In 1974, Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing investigates a satanic cult on behalf of Scotland Yard, only to discover a plot by Count Dracula to commit global genocide.
This is the eighth film in Hammer's Dracula series, and the seventh and final one to feature Christopher Lee as Dracula and the fourth one with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. This film takes place two years after the events of the previous one. A large headquarter owned by a reclusive personality has been built upon the cemetery where Dracula died in the previous film. Van Helsing is once more approached by the Secret Service after one of their officer gets hold of information regarding elite personalities performing satanic rituals in a mansion located on the outskirts.—Fella_shibby@yahoo.com
In London in the 1970s, Scotland Yard police investigators think they have uncovered a case of vampirism. They call in an expert vampire researcher named Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing (a descendant of the great vampire-hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing) to help them put a stop to these hideous crimes. It becomes apparent that the culprit is Count Dracula, disguised as a reclusive property developer, but secretly plotting to unleash a fatal virus upon the world.—Jonathon Dabell <J.D.@pixie.ntu.ac.uk>
On the outskirts of London, a satanic rite is being performed using Mia Martin to summon back Dracula. They have been infiltrated by a member of MI6 who escapes to warn the government of a plot. Special Branch contacts Van Helsing who recognizes his friend as one of the conspirators. Confronting him, he discovers Dracula's plan to unleash bubonic plague upon the world. But Dracula has a trap for a more personal revenge against Van Helsing waiting.—sign
It's 1974 - two years after the events in Dracula 1972. Strange things are happening - some girls are disappearing from the street and some of them are secretaries to important people. The Police and the Secret Service become interested when rich people (including a Lord) are pouring their empires into a foundation in which the boss hasn't been seen and a photograph of him doesn't produce a figure. The Inspector from D72 comes to see Van Helsing and Jessica and their investigations lead them to believe that the boss is Dracula...—Lee Horton <Leeh@tcp.co.uk>
NOTE: Sequel to "Dracula A.D. 1972" (1972)
An undercover agent named Hanson (Maurice O'Connell) barely escapes from the Pellham House of Psychic Examination after being tortured. He loosens his bonds and strangles a guard, but trips an alarm when he leaves the building. Armed motorcyclists give chase, but Hanson manages to stagger to the main gate where men in a waiting car retrieve him. At headquarters he tells his handlers of witnessing a satanic ritual in which a naked girl was sacrificed on an altar while five of the biggest businessmen involved in government secrets attended as supplicants. He identifies four of them before he dies -- General Freebourne (Lockwood West), Lord Carradine (Patrick Barr), Dr John Porter (RIchard Mathews) and Professor Julian Keeley (Freddie Jones). His hidden camera has caught them at the facility, though the fifth picture has nobody in it. Figuring black magic is involved, Inspector Murray [Michael Coles] consults occult expert Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing [Peter Cushing]. The professor discovers that Keeley, an old friend and Nobel Prize winner for humanity in science, has turned to satanic worship and has been working on a radioactively accelerated strain of bubonic plague which spreads by touch and kills rapidly. Unfortunately, Van Helsing's visit with Keeley is interrupted by an assailant who shoots and wounds Van Helsing and hangs Keeley.
Inspector Murray, Van Helsing's granddaugter Jessica [Joanna Lumley], and Peter Torrence [William Franklyn] go to Pellham House where they discover a cache of female vampires in the basement. Dr Van Helsing puts two and two together. The Keeley Foundation is funded by the Denham Corporation, run by one D.D. Denham who is never seen publicly and who controls his empire from a building recently erected at St. Bartolph's church, the very spot where Van Helsing killed Dracula two years ago (as in the previous film). If that isn't enough, it is also the day before November 23rd, the Sabbat of the Undead, the night the undead cause unspeakable horrors on earth. Something has to be done. Van Helsing fashions a silver bullet from a cross, goes to the chairman's suite at the office building and confronts D.D. Denham [Christopher Lee], who he confirms is Dracula, but henchmen capture Van Helsing and he misfires the silver bullet.
Meanwhile, Dracula has ordered the capture of Jessica and Murray. His plan is to make Jessica his consort and then to wipe humans off the earth with his new strain of plague. He hypnotizes one of the four executives into infecting himself with the plague and watches, smiling in triumph, as the man suffers excruciatingly horrible symptoms in rapid succession.
As Dracula performs a ceremony over Jessica's body, in another upstairs room Murray is fighting with a guard. The guard is electrocuted, starting a fire and, in the melee, Murray saves Jessica while Dracula and Van Helsing escape the flames through a window. Dracula follows Van Helsing into the woods and the vampire expert lures Dracula to a hawthorn bush, where he becomes trapped, and Van Helsing stakes him with a fencepost. As Dracula turns to dust, Pelham House burns, and along with it burns the bacillus.
