The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) Movie Script

Hear ye, great demons of hell.
Watch over these,
thy disciples.
Give them thy power
over frail mankind.
Thus do we dedicate ourselves to
your service and your commands.
We accept your guidance
and your mighty power.
By the nameless monsters
of the lower depths
are you called.
Each time the same...
S-Some power...
S-S-Something greater
You're sure John Porter
was there?
You are sure
it was John Porter?
And they had filthy,
obscene rites,
a sort of altar,
a young girl on it,
She lies there waiting
for the sacrifice:
a cockerel to be killed.
They call on the name
of the devil.
They seem,
seem to take strength
from their own blasphemy.
You want...
I've got photos.
Five of them...
All involved.
All right, now let's go
through it again.
Tell me more
about this ritual.
He should never have
gone in,
putting him in as one
of the guards.
They must have been
picked men.
He was bound
to be caught.
He volunteered.
Nobody volunteers
in this department.
Does he still maintain
that John Porter was there?
Yes, he seems to be certain
about that.
Porter and four others.
Five men in all.
It's going
to make life difficult
for all of us,
isn't it?
Because he's a minister
of the crown?
Because the Right Honorable
John Porter
has direct responsibility
for this department.
Perhaps he just forgot
about us.
In any case,
we have no proof,
no real proof.
A group of middle-aged men
indulging themselves
in some sort of sick orgy,
- that's what we've got.
- Maybe the proof's in there.
Even if it is, we don't know
if we can use it.
So that poor devil
is simply suffering
for absolutely nothing.
"That poor devil"
isn't suffering any longer.
He's dead.
It's a miracle he lasted
as long as he did.
Obviously he'd been
systematically beaten
- and tortured.
- Yes, thank you, Doctor.
Let me have
your written report later.
I don't suppose anyone will
be allowed to claim him,
will they?
Usual routine? False name
on the death certificate?
Let the departmental whip round
for the burial.
Would you like to hear
this played back now, sir?
- No. Not now.
- But leave it here.
Get this down
to the photo lab.
Tell them to make prints
of anything that's come out.
Anything at all.
Have the tape transcribed
later and, ah...
then put it in the red dossier
and file it in the number two
security vault under seal.
Yes, sir.
Number two vault, eh?
You really are going to close
the door on this whole issue?
I might have to.
As far as the
department's concerned,
as far as I'm concerned,
What's that supposed
to mean?
Er, I've called somebody in
to give you a hand.
Someone who doesn't have
our resources,
but does have a
certain independence,
political independence.
A man called Murray,
Inspector Murray.
Scotland Yard?
Special branch.
Don't worry, he's all right.
He knows his job.
Oh, that's comforting.
Inside this room you have my
blessing and my cooperation,
outside, you're
on your own.
And I mean that.
Put a foot wrong and the
powers-that-be will finish you.
You'll probably join Hanson.
We've been running some routine
security checks
on some listed V.I.P.'s.
We got a whisper
on the grapevine that some
of them may have been visiting
a house in Croxted Heath,
visiting it regularly.
We didn't know who they were.
This is the place.
Pelham House. Headquarters of
what has always been regarded
as a harmless organization.
"Psychical examination
and research group."
PERG for short.
So you sent an operative
in undercover.
Yes. Hanson.
He witnessed a couple of, uh,
pretty weird sessions.
Hear ye,
great demons of Hell.
Watch over these,
thy disciples.
Give them thy power
over frail mankind.
Thus do we dedicate ourselves to
your service and your commands.
Thus, with this baptism
of blood... walk
in the eternal footsteps
of the cursed
to know the inner secrets
of those
who move beyond the realms
of the unknown
and into the precincts of Hades.
Yesterday they rumbled him
and tried to make him talk.
So they're alerted now.
What is it,
an espionage network?
That must be
our assumption.
Moscow or Peking?
Well, we don't know.
Nothing ties in.
There's no single
known link.
And there's no whispers
from any informers.
From the photo lab.
They found, ah, five exposures
on the microfilm.
Bit blurry, but they've given
them special processing.
Right, thanks,
The transcriptions?
All finished, sir.
Sealed and vaulted.
Thank you.
