Dracula: Prince of Darkness is a 1966 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Studios. The film was photographed in Techniscope by Michael Reed, designed by Bernard Robinson and scored by James Bernard.
Starts with scenes from the previous film, ending with Dracula’s death. Father Sandor interrupts a burial where a young dead woman is going to get a stake through the heart before burial, telling the assembled priests that “it is all over”. He goes to an inn where there are four tourists (the Kents) and tells them not to go to Carlsbad, and if they do, stay well clear of the castle. Guess what happens next?
Because of a broken wheel and it’s getting dark, the group are four hours late and are dumped unceremoniously 2 km from Carlsbad by the coach driver, right near the castle. As they are considering staying in an old woodsman’s hut overnight, a driverless coach and two horses turns up. Charles Kent tries to drive to Carlsbad but the horses head towards the castle. Arriving, they get off the coach and as they look inside the castle door, the coach races off. Helen nags them that she told them so.
The table inside is set for four people. Even stranger, they find their bags are in upstairs bedrooms. The mystery is solved when the strange servant Klove appears and later serves them dinner. He tells them that his master Dracula, now dead, ordered that the castle should always be ready to welcome strangers. They settle in their rooms but Helen continues to nag husband Alan, saying there will be no morning for them.
A noise and Alan goes to see what Klove is up to. He finds Dracula’s coffin. Klove stabs him and uses his blood to raise Dracula again. Klove gets Helen telling her; “Your husband. Come quickly.” In the cellar she finds the risen Dracula who wants some more blood. Next morning the other two find no trace of Alan and Helen. Charles takes Diana to the woodsman’s hut and then goes back to the castle.
Klove tricks Diana into going back to the castle while Charles finds Alan’s body of one of his friends. It is dark already (being winter) and Dracula rises. Diana sees Helen, not realising now that she is one of the undead. She goes for Diana but stops at a hiss from Dracula. Enter Charles who is no match for Dracula. Diana accidentally burns Helen with her crucifix and realises it can be used as a weapon on vampires. Charles catches on and uses two parts of a long sword Dracula broke as a cross.
Klove tries to sneak up on them but is struck down as the two leave the castle in a carriage. Travelling too fast, the carriage crashes and as Diana is unconscious Charles carries her till confronted by Father Sandor who takes them to his place where he tells Charles about Dracula who was last seen ten years ago.
Klove turns up at the monastery with a wagon with two coffins inside. Inside is Ludwig, whose mind was unhinged from a previous encounter with Dracula. Still in thrall to Dracula, Ludwig invites him inside. Helen tries to get to Diana who opens the window for her. She is bitten but Dracula drags Helen off as she is his, till Charles bursts into the room. Sandor sterilises the bite with the heat from an oil lamp.
Sandor puts silver crucifixes in the two coffins in the tinker’s wagon. Helen is caught. Ludwig is sent away with brother Peter but knocks him out. Helen is staked. Ludwig decoys Diana into Dracula’s presence, is hypnotised into taking off her crucifix and is about to drink his blood from his bare chest when Charles calls out and breaks the spell.
Dracula carries her away in the wagon. Charles and Sandor arm themselves and follow on horse back, over a day’s ride. A short cut means they get in front of the wagon and stop it. Charles shoots Klove as he is ready to hurl a knife but the horses gallop off to the castle. It stops and a coffin slides out onto the frozen moat. Diana is released from the other coffin and Charles advances across the thin ice but is grabbed by Dracula as the coffin’s lid is thrown open.
Diana shoots at Dracula but hits the ice instead, and running water (which can kill a vampire) oozes out of the ice. Dracula now realises he’s in trouble as he manhandles Charles who escapes his clutches and more shots start breaking up the ice around Dracula. Seemingly having forgotten how to walk up the nearby wall, Dracula ends up underwater and dead as the ice he is standing on cracks and tilts. End.
Production notes
Dracula does not speak in the film. According to Christopher Lee: "I didn’t speak in that picture. The reason was very simple. I read the script and saw the dialogue! I said to Hammer, if you think I’m going to say any of these lines, you’re very much mistaken."
But screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, in his memoir Inside Hammer (Reynolds & Hearn, 2001), stated that "Vampires don't chat. So I didn't write him any dialogue. Chris Lee has claimed that he refused to speak the lines he was given … So you can take your pick as to why Christopher Lee didn't have any dialogue in the picture. Or you can take my word for it. I didn't write any."
