YMMV / Dracula A.D. 1972

• Awesome Music: The main theme by Michael Vickers is a cool set of disco music played over the opening credits to really emphasise the film's early-Seventies setting.
• Complete Monster: Dracula. See that page for details.
• Just Here for Godzilla: As always, Peter Cushing gives his all as Van Helsing.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • A young Michael Kitchen is Greg.
  • Laura is played by Caroline Munro, who is better known for playing Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me which came out five years later.
  • Jessica is played by a pre-Tenko Stephanie Beacham.
  • For Star Wars fans, the future Grand Moff Tarkin and Count Dooku are joined by the future Inquisitor Jerec, playing Johnny Alucard.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Dracula barely appears in the film, with most of the plot being driven by his minion, Johnny.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The idea of Dracula being resurrected in the (then) present was a novel idea for the Hammer series which had previously been set in the nineteenth century. Not only did it represent an innovative update on the original novel (in which the Count wants to go to London purely because it's a modern city and he wants to take advantage of that), it was also a timely response to media sensationalism about vampires in London. Unfortunately, this movie does absolutely nothing with this concept; once resurrected, Dracula doesn't leave the disused church for the rest of the movie, making the time skip seem pointless. This concept was utilized better in the expy Count Yorga which came out a couple of years beforehand.
• Unintentional Period Piece: As if the title alone didn't firmly place the film in The '70s, we've got hippies who hang out in a groovy coffee bar, flared trousers, polyester ties, a Triumph Stag, a fully-operational Battersea Power Station in a couple of background shots, most of the guys sporting sideburns and funk music galore.

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