You can't have had much rest
in the last twelve hours.
You'd better cut along home.
Thank you, sir.
Turn off the light
as you go out, will you, Jane?
No doubt about that one.
General Sir Arthur Freeborne,
Imperial General Staff.
Thus by the 6,000 terrors
of hell are you anointed.
Good Lord!
So Hanson was right.
Well, that's Porter,
isn't it?
Yes. The Right Honorable
John Porter, M.P.
Minister with special
for our security services.
Pity he didn't stick
to collecting spiders.
Thus by the nameless monsters of
the lower depths are you called.
A nod from him and
a dozen civil service pensions
go out the window,
including mine.
He could dissolve this
department in two seconds flat.
So that's why you're working
without official sanction.
He's not too difficult,
Lord Carradine. Next to the
church and the government,
one of the biggest landowners
in England.
Still owns half of London.
By the seven lords of darkness
are you damned.
Professor Julian Keeley.
Not the Nobel Prize winner?
Yes, I'm sure it is.
Expert in the fields
of bacteriology,
germ warfare,
and diseases
of the blood.
Runs the Keeley Foundation
here in London.
And seven times seven
damned again.
Thus to defy the common laws
of man and righteousness.
There were five photos, Peter.
Let's have the fifth.
Well, what's this?
He slipped up over this one.
He spoke of five men.
Well, he was punchy,
he had a hell of a beating.
It's a wonder we got anything
at all out of him.
It could only have been four.
It's enough.
I'll have the dossiers released
on Keeley and Porter
and the others.
I'll, ah,
see what can be dug up.
I've never seen
the colonel nervous.
Perhaps the colonel's
never had
quite so much
provocation before.
Ah! Oh!
The baptism of blood
it acts on them like,
like some kind of drug.
The girl dies.
The woman... puts her cloak
over her.
All of them.
The blood...
It's like pour, pour, pouring
from the wound.
This blood...
- Blood.
- Eh?
There's a man
I worked with once.
He's an academic type, but he
knows about this sort of thing.
Professor Lorrimer
Van Helsing.
He's a university lecturer
in anthropology
in Eastern European
He's a scientist.
And, what may prove
to be even more important to us:
he's an authority
on the occult.
He really knows about the black
arts, satanic rites and, ah...
- And what?
- Other things.
They have inverted crosses
marked in blood,
and as the woman goes
to the altar,
there is a strange power there,
filling the whole house.
I felt it.
A strong, weird power.
Death is no prison to those
who have given their souls
to the Prince of Darkness.
Hobgoblins and witches
and things that go bump
in the night.
Well, hobgoblins are fantasy
creatures of the nursery,
Mr. Torrence.
As for witches,
they certainly exist,
although 90 percent
of them are charlatans.
Things do go bump
in the night.
Quite often.
Well, what do you think,
Is it just
a black mass ritual?
No, not exactly.
In the Dark Ages, the worship
of natural substances
was quite common.
The soil, water, sands
of the desert, various plants,
but the strongest cults
were those
that worshipped the most
mystical substance of all:
the fountainhead
of life itself.
The glorification
of blood.
Thank you.
More often than not,
human blood.
Now what your man
Hanson witnessed
was a very ancient
ritual ceremony.
It has all the elements:
the slaughter
of the cockerel,
the inherent vileness
of evil triumphant,
the obscenities,
the marking of the supplicants,
the human sacrifice.
Now that, of course,
could be faked,
but it's the symbolism
that counts.
The worship of blood.
Well, I can understand young
kids taking a fly at it
just for kicks,
but we're talking about
sophisticated, mature adults.
It isn't unique.
The notorious Hellfire Club
of the Eighteenth Century
was comprised solely of the
elite brains of this country.
The wisest men of Asia
were firmly convinced
that human blood
was the elixir of youth.
And those who adhere
to the cult of vampirism
are usually sophisticated,
mature adults.
These are the people
who fully realize
its tremendous potential.
One of these men could be
the motivating force,
the menace... and the power.
Are these men involved
in this whole business
because they are
under some kind of threat?
- Or drugs?
- Or hypnosis.
This particular evil is more
potent and more addictive
than heroin, I assure you.
