Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Jackson Booth-Millard I had already seen the third film from British Hammer (Horror) Studios, Prince of Darkness, before this second film in the series of sequels, but it doesn't really matter, I was just looking forward to watching it, directed by Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Mummy). Basically it continues where Dracula left off, the count, monarch of all vampires, is dead, but his disciples live on to spread terror to victims of Transylvania. Young French schoolteacher Marianne Danielle (Yvonne Monlaur) is heading to a small village to take a teaching position, but she is abandoned by the coach driver at a village inn, locals there are giving her warnings, which she ignores. Out of the blue, Baroness Meinster (Great Expectations' Martita Hunt) invites Marianne to stay the night at her castle, she accepts, the only other person there is her servant Greta (Freda Jackson). However during the night, Marianne sees a man in a balcony, she learns it is the son of the Baroness, the Baron Meinster (David Peel), who has become insane. Later Marianne sees the Baron standing over the balcony, looking like he will jump, she goes to his room and finds he is chained, he claims his mother has imprisoned him. Convinced he is the victim, Marianne decides to help the Baron escape and steals the key to his chains, but this was a trap, he reveals himself to be a vampire, Marianne runs away from the castle in terror, and collapses in the woods. Marianne is found exhausted by Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), who has been invited to the village by a local priest Father Stepnik, she has no memory of what happened, and is not familiar with vampire terms that Van Helsing tells her, he takes her to the school she is to be employed. Van Helsing visits the young girl he has been called to see, who has died, he recognises she has been bitten by a vampire and requests she is not buried, later Greta visits the coffin and helps her to awaken from the dead as a vampire herself. Meanwhile the Baron turns his mother into a vampire also, biting her neck, Van Helsing realises "vampirism" is spreading in the village, he sees ladies becoming "undead" monsters, with the ability to turn into bats and fly away, so one by one he cures them of this terror, when he gets the opportunity to drive a stake to the heart. Following the deaths of Greta and the Baroness, Van Helsing is left to face Baron Meinster, who has abducted Marianne, a chase ensues and a fire is started at the windmill, where the Baron had been hiding, in the end the Baron is defeated when the windmill sail is positioned to form a gigantic shadow forming a crucifix which goes over the Baron, he dies, Van Helsing comforts Marianne as the mill burns down. Also starring Miles Malleson as Dr. Tobler, Henry Oscar as Herr Lang, Mona Washbourne as Frau Lang, Andree Melly as Gina and Victor Brooks as Hans. Cushing gives a good performance as the man who will thwart all vampires to stop the spread of the "disease", Peel is a dull substitute for Sir Christopher Lee, he did not reprise his role as he worried about being typecast, but he returned for the following film, and many more after, Dracula only appears in the title and is mentioned once. Disciple of Dracula was suggested as an alternative title, this would have made more sense, "brides" don't really come into the story, it has the classic Gothic elements expected, and the atmosphere is fair, I don't know if I fully agree with critics ratings, but it is a good enough horror. Worth watching, in my opinion!

Prichards12345 The Brides of Dracula, it may surprise first time viewers to know, is notable for the absence of Christopher Lee, and much speculation has ensued as to why he didn't recreate his most famous role. Lee himself always claimed he was never offered a chance to appear; but it's possible that Hammer, having focused on the Baron in their Frankenstein pictures, decided to focus on Van Helsing in its vampire ones - a perfectly logical choice as they considered Peter Cushing their star name.Whatever the reason, this is a terrific movie, with only its episodic script reducing its effectiveness. Beautifully photographed by Jack Asher in his last Hammer Horror movie; superbly directed by Terence Fisher. And of course, Peter Cushing himself on top form.David Peel makes an excellent vampire nemesis for Cushing's Helsing, and in an opening prologue is set free by Marianne Daniel (Yvonne Monlaur) - a finishing school teacher on her way to a new job. It's strongly implied that the Baroness Meinster (a wonderfully icy yet ultimately sympathetic Martita Hunt) has offered her shelter merely in order to satisfy her son's blood-lust. In a rather kinky touch once loose Peel's first victim is his own mother!Enter Van Helsing, and from here Peter Cushing's authoritative performance totally dominates the movie. We get a stylish fight between Van Helsing and Meinster, a brilliant sequence where faithful servant Greta (Freda Jackson) coaxes a new-born vampire from the grave, and the classic scene where the locks fall off a coffin as Marianne watches over it. Only the rather comical bat disrupts enjoyment, prompting laughs rather than terror.All told, this is brilliant Hammer Horror, Cushing himself is vampirised towards the end and in a gruelling sequence, burns the bite from his neck with a red hot branding iron. Startling stuff at the time and still effective today.

