Director: Roy Ward Baker
Screenplay: Anthony Hinds (billed as John Elder)
Based on: Characters created by Bram Stoker
Starring: Christopher Lee, Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Christopher Matthews, Patrick Troughton, Michael Gwynn, Michael Ripper, Wendy Hamilton, Anouska Hempel, Delia Lindsay, Bob Todd, Toke Townley
Country: UK
Running Time: 95 min
Year: 1970
BBFC Certificate: 15
By 1970, Hammer had come through its late 1950s to 1960s golden period and had upped the gore and more salacious elements to mixed effects. Meanwhile, actor Christopher Lee had portrayed the iconic role of Count Dracula, one of the characters he is best known for, a total of four times in a Hammer film.
His fifth turn as the Count in a Hammer would be 1970’s Scars of Dracula, which was released in a year when Lee would appear on the big screen as the character three times, the others being Jess Francos’s Count Dracula and Jerry Lewis’s One More Time, for which he was uncredited. Lee would play the count ten times in total, seven for Hammer.
Scars of Dracula is often maligned as being one of the less successful Hammer films, and certainly one of the lesser vampire films the studio made. But I’d wager there is plenty more to enjoy than critics give it credit for, though it’s certainly a far cry from peak quality Hammer.
Scars opens with the Count (Christopher Lee) quickly being resurrected in his castle in Transylvania by a bat which drips blood on his dusty remains, immediately causing a continuity issue as he died in a disused church near London at the end of the previous film in the series, Taste the Blood of Dracula.
The nearby village suffers the deaths of young women thanks to the Count, and villagers rise up and set fire to Dracula’s castle in revenge, though he’s safely resting in his stone solid chamber. The villagers return home to find a number of women brutally murdered in the village church.
Meanwhile, Paul Carlson (Christopher Matthews) is caught by the father of a woman he’s just bedded, who he is walking out on. The woman accuses him of taking advantage of her and Paul flees to escape any charges. He soon finds himself picked up by a driver-less coach which takes him to Castle Dracula, which is still standing, where me meets the Count and the imprisoned Tania (Anouska Hempel), and is soon trapped himself.
Paul’s brother Simon (Dennis Waterman) and fiancée Sarah (Jenny Hanley) set out in search of the missing man, and inevitably also find themselves in Transylvania where they too encounter Dracula.
The film certainly doesn’t waste any time getting going. Within the first ten minutes the Count has been resurrected, a woman has turned up dead, Castle Dracula is set alight, and a group of women are left murdered in the church by vampire bats.
But one of the issues with the film is that after this blistering start, there isn’t enough plot to stretch to a 95-minute film. Some of the scenes drag and there’s large sections where not a lot really happens in the grand scheme of things. As well as starting well, the film closes well too, and contains a number of atmospheric sequences where the tension rises.
Irrespective of one’s thoughts on the film, there’s no denying the screen presence of Christopher Lee as Dracula, one of the star’s best-known roles, alongside the likes of Lord Summerisle in the 1973 folk horror classic The Wicker Man and Scaramanga in the following year’s Roger Moore-era James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.
Lee is great again as Dracula in this one, though he once described the film as showcasing him as little more than a pantomime villain. I think that’s a tad harsh but I can see his point in some of the elements of the wider film.
Like the other Hammer Dracula films though, Lee doesn’t get much screen time – this is the most he would get as the character for the studio at almost 11 minutes, but for a 90-plus minute film, that’s not much time at all.
Christopher Matthews has great fun as Paul, with a particularly amusing sequence early on with one of his female lovers where he’s caught by her father, while Dennis Waterman and Jenny Hanley make a charming couple. Though it’s a shame Jenny Hanley was dubbed (aside from the screens) as her voice was apparently too low.
Patrick Troughton is also noteworthy as the Count’s henchman Klove, who is more than meets the initial eye, and it’s also a joy to see the likes of Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper, here as a pub landlord who plays a key role at the start of the film, and Michael Gwynn as the village priest.
The effects are a mixed back. The fire at the castle is certainly impressive, and some of the death sequences are gruesome and effective, but the vampire bats that pop up here and there look atrocious. The lightning bolt sparked fiery finale is also mixed in the quality front, some of the continuity and make-up is poor, though other elements aren’t so bad. Some of the background matte paintings look pretty good though and help to make the film feel more expensive than its budget.
