Taste the Blood of Dracula

Depraved Lord Courtley (Bates) involves three other rich Victorian thrill-seekers in the resurrection of the blood-sucking Count (Lee), by means of an elaborate ritual performed in a derelict church. Imaginatively realised and shot with flamboyant style, the ritual ends with Courtley's death and the flight of the three others, setting the scene for a lurid tale in which Dracula wreaks revenge on the fugitives by seducing and corrupting their daughters. Though the film never quite lives up to its brilliantly staged opening scenes, its variation on the idea of the decadent, aristocratic Dracula's threat to the sanctity of the Victorian middle class family highlights an intriguing aspect of Hammer's vampire mythology.