Dracula A.D. 1972

Plot synopsis:
NOTE: Sequel to "Scars of Dracula" (1970).Hyde Park, London, 1872: A coach is seen on a road in the woods of Hyde Park. It is the 'final' confrontation of Professor Lawrence Van Helsing [Peter Cushing] and his arch enemy, the demon vampire Dracula [Christopher Lee], struggling on top while the frightened horses pull the driverless vehicle at high speed. The band around a leather strap securing the horses gives out, causing them to separate from the vehicle, and as Dracula hurls Van Helsing from the coach it crashes into a tree. A stranger (Christopher Neame) on horseback some distance away is catching up to the coach. An injured Van Helsing struggles to his feet. Dracula has been impaled on the exposed spoke of a wheel, but when their eyes meet he still lunges forward to continue the fight. Van Helsing pins Dracula to the ground until the makeshift stake destroys him and he turns to dust. Having completed his task, Van Helsing dies as the stranger arrives, approaches the pile of dust and gathers some in a vial, placing Draculas ring on his own finger. At the funeral for Van Helsing in the graveyard of St. Bartolph's Church, he digs a hole near the gravesite into which he pours some of the dust and uses the wheel spoke to seal it in.The time shifts to early on a Friday night in September 1972, a century later. Teenagers have crashed a party. Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beacham) dances with her boyfriend Bob Tarrant (Philip Miller), while their friends Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame), Laura Bellows (Caroline Munro), Joe Mitchum (William Ellis), Greg Puller (Michael Kitchen), Anna Bryant (Janet Key) and Gaynor Keating (Marsha Hunt) also enjoy the music of the band (Stoneground) they came to hear. Another teen is painting a group scene on a mirror, and two others make out beneath the buffet table as the homeowners, Charles (Michael Daly)--who is the honoree--and their staid guests look on. Charles tells his mother (Lally Bowers) that he invited only the band to his party and does not know anybody else there. Joe is mildly rude to her, she urges Charles to take action, and he calls the police. The group make bets as to how long it will take the police to arrive, planning to be gone one minute before then. Johnnythe descendent of the stranger from the pastguesses eight minutes because of heavy traffic, but Joe is sure they will arrive in four minutes. The sirens come at four and a half minutes, and the teens file out. Johnny picks up a prized figurine and teases the mother by passing it hand to hand before breaking it and making his exit. The teens under the table are the only ones discovered by the cops.The group gathers at the Cavern coffee bar, where Johnny suggests they try a black mass. He has the perfect location, as St. Bartolph's Church nearby is condemned, and that evening is an insignificant date on the satanic calendar. Jessica is leery, but the others encourage her to join them. At his apartment later, Johnny looks at his inherited ring and vial with the remaining vampire dust inside. Bob uses a carwash before he drives Jessica home, assuring her that they will probably wind up partying instead of trying to raise up Beelzebub. He asks if her grandfather, as an authority on demonology, could help, but she says he is an anthropologist and dismisses the notion. He kisses her and says he will pick her up for the midnight gathering. She enters the house and finds the housekeeper Mrs. Donnelly (Constance Luttrell) is away. She goes to the home library, pulls a book about black masses and sits to read it until her grandfather Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) appears. He asks why she is casually reading a serious scientific work. She dismisses the concept of black magic. He asks if she wants to go out to dinner with him, but she wants to go with her group instead, and she candidly assures him before she leaves that she is only indulging in being with people her own age and has dabbled in beer, but is not into drugs or sex. Putting the book away, Lorrimer looks at an image of Dracula displayed on the wall.Late that evening, Bob pulls up at the fenced-in church and finds a loosened plank for them to enter the churchyard. He comes upon the grave of Lawrence Van Helsing. He thinks somebody has played a prank, but Jessica says it is indeed the grave of her great grandfather. Its inscription "Requiescat in Pace Ultima" (rest in final peace) puzzles her. She also sees that the date is exactly one hundred years to the day after his death. Joe then jumps from behind a headstone in a mask and scares Jessica. Bob is furious, but Jessica assures him she is not deterred. They enter the church to find the group decked out in shrouds Johnny has provided, and Jessica and Bob join them. Joe activates a reel tape recorder which plays a soundtrack of eerie noises and drums, while they all sit at the edges of a satanic circle on the floor and sway to the music (and to any drugs they have taken) as the aura around them takes hold. Johnny encourages them from the altar, reciting summonses to satanic entities as the tape plays out of its reel but the noises continue. Johnny mentions Dracula, and the ground around