Customer Reviews

Dracula Prince of Darkness

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was so glad when on a whim one day I noticed that old Hammer horror titles previously released by Anchor Bay Entertainment appeared to be getting a re-release. Boy, was I wrong about that! Don't be fooled. DVD-R's are no substitute for a real factory manufactured product. The pictures appear murky, bleeding and washed out even though its obviously a direct burn from a genuine Anchor Bay DVD. The sound drops in and out. I played each disc on 3 different players manufactured by 3 different companies. In all I wasted $20 dollars a piece on 3 of these pathetic knock offs. Originally when I purchased these titles there was NO mention of them being bootleg quality DVD-R's. I don't know who's ingenious idea it was to propose such a gross misuse of wasted effort. Either shame on Anchor Bay or shame on Amazon for perpetuating such poor quality knock offs at such an absurd price. They even use the original Anchor Bay DVD's cover art printed by a laser printer however most of the special features listed will not appear.

I.E. - The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires does not include the U.S. cut of the film as mentioned.

What a crime in itself either release the film correctly or don't bother at all. What a tease. What a waste of my money and time.

The movie had this been a genuine product released through Anchor Bay would've received 5 stars.

I threw my money away on:

Dracula Prince Of Darkness

Frankenstein Created Woman

The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires

Save your money until somebody with half a brain decides to do the right things with the old deleted Hammer titles. I'm still very dissatisfied with this scenario.

I know a lot of people rip this movie, but I've got a soft spot for it, as it is the first Christopher Lee Hammer Dracula movie I saw as a kid (on late-night TV). I agree that the "silent" Count deal didn't really work very well - I'm not sure why they decided to do it that way, especially in light of Lee's fine speaking voice, but I think the film is OK overall. You've got the travelers who ignore the warning not to go to the castle (with one of them emploring the others to heed the warning), the typical Hammer castle sets, the creepy manservant, Klove, and the fearless rifle-toting, vampire-killing monk. The running water/rifle shots/crack in the ice thing was a pretty clever idea to destroy the vampire & end the film without the standard "stake-through-the-heart" bit. The quality of the movie on the disc is pretty good, anamorphic widescreen, and the extra disc contains some interesting stuff, particularly some 8mm home movies shot on the set by a brother of one of the actors. It may not be the best Hammer Dracula film, but I think it's essential to any collection.

Finally received my copy of this DVD-R format copy of Dracula. It took a while to get as it is manufactured on demand (see Product Description), but it was worth the wait. Amazon kept me updated on a regular basis.
As a DVD-R, it has all the features of a regular format DVD. Yes, it is produced by Anchor Bay Entertainment. It is high-quality and the picture and extras are clear with no problems.
This was the first Christopher Lee Dracula movie I ever saw, so it has some nostalgia for me. It is a fine feature; a classy follow-up to the original 1958 Dracula (aka Horror of Dracula). Christopher Lee is menacing and charismatic. The plot is exciting and moves quickly and features some good chills.
Overall, I am pleased with my purchase. I am especially happy that I didn't spend money purchasing a DVD copy on the secondary market.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this movie again. It was great to see Christopher Lee as Dracula! Nostalgic!! The film quality was pristine. Thanks for having this film in stock.

This is one of Hammers best movies. The transfer is just okay. I prefer the region 2 version wich is anamorphic and is sold by Amazon UK.

I was unbelievably excited when I was browsing Amazon and incidentally happened upon this. I have been wanting this movie since they took it out of release but did not want to pay the exhorbitant prices being asked by private sellers and other auction sites. Apparently this has been released Mar 09 so there are going to be alot of happy people when they happen upon this at retail price :) Thanks Anchor Bay and Amazon. This was the last Hammer Dracula I needed to add to my collection.

Just a few thoughts...

Dracula: Prince Of Darkness (1966) is a pretty decent sequel in Hammer's Dracula series. Christopher Lee is back as Dracula. He has no dialogue. He hisses and acts like the "monster" that he is. When it comes to this "silent" approach to the Dracula character, I'm sitting on the fence. I like when Dracula has lots of dialogue, but I can also see the effectiveness of having him say nothing.