James Bernard’s music is suitably loud, brash and atmospheric, and probably the highlight of the film for me. Bernard undercuts some of the tender moments between Waterman and Henley’s characters softly, is playful in the more humorous sequences and ratchets up the tension when Dracula has his fangs out.
Scars of Dracula was released on a double feature with The Horror of Frankenstein, which has been given the same 4KUHD and Blu-ray dual format treatment by StudioCanal and is released on the same day as the subject of this review. Like Scars, that entry in the Frankenstein series has its share of detractors.
In closing, I’ve always enjoyed Scars of Dracula as an entertaining, though flawed entry in the Hammer series of Dracula films. It is far from the best film Hammer made, but has some memorable moments, plenty of atmosphere, a strong score, and a cast that give it their all, headlined by Christopher Lee as the Count.
Film: 
Scars of Dracula is released on limited edition dual-format 4K UHD and Blu-ray on 24th November 2025. I watched the 4K disc. The restoration is fabulous with the picture looking astonishingly good; vivid colours popping, plenty of natural grain and detail. Check out the clarity of detail on the costumes, which showcase elements of the material that I’d never noticed before. It’s an excellent presentation. The audio also sounds great and I had no issue with it.
Extra features:
Brand new 4K restoration
Brand new artwork by Johnny Dombrowski
A 64-page perfect-bound booklet with new essays and original press kit
Two posters
On-disc extras:
Fangs Out: Dracula, Desire & Disruption: Clarisse Loughrey and Isaura Barbé-Brown in conversation
Legacy of the Vampire: an interview with Dacre Stoker
Hammer’s Bite: Chris Matthews on Scars of Dracula
Audio commentary with Christopher Lee and director Roy Ward Baker
Blood Rites: Inside Scars of Dracula
Stills gallery
Original trailer
Fangs Out: Dracula, Desire & Disruption is a really fun 31-minute look at the film with Clarisse Loughrey and Isaura Barbé-Brown. They touch on the campness of the film, how it is disconnected from the previous film in the Hammer Dracula series, the pesky bats, and how the Hammer Dracula formula was starting to show its wear with this one. The pair touch on what made Lee so good in the title role, and cover their favourite moments, as well as the bits they don’t feel work as well. It’s a really entertaining new piece.
Legacy of the Vampire is a really good 17-minute interview with Dacre Stoker, the great grand nephew of Dracula author Bram Stoker. Dacre gives a fabulous overview of Dublin-born Bram, his early life, what led to him moving to London to manage the Lyceum Theatre and how he started writing in his free time. Bram wrote most of the stories on his holidays in places like Whitby, where he wrote Dracula. There’s also a good look at the character of Dracula, particularly Christopher Lee’s performances as the Count, and some of the similarities between the book and Scars. It’s another strong extra.
The interview with Chris Matthews is a decent 11-minute reflection on the film and some of its scenes by the actor who plays Paul. There are some fun anecdotes about Dennis Waterman and the love scene Matthews did with Anouska Hempel in the film. Hempel refused to do the scene nude at the final moment and apparently said Matthews agreed. Matthews also recalls Christopher Lee, and the first time he encountered him on screen as The Mummy in the Hammer film of the same name.
The archival audio commentary with Christopher Lee and director Roy Ward Baker is a good listen with some interesting comments about the film. It’s always a pleasure to listen to Lee and Ward Baker is good value too.
Blood Rites: Inside Scars of Dracula is carried over from the previous StudioCanal release of the film and runs for 18-minutes and includes writers and experts like Kevin Lyons, James Rigby, and John J Johnston as well as actor Jenny Hanley who give a great overview of the film, its successful and less successful moments.
The stills gallery contains just under 20 images, mostly stills, though a glorious poster is included.
The trailer runs for just over two minutes and contains a suitable striking voiceover.
So, StudioCanal have provided a strong package for a lesser Hammer film. The new extras featuring Clarisse Loughrey, Isaura Barbé-Brown and Dacre Brown are particularly highlights, while the archival extras are also strong, particularly the old commentary with Lee and Ward Baker, and the overview Blood Rites. Best of all though, is the outstanding restoration which breathes new life into the film, which has never looked so good. With Hammer and, now StudioCanal, mining the archives to release a growing number of Hammer films in 4K, it’s a great time to be a fan of the studio.
Disc/Package:
Leave a Reply