Brides of Dracula (DVD)
 

Tagline: In the privacy of a girls’ school he sought his prey… turning innocent beauty into a thing of unspeakable horror! [details]

Good review! They certainly don't make films quite like this anymore. I agree with much of what you said. Perhaps Christopher Lee would've been better in Peel's role, but I don't think Lee wanted to do another Dracula film at that time as he didn't want to be typecast.. though several years later he went on to make some more Dracula films anyway. (Interesting that Brides of Dracula doesn't actually seem to feature Dracula himself).

I think Lee's hiatus was good for him and Hammer. Brides of Dracula allows Cushing to flush out Van Helsing without being upstaged, which led to him growing immensely as an actor. Another reason I love it is that in Satanic Rites of Dracula, Lorimar Van Helsing's granddaughter has red hair, implying that Van Helsing found love in this movie. There's something about that that's just really cool.

Hmm, well I never thought about it like that!

The Satanic Rites of Dracula is really underrated, IMO. Despite the 'modern' day setting it works well.

I quite agree. Satanic Rites is an intriguing cross between a Hammer film and a true midnight movie.