This movie has nothing to do with Bram Stoker's novel, in case you're wondering. It's a made-up sequel by Hammer. Take it at face value, then judge it on its own merits. The musical score by James Bernard is good and typical of other Hammer films he has scored -- a bombastic score that's very dramatic.

Overall, not a bad movie, just not my favorite in Hammer's Dracula series. My favorites are Horror Of Dracula (1958), The Brides Of Dracula (1960), and Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968).

While I'm glad to have this Hammer film in my collection--especially in a widescreen version--the print isn't up to the usual standards of the many other Hammer film DVD releases that I own (which are wonderful, without exception.) The color here is basically washed out--particularly the green. And the blacks are not truly black. It looks like the transfer was made from a faded print (although it's generally free of blemishes.) The odd thing is, the widescreen trailer for the film (on disc 2) has stronger color and deeper blacks than the print itself! Still not great, but better. Perhaps this situation is simply due to a lack of better source material.

Given this major shortcoming, the price is quite high (especially for a DVD recorded-on-demand.) Unfortunately, this is the only widescreen DVD release of the film I know of, so I've decided to keep it, but only for that reason.

HADN'T SEEN THIS IN YEARS. COULDN'T RENT IT FROM NETFLIX, SO I TOOK THE PLUNGE AND ORDERED IT. FAST DELIVERY AND A FAIR PRICE. THE DVD IS CRISP AND CLEAR AND THE SOUND IS CLEAN. DEFINITELY WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!--------THANKS------------G

Within the past year I have become quite a junkie of Hammer's horror movies. I have known of these films for years, but never really watched any of them, for one reason or another. However, after watching "Horror of Dracula" I was hooked. I have been slowly building my collection....

This leads me to "Dracula: Prince of Darkness", the third chapter in Hammer's Dracula saga. This film is very gothic in nature and really has this impressionistic/Victorian vibe going on. In other words, this film is dripping with mood. The story is about four people who end up spending the night in Dracula's castle. In contrast, Count Dracula has been dead for quite some time (reference "Horror of Dracula"). Nevertheless, Dracula still has a "servant" doing his bidding and taking care of the castle. Well it isn't long before Dracula is resurrected and releases his hate on the living.

There is a bit more to it, but other reviews have done a good job describing the film. Christopher Lee is awesome in this film, despite the fact he doesn't utter one word in the film. I read somewhere that Lee felt the dialogue written for him was ridiculous, which lead to the silent portrayal of the Count. I feel the lack of dialogue lead to a captivating performance. Yet I must advise that Dracula is only in the second half of the movie. It takes a bit before he is "brought back". This didn't bother me, it only added to the tension. The other actors/actress were very good. I felt Andrew Keir did an amazing job as "the expert in vampirism". It is pretty hard to top Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, but Keir did a fine job.

As for the DVD itself, this version of "Dracula: Prince of Darkness" is a DVD-R. This at first turned me off. I wasn't really into the idea of buying an "unofficial" version of a movie. Alternately, I found the price tags of the official DVD very distressing. Allow me to explain, this movie is "out of print". This leads to third party sellers raising the price in a ludicrous manner. So I decided to take a chance and buy the DVD-R version, which is still cheaper than the out of print copies.

This DVD-R version is really cool; it looks like an official DVD. It comes with a normal DVD case and art. The DVDs themselves look like normal DVDs, not burn ones. Some DVD-R or DVD-RWs have a purple or blue bottom; this version is the basic transparent silver (like a regular DVD). This is a two disk set. The first disk is the movie in widescreen format. The picture is pretty good, albeit dark and murky is some areas. The second disk is special features. Again this is a direct copy of Anchor Bay's version. Yet I believe the official version was a dual sided DVD, not my personal favorite. So this direct copy omits the dual sided business and makes it a two disk set.

Overall, I am very pleased I purchased this product and would by a DVD-R movie from Amazon again. If I had to complain, I would say that the picture of the film itself could be clearer in some areas. Yet this is a minor complaint. I am glad I was able to get my hands on this movie and add it to my Dracula collection.