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Previewing on Halloween ahead of its early November re-release, this restored version of the Hammer staple is as good an excuse as any to wallow in the Gothic grandeur and lusty camp of Terence Fisher's well-nigh definitive take on Bram Stoker's original. Streamlining the text to focus on Peter Cushing's driven Van Helsing and his obsessive quest to destroy Christopher Lee's suavely sinister Count, the movie makes a virtue of its modest means - just £1,000 for each minute of finished film - to create a gore-splattered melodrama steeped in menace, eroticism and repressed sexuality. The result, a monster hit on both sides of the Atlantic, casts such a spell you'd never guess Lee only had 13 lines of dialogue, or that he couldn't see a thing from behind those bloodshot contact lenses.
