Taste The Blood Of Dracula [1970]

While the subsequent descent into paranoia by the three villains-Dracula himself hardly counts in comparison with this odious bunch--isn't exactly the stuff of Rosemary's Baby, it still infuses the plot with an element of psychodrama that is unusual for a Hammer fang-fest. There are strong performances pretty much all round, but Peter "Clegg" Sallis quakes exceptionally nicely as one of the trio of miscreants. The sets, props and costumes are of an unusually high order, too. --Roger Thomas

This is yet another one of Hammer's Dracula films where it ends up being less about the title character and more about what the director is up to. Unlike those films in the series directed by Terence Fisher, who had great affection for the 19th-century, director Peter Sasdy is more interested in seeing the Victorians as hypocrites who basically get what they deserve in the end. "Taste the Blood of Dracula" not only lacks the strong moral counter-presence of a Van Helsing type, it lacks a true hero. Dracula again meets his fate at the end of the film because that is what is supposed to happen, not because we have any vested interest in the boy rescuing the girl. Dracula is clearly an erotic figure whose seduction of the children of the Victorian debauchers heralds their sexual awakenings (e.g., Linda Hayden as Alice Hargood laying sensuously on the lid of Dracula's sarcophagus). For those of you looking for Freudian overtones, look no further, because things get pretty blatant in this film. "Taste the Blood of Dracula" is the last decent film in the Hammer Dracula series, so if you are working through the series in order, you might consider stopping here.