Dracula AD 1972 (1972)
Directed by Alan Gibson
Written by Don Houghton

Neither as chilling nor as hilarious as you'd want it to be, Dracula AD 1972 is nevertheless an entertaining slice of waning-era Hammer Horror, with enough dated and/or misguided dialogue and peropsterous logic to keep it rollin'. Curiously, it doesn't feel like a movie so much as like a pilot for an improbable vampire-detective show, with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing by way of "Matlock."

The story entails a goofy bunch of swingin' London pals who are into "out-there" experiences, such as having a rock band play a party in a lavish mansion, or dabbling in the occult. To wit, the Malcolm McDowell-lite Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame) organizes a cemetery ritual wherein they attempt to summon evil spirits, such as Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). Little do they know that Johnny Alucard is a descendent of Count Dracula! Later, Professor Van Helsing discovers this horrible secret … by painstakingly decoding the "ALUCARD" on a piece of paper, as if doing one of those word-match puzzles in Dell's Fun N' Easy Crossword Digest.

Once summoned, Dracula wreaks the usual havoc, and it is in this film where we discover that vampires are apparently vulnerable to showers. (?) No, I didn't make that up. It's just this type of moment that makes AD 1972 more fun than boring. Perhaps helped, perhaps hurt by the incessant go-go library music that eliminates any possible scare factor.

So … seriously … vampires are vulnerable to showers?

Review by Buck Bernardo