Dracula and his brides

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Movie
German title Dracula and his brides
Original title The Brides of Dracula
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1960
length approx. 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Terence Fisher
script Peter Bryan
Edward Percy
Jimmy Sangster
production Michael Carreras
Anthony Hinds
Anthony Nelson Keys for Hammer Productions
music Malcolm Williamson
camera Jack Asher
cut Alfred Cox
occupation

Dracula and his Brides (English Original The Brides of Dracula ) is a horror film by the British film production company Hammer from 1960 and after Dracula the second vampire adaptation by Terence Fisher.
In the run-up to production there were significant script problems, so that three authors were hired for the manuscript. The ongoing disagreements prompted film producer Anthony Hinds to try it as a writer as well. Under the pseudonym John Elder , he wrote various film scenarios in the years that followed, which had a significant impact on Hammer's horror film production.

action

The young teacher Marianne Danielle is on her way to Transylvania to tackle her new position. When her coachman leaves her after a rest in an inn and drives on without her, she rejects the warnings of the villagers who have returned and spends the night at Meinster Castle after the old Baroness Meinster has invited her. The lady of the castle lives largely withdrawn there with her elderly servant Greta and her son, an attractive young man. The baroness tells of him that he is mad and dangerous. In a remote wing of the castle, he is therefore tied to his leg with a long silver chain that prevents him from moving freely.

When Marianne discovers her son, the young baron is extremely charming and declares that he is a prisoner of his despotic mother, who stole his land and his good name from him. Out of pity, Marianne decides to help him. She steals the key to his chain from the baroness's room and frees him. When the freed baron confronts his horrified mother, the two withdraw. Marianne is supposed to fetch her luggage to later escape with the baron. A little later, the hysterical Greta, who has always looked after the young Baron Meinster, appears and forces Marianne to look at what she has done: The old baroness is dead in her room with bloody bite marks on her neck.

Marianne flees into the night, where she is greeted by Dr. van Helsing is found. With his help, she reaches the girls' boarding school, which is the actual goal of her trip, as she is supposed to work there as a teacher. Interested in her story, Dr. van Helsing returns Marianne's trail and comes to Meinster Castle, where he meets the old baroness. She has now risen as a vampire , filled with feelings of guilt and disgust for herself. Van Helsing learns from her what has happened in the past: The men with whom the baron once booed spoiled him until "someone came", the made him what he is now. The next morning van Helsing “redeems” her with a wooden stake and leaves the castle.

In the meantime, Baron Meinster has made the village girl Gina and later also the brittle teacher Carla his equal. When Carla climbs out of her coffin after the fatal night with the vampire and reveals to Marianne that he is hiding in an old windmill with his brides, Dr. van Helsing put Baron Meinster there. But the vampire overpowers his hunter and manages to bite him in the neck. Trapped in the mill, Dr. van Helsing is exposed to the horror of his own vampirisation and manages to burn the bite wound on his neck with a red-hot iron and neutralize it with holy water.

Since Baron Meinster also wants to make Marianne his bride for eternity, he kidnaps her to the old windmill, where he wants to bite her in front of van Helsing's eyes, but the vampire hunter pours holy water into his face from a bottle, which is like acid eats the vampire's face. When Baron Meinster backs away, he knocks over a lantern and the mill goes up in flames along with his undead playmates. Dr. van Helsing and Marianne are able to save themselves over a windmill wing by holding on to it and sliding to the ground due to gravity. The four wings of the windmill form an upright cross and, through the light of the fire, cast a gigantic shadow on the ground and on the baron, who is overshadowed and fixed by this cross and can no longer escape and dies with a gasp and screaming.

Reviews

  • Cinema : "Two years after the legendary ' Dracula ' with Christopher Lee , the British Terence Fisher added this atmospheric and stylish vampire film for the Hammer production."
  • Alan Frank of the Horror Film Handbook says that the film is "full of Gothic ideas, a splendid atmosphere and remarkably open for its time ."

DVD release

  • Dracula and his brides , Koch Media August 24, 2007

Others

  • Alternative working titles for the film were "Dracula 2" and "Disciple of Dracula" ("Dracula's pupil").
  • Despite the title, Dracula himself does not appear in this film, but is mentioned twice by name, once in the prologue and once more by van Helsing.
  • In the original draft of the script, the Baron's brides were supposed to be killed by a flock of bats. However, this was rejected by lead actor Peter Cushing , as he said this ending was too "magical" for the character of Professor van Helsing. The idea was realized three years later in Hammer's third vampire film, The Vampire's Kiss .
  • Much of the interior was filmed at Bray Studios in London. The field shoots took place in the Black Park and Oakley Court area .
  • A scene from this film (Carla emerges from her coffin as a vampire and harasses Marianne) was seen in Matrix Reloaded , on a television in the back room of a Merovingian club .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c cf. Ronald M. Hahn and Volker Jansen: Lexicon of the horror film. Bastei, Bergisch Gladbach 1989, ISBN 3-404-13175-4 .