Dracula: Rise of The Vampire (2025) – Dean Meadows.

'Devon knows how they make it so screamy!'

Following a grisly massacre in a local church by vampire worshipping occultists, Dracula rises from the grave, and his bloody reign is thwarted by stalwart local plod, and a maverick, not altogether convincing, demon-savvy ex-plod, with questionable Kung Fu skills. This low-budget, high camp attempt to resurrect the full-blooded formula of vintage Hammer Films Gothic proved more credible in intent, than execution. The late, eternally great Sir Christopher Lee is on record stating his dissatisfaction over his dialogue, bemoaning the crude digressions from Stoker's original text, and Meadow's very own silver-foxed Dracula would have benefited greatly from Lee's minimalist ideal, as the preponderance of inane chat prevents Meadows batty indie horror flick from ever truly taking flight.

Dracula: Rise of The Vampire might be argued as being the indirect, not quite diabolic decedent of Dracula A.D 70, mirroring Hammer's enjoyably camp exploration of suburban, pointedly British, Baphomet-inflected, bloodsucking buffoonery! While the cast, text, and action scenes are not especially refined, Eileen Daily's gorgeously unfiltered performance as the vulpine, ruthlessly scenery-chewing Countess Bathory is exquisitely silly, and, perhaps, just might provide Dracula: Rise of The Vampire with a growing campy/vampy following, should the film ever be rediscovered by similarly tweaked schlock-seekers such as I! Steeped in daytime soap satanism, this singular admixture of D.I.Y DTV chop-schlocky, ersatz Dennis Wheatley Devilmongery, and Emmerdale Farm proved horribly irresistible!