During this holiday period, I was fortunate enough to come across some decent horror flicks. Alright, so it still retains a certain amount of cheesiness but at least it's not as bad as The Bloody Pit of Horror. So that leads me to the review of The Satanic Rites of Dracula, a Hammer Horror production starring Christopher Lee (Hello Saruman!) and Peter Cushing.

Where plot is concerned, this is a strange one. Dracula is back and he is in hiding. He now works, from the shadows, in a corporate entrepreneur sort of way, letting his numerous vest-wearing minions do his bidding. As for the story itself, it contains a weird mix of Bond-style espionage and X-Files worthy cult involvement. Basically, you have the British Secret Service checking up on some dodgy activities by … wait for it … occult members indulging in human sacrifice. To be fair, they discover that senior members of parliament are wearing robes and attending these meetings so they have good reason for running these surveillance activities.

Anyway, it so happens that their mole, the unfortunate bloke who was pretending to be one of the cult members only to be beaten up and tied down to a bed, escapes from captivity and brings vital information. And then dies unceremoniously. So it's all up to the remaining investigators where they must save the world from the chicken-throat-slitting cult. Well, they do bring in extra help in the form of Professor Lorrimar Van Helsing and his rather useless granddaughter. I don't know how she fits into the plot but the woman kept barging in where she was not needed, be it tea time or the vampire staking hour.

Now, together with the dashing Helsing (who admittedly cuts a strange figure with pipe in one hand, plate of biscuits in the other), they unveil the truly horrid plot put together by the cult folk. Turns out, they conjured up a biological weapon, a superbug of sorts, that would wipe out all of humanity. A stupid death wish by good old Dracula? Yea, that's what these guys think too. Go figure. Question is, do they save the day? When do they meet the famous fang boy? And can they stake him for good this time?

There were a few funny moments in this flick. Firstly, why did all the bad guys wear a woolly vest? Was it the closest thing to a uniform they could find? Not that it made them stand out in the eyes of the good guys; you'd think they would be easy to spot when they are shadowing someone.

Secondly there is good old Van Helsing. True, with his amazing library of unique books, his political connections and metallurgy skills, he had way more dignity than the modern trigger-happy one. Did I mention that he also had a mysterious gift for dodging bullets? I was rooting for him until Dracula made his entrance. What can I say, next to enigmatic Dracula, no one else stood a chance. Okay, so Van Helsing was becoming less of a suave hero when he bitch-slapped his hysterical friend. And then, he took out this teeny tiny pistol which was his means of killing the evil vampire. That was -3 to the cool factor right there. Keeping this in mind, I readily forgave Dracula's epic fail moment when he got caught up in a Hawthorn bush later on. I mean, sure, he could have walked around it and avoided the whole pathetic flailing arms scenario but at least he didn't come up with silly slapping gestures.

That aside, I must say I really did enjoy this flick. The narrative style was entertaining; the scenes kept cutting back to flashbacks whenever it had a lengthy dialog going on, a tactic that certainly enhanced the storytelling method. And let's not forget, catching Christopher Lee as Dracula is always a treat. He is cunning, charming and there is not hint of sparkle. Enough said.