lulu-17985 I have to agree with those who point out that this movie was probably put out as Saturday matinée or drive-in material. As someone who was a kid in that era, I'll go out on a limb here and say that it was the "daring-do" that appealed to most kids of the era, and the good guys winning over the bad ones. You went to the movie to be entertained. The target audience of this movie wasn't going to sit there and analyze every scene and all the set decor, and the Hammer crew knew that. They knew most people weren't experts on European architecture, so their representation of castles and inns were pretty rudimentary in some ways. They went about trying to create a relatively believable world in which to tell their story, and as far as I am concerned they did a pretty good job. So, it is a good idea to remember that when looking at this movie through 21st century eyes.One thing I'd like to address is the fact that so many reviews have people criticizing the movie because the vampire, Baron Meinster, is being held captive by shackles when he should have been able to just turn into a bat and escape. However, there is some folk lore where iron can be used to repel or incapacitate a vampire, and I expect that is what is being implied here. Also, vampires being "super beings" is also really a modern idea, so I think the criticism of Van Helsing holding his own against Meinster is also unfair.I believe that the story here is pretty straightforward. You have the decent young lady traveling to a school for other younger ladies to become an instructor there. Since she's traveling alone, she probably is supposed to be without any family, since that is something that would have been realistic at the time-since respectable families wouldn't let their female members travel alone because of safety concerns. Also, there's been criticism about the guy who shows up, pays the driver, and then disappears. I think we can logically deduce that this guy is on the Baroness' payroll to watch the roads, and if a vulnerable young lady(as in, alone)is spotted in a coach, then he pays the coachman to abandon the girl at the local inn. Then the Baroness shows up and offers the young lady lodging for the night. Hey, the local aristocracy shows up and offers you a stay in their elegant castle. How many people would turn that down? Of course, the young lady, Marianne, never realizes that the Baroness intended for her to be her vampire son's next meal. Instead, Marianne is enticed through her own curiosity to see just exactly what the weird deal is with the son, and then is tricked by him into helping him escape. She soon learns what a big mistake that is, and then all heck breaks loose until the hero, Van Helsing, shows up and saves the heroine, vanquishes they enemy, and makes everything okay.I'm not going to give a play by play of the movie, as there are plenty reviews here that do that. I do think that David Peel made a convincing and very menacing villain. Once Marianne was duped into helping him escape, it didn't take long to see that the fear in his mother's eyes was totally justified. That was one cold-hearted dude.I enjoyed the action scenes in this movie. I thought that Cushing and Peel were very convincing as antagonists determined to destroy one another.The ending is another thing that gets criticized. According to an interview I read by the director, Terence Fisher, the idea was that the "truth" of the cross was just as effective as a physical crucifix. This of course, is based on the Christian doctrine that, as a result of Christ's supernatural sacrifice by dying by crucifixion, all things on earth are subject to his spiritual authority-especially evil spirits or beings controlled by evil spirits. So, when Van Helsing twisted the windmill sails to resemble a cross, Meinster died from divine retribution, since Van Helsing was basically calling upon Christ to deliver them by invoking the symbolism of the cross. The character did the same thing in The Horror of Dracula, by using two candlesticks in the shape of a cross-though in that case it just slowed Dracula down. There is a later Dracula movie where someone also uses objects to form a cross, but I can't recall which one at the moment.This is a good movie, and one I think can be enjoyable if you just let yourself enter into world they create and let them tell you a story, with no other expectations. Yes, it's a product of it's time, but I think even now it still can entertain on the level that it was created to entertain on.

Rainey Dawn This movie starts out really good... enter Van Helsing and it stays a good movie for awhile then somewhat goes down hill. The ending was OK - I liked the idea of the windmill - in fact that is very creepy! To me the movie hits a lull around 50 min to an hour into the film but does pick back up in the end.David Peel was pretty good as Baron Meinster but just not very convincing as a vampire IMO. Martita Hunt is ideal for the role of Baroness Meinster - she is quite good in this movie. Yvonne Monlaur was very pleasing to watch as Marianne. And Peter Cushing is, once again, smashing as Doctor Van Helsing.Just some random thoughts on the title of the film because the title is a bit disappointing - yes The Brides of Dracula does fit it to a degree because as they basically said in the beginning narration that Dracula is dead but his brood is still around but maybe a title like "Meinster Manor", "Castle Meinster" or even "The Baron" would have fit the film better. But I guess they needed "Dracula" in the title to help tie in Dr. Van Helsing's part. Hummm... why does a film that surrounds Dracula have to have his name in the title? Personally I would have liked to see this title reserved for Dracula's 3 brides.Anyway, I would have rated the film higher except for the fact there was a bit of a 30 minute lull.6.5/10