Spoilers Next Twenty Miles. Proceed with Caution
Horror Movie produced by Hammer Studios in 1966. Directed by Terrence Fisher, the movie starred Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, and Francis Matthews and featured Christopher Lee as Dracula.
Classic Hammer fare, Dracula - Prince of Darkness tells the tale of two brothers, Charles and Alan Kent, and their brides traveling in the Carpathian Mountains. Despite warnings from locals including Andrew Keir as Father Sandor, the couples travel to a local castle where they are greeted by Klove, the custodian of the castle. They are given lodging for the night, but all is not well, for the castle is the home of Count Dracula, and Klove is one of his faithful servants.
Klove takes Alan Kent and strings him up over the dusty remains of Dracula and cuts his throat, allowing Kent's blood to pour into the coffin and in a pretty nifty piece of special effects for its day, the body of Dracula reconstitutes itself. A quick snack of Kent's wife and soon Christopher Lee is running about the castle, with red eyed contacts, fangs, and evening attire.
The next evening, Dracula tries to finish off the party, with the help of new vampire, Diana Kent. Charles Kent and his wife Helen nearly fall victim to the undead duo except for the sudden discovery by the pair that vampires are not crucifix friendly. The two flee the castle and take refuge with the Father Sandor and his friendly monks, figuring there must be an ass-load of crucifixes at the monastery. Klove follows with his master and his new sidekick asleep in their coffins in the back of his wagon.
The next night has the usual Dracula high jinx with the staking of the new vampire by the priest, the capture of the heroine by Dracula, the ensuing chase, the death of the henchman, and the dispatching of the vampire, this time by plunging him into the running water of his moat, by shooting through the crust of ice with a rifle.
Lee does his usual excellent job in this movie, playing the evil lord of the undead with his usual style. Lee never actually speaks throughout the movie, but only hisses and snarls, to great effect. The rest of the cast overacts to perfection, either with appropriate screams or staggering (as when Charles discovers the body of his brother and does his drunken sailor walk up the stairs). We also discover a little known loophole in the theology of Father Sandor's order that while it does not allow him to kill a man, it does allow him to arm and order someone else to do so with little or no guilt on his part.