What Hammer movies are bad and should never have been made because that particular team did something shady to Christopher Lee?
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Scars of Dracula
Satanic Rites of Dracula
and arguably also Dracula AD 1972, although I tolerate it because it makes me laugh so much.
But in comparison to Hammer's Frankenstein run, which was actually rather strong, I have very few positives for their Dracula series past a certain point. I think Lee's accusations of them wasting Stoker's character are bang on the money. They do nothing interesting with a very interesting character.
EDIT: If you listen to Lee's interviews, he's very appreciative of Dracula boosting his work, he just simply had no desire to be defined solely by the role. He was being typecast in the UK, and so he switched to the American market.
EDIT 2: He was also clearly interested enough in Dracula to appear in Jesus Franco's adaptation of the novel
while still doing the Hammer films.
Well there I disagree.
I think the Frankenstein series is far more ropey, bland, unoriginal and first movie aside far less important or noteworthy in the history of the genre than the Dracula one.
The Curse of Frankenstein is a classic and completely reinvented the genre. Revenge meanwhile is a good film, but doesn't really do anything new, and is certainly no better than Dracula Has Risen From The Grave or Dracula Prince.
Evil of Frankenstein meanwhile is a dull, boring remake of the Universal films that makes no real sense. On the one hand it completely reboots the series, on the other it is still a sequel to the original. It looks like Paul Cornell wrote it. Frankenstein Created Women, despite its naff title is absolutely fantastic and one of the best Hammer films. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed sadly is schlocky and nasty for the sake of it, like the infamous rape scene. Same goes for Monster From Hell, whilst Horror is a dull remake that brings nothing new to the table. Ralph Bates performance as Lord Courtley is soooo much better than his Frankenstein.
The Dracula series meanwhile are all not only of a high quality in terms of their production values, atmosphere and direction, whether that's Terrance Fisher or Freddie Francis or even Roy Ward Baker who all bring their own touch to it, but they all try and do something new with the formula of Dracula and vampire fiction and all either inspired or at least were decades ahead of their time in that respect.
To me there is a bit of Lost in Space syndrome here, of yeah back in the day the Dracula's may have seemed more unusual than the Frankenstein movies, but several decades on they've been vindicated as a lot of the things they did that were trashed at the time are now staples of modern vampire fiction. (Sadly however like Lost in Space this isn't commented on, because the fandom is still dominated by contemporary fans who haven't seen the later examples and still trash the originals with a 60s mindset.)
Brides of Dracula, focuses on the vampire hunter rather than the vampire, and can be seen as a precursor to the likes of Captain Kronos, Supernatural, and Blade that way. All stories about someone travelling from town to town to hunt and kill the vampires and the supernatural who operate in secret, who the vampires know and despise and who others in the know view as a hero, who is just an ordinary man, but overcomes these supernatural terrors through his wits, cunning and knowledge.
The Van Helsing of the book was not portrayed that way at all. He was just an eccentric Doctor who knew about vampires after reading about them, but his main job was as a Doctor and had never encountered them before Dracula. He was the same in the Universal movies. The first Hammer Dracula meanwhile imagined him as the ultimate vampire killer, but Brides takes it one step further by not having the Count at all. It shows that actually Van Helsing/Vampire killer can carry a story without the famous count, that the vampire can be played by an unknown as the audience will come to see the vampire killer which again is far more of a breakthrough than any Frankenstein sequel. That model will arguably take over the vampire genre around the world for the next 5 decades, from Mr Vampire, to Blade, to Buffy, to Supernatural etc. Not saying they were all inspired by this film LOL, but it was a precursor to them nonetheless.
Dracula Prince meanwhile brings in the resurrection idea with the blood ritual which is stunning and has entered into popular culture again more than anything in the Frankenstein movies, as it's generally seen as the classic method to bring back a vampire. (Buffy even paid homage to this with the Masters resurrection in the season 2 opener, as did Being Human with Herrick's resurrection in the season 2 finale.) Also Barbara Shelley's performance is probably the most memorable of any of Dracula's brides who are normally portrayed as bit parts. Here she gets to show a real transformation from uptight victorian prude, to sexually liberated, savage vampire babe, which again was influential on future portrayals. Look at how Amanda Bearse plays Amy in Fright Night? That performance was based on Barbara Shelley to the point where they gave her the same red hair as a vampire. Also the dance scene in Fright Night draws from that in terms of having her go from the shy prude to the confident babe.
Dracula Has Risen From the Grave meanwhile adds in a great twist by having an atheist fight against a supernatural creature rather than the usual man of god. Again this is something you see in later vampire stories like in Supernatural where Dean similarly despite facing the paranormal struggles to believe in god because of all the monsters.
Taste the Blood of Dracula meanwhile is also quite morally grey as it shows the humans as being more twisted and brutal than the vampire, and it does so without making Dracula sympathetic. More than any other Dracula movie it explores the prejudices and prudish nature and hypocrisy of Victorian times and shows how Dracula, despite still being evil can thrive and prey on good people by temporarily giving them the strength to overcome that.
