Dracula Has Risen from the Grave has the historic distinction of being the first movie to receive an MPAA rating using their new system. It was given a ‘G,’ the same rating bestowed upon Disney’s The Love Bug.
This is a movie that opens with a priest discovering a corpse hanging from a church bell. But there’s more family fun in store…open bite wounds, blood gushing from a staked heart, guys getting shitfaced and a body being disposed of in a roaring fireplace. And let’s not forget the lovely Barbara Ewing as the flirty, ill-fated barmaid, Zena, who not only attempts to bed-down the drunken protagonist, her prominently featured cleavage makes one wish the movie was shot in 3-D.
So either the MPAA (now MPA) thinks today’s children are a bunch of fragile flowers, or the organization never knew what the hell they were doing in the first place. Perhaps it's a little bit of both.
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…but not if boyfriend Paul (Barry Andrews) has anything to say about it. He’s an atheist who bears an uncanny resemblance to Roger Daltrey. While it’s a toss up whether Andrews or Carlson gives the most ineffectual performance, there’s no question who owns the movie. Lee makes an terrific, scenery-chewing Dracula, oozing menace whenever he’s on the screen. When he isn’t, the narrative is kind of meandering.
Elsewhere, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave benefits from handsome production design and wonderful matte paintings that greatly enhance the overall gothic feel of the film. Hammer veteran Freddie Francis always had an eye for striking imagery, which he uses to good effect here. While this is far from the greatest vampire movie ever made, it’s fairly enjoyable. But, man…that G rating! What the hell were they thinking?
This is a re-issue of a Blu-ray previously released in 2015.
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