Taste the Blood of Dracula
NOTE: Sequel to "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" (1968).A peddler named Weller (Roy Kinnear) is riding in a coach with two other passengers and attempts to sell some goods, but is unceremoniously thrown from the moving vehicle. Recovering from his tumble down an embankment, he witnesses a vampire succumbing to impalement on a cross (as recapped from the previous film). When the vampire turns to dust, Weller examines the remains and finds the ring, cape and clasp engraved with the name "Dracula."William Hargood [Geoffrey Keen], Sam Paxton [Peter Saccis], and Jonathan Secker [John Carson] are leaving church with their families, and the teenage children talk with each other. Later at home, Hargood berates his daughter for acting like a harlot in talking to a young man, and grumbles to his wife for having the staff prepare a sumptuous meal when she should know that it is the Sunday he and his friends do charity work. Later he meets the other two men and they go to the local soup kitchen. . .and pass through to the back room holding a secret brothel where they engage in sordid behaviors.While there they meet Lord Courtley [Ralph Bates], said to be possessed of the devil. Courtley offers them an experience to end all experiences--a chance to take place in a ritual to sell their souls to the devil. He doesn't tell them that he plots to also bring back Count Dracula from the dead. He takes them to Weller's store, where the greedy merchant sells them the hoard he collected from the remains of Dracula, including a vial of the powdered blood from the ashes. They agree to try out the new thrill with the needed accessories, and they meet him at an old church, but they cop out when Courtley orders them to drink the blood of Dracula, which he has reanimated by mixing in his own. Courtley drinks and suffers sudden seizures. When he begs for help from the others, they kick and beat him, and he dies. The three men leave, scared, while in the church dust covers Courtley. When the caked dust cracks, he has become Dracula [Christopher Lee].The vampire wants revenge for the death of his servant, and he intends to get it through the children of the three men, starting with Hargood. His daughter Alice [Linda Hayden] is seeing Paul Paxton [Anthony Corlan], but Hargood wants to end this relationship. One night, after being forbidden by her father to go out with Paul, Alice sneaks out to attend a party with him. She confesses readily when she is caught later, but Hargood has been blotting out the horror of watching Courtley die by drinking heavily and he raises a cane to beat her for disobedience. Alice escapes to the garden and meets Dracula, who influences her with hypnosis into bludgeoning her father. "The first," Dracula intones.Alice then lures Lucy Paxton [Isla Blair] to Dracula, who promptly drinks her blood and sets her to work for him against her father. Worried about the death of Hargood and the disappearances of both Alice and Lucy, Paxton and Secker go to the old church to see if Courtley's body is still there. It isn't, but they find Lucy lying in a coffin. Secker attempts to stake her, but Paxton is in denial that she is a minion of the undead and shoots him. Secker stumbles home, but Paxton passes out and regains consciousness as the sun goes down. Lucy pins Paxton in a pew and stakes him with Alice standing by and as Dracula watches. "The second," Dracula says. Lucy comes to Jeremy Secker [Martin Jarvis] and drinks his blood. Later he finds Secker in his office, passed out from his gunshot wound. When Secker comes to, he asks Jeremy to take a letter to Paul, but he realizes, too late, that Jeremy has turned into a vampire, and Jeremy stabs his father. "The third," says Dracula.Lucy is awed by her master's authoritarian air and power, and tries to distract him from leaving her, but he is through with her and drains her, leaving her dead in the waterway. He intends to do the same to Alice, but the rising sun forces him to retreat to his coffin.Secker had written a note to Paul before he died, telling him what he must do to save Alice. Armed with candles and crucifixes, Paul heads to the abandoned church and finds Lucy's body on the way. After pulling her onto the bank, he continues to the de-sanctified church and sets up an altar. When confronted by Alice and Dracula, Paul tells Alice to choose between good and evil. Alice chooses evil and wrests the crucifix from Paul's hand. Dracula attacks him, knocking him senseless. When Alice begs to go with the lord of the undead, he spurns her, saying he has no more need of her. Dracula attempts to escape, but the crucifix Paul placed on the door keeps him from leaving. Dracula breaks a stained-glass window, and the room is suddenly filled with church music, prayers and candles. As the reunited lovers watch, Dracula tumbles to the altar and turns to dust.
gothic, murder, cult, violence, good versus evil, revenge