MovieChat Forums > Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1969) Discussion > the new look of the castle, the film

the new look of the castle, the film


This is a fun film to watch, don't get me wrong. But two problems i have with it. The look of the castle is different from the one in Horror of Dracula and Dracula, Prince of Darkness. I liked the original better. And the way the film was filmed...looked almost psychedelic at times (granted i know it was filmed in the late 60s but still...eh). you can barely see what's happening in some of the later scenes. I wish Terence Fisher could have come back.

"Oh Renfield you disappoint me so"-Dracula

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I always found the fact that the castle kept changing in each film odd also. It's as if they didn't keep the sets or something? I think the name of the locale kept changing also, Kleinberg, Carlsbad, etc.

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They didn't keep the sets. By 1968, Hammer were filming in Elstree and Pinewood, so they didn't have the luxury of keeping the same sets standing. They'd have to adapt other people's sets or build them from scratch.

Also, bear in mind there was a gap of about 7 or 8 years between the original Dracula and the first direct sequel.

Re: the psychedelic colours, that was director Freddie Francis. They looked kind of odd and surreal, but I thought they gave an interesting effect. He reused filters he had used as cinematographer on the b/w film The Haunting.

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I think the name of the locale kept changing also, Kleinberg, Carlsbad, etc.


No, they were just different towns. There must have been more than just one sizable town in the various directions away from Dracula's castle.

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They only name the village under the Castle in one film (Carlsbad, in 'Dracula Prince of Darkness), Klausenburg ('Dracula') is nearby (and was in real life the capital of Transylvania for a time, known as Cluj-napoca in Romanian and Kolozsvár in Hungarian... it is mostly written as Klausenburgh in the novel though once it was Klausenburg) and Kleinberg/Kleinenberg (and possibly Keinenberg)*.

In this film the "village under the mountain" is called just that by the Monsignor however as Father Sandor etc talk of Castle Dracula being in Carlsbad (where you shouldn't venture) that is evidently the village in this film (and in 'Scars of Dracula' where it is also un-named).

Other settlements in or around Transylvania in the Hammerverse are Carlstadt and Ingsadt in 'Dracula' (these may be over a border such as in Bukovina... however the road may just be a toll road out of the environs of the city), Badstein (in 'Brides of Dracula'), Ingalstadt, Abensburg and Regensburg (written on the coach in 'Brides of Dracula').

Karlsburg is mentioned in 'Taste The Blood of Dracula' and is also a real locale in Transylvania (it is now Alba Iulia and was also known by its Slavic derived name of Belgrad meaning "White-castle") and was a capital of Transylvania at some points in its history.



*I have always taken the Kleinberg mentioned by Father Sandor (whose character is incidentally supposed to be a Magyar, his name is pronounced "Shandor" (and is spelled as such in his comic series)) in 'Dracula Prince of Darkness' to be the same settlement as Kleinenberg as they mean "small-mountain" or "small-hill" as "klein" is "small" and "berg" is "mountain" or "hill" (it is a cognate of the English "barrow" meaning "hill", "burial mound" et cetera, from Old Englisj "beorg" or "beorh"). In 'Dracula Has Risen...' most characters seem to call their town "Keinenberg" but as that makes no sense ("keine" is an accusative High German word for "no" or "not"), most fans and publicity material think it is "Kleinenberg" and as the town in 'Scars of Dracula' (which borrows or references a lot from earlier films) is called "Kleinenberg" it is almost definitely supposed to be the same one I take it as "Kleinenberg".

"Nothings gonna change my world!"

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Interesting post Pharaoh. Thanks for your input.

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