You will either find 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' extremely awesome or extremely idiotic simply because of how... inventive it is. Rather of Dracula simply being content to hunt down quivering virgins (yeah, tough luck of that happening in the 70's), the Count's ambitions actually soar a lot higher than you'd expect. Dracula wants to destroy the world. Count Dracula has had it with the world he lives in as well as his quasi-immortality. Rather than skip into the sunlight, he wants to not just take himself out, but everybody else, seeing it ultimately as a mercy... or that's what I gathered from such a bombastic scheme. And rather than using vampirism to do it, he uses something a lot closer to home- the pestilence. Holy shit. Dracula isn't just pissed in this one- he's completely certifiable.
This being the final installment of the Lee Dracula canon, it's only predictable that all involved in the production wanted to go out with a bang, and depending on how you took my above description, you will either come freely or go safely (get it?). Given the sour taste Dracula AD left in my mouth, I was only too happy to forget that film's crap by going into this one with some shred of optimism. Despite being a direct sequel to AD, it mercifully has little to do with the previous film, despite being set in the same time period and using the same central characters (Dracula, Lorrimer Van Helsing and his granddaughter Jessica). What we have here is a bizzare combination of science fiction, horror and suspense thriller, to say it's boring would be untrue. Hammer is actually going for something new here, and despite how too little, too late this final entry was, I must say it was a lot of fun to watch. I can appreciate how you may feel this movie will be an utter waste of your time just going by the premise alone, but in order to see what I see, you will have to watch it for yourself, then decide.
While it all starts simply enough, it's not long before we are sucked into Dracula's version of the Final Solution. Undertaking another identity, he works behind the scenes like a malicious Wizard of Oz, leading the Van Helsings and a policeman caught up in the thick of it, into a frantic race against time to not only put an end to a wave of Satanic cult killings, but also to prevent Dracula from embarking on his global murder/suicide. It almost plays out like a supernatural Tom Clancy/John La Carre novel, using spy-work, infiltration, detective work and a huge dose of paranoia to show that the world is bound for imminent apocalypse. To be perfectly frank, it's not as action-packed as it sounds, it's actually more about exposition and theories, but before you shrink away, Peter Cushing is the undisputed star of this movie. He carries all of it and it is his presence and his performance that keeps you interested. Yes, it sounds ridiculous and a little tedious judging from all the talking that takes place, but by God, it was quite a return to form for Lee's Dracula series that I thought it was almost brilliant. It's not a perfect film and it truly does jump the shark, but this wild new spin makes you sit up and take notice. I must say, it really was an end of an era because this was the last time Lee and Cushing appeared in their signature roles, and their curtain calls are certainly worthy. Dracula wins back the menace he had in the earlier films, and Van Helsing is truly consumed by his destiny to destroy Dracula once and for all. It's almost like Michael Meyers and Doctor Loomis from 'Halloween', only... more awesome. There, I said it.
In saying that, what you truly can't ignore is that it was as if this film was written first, plot wise, with Dracula being added as an after thought. It's to be expected at this point, so whatever gripe you may have with this movie can't be measured on that alone. However, rather than giving us another stupid regeneration sequence, he just shows up and we don't see him again until the last 20 minutes of the picture. Not necessarily a bad thing considering Hammer finally stepped out of the kiddy pool by something different, but given this was the final Dracula film Lee would appear in, and given his plan is pretty much the foundation of the movie, one would think that he would have been given more screentime. In saying that however, Lee didn't show up a whole lot in Horror of Dracula, a good move considering Dracula was meant to be an elusive creature. In SROD, he doesn't really make an appearance as Dracula himself, but rather, he assumes a false identity (though it's still evidently Lee) in order to set Lorrimer and Jessica Van Helsing off his trail. It's a bit of a confusing move, but in contrast to the tomfoolery that occurred in AD, it's an understandable move, if not a forgiven one.
I also must say that Joanna Lumely makes for a far better Jessica Van Helsing than her younger predecessor Stephanie Beachum- the character has her grandfather's determination and intelligence, plus the attributes of a liberated woman of the era. A welcome change from the female victims that littered the films previously.
Ultimately, this is a much inferior film considering the brilliance of the earlier installments, but as a matter of perspective, it made an admirable effort to clean up the dog spew that AD hurled up on our shoes. It's likely that you will laugh this movie into the ground, but if you are in a charitable mood, this may be a very, very fun and inventive film, despite how simply outrageous it all is. Is it a worthy ending? No. Is it better than what it should have been? Definitely.
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