And the end result
is just as fatal.
I'd like to see
inside Pelham House.
Yes, but they're
already alerted.
Coffee, Grandfather?
What a pleasant surprise.
Thank you.
You know my granddaughter,
Yes, indeed.
It's nice to see you again,
Jessica, this is
Mr. Peter Torrence.
Excuse me.
is my right hand.
Sometimes I think
she knows more about my work
than I do myself.
There's little sense in
trying to keep secrets from her.
She has
an ingrained curiosity,
the hallmark
of a true scientist.
Do you take milk and sugar
in your coffee, Mr. Torrence?
No. Plain black.
Thank you.
I still think it could be worth
a trip out to Croxted Heath.
Pelham House.
I'd still like
to have a look inside.
Ah, Professor
Julian Keeley.
You know him?
Well, I've met him.
He's been here
once or twice.
But you know him,
You know him very well.
Is that true, sir?
Yes, I know him.
We met at Oxford.
He was reading biochemistry.
But when I saw that photograph,
I just couldn't believe it,
not Keeley.
I was going to tell you... later.
Old college chums and all that.
I thought I might see him first.
Speak to him.
Find out
if he's really involved.
Why not? Eh?
Well, it's worth a try.
The chances are that a friend
could get more out of him
than you or I.
Yes, it's worth a try.
I've finished. It's all
finished. I've finished it.
Hello, Julian.
It's Lorrimer.
Oh, Lorrimer.
Lorrimer Van Helsing.
You told me any time
I was passing...
Van Helsing.
It's not terribly
convenient just now.
What I mean is...
I happened to be
in the neighborhood
- and just thought I'd pop in.
- Very busy, I...
On what?
What are you working
on these days?
I must say you have some
splendid equipment here.
I'm sorry
if I startled you.
I was concentrating.
Leave that, will you?
What's wrong, Julian?
Nothing, uh...
just a bit tense,
you know:
sleepless nights,
mental fatigue.
I have been ill.
A sort of temporary breakdown,
but I'll be over it soon.
My dear chap,
I'm so sorry.
The... project.
I had a deadline,
you see.
It had to be completed
by the 23rd
of this month.
Always fighting
the clock.
But I did
what they wanted me to.
And I've still time
to spare.
All the answers...
just came
quite suddenly.
It happens like
that occasionally, doesn't it?
There is still time before
the 23rd, isn't there?
Evil rules, you know.
It really does.
Evil and violence
are the only two measures
that hold any power.
Look at the world.
It is a preordained pattern.
Violence. Greed.
Intolerance. Sloth.
The Deadly Sins.
Or "The Deadly Virtues."
The supreme being
is the devil, Lorrimer.
Serve him and he offers
you immortality.
He removes death.
The common enemy.
Nothing is too vile.
Nothing is too dreadful,
too awful.
You need to know the terror.
The horror, Lorrimer.
You need to feel the thrill
of disgust,
the beauty of obscenity.
In God's name!
What is it
you're working on?
- Veneratio il sanguis sanctus.
- Julian!
Help me.
Help me, Lorrimer.
These notes, they refer to a
new strain of bacillus pestis.
Bubonic plague!
The black death.
Not a cure for it.
Not a preventative technique,
but a means
of accelerating it.
It was necessary.
I had to do it.
I found the new strain,
bacillus pestis,
but more virulent
than any known specie.
I grew the bacillae in agar,
and then exposed them
to radioactive neutrons.
Any infected creature
suffers the most
indescribable symptoms.
The flesh literally rots
on the bones.
And the contagion
by touch like wildfire.
Everything accelerates
beyond any imagination.
Within seconds the disease
takes hold of the whole system.
And the bacillae is growing
in those petri dishes?
They are now fully matured.
They can live in a saline
solution indefinitely.
Why the plague bacillus,
You, Professor Julian Keeley,
awarded the Nobel Prize
for Science and Humanity.
Why, Julian?
You're going to tell me
who commissioned you to work
on this, this atrocity,
and what is so important
to you and to them
about the 23rd
of this month.
Otherwise, I shall have
no alternative
but to report this whole matter
to the higher authorities.
Don't blame me.
It's not my fault.
