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24. Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), dir. Peter Sasdy
Saturday, 14 December 2013 17:35So, I did actually spend last Friday to Tuesday inclusive at my parents' house, sorting out stuff for Mum and visiting Dad in hospital. I'll probably write about that properly at some point, but the short version is that things are basically fine there at the moment, though they certainly do (and will continue to) need a lot of monitoring from me and my sister. Right now, though, I have a precious weekend to myself, and what I feel like doing with that time is writing about Dracula films. So here we go.
This is one of the entries in Hammer's Dracula series I've seen least frequently. I mean, we're still talking a good 5-6 times, but that is peanuts next to how often I've watched my favourites in the series (more like 10-20 times each). I had mentally filed this one alongside Scars of Dracula as being essentially a pastiche of the earlier sequels, but without their deliciously dark atmosphere or charming characters (for all that I kinda like Scars anyway). But having rewatched Taste the Blood now for the first time in probably about ten years, I think I have been unjust to it. It doesn't really belong in my 'pastiche' category for these sequels at all - rather, it is what I would call a 'straight' sequel, as in it is genuinely trying to be a good film in the spirit of the original, and is not markedly dependent on re-hashing elements from earlier films. OK, so it's one of the weaker entries in that category, but it's still more worth watching than I'd assumed.
That said, ( it certainly isn't perfect )
On the positive side, though, this film benefits from including a major plot theme which doesn't simply stem from Dracula and his predation, though it does end up linking in with it. This is something I noted as a strength for the previous film in the sequence, Risen from the Grave, where the theme in question was about faith vs. atheism. Here, ( it is about domestic abuse, and actually adds up to a pretty strong parable about emancipating women from the control of domineering men who don't have their interests at heart )
Also in line with Risen from the Grave is ( the portrayal of Dracula and his modus operandi )
Finally, I like to say a little in each of these reviews about how the film I'm dealing with ( develops the Hammer Dracula franchise )
Click here if you would like view this entry in light text on a dark background.
This is one of the entries in Hammer's Dracula series I've seen least frequently. I mean, we're still talking a good 5-6 times, but that is peanuts next to how often I've watched my favourites in the series (more like 10-20 times each). I had mentally filed this one alongside Scars of Dracula as being essentially a pastiche of the earlier sequels, but without their deliciously dark atmosphere or charming characters (for all that I kinda like Scars anyway). But having rewatched Taste the Blood now for the first time in probably about ten years, I think I have been unjust to it. It doesn't really belong in my 'pastiche' category for these sequels at all - rather, it is what I would call a 'straight' sequel, as in it is genuinely trying to be a good film in the spirit of the original, and is not markedly dependent on re-hashing elements from earlier films. OK, so it's one of the weaker entries in that category, but it's still more worth watching than I'd assumed.
That said, ( it certainly isn't perfect )
On the positive side, though, this film benefits from including a major plot theme which doesn't simply stem from Dracula and his predation, though it does end up linking in with it. This is something I noted as a strength for the previous film in the sequence, Risen from the Grave, where the theme in question was about faith vs. atheism. Here, ( it is about domestic abuse, and actually adds up to a pretty strong parable about emancipating women from the control of domineering men who don't have their interests at heart )
Also in line with Risen from the Grave is ( the portrayal of Dracula and his modus operandi )
Finally, I like to say a little in each of these reviews about how the film I'm dealing with ( develops the Hammer Dracula franchise )
Click here if you would like view this entry in light text on a dark background.
