Movie Review #3

Dracula has Risen from the Grave:

SHOCK VALUE: 0 of 33
QUEASINESS: 5 of 33
SUSPENSE: 5 of 34
TOTAL SCARE: 10 of 100

This is a very old (1960's) movie with a “young” Christopher Lee staring as Dracula. While this movie was very pathetic (it was more like a soap opera focusing around the random characters that live in the little town) I did get the chance to see some clips of the second movie in this trilogy (“Risen” was actually the 3rd in the series). The second movie looked much scarier – with more gore and special effects.

This installment in the series just seemed to lack any budget (not to mention good writing, and scary parts). The opening scene had me laughing and I actually fast-forwarded through much of the movie to try and see the better parts...there weren't many. Too much time was taken to show the main character (a guy that continually repeated how good looking he was), his girlfriend (the minister's daughter), the bartender (jealous of the girlfriend) and another minister (who seemed to come under Dracula's spell in the beginning of the movie and then snapped out of it sometime later).

At one point the daughter was walking along the rooftops of the houses – to escape from her bedroom and secretly visit her boyfriend who turned out to be drunk and making out with the bartender. There was too much melow-drama and not enough about Dracula. Also there seemed to be very few deaths – I guess Dracula didn't come back to kill people, just to take back his castle which had been sealed off from him using a cross (he really hated crosses in this movie). Once the cross came off it fell down the mountain and landed in the dirt sticking upright – a little later Dracula was thrown onto the cross which impaled him and he died a sort-of slow death. I don't know if there was a fourth movie in this series...but I hope not.