They threatened me.
My work's all finished.
Dear God.
Look, you heard
what my grandfather said.
I know his work.
I might spot something
you could overlook.
I'm sorry, Jessica,
it's just out of the question.
We're not
playing games.
Actually, there is a way
you could be of use
to us, Jessica.
- How?
- By waiting here.
And if by some chance
we shouldn't be back
within an hour,
get Gadsby, at the Yard, on 356,
and tell him what happened,
will you?
And, um, be quiet.
State your name
and business, please.
Ah, Murray.
Inspector Murray. Police.
Well, you are the law.
What is it?
- Police, ma'am.
- Police?
What can the police possibly
want with us?
Well, apparently there was, ah,
some sort of disturbance
in the roadway just
outside your gates last night.
Some nearby
residents complained.
There are no
nearby residents.
It was a very
still night.
Perhaps the sound
Didn't you hear
Yes, as a matter
of fact, I did.
Some hooligans
on motorcycles.
I hardly thought it
worth reporting.
Well, the complainants
felt that the hooligans
might be using this house as,
ah, a rallying point.
It's ridiculous, of course,
but, er,
we have to look
into these things.
How very bizarre!
They are supposed to hide
in the dark corners
of Pelham House,
are they?
Oh, please,
let's get out of here.
Oh, please, take me away.
Peter, please!
Oh, don't leave me here.
Oh, please!
- Help me, help me.
- Janine.
Stop him!
She's a vampire.
Pull yourself free, man.
I can't.
Keeley behaved
like a man demented, obsessed,
utterly lost.
All but the last vestige
of sanity had left him.
His words were prompted
by some force,
some nightmare
outside himself.
There is a shadow,
a specter that haunts us.
Murray, why the hell
didn't you get your people
to raid Pelham House?
You should have called them
the moment you got out
of the damned place.
- Well, sir, as a matter of fact...
- I'm sorry, colonel,
Inspector Murray
was quite right.
By the time the police
could have got there,
- they would have found nothing.
- Nothing?
What about that Chinese woman?
What about all those unfortunate
creatures in the cellar?
We're not dealing with ordinary
criminals, Colonel Matthews,
nor with enemy agents.
These people have powers beyond
anything you can imagine.
Didn't help
Professor Keeley.
No, he's out
of it now, anyway.
One down and three to go.
The Keeley Foundation,
who started it?
Whose money is behind it?
Thank you.
Some tycoon
called Denham.
D.D. Denham.
Very little known
about him.
He lives in the heart
of the Denham building.
No thank you.
He allows no press interviews
or photographs.
- A recluse.
- Denham?
Mean something?
A link, possibly
a miniature one.
Yes, here we are.
The Denham group of companies.
Chemicals, oils, banks.
The board of directors:
Denham himself,
the Right Honorable John Porter
Lord Carradine.
General Freeborne?
- And Keeley.
- And Uncle Tom Cobley and all.
The fifth man.
Perhaps Hanson was right.
I think he was.
You've already seen the
manifestation of vampirism.
The cult lives.
It breathes.
It spreads its vileness
like a contagion,
like the plague.
Now my family has fought
this corruption
for generations.
Each time
it was destroyed
so it has risen again
like the phoenix,
but hell-bent on revenge.
Only this time,
this time I believe it's
not merely a personal vendetta,
but something infinitely
more far-reaching.
The plague bacillus,
Pelham House,
the mental destruction
of intellectuals
such as Professor Keeley
and the others,
it is all an integral part
of a means to a definite end.
A real force.
The shadow I spoke
of is more sinister,
more obscene, than any
monstrosity you can think of.
Lord of corruption,
master of the undead.
Count Dracula!
Is there really such a creature?
You should have been
in that bloody cellar, colonel.
My department is being closed
down on the orders
of John Porter. Half my staff
have been arrested.
Two have been killed.
They've labeled us subversives
and the heavies
are damn well looking for us.
And all this because
of a, a vampire?
Van Helsing,
for God's sake.
Jessica, you should
be resting.
Oh, I'm all right,
I destroyed
Count Dracula once.
It was more
than two years ago
in St. Bartolph's
but this creature can live again
by reincarnation.
