Scars Of Dracula (1970)
UK 1 sheet poster
Starring:
Status: In Release
Category: Film
Genre: Gothic Horror
Language: English
Running time: TBA
Directed by: Roy Ward Baker
Synopsis
The Prince of Darkness casts his undead shadow once more over the cursed village of Kleinenberg when his ashes are splashed with bat's blood and Dracula is resurrected. And two innocent victims search for a missing loved one... .loved to death by Dracula's mistress. But after they discover his blood-drained corpse in Dracula's castle necropolis, the Vampire Lord's lustful vengeance begins.
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28 September 2011, Hammer comes to UK Horror Channel this October
The UK's Horror Channel (the UK's first TV channel dedicated to the dark side of cinema and television) is to broadcast a season of classic Hammer horror...
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18 Dec 2011, 9:27pm
Released the same year as Hammer's THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, SCARS OF DRACULA was also directed by Roy Ward Baker with cinematography by Moray Grant, son of long-time Hammer cameraman Arthur Grant. And immediately it's tempting to compare this film to Baker's superior VAMPIRE LOVERS and also to the previous entry in the Dracula series, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, which was photograpy by the elder Grant. So while TASTE has evocative, moody cinematography of a high order, SCARS a bland look and several washed-out looking scenes. Moray' Grant's work was only slightly better in VAMPIRE LOVERS, though even that film had the occasional washed out looking scene, such as when Cushing meets Ingrid Pitt at the ball. Watching either film makes me wish the services of Arthur Grant of a more capable DP had been available. Hammer solved this problem on the next Dracula film though by hiring world-class DP Dick Bush, who shot Ken Russell's TOMMY. Bush also shot the final Karnstein film, TWINS OF EVIL, and certainly made it the best looking of the trio. But back to SCARS. ..another common complaint is that it breaks the continuity between the ending of TASTE and the beginning of this film. For the first four Hammer Dracula's there was a careful line of continuity between the ending of one film and the beginning of the next. But I'm willing to give SCARS a break on this count. . .the ending of TASTE finds the remains of Dracula (with his red and black cape) on an altar in the church. . .the beginning of SCARS finds the remains still spread over Dracula's cape and on an altar like before. Only now the location has changed from a church in London to Dracula's castle. But it's doesn't take a great stretch of imagination to fill in the blanks and assume that his assistant, Klove, simply collected the remains and transported them from London back to the castle so I see no huge continuity problem. The film does have some very strong assets in its favor. . .another great turn by Michael Ripper