When Marianne asks if he is ill in his mind, the baroness does not deny it. Instead of denying what Marianne saw, or trying to avoid it, the baroness speaks freely about the man, her son. From there she can see a man standing outside in another wing of the castle. For a moment, Marianne steps onto her balcony. Greta, the baroness’ one servant, gives off suspicious, controlling vibes you get the impression that she will bully anyone who lets her. Yet somehow Marianne still appears to be in danger. Inside, it is exquisitely decorated, suggesting a great family fortune. You first see the castle in a low-angle shot, showing it perched on a mountainside. But Marianne has already accepted the baroness’ hospitality. The landlord and his wife are clearly shaken and abruptly offer Marianne the chance to stay at the inn. She speaks one word to the old couple, “Wine.” She is the Baroness Meinster, and immediately invites Marianne to share a drink, then to spend the night in her castle. The student-teacher, Marianne feels like an outsider the minute she enters.Īs thunder crashes, the tension increases with the arrival of a strange, severe-looking, aristocratic old woman dressed all in red and black. (In Horror of Dracula, Jonathan Harker notices the silence surrounding Dracula’s castle: No birds sang.)Įven at the inn, the atmosphere is tense. In Brides, you feel right away that the countryside is a dangerous place, especially after sunset.Įverywhere is mist, but it has a foul appearance to it, especially where it hangs over ponds and swamps. And you feel a sizzling tension between the vampire, Baron Meinster, and his mother, who has kept him prisoner for years. The music tended to be melodramatic, over-the-top at times. What they got was the same intensity, possibly more. They used the same director, Terence Fisher, writer Jimmy Sangster (along with two other screenwriters) and the other star of Horror, Peter Cushing, again playing Dr. You get a sense throughout this movie that Hammer did not want to change a successful formula. Brides of Dracula is the story of one disciple, Baron Meinster. Hammer’s answer was to use a misleading title and then state in a prologue that Dracula is dead, but his many disciples live on. Lee was afraid of being typecast forever as Dracula. However, Christopher Lee, so effective as the count in Horror, refused to star. After the great success of Horror of Dracula, Hammer studios wanted badly to make a sequel.
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