Halloween Horrorfest: Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

The fourth film in the Hammer Horror Dracula series and the third to star Christopher Lee in the title role was Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. The film once again brings the Hammer brand of gothic horror to the screen with Lee haunting as ever and adds a few interesting new dimensions to the Dracula series. 

Monsignor Ernest Mueller (played by Rupert Davies) has traveled to a small European village to check on the local Priest (played by Ewan Hooper. He finds the church deserted as the villagers refuse to enter it since it falls under the shadow of Dracula's castle. The Priest has lost his faith and the altar boy is a frightened mute. Mueller and the Priest travel up to Count Dracula's castle to exorcise it of it's evil. The Priest only makes it halfway and Mueller continues on his own. Mueller is able to complete the exorcism but the resulting thunderstorm causes the Priest to flee. In the process, he stumbles and falls, knocked unconscious when his head hits a rock. The blood from the resulting head wound trickles into a frozen creek and into the mouth of Count Dracula contained within and reviving him. Dracula brings the Priest under his control and once he discovers his castle is now barred to him, sets out to get revenge on Mueller and his family, his widowed sister-in-law Anna (played by Marion Mathie) and his niece Maria (played by Veronica Carlson). It then falls to Mueller and Maria's boyfriend Paul (played by Barry Andrews) to try and defeat the count and save their loved ones.

The film was directed by Freddie Francis and written by Anthony Hinds. The film has the same sort of fantastic gothic mood that Hammer Films became known for. The film also weaves in some interesting spiritual elements with a priest becoming an agent for evil, albeit against his will, and one of the main heroes of the film, Paul, being an atheist. In order for Paul to defeat Dracula and rescue his girlfriend he must accept that there is a God, which I thought was an interesting arc for a character in a film like this. The performances in the film are overall decent. Christopher Lee has the character of Dracula down at this point, striking an imposing figure and a character of few words but imparts more with a mere imposing glance. Likewise, Barry Andrews makes for an appealing hero trying to save his girlfriend from the vengeful Count.        

Overall, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave is a decent and entertaining chapter in the Hammer Dracula series. It's paced a bit slower than Horror of Dracula and suffers from a lack of Peter Cushing, but is still a reasonably thrilling film, with a few unique twists to spice things up.