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. 

Chapters

• 0:05 Setting The Spooky Legal Stage
• 0:49 Van Helsing Versus Dracula
• 1:37 Swinging London And A Crashing Party
• 3:24 Trespass And Property Harm
• 4:38 Drugs, Black Mass, And Conspiracy
• 6:10 Hate Crime Analysis At The Church
• 6:37 Dracula Returns And Bodies Pile Up
• 7:03 Action Van Helsing And Tactics
• 8:22 Finale, 1970s Vibes, Farewell

Transcript

Joshua Gilliland: 0:05

Hello, my name is Joshua Gilliland, one of the founding attorneys of the Legal Geeks. We continue our spooky legal analysis with Dracula AD 1972. Hammer Studios made a lot of fun monster movies. Many of them star Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Dracula AD 1972 is a fun ride and and wow, is like a PSA for the Satanic Panic before the Satanic Panic was even a thing in the 1980s. Lots of spoilers ahead for this 53-year-old movie. The story begins with Van Helsing and Dracula on a stagecoach that's out of control. They're in a fight to the death. Peter Cushing is in full action grandpa mode fighting Christopher Lee. The wagon crashes. Van Helsing wins the fight by killing Dracula with a spoke from a wagon wheel as a stake through the heart. But Van Helsing also dies. We have one of Dracula's cult followers observing the situation, and that sets the stage for Dracula to make a comeback a hundred years later for revenge. Let's jump to 1972. London. We have hippie, annoying counterculture brats going to a high society house for their own private concert. These young adults had a system of going to a house to play music, drink, make out, and insult the owners. They had it time for how long the fuss would show up after being called. And we have another guy dressed as a druid in a robe. So again, just think very obnoxious people trying to find themselves and making a statement. There's arguments taking place at this nice house that actually does have real guests there for a dinner party. Not exactly clear what, but everyone's in suits except for these counterculture individuals. There are people under the table making out. There's like a band set up that they're playing music. And there's a question about were they even invited to come in, how they forced their way in and just kind of bullied their their way through the situation. There's obnoxious insults with one of the just say cult members tells the um owner of the house that she reminds him of his father. So again, he's a brat. Raises issues of trespass. So trespass is an unlawful interference with possession of property. Yes, I'm using California law, but that's because I'm not a barrister in the United Kingdom. The elements of trespass are the plainter's ownership or control of the property, the defendant's intentional, reckless, or negligent entry onto the property, lack of permission for the entry or acts in excess of permission, harm, and the defendant's conduct was a substantial factor in causing the harm. The homeowners were not happy about the annoying punks throwing a party in their living room. The defendant's conduct was intentional. There might have been permission to initially enter, but that likely was based upon fraud and definitely exceeded the excess of permission that they were initially given if they did indeed have permission. Now, as for harm, there was property damage. Loud music disturbing the peace, causing a nuisance, and actual harm because artwork was broken, destroyed. The police turn up, and they are driven away. And the young people like to gather at a coffee house that is being used as a front for drug running. 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 in drug use right there. So the leader Jonathan had a plan to hold a black mass at an abandoned church to resurrect Dracula. And key to this plan was one of the counterculture members who was the great-granddaughter of Van Helsing, Jessica. He had planned to offer Jessica as a sacrifice to Dracula to exact revenge on the Helsing family. This raises issues of fraud, conspiracy, and attempted murder of Jessica Van Helsing. Now the church had been abandoned, which raises unholy issues of trespassing because is it gone to the state? Is there any actual control over it? Is it condemned? There are some unknowns, but it's not an act of use. It's definitely run down. It's one of those old churches with a graveyard outside, and you can see where the elder Van Helsing was buried. Now, arguably, when they start their Black Mass and they put up pentagrams and other satanic symbols in this church, that's a hate crime. Now, placing pentagrams in a church could be a hate crime under California's Penal Code Section 42.6, because the pentagrams deface the church property, and if the church still had been in use, the placement of the pentagrams would cause intimidation or interference with a church parishioner's constitutional right to practice their freedom of religion. Now, the black mass brings Dracula back from the dead. The cult leader believed he would be the one calling the shots with Dracula, but he learned that was not the case because we're talking about Sir Christopher Lee, and he is definitely the one in charge because he really did kill people in World War II. A lot of murder follows. Because Dracula's hungry. There is a conspiracy to feed Dracula victims. So they start piling up dead bodies and dumping the victims' bodies places that the police are now finding and have launched a murder investigation, which brings in Van Helsing to the grandson of the first Van Helsing, who's a professor in the occult, and he quickly realizes what's going on. Cushing continues the role of action grandfather, and my god, it is awesome. He sports fantastic 1970s outfits, smokes on screen, something we would not see today, and fights vampires. And he looks like he's in his late 50s, early 60s, so it is pure like stuff you don't see in today's movies of grandpa laying down the law and fighting demonic forces. One classic moment is a fight with one of the cult leaders who is turned into a vampire while the sun is rising. And Van Helsing tosses a Bible and 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 to dispatch the vampire. Van Helsing too saves his granddaughter from Dracula, with the police detective being extremely open-minded to all the supernatural deaths surrounding a group of young adults without jobs who are seeking drugs. It is wild, it is fun, it is aggressively 1970s, and raises issues of like, okay, were the 70s actually like that? No, this is turned up to 11. Were the 70s a little like this? Yes, they had to be a little like this. I've seen the photos of my parents. So with that, everyone, happy Halloween. Stay safe, stay spooky, and we'll see you soon. Take care.