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Market changes (early 1970s)
As audiences became more sophisticated in the late
1960s, with the release of artfully
directed, subtly horrific films like Roman Polanski's
Rosemary's Baby, the studio struggled to maintain its
place in the market. It responded by bringing in new
writers and directors, testing new characters, and
attempting to rejuvenate their vampire and Frankenstein
films with new approaches to familiar material.
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While the studio remained true to previous period
settings in their 1972 release Vampire Circus, their
Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula, for
example, abandon period settings in pursuit of a
modern-day setting and "swinging London" feel. These
films were not successful, and drew fire not only from
critics, but from Christopher Lee himself, who refused
to appear in more Dracula films after these. Speaking at
a press conference in 1973 to announce The Satanic Rites
of Dracula, then called Dracula is Dead... and Well and
Living in London, Lee said:
"I'm doing it under protest... I think it is fatuous.
I can think of twenty adjectives - fatuous, pointless,
absurd. It's not a comedy, but it's got a comic title. I
don't see the point."
Hammer Film Productions - Monster from
Hell
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