Scars I'll give you is certainly the tackiest in terms of its production values, but it is also the most terrifying. Dracula has never felt more dangerous and the intro where we see him kill the villagers wives and children for trying to stand against him is in my opinion the best bit of horror from any Hammer movie.
Dracula AD, I'll give you that this one is cheesy as hell, and hammy and over the top. Still not only is it enjoyable, but again it's actually quite groundbreaking in a lot of ways. It's the first time we have the idea of a Van Helsing family that fights Dracula throughout the ages, which again has become a staple of the character of Van Helsing and the basis for later versions from Marvel comics to the recent Sy Fy Van Helsing tv series. (You could argue that it is also the precursor to the lineage of vampire hunters throughout the ages too.)
Meanwhile the idea of Dracula and vampires operating in the modern day, in a world that doesn't believe they exist is a really interesting one, and Johnny Alucard, though ridiculously OTT is also an interesting character. He's not just the usual YES MASTER servant. He's someone with his own ends, a vampire wannabe who yearns to have the power of immortality. Then there is Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing's final fight in the abandoned church which is a spectacular conclusion. It shows both the power of Dracula the way Van Helsing can't take him on for even two seconds in a straight fight and the cunning of Van Helsing.
Satanic Rites meanwhile is a brilliant film that completely reinvents the genre about ten years too early. This truly is the Lost in Space of the series, it gets trashed for doing things that other vampire stories would get praised for. Hmmm lets see, a vampire or supernatural creature that is the head of a big company, uses its wealth and influence and human servants to cover up its gruesome killings? Nope never seen that in Buffy, Angel, Being Human, Blade with the Mayor, Wolfram and Hart, Russell Winters, Herrick being in the police force, the vampire nation. D.D. Denham is a precursor to all of those. Vampire or supernatural creature using the technology of the modern world to inflict greater damage? Again nope, never seen that in Supernatural with the Crocotta using the telephone to lure its victims away or Blade and its vampires with guns who perform experiments to remove their weaknesses. A vampire trying to bring about an ancient prophecy of apocalypse? LOL that's the plot for all of these other series! The Satanic Rites of Dracula is like a wonderful mix of Hammer Horror, Buffy and the Third Doctor, and on top of that it also gives Lee and Cushing more time together and a chance to really play off of each other in their respective roles like never before.
Finally Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires whilst a bit of a mess in terms of its plot, nevertheless has a lot of strong qualities. The mixing of vampires and martial arts is a match made in heaven. Vampires are the perfect martial arts bad guys as they can take a shit ton of abuse and never use guns and can be killed in huge numbers without the hero feeling any remorse. Their supernatural powers allow the fights to be more over the top and creative too.
Vampire martial arts movies and tv shows not long after this film would EXPLODE in popularity across the world. In Hong Kong there were hundreds of kung fu vampire films, like the Mr Vampire series, whilst in America? Buffy, Blade etc all famous for Kung Fu vampires. (In a classic example of these later movies getting the Lost in Space treatment, Mark Gatiss a contemporary fan of the Hammer movies who has obviously not seen a lot of the modern films and series or any of the Chinese horror movies, sneered at Legend for being so ridiculous as to have kung fu vampires.)
Also Golden Vampires mixed Eastern myths about the Jiang Shi and western myths about vampires together. You see the Jiang Shi were undead corpses that fed on people's life forces. The originated independently from myths about vampires in the west, but were a similar basic idea, though they were different in a number of ways. Jiang Shi were as single minded as animals, had rotten skin and were repulsive and moved by hopping up and down on both feet.
Golden Vampires for the first time, merged aspects of both the Jiang Shi and western vampires together to create a new creature that was more terrifying than both. The Golden Vampires on the one hand have hideous, rotten faces like the Jiang Shi and are savage and never speak. They also can steal people's souls, turning them into Zombie husks who move by hopping up and down, and they have other Jiang Shi weaknesses like being repelled by the Buddha. However like western vampires they have fangs, turn into bats, are killed by wooden stakes, drink blood and have a modicum of intelligence, which again is more terrifying as at first you think they're just animals, but then you see them do things like wield swords, lay traps and delight in torturing their enemies, rather than just feeding.
The Mr Vampire movies of the east would do exactly the same thing ten years later, and mix western and eastern myths to create the hopping vampires who had characterstics of both and became the most iconic monsters in Hong Kong and China, and hugely popular over here too. One of the Mr Vampire movies, Vampire vs Vampire was a loose sequel to the Golden Vampires, featuring Dracula being brought back (through the classic hammer method of blood on his remains) and going on a rampage in the Chinese countryside.
Overall love them or hate them, the Hammer Dracula movies set down, or at least were the first to do so many of the classic vampire tropes that would define the genre, and honestly as much as I love him, Christopher Lee I think was just too short sighted to say that. I will say though he was a brilliant professional as his performances as Dracula, even in Satanic Rites that he despised were still always top notch.
Still he was definitely too hard on the writers and I think their revenge via Jon Pertwee's hilarious impression was well deserved. (Pertwee was friends with Lee, as the two hunted Nazi war criminals together, and Lee said he loved the film, though Jon wasn't sure if Lee knew it was a send up of him I think he probably did.)
