Legal Lessons From Dracula AD 1972

Analysis of Dracula AD 1972! That's right, it is time to discuss the Hammer classic with Sir Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing! Trespassing! Hate crimes! Fraud! And 1970s over the top funkiness. 

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Episode Transcript

Joshua Gilliland (00:05):
Hello, my name is Joshua Gilliland, one of the
founding attorneys of the LegalGeeks.
We continue our spooky legalanalysis with Dracula AD 1972.
Hammer Studios made a lot offun monster movies.
Many of them star ChristopherLee and Peter Cushing.

(00:26):
Dracula AD 1972 is a fun rideand and wow, is like a PSA for
the Satanic Panic before theSatanic Panic was even a thing
in the 1980s.
Lots of spoilers ahead for this53-year-old movie.

(00:48):
The story begins with VanHelsing and Dracula on a
stagecoach that's out ofcontrol.
They're in a fight to thedeath.
Peter Cushing is in full actiongrandpa mode fighting
Christopher Lee.
The wagon crashes.

(01:08):
Van Helsing wins the fight bykilling Dracula with a spoke
from a wagon wheel as a stakethrough the heart.
But Van Helsing also dies.
We have one of Dracula's cultfollowers observing the
situation, and that sets thestage for Dracula to make a

(01:30):
comeback a hundred years laterfor revenge.
Let's jump to 1972.
London.
We have hippie, annoyingcounterculture brats going to a
high society house for their ownprivate concert.
These young adults had a systemof going to a house to play

(01:51):
music, drink, make out, andinsult the owners.
They had it time for how longthe fuss would show up after
being called.
And we have another guy dressedas a druid in a robe.

(02:20):
So again, just think veryobnoxious people trying to find
themselves and making astatement.
There's arguments taking placeat this nice house that actually
does have real guests there fora dinner party.
Not exactly clear what, buteveryone's in suits except for

(02:42):
these countercultureindividuals.
There are people under thetable making out.
There's like a band set up thatthey're playing music.
And there's a question aboutwere they even invited to come
in, how they forced their way inand just kind of bullied their
their way through the situation.
There's obnoxious insults withone of the just say cult members

(03:11):
tells the um owner of the housethat she reminds him of his
father.
So again, he's a brat.
Raises issues of trespass.
So trespass is an unlawfulinterference with possession of
property.
Yes, I'm using California law,but that's because I'm not a

(03:34):
barrister in the United Kingdom.
The elements of trespass arethe plainter's ownership or
control of the property, thedefendant's intentional,
reckless, or negligent entryonto the property, lack of
permission for the entry or actsin excess of permission, harm,
and the defendant's conduct wasa substantial factor in causing

(03:54):
the harm.
The homeowners were not happyabout the annoying punks
throwing a party in their livingroom.
The defendant's conduct wasintentional.
There might have beenpermission to initially enter,
but that likely was based uponfraud and definitely exceeded
the excess of permission thatthey were initially given if

(04:17):
they did indeed have permission.
Now, as for harm, there wasproperty damage.
Loud music disturbing thepeace, causing a nuisance, and
actual harm because artwork wasbroken, destroyed.
The police turn up, and theyare driven away.
And the young people like togather at a coffee house that is

(04:42):
being used as a front for drugrunning.
There's the issue of, like,okay, they considered marijuana
a dangerous drug at the time,but they also talk about heroin.
So that is quite the gap indrug use right there.
So the leader Jonathan had aplan to hold a black mass at an

(05:06):
abandoned church to resurrectDracula.
And key to this plan was one ofthe counterculture members who
was the great-granddaughter ofVan Helsing, Jessica.
He had planned to offer Jessicaas a sacrifice to Dracula to
exact revenge on the Helsingfamily.

(05:28):
This raises issues of fraud,conspiracy, and attempted murder
of Jessica Van Helsing.
Now the church had beenabandoned, which raises unholy
issues of trespassing because isit gone to the state?
Is there any actual controlover it?
Is it condemned?
There are some unknowns, butit's not an act of use.

(05:48):
It's definitely run down.
It's one of those old churcheswith a graveyard outside, and
you can see where the elder VanHelsing was buried.
Now, arguably, when they starttheir Black Mass and they put up
pentagrams and other satanicsymbols in this church, that's a

(06:09):
hate crime.
Now, placing pentagrams in achurch could be a hate crime
under California's Penal CodeSection 42.6, because the
pentagrams deface the churchproperty, and if the church
still had been in use, theplacement of the pentagrams
would cause intimidation orinterference with a church

(06:30):
parishioner's constitutionalright to practice their freedom
of religion.
Now, the black mass bringsDracula back from the dead.
The cult leader believed hewould be the one calling the
shots with Dracula, but helearned that was not the case
because we're talking about SirChristopher Lee, and he is
definitely the one in chargebecause he really did kill

(06:52):
people in World War II.
A lot of murder follows.
Because Dracula's hungry.
There is a conspiracy to feedDracula victims.
So they start piling up deadbodies and dumping the victims'
bodies places that the policeare now finding and have
launched a murder investigation,which brings in Van Helsing to

(07:17):
the grandson of the first VanHelsing, who's a professor in
the occult, and he quicklyrealizes what's going on.
Cushing continues the role ofaction grandfather, and my god,
it is awesome.
He sports fantastic 1970soutfits, smokes on screen,
something we would not seetoday, and fights vampires.

(07:41):
And he looks like he's in hislate 50s, early 60s, so it is
pure like stuff you don't see intoday's movies of grandpa
laying down the law and fightingdemonic forces.
One classic moment is a fightwith one of the cult leaders who
is turned into a vampire whilethe sun is rising.

(08:02):
And Van Helsing tosses a Bibleand cross into the vampire's
coffin like a hand grenade,preventing the vampire from
seeking shelter from the sun,and actually uses a mirror to
shine sunlight on the vampire todispatch the vampire.
Van Helsing too saves hisgranddaughter from Dracula, with

(08:26):
the police detective beingextremely open-minded to all the
supernatural deaths surroundinga group of young adults without
jobs who are seeking drugs.
It is wild, it is fun, it isaggressively 1970s, and raises
issues of like, okay, were the70s actually like that?

(08:49):
No, this is turned up to 11.
Were the 70s a little likethis?
Yes, they had to be a littlelike this.
I've seen the photos of myparents.
So with that, everyone, happyHalloween.
Stay safe, stay spooky, andwe'll see you soon.
Take care.