DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE
In a small village church, an altar boy makes a chilling discovery in the belfry.
The village priest hears his cry and hurries up. Inside is the body of a young
girl, with two fang-marks deep in her neck. Time passes. Along the mountain
road comes the Monsignor. In the church, the priest is saying Mass, by him stands
the youth, also obviously aged, showing signs of idiocy. There is no one in
the church. At the local inn, townsfolk explain to the monsignor they never
go to church anymore because the shadow of evil hangs over them.....a shadow
cast by Dracula’s Castle. To prove the castle is empty, the monsignor
orders the priest to accompany him there the next morning. When the time arrives,
the two priests have climbed near the summit; the priest, terrified, agrees
to wait while the monsignor carries on. Outside the gates of Castle Dracula,
the monsignor begins the service of exorcism. Thunder and lightning crash across
the skies. The priest runs in fright and topples down an incline to the edge
of a stream. There, buried beneath the ice, is Count Dracula. The priest stirs,
blood from his cut trickles down, into the lips of the vampire. The priest staggers
to his feet, washes away the blood. As the waters become still, he sees the
dreaded vampire reflected behind him. In a moment, the priest is hypnotized.
Outside his castle, the vampire sees a nailed cross and demands to know who
did it. His new slave answers that it was the monsignor.
Back in the village, the monsignor prepares to leave. The grateful townspeople
present him with a carved cross for ridding them of the vampire. Only the landlord
fears otherwise. At home in Keinenburg, the monsignor re-joins his brother’s
wife Anna and her daughter Maria, who is to have a birthday party. Coming, too,
is Paul, Maria’s boyfriend. In the local cafe, packed with students, the
atmosphere is gay. Waitress Zena dispenses beer and sausages. Paul enters, is
joined by Maria.
Later, at the Muller’s home, Paul shocks the party guests, admitting he
is an atheist. After a row, he leaves. Zena, wending her way home in the pitch-black
night, finds herself face-to-face with Dracula, who attacks her. Next morning,
Paul, hurrying to the bakery where he works, discovers Zena huddled in a corner,
a strange expression on her face. Later in the cafe, Zena is joined by the owner,
Max.
That night in Keinenburg, the priest slips from his room and makes his way into
the cafe’s cellar. In a far corner, Dracula is rising from his coffin..
He demands that the priest brings Zena. When she arrives, the vampire asks her
to bring Maria there, on some pretext. Upstairs, Zena tells Paul that when Maria
arrives, she will bring her to him in his study. Maria arrives, looking for
Paul and Zena says he is waiting in the cellar. They descend together. Zena
slips a sack over Maria’s head and drags her to Dracula. Paul bursts in
and Maria struggles away and rushes to paul. Dracula, furious, kills Zena, then
tells the priest to get rid of the body. Paul and Maria go back to her home,
and he leaves. Watching, from behind a tall chimney, is the priest. Next day,
Paul asks the priest to take a note to Maria. The priest burns it and hurries
to tell Dracula the girl is alone, in her bedroom. That evening, Anna goes to
her daughter’s room and finds Maria slumped across the bed, but does not
notice the two fanf marks in her throat. The monsignor, however, does. The next
evening, Dracula rises again, dashes across the rooftops and slides into Maria’s
room, where she waits. Waiting, too, is the monsignor, hiding in the shadows.
At the sight of the crucifix, Dracula runs off. The monsignor, felled by the
priest, instructs Paul on how to fight the vampire. Paul sees the priest in
the streets and brings him along to Maria’s home. At the sight of the
priest, the monsignor cries out, and dies. That afternoon, the priest, fighting
to escape from the vampire’s powers, succeeds with the aid of the crucifix.
He explains to Paul what has happened.
Together, they set out after Dracula. Finding him, Paul drives a stake into
Dracula’s body, but because he is unable to say a Latin prayer, the vampire
escapes. Paul hurries back to Maria and finds Dracula there. Paul is knocked
down in a fight. The vampire, the priest and Maria climb into the hearse and
gallop off to Dracula’s castle. Paul revives and sets off in pursuit.
At the castle, he confronts Dracula, who is dragging Maria behind him. They
fight. Paul trips Dracula over the edge of the mountain wall. The vampire impales
himself on a crucifix lying in the valley below. The priest arrives and says
the prayer which convinces the struggling Dracula it is the end. With a terrifying
cry, he disappears into the mist.