The Brides of Dracula

The Brides of Dracula was Hammers first Dracula sequel. It did not however feature Dracula at all, instead it focused entirely on Dr Van Helsing (Peter Cushing). It was the first film to feature Van Helsing without Dracula, Universal had previously produced Dracula's Daughter which had focused on Van Helsing, but had still featured Dracula in a cameo appearance. The Brides of Dracula had young, blond-haired Baron Meinster (David Peel) as the films main antagonist, who terrorizes countryside in 19th century Transylvania. Dracula is mentioned only twice once in the opening narration and again by Van Helsing later in the film.

The Brides of Dracula was based on the script by Jimmy Sangster and written by Peter Bryan, Edward Percy and uncredited producer Anthony Hinds. It was directed by Terence Fisher.

The original ending had the vampires destroyed by the swarm of bats released by an arcane ritual of darkness. Anthony Hinds used this ending three years later in another Hammer film, The Kiss of the vampire, which he wrote.

The Brides of Dracula holds a fresh score of 71% in Rotten Tomatoes.

The novelization was written by Dean Owen.