Hammer Studios’ horror maestro Terence Fisher gives Bram Stoker’s Dracula legend an intelligent and openly erotic twist in this bloody good adaptation. Lee’s creepy turn as the titular Transylvanian (his first of many) still makes my flesh crawl, but Cushing almost steals the picture with his action-hero embodiment of Van Helsing. This is Fisher’s most innovative gambit, and it pays off in spades. Lush sets and a hair-raising musical score add to the overall effect of Fisher’s bloody, libidinal twist on the vampire myth.