Quarter 2 Reviews- 008 Horror – Old

008 Horror – Old

One mighty piece here:  Lord Dracula by Brian Hayles, of Doctor Who fame. I really like Hayles’ Peladon stories for Doctor Who, and medieval castles full of political intrigue and magic really seem to be his comfort zone.  I’m not quite sure at what point this diverged from the historical truth about Vlad IV, given that he really had such a penchant for murdering Turks and impaling people.  In this story, the autocratic Vlad’s (Nigel Stoke) life really starts going downhill when his beloved second wife Ilonya dies in childbirth (giving birth to a stillborn, deformed child).  The grand romance has hints of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The story is told by Father Benedek (Kenneth Haig), a priest who is charged by Dracula to be his witness.  Unable to stop Dracula’s dastardly deeds but also prevented from fleeing, Benedek’s lot is indeed terrible.  Dracula’s life changes for the worse when he meets Militsa, a peasant girl condemned as a witch.  Not only does Dracula save her, he marries her and is baptised at Satan’s altar (Father Benedek, forced to watch, goes blind).  Militsa, it eventually transpires, is more than a witch; she is renewed by the cycles of the moon and is . . . a vampire!  (Like you weren’t going to guess that.)  Though aided and abetted by a few friends (Captain Ferenez, Brother Yakob, Myklos), Benedek is powerless to stop the supernatural terrors that wrack the kingdom, culminating in Dracula’s death.  Suddenly a formerly unknown brother appears and claims the throne, gaining the ire of Istvan, Dracula’s son from his first marriage.  Eventually, Benedek realizes that the brother is actually Dracula grown young again through vampirism.  He and Istvan, in a quite dramatic scene, destroy Militsa (by throwing holy water on her) and think they are staking and decapitating Dracula.  And that was just the beginning of the story, muhahahaha.  They threw everything they had at this, and it was great Gothic fun.  Originally from 1974, it also starred John Rowe, Hedli Niklaus, Don Henderson, George Woolley, Liane Aukin, and it was directed by Anthony Cornish.