It requires a disciple.
Someone well-versed
in the ritual.
The Chinese woman,
Chin Yang.
She would have to know the exact
location of Dracula's grave.
I passed the site
of St. Bartolph's tonight.
The churchyard
has long since vanished.
An office block
has been built there now.
That new building
is about two years old.
If it's been there
for two years...
That means this thing's been
around since then.
So it would seem.
And those women
in the cellar,
their names had probably been
on the files
of your missing persons bureau
for two years.
Anyway, that new office block
belongs to the Denham group
of companies.
Now, I don't know whether
the fifth guest was D.D. Denham,
but this I do know:
Vampires are spectral creatures,
their image casts no reflection
in a mirror,
nor can the lens of the
camera record their likeness.
So there was someone there.
Or some thing.
Your man Hanson saw it, but
his camera couldn't record it.
How the hell do you fight
a vampire?
Cloves of garlic?
There are many ways.
The symbols of good are used
to combat the forces of evil.
The crucifix,
the word of God as written
in the Holy Bible,
clear running water
symbolizing purity
and it lives in mortal dread
of silver.
Anything else?
The hawthorn tree,
which provided Christ
with his crown of thorns,
the light of day...
And a wooden stake driven
through the heart.
What about the 23rd,
the date that Keeley mentioned?
Yes, indeed, the 23rd
of this month,
that, I fear,
is the worst of all.
It is the sabbath
for the undead.
What significance
has that?
There are satanic circles
which govern our fate,
and the fate of this earth,
perhaps even
this universe.
throughout history,
there are certain times,
certain dates
which are marked
by awesome catastrophes.
Each event is carefully plotted,
and a definite pattern emerges.
Every disaster
this world has ever suffered
coincides with a point wherein
these circles meet and cross.
In this century alone
they heralded the outbreak
of two devastating
world wars.
And another disaster
is imminent?
It could be.
The 23rd, that's
the day after tomorrow!
This must happen tomorrow
at midnight.
Might even sooner.
At that hour, the devil holds
a balance of power.
He marshals his disciples
the living and the dead.
In satanic covens
it is the celebration
of supreme blasphemy:
the sabbath for the undead.
I've heard
of the witches sabbath.
No. This date is much more
important. It's more profound,
even more significant
than the Night of Walpurgis.
Now, Keeley said the bacillus
had to be ready
by the 23rd.
A date chosen
by Dracula himself.
The 23rd day
of this eleventh month.
The emerging pattern,
do you see?
The night
of the Soulless ones.
And in the turmoil and fear
that follows,
a group of warped men emerge
to take control:
a politician, a soldier,
an industrialist, a landowner.
But Dracula would eventually end
up with a totally barren earth?
But with only diseased
and dead bodies to feed on
surely even the vampire himself
would perish.
Perhaps deep
in his subconscious
that is
what he really wants:
an end to it all.
He is an accursed immortal,
existing on violence, fear
and dread.
But supposing, now just
supposing he yearns
for final peace?
What then?
He'd want to bring down
the whole universe with him,
the ultimate revenge.
Thousands dying
of the plague,
like the shadow
of death itself,
one figure scything its way
through the terror
and anguish:
Count Dracula.
It is the biblical prophesy
of Armageddon.
Nothing at all.
It all seems so unbelievable
by the light of day.
But it's not.
what's going on?
We're not doing any good hanging
around here.
Professor Van Helsing
is still at home.
I'm with the colonel down
in the car.
It's all this damned
hanging around.
Yes, I know.
Well, they're all right,
A bit impatient,
of course, but...
It'll be getting dark soon.
We should have heard
something by now.
It's a sniper. Get down.
That was a bullet.
- I didn't hear a shot.
- He's using a silencer.
Could be anywhere.
We'd better get the hell
out of here.
If he gets us pinned down...
Run like hell!
Come on, Jessie,
the road can't be far away.
I can't. I can't.
Look, Jessica,
he's only playing with us.
He could pick us off
at any time.
Now, come on.
Come on!
Thank God the colonel's car's
still there. Come on.
Come on, come on!
Let's get the engine started.
Let's get moving.
- No!
- Ah!
Good evening. I'd like
to see Mr. Denham.
