Whether this Hammer studios production was meant to bring in the teenage "youth" market that the commercial film world had only just realised existed, or whether it was created to completely insult the then "hippie" youth is difficult to tell. In the opening sequence of the 20th century (the film opens with Van Helsing's defeat of Dracula in 1872), we are introduced to a group of young males and females, as they have seemingly crashed a party in a large house. The original guests, aristocratically establishment in their appearance, stand around the edges of the room in horror. A hippie rock band plays, but the gate crashers are there because of the band? Wrong; the band was already there (?). Really? Why on earth would a group of establishment folk, a generation naturally reviled by youth culture, hire a "funky" youth music group to play at their soiree? It's just a bit confusing.
The film pretty much continues with this strange depiction of the young, as a group lead by Johhny Alucard (for those intelligent eyes will notice that his surname is an anagram of Dracula - so ridiculous), who proposes a plan to celebrate a black mass, and in the process resurrect the infamous Count. Coincidentally, one of Johnny's friends in the group is Jessica (Stephanie Beacham), who is granddaughter to Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), who is conveniently studying the occult, which has been studied in his family for generations. With the newly resurrected Dracula (Christopher Lee) searching for both the Van Helsing's, the film is overwhelmingly predictable.
If this was an attempt to pull in the teen market, it must have failed miserably. Not only does it insult any ones intelligence, it also throws all the hippie cliches at you in some of the worst dialogue ever. "Groovy", "Happening", "Far out", and "Man" are excessively used, and it's as if someone from the outside of the counter-culture had simply got his information from an anti-youth public service film. Of course these out of control young, with their ideas, are going to all eventually get involved in black magic and witchcraft. It was clearly expected in 1972. Hammer, for shame.
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