I didn't like the character he played but also the fact he was killed off just wasn't right either.
I was hoping he'd come back as a vampire, but stronger. Physically and with a different persona.
But alas, the writers couldn't see that.
The rest of the film was meh.
Barton was originally to be played by Peter Cushing who would have been more suitable. I think Ralph Bates took the role largely as a favour to Peter Cushing whose wife had been taken seriously ill at the time.
shareWhile Ralph called it "one of the worst films ever made," all three films in Hammer's Karnstein trilogy are of about the same quality, although “The Vampire Lovers” is the most popular for obvious reasons (Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith and the overt sapphism, which is toned down in this one and in “Twins of Evil”). I think Bates didn’t like it because of his sniveling character, Giles Barton, who plays second fiddle to the dashing protagonist (Michael Johnson).
The creators didn't have Barton (Bates) resurrected as a vampire because 1. the story didn't need him and 2. they didn't want anyone upstaging the central antagonists, the Karnsteins, particularly Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard) and Count Karnstein (Mike Raven).