Mr. D.D. Denham.
Oh, I'm sorry, sir.
No one sees Mr. Denham.
No one at all. Ever.
If you were to mention my name,
I'm sure he'd see me.
Van Helsing.
Waste of time, sir,
I assure you.
Excuse me.
Security reception.
Yes, sir,
but my standing instructions...
Uh, yes, sir.
You're to go up to Mr. Denham's
private apartment, sir.
Thank you.
Doesn't that thing make you feel
All part of the job.
Take the lift
and press the, the red button.
It'll stop right
outside his suite.
And, sir, um, you're
not carrying a camera, are you?
- My instructions.
- No. No camera.
Professor Van Helsing?
Mr. Denham?
I have been expecting
I rather thought
you might.
Please, sit down.
I have been expecting you
ever since Julian Keeley
took his own life.
Or was he murdered?
He was a servant
of this foundation.
I am the master.
His nerves failed him.
The project he was working
on was enough
to shatter anyone's nerve.
It is merely a deterrent.
Nothing more.
There is a group of us
who are determined
that the decadence
of the present day can
and will be halted.
A new political regime
is planned
to lend weight
to one's arguments.
Amidst the rush
and whirl of humanity,
it is sometimes necessary
to be persuasive.
Oh, there are
a few vague rituals,
it is true.
A little occultism,
a touch of mysticism
at Pelham House, nothing more.
Evil begets evil.
There is an unholy aura
in this place.
And it is not a question
of "a little occultism"
or "a touch of mysticism,"
Mr. Denham.
It is vampirism.
And there is a host
of damned souls at Pelham House.
What are you going
to do with me?
You can't let me go, can you?
I know too much.
Do you mind if I smoke?
It's a bad habit, I know,
it helps me to concentrate.
I'm sorry.
Am I to suffer the same fate
as Professor Keeley?
You are an interfering man,
Do not meddle,
or you will have
to deal with me.
You are Count Dracula!
Of course.
Mr. Denham,
the powerful recluse.
Here you are safe.
No one expects to see him,
not in the daytime.
Soli Deo gloria.
Nisi Dominus frustra.
Foolish man,
bullets cannot harm me.
A silver bullet, Dracula.
- Kill him!
- He threatened you.
It cannot be made
so simple for him.
Not for Van Helsing.
Nor for his granddaughter.
Where's Jessica?
I have her hidden away.
Well, I suggest you go
and find her.
I will. I promise you,
but first you must help me.
Help you?
I, too, want to get away
from this place.
I'm as much a prisoner
as you are.
Yeah, but,
but you live here.
Not by choice.
In God's name!
Please, God.
On this, the eve
of the sabbath of the undead,
I call upon you to witness
my supreme triumph.
Van Helsing,
I choose the spawn
of your blood to be my consort.
The instrument
of my final conquest,
swifter, more awesome
than the black death:
the plague.
In the first moments,
every muscle, every fiber,
will be afire
with torment and agony.
In the days to come
you will pray
for death.
And so you'll destroy
every living soul on this earth
and are left
with an empty world to command.
Is that what you want,
Count Dracula?
A last blaze of utter horror
and violence?
The ghastly annihilation
of an entire planet?
Is this your own death wish?
I have chosen
four messengers of death,
four horsemen
of my created apocalypse,
four carriers of the plague
who will infect
their miserable brethren.
You, Van Helsing,
are now one of the four.
The body of your granddaughter
will never be corrupted.
It will be her joy
to walk at my side.
"Four carriers"?
Do you mean us?
You said you would use
the plague only as a deterrent.
To hold governments to ransom.
- You promised us power.
- We served you faithfully.
The girl that you love
is mine already,
and through her
you will yet do my bidding.
In your name,
for you,
everything we did exactly
as we were commanded.
In return, you promi...
Oh, oh!
Are you open
to any deals?
Murray! Get Jessica away.
Get her away, man. Hurry.
My revenge has been spread over
centuries and has just begun!
How the hell do
you fight a vampire?
There are many ways.
The symbols of good are used
to combat the forces of evil.
The hawthorn tree,
which provided Christ
with his crown of thorns...
Count Dracula.