grandfather is the grandson of the original vamp-staker, and also played by Cushing. (this makes the original Van Helsing her great-great grandfather, but she calls him her great-grandfather, causing me with furrowed brow to work out the unlikely spacing apart of generations in this family until this was corrected) I wasn't quite born yet at this time, so I really am having a hard time seeing how Austin Powers is much removed from the time, fashions and overall vibe depicted, so Austin Powers is all I'm seeing here. The music screams Austin Powers, even during scenes which might've been creepy with a real horror score (like when Alucard pours blood all over one screaming lass). I kept expecting half the cast to blurt out "Groovy baby!" without provocation. This is more Cushing's than Lee's movie, and that's fine with me - it's so nice to see him in the role (more or less) again that I almost didn't care that here, as it is, it's a rather thankless one, and Lee's already had five movies in this series compared to Cushing's two. Christopher Neame is a gas as Alucard, particularly in the ritual scene. Beacham and a couple of other hotties (Joanna Lumley and Caroline Munro!) are very pretty to look at, but don't really do anything more than that. Not like much more is asked of them in a movie like this. Iffy special effects; for sure, the blood's way too bright (nothing new here), adding some unintended irony to the scene where all these young people debate whether the blood gushing from Alucard during the ritual scene was fake or not. Gothic sets are missed, and these horrible early-70's interior-decorating mistakes are to say the least a poor substitute, particularly that one place which keeps the billiard table in the corner (!). As far as vampire action goes, it's nothing all that special except for the odd setting, though it is nice to see another vampire death by clear running water, something only Dracula: Prince Of Darkness, to my knowledge, ever attempted to show before. The dialogue is often hilarious, in what weird zone where I can't tell if it's intentional or not. If anybody's in on the joke, it's Neame. Lee and Cushing are certainly playing it straight, as they should, since theirs are the only characters who don't sound like buffoons. This is the seventh Hammer Dracula movie, and I have to say, those hard-to-read bright red letters in the credits have annoyed the shit out of me for some time. And, c'mon - surely people were never so naïve as to have believed "Rest In Final Peace", even then, were they? Apparently, this was retitled into Dracula Today when it got to France a year later - as if this wasn't dated all to hell even after just one year. I'm imagining a bunch of cheese-eatin' Frenchmen sitting around saying "Henri, was 1972 ever THAT 1972?" Ah, well. I still haven't seen The Satanic Rites Of Dracula around anywhere, but I do intend to check it out as soon as I find it. Director of photography? Dick Bush. (commence juvenile giggling) BACK TO THE D's BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE