Sunday 20 September 2009

Taste The Blood Of Dracula


Amazingly in all the years I've been a Hammer fan I've never watched Taste The Blood Of Dracula.
Wasn't sure what I was going to see as this is heading towards the end of the Hammer Dracula cycle of films so was pleasantly surprised.
Three gents are bored with their sexual experiences and get word of a bankrupt aristocrat, the wonderful Ralph Bates,can give them a new experience like thy never had.
He takes them to see curios shop keeper Roy Kinear,he witnessed Dracula's death at the end of the previous Dracula film,and has The Counts Cape,clasp and dried blood.
At a satanic ceremony Bates tries to get the three gents to drink re-hydrated Drac blood but they refuse in terror so Bates drinks it and tuns into Count Dracula.
As they refused Dracula possesses their daughters,the lovely Linda Hayden amongst them,and uses them to help kill the gents sons and ultimately the gents themselves.
Linda's forbidden boyfriend however gets to the church where Drac hangs out replaces a couple of candles and with the help of two crucifixes and what I presume is the hand of God destroys Dracula,whilst he and Linda escape to live happily ever after.
Chris Lee is wasted as Dracula his screen time is mere minutes and only speaks a few lines.
The rest of the cast take it all seriously which is part of the reason Hammer worked so well.
Still the DVD transfer was good and was entertaining enough, but the cracks are beginning to show on Hammers out put of the 70's.
If you buy the Region 1 version of this movie you can get Taste together with Horror,Risen from the Grave and AD 1972 all in one package for under a fiver.


1 comment:

  1. Got to disagree - (a) its a pretty dire on every level (except of course for Ms Hayden) and (b) its got Ralph Bates in it.
    Have never been able to stand the bloke, even as a teenager i was put right off him. Think its that bizarre, campy, nerdy stance he took in "Lust For A Vampire" that did it. First time i ever saw him in anything and, boy, it put me off him for life.

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