the spoke in the graveyard moves. He then calls Jessica to help him perform a baptism of blood ceremony, but she refuses. Laura excitedly volunteers. Johnny carries her to the altar and sets a chalice on her chest, pours the remaining ashes from the vial into it and slices his wrist, adding his own blood to reconstitute it. The concoction liquefies, swells and overflows the chalice. Laura screams and jumps off the altar covered in blood, but then finds she is unable to move from the circle. The others flee. Jessica wants to help Laura, but Bob pulls her to the car and they leave. Johnny proceeds to the graveyard and withdraws the spoke, a heavy mist pours out and swirls into a pillar to reshape into the revived Dracula. Johnny says he summoned Dracula, who replies it was his will as he raises his hand to show his reclaimed ring. He enters the church and bites Laura, draining her blood and claiming her as his first victim.As Bob drops Jessica at home, he rejects what they saw, saying they will all surely meet at the Cavern as usual. The group, minus Laura and Johnny, convene at the coffee bar, saying that the event could not have been real. Johnny arrives with the clothes they left behind and tells them he took Laura to the train to see her parents in Ramsgate. Gaynor says they live in Watford, but Johnny insists he is right. He uses a fake blood capsule in a water carafe to show that the ceremony was, in his words, hokum, and says Laura was in on the stunt. When the others leave, he offers Jessica a ticket to a must-see concert, but she refuses and goes away with Bob, so he invites Gaynor instead and takes her back to his place.Several young boys are playing with a ball and kick it by accident into the churchyard. They find the loose plank, enter to find the ball and come upon the mutilated body of Laura in a pile of debris. The police surgeon (Artro Morris), the detective sergeant (David Andrews) and Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) of Scotland Yard confer at the crime scene. The surgeon notes that the body was drained of blood. Jessica tells Bob she is sure Johnny is lying about where Laura went, but Bob urges her to forget it. Murray and the sergeant have identified Laura from arrest record fingerprints, and discuss the dark implications of the case. As they check her file, they see Jessica among the list of her friends. They remember that her grandfather worked with them on a blackmail case with elements of witchcraft, and decide to enlist his help again while trying to find out how Jessica might be involved. They visit Van Helsing at home and discuss vampires, the occult and supernatural phenomena when they bring up the fact that Jessica is slightly linked to the case. Outside Bob is dropping Jessica off and they see the police vehicle. Jessica tries to slip past, but Lorrimer calls her into the study to talk to the police. Though she tries to be flippant and evasive, once she learns that Laura is dead, she breaks down and admits that she and her group were at the church, details what happened, and says that the group is with Joe Mitchum. Murray tells Lorrimer she is involved but he is not sure she is implicated. Outside, he tells the sergeant to accompany him to visit Joe, where there will likely be drugs and, therefore, an opportunity to detain and talk to the others in the group. After they leave, Lorrimer finds Jessica with the phone to warn Joe about the pending police visit, and he dissuades her. He learns that Johnny Alucard, whose name was not on the police list, mysteriously insinuated himself into her group and took leadership.At his apartment, Johnny offers Gaynor a smoke and puts on a record; later they kiss and she soon falls into a stupor. He helps her into his car and drives back to the church to bring her to Dracula. In his study. Lorrimer writes the name Alucard on a piece of paper, reveals it is Dracula backwards, and concludes Johnny is a disciple. The count drains Gaynor of her blood, but he wants Johnny to bring him Jessica. Asleep in bed, Jessica tosses and frets as she has a nightmare in which she seems to witness what happens to Gaynor, and she awakens screaming. Lorrimer helps her settle back to sleep, assuring her the nightmare is over, but she replies that she doubts it. Johnny demands to be granted immortality, and Dracula reminds him that he was chosen to help destroy the Van Helsing family through Jessica. Johnny says vampirism would make it easier to find her and begs to be turned, assuring the count he will get rid of Gaynor afterward. Dracula grips Johnny by the shoulder as he turns his head for the fatal bite. Lorrimer takes out a bible, a silver knife, and a cross which he places around the neck of the sleeping Jessica. Johnny dumps the body of Gaynor out of the car to fall into the river. Later he spots a woman leaving a laundromat and he smiles, revealing fangs, and exits the vehicle.In the morning, Van Helsing goes to Sunday services at a local church and fills a vessel with holy water. Later Murray informs Van Helsing that Gaynor was found dead in Hyde Park. She was not mutilated as significantly as Laura. He also says a woman named Marjorie Baines was discovered. Lorrimer guesses correctly that her body only had two neck