Christopher Lee

Britain's Hammer Studios had been making films for decades before they suddenly redefined themselves with this lurid remake of the Universal Studios horror classic. Prohibited by Universal from copying their blocky makeup (and their script, for that matter), Hammer returned to Mary Shelley's novel for inspiration, and then went in its own direction. Peter Cushing plays Dr. Frankenstein as the rational scientist turned cold-blooded criminal in his campaign to discover the secret of life, committing murder to further his ends, or to remove an inconvenient mistress.

A young party traveling to the Carpathian Mountains receives a strange warning from Father Sandor, the Abbot of Kleinberg, telling them not to proceed with their plans. Despite his advice, the Kents continue but are prematurely abandoned in a forest by their coachmen, who refuses to continue after dark. Finally, their luck is changing it seems, when another mysterious black coach appears and delivers them to an enormous, errie castle where they are offered the hospitality of Count Dracula.