punctures, but Murray admits he does not know what he is dealing with. Van Helsing says Dracula had been in London before and could have returned. A phone call comes, informing Murray that the detained group members were bailed out by their parents and accompanying lawyers. Lorrimer says they might be safer in jail, but then assures Murray that he sees a pattern leading back to Johnny, and he can help crack the case, so Murray says he will officially attribute the deaths to a criminally insane killer and asks what to do next. Van Helsing recommends removing the police presence from the church so Dracula can reach his resting place, and to notify him if Johnny is located. Then he mentions possibly making use of the Cavern, but Murray says the police will be shutting the coffee bar down due to suspected drug activity.Bob goes to the Cavern and finds it closed with a police guard in front, so he sneaks in the back entrance to find Johnny, who says he has been waiting for him. Lorrimer walks to St. Bartolph's, finds the loose plank, and leaves. At the house, Mrs. Donnelly finds Bob at the door. He tells Jessica that Johnny has been arrested at the Cavern and the police want her to come join the others to add her statement. She goes with him through the back entrance of the bar to find nobody there until Johnny comes out of hiding. She sees that he is a vampire, then turns to Bob to find he is undead as well. Johnny removes her cross, burning his hand, and Bob is prepared to bite her, but Johnny says the Master wants her, and Jessica faints. When Lorrimer calls in to Mrs. Donnelly, she informs him that Jessica has gone to the Cavern. In a panic, Lorrimer runs there and finds the cross on the floor. He rushes out and nearly collides with Anna in her car. She called his home, spoke to Mrs. Donnelly and wants to help, being the only one in the group alive who has visited Johnny at his apartment. Lorrimer asks her for the address.At the apartment Johnny has a coffin in his living room and is packing a bag with candles and a folding knife when Van Helsing arrives. Johnny goads him, asking if he will give the bride, Jessica, away, and they struggle as the sun begins to rise. Van Helsing wraps the cross around the bible and tosses it into the coffin. Johnny retrieves the knife and slashes Lorrimer in the arm, but a shaft of sunlight reflected in a mirror hits him and he shrinks back, so Lorrimer uses the mirror to repel Johnny. Backing upstairs into his bathroom, Johnny accidentally releases the skylight window shade, flooding the room with sunlight. He falls into the bathtub and grabs the faucet lever, turning it on, and the running water paralyses him. Lorrimer tries to get him to talk, but as Johnny succumbs he says Lorrimer will never find Jessica. Murray and the sergeant arrive. Lorrimer says Dracula has Jessica and asks for one hour at the church as the sun sets with no police, and Murray agrees. The sergeant recommends Lorrimer visit the hospital for his bleeding arm, and Murray says they will follow other leads and visit the church later.A weak and bandaged Lorrimer returns to St. Bartolph's to find Bob has been destroyed by sunlight in the churchyard. Jessica is on the altar inside the church. She is in a trance and will not awaken until Dracula summons her. Lorrimer whispers to her and returns the cross to her neck, hiding it in her bodice, promising he will not be away for long. In the churchyard he digs an immense hole and fills it with handmade upright stakes resembling crosses, covering the trap with grasses. At dusk, Dracula appears and awakens Jessica. When she sits up, the cross appears, and the count cautiously removes it, causing his hand to smolder. Before he can bite Jessica, Van Helsing appears, urging him to remember the past encounter. Recognizing his enemy, Dracula challenges Van Helsing, pursues him upstairs and corners him, but Lorrimer produces the silver knife and stabs him in the heart. The count tumbles over the ledge to the floor below and hypnotically summons Jessica to his side for help. Though Lorrimer yells to Jessica to stop, by the time he reaches the ground floor she has removed the knife and the chase resumes. Lorrimer runs outside, stumbling at the trap, and some of the covering gives way. As Dracula reaches its edge and spots the trap, Lorrimer produces the vial of holy water and, with a quick blessing, flings the water at him, which burns the vampire like acid. Dracula loses his balance, slips on the ledge and falls, landing full body onto the stakes. He lunges back at Van Helsing but is pinned prone and helpless. Lorrimer picks up the shovel and pushes down on the vampire. The stakes impale him through the back and seal his doom as Jessica screams under his fading thrall. Lorrimer watches as the body disintegrates into dust, and Jessica rushes into his arms in time to witness the phenomenon. Lorrimer puts his coat around her shoulders, she sees Bob lying dead nearby and nearly collapses, but Van Helsing assures her gently, "Requiescat in pace ultima," as she sobs in his comforting arms and they turn for home. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Tags: good versus evil, revenge, violence

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