Hear ye, great demons of hell.
Watch over these, thy disciples.
Give them thy power over frail mankind.
Thus, do we dedicate ourselves to your service and your command.
We accept your guidance and your mighty power.
By the nameless monsters of the lower depths are you called.
Each time...
the same.
Obscene.
Some power.
Some... something greater.
You're sure John Porter was there?
You're sure it was John Porter?
Sure.
They had filthy obscene rites.
A sort of altar.
A young girl on it... naked.
And she lies there, waiting for the sacrifice...
A cockerel to be killed.
They... they call on the name of the Devil.
They seem to take strength...
from their own blasphemy.
You want... proof?
I've got photos.
Five of them.
All involved.
All right. All right. Now let's get though this again.
Tell me more about this ritual.
He should never have gone in.
Putting him in as one of the guards. They must have been picked men.
He was bound to be caught.
- He volunteered. - Nobody volunteers in this department.
Does he still maintain that John Porter was there?
Yes, he seems to be certain about that.
Porter and four others. Five men in all.
It's gonna make life difficult for all of us, isn't it?
Because he's a minister of the crown?
Because the the right honorable John Porter has direct responsibility for this department.
Perhaps he just forgot about us.
In any case, we have no proof. No real proof.
A group of middle-aged men indulging themselves in some sort of sick orgy. That's what we've got.
Maybe the proofs in there.
Even if it tis, we don't know if we can use it.
So that poor devil is simply suffering for absolutely nothing.
That poor devil isn't suffering any longer.
He's dead.
It's a miracle he lasted as long as he did.
Obviously, he'd been systematically beaten and tortured...
Yes. Thank you, Doctor. Let me have your written report later.
I don't suppose anyone will be allowed to claim him, will they?
Usual routine, false name on the death certificate.
Inter-departmental whip-round for the burial.
- Would you like to hear this played back now, sir? - No, not now.
But leave it here. Get this down to the photo lab.
Tell them to make prints of anything that comes up. Anything at all.
Have the tape transcribed later and...
then put it in a Red dossier and file it in a number 2 security vault under seal.
Yes, sir.
Number 2 hole, hey?
You really are going to close the door on this whole issue.
I might have to.
As far as departments concerned. As far as I'm concerned...
officially.
- What's that supposed to mean? - I've called somebody in to give you a hand.
Someone who doesn't have our resources, but does have a certain independence.
Political independence. A man called Murray.
- Inspector Murray. - Scotland Yard.
Special Branch. Don't worry, he's all right.
- Does his job. - Oh, that's comforting.
Inside this room you have my blessing and my cooperation.
Outside, you're on your own. And I mean that.
Put a foot wrong and the powers-that-be will finish you.
You could probably join Hanson.
Thanks.
We'd been running some routine security checks on certain listed VIPs.
We got a whisper on the grapevine that some of them may have been visiting a house in Crocksford Heath.
Visiting it regularly.
We didn't know who they were.
This is the place.
Pelham House.
Headquarters of what has always been regarded as a harmless organization.
Psychical examination and research group. PERG for short.
So you sent an operative in under cover.
Yes... Hanson. He witnessed a couple of... pretty weird sessions.
Hear ye, great demons of hell.
Watch over these, thy disciples.
Give them thy power over frail mankind.
Thus do we dedicate ourselves to your service and your commands.
Thus, with this baptism of blood, we walk in the eternal footsteps of the cursed...
to know the inner secrets of those who move beyond the realms of the unknown...
and into the precincts of Hades.
Yesterday they rumbled him and tried to make him talk.
So they're alerted now.
- What is it, an espionage network? - That must be our assumption.
- Moscow or Peking? - Well, we don't know.
Nothing ties in. There's no single known link.
And there's no whispers from any informers.
From the photo lab.
They found 5 exposures on the microfilm.
A bit blurry, but they've given them special processing.
- Right. Thanks, Jane. - The transcription?
- All finished, sir. Sealed and vaulted. - Thank you.
You can't have had much rest in the last 12 hours, you better come along home.
Thanks you, sir.
Turn out the light as you go out, would you Jane?
- Well? - No doubt about that one.
General Sir Arthur Freeborne. Imperial General Staff.
Thus, by the 6000 terrors of Hell, are you anointed.
Good Lord.
- So Hanson was right. - Well, that's Porter, isn't it?
Yes, the Right Honorable John Porter, MP.
Minister with special responsibilities for our... security services.
Pity he didn't stick to collecting spiders.
Thus by the nameless monsters of the lower depths are you called.
A nod from him and a dozen civil service pensions go out of the window.
Including mine.
He could dissolve this department in 2 seconds flat.
So that's why you're working without official sanction.
He's not too typical either. Lord Carradine.
Next to the Church and the Government, one of the biggest landowners in England.
Still owns half of London.
Seven Lords of Darkness are you damned.
- Professor Julian Keeley. - Not the Nobel Prize winner?
Yes, I'm sure it is.
Expert in the fields of bacteriology, germ warfare and diseases of the blood.
Runs the Keeley Foundation here in London.
And seven times seven damned again.
Thus, to defy the common laws of man and righteousness.
There were 5 photos. Peter, let's have the 5th.
- Well, what's this then? - He slipped up over this one.
He spoke of 5 men.
Well, he was punchy. He'd had a hell of a beating.
It's a wonder we got anything at all out of him.
- It could only have been four. - It's enough.
I'll have a dossier released on Keeley, Porter and the others.
I'll see what can be dug up.
I've never seen the Colonel nervous.
Perhaps the Colonel has never had quite so much provocation before.
The baptism of blood...
it acts on them like some kind of drug.
The girl died.
The woman puts her cloak over her.
Over the blood.
There's blood, pour...pour... pouring from the wound.
There's blood...
Blood.
Huh?
There's a man I worked with once.
He's an academic type, but he knows about this sort of thing.
Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing.
He's University Lecturer in Anthropology
and Eastern European History. He's a scientist.
But, what may prove even more important to us, he's an authority on the occult.
He really knows about the black arts, satanic rites, and...
And what?
Other things.
Crosses. They have inverted crosses...
marked in blood.
And, as the woman goes to the altar...
there's that strange power there, filling the whole house.
I felt it! Strong, weird, power.
Death is no prison to those who have given their souls to the Prince of Darkness.
Hobgoblins and witches and things that go bump in the night.
Yes, well, hobgoblins are fantasy creatures of the nursery, Mr. Torrence.
As for witches, they certainly exist, although 90% of them are charlatans.
But things do go bump in the night...
quite often.
Well, what do you think, Professor? It is just a Black Mass ritual?
No.
No, not exactly.
Even in dark ages, the worship of natural substances was quite common.
The soil, water, sands of the desert, various plants.
But the strongest cults were those that worshiped the most mystical substance of all.
The fountainhead of life itself.
The glorification of blood.
Thank you.
And more often than not...
human blood.
Now what your man Hanson witnessed was a very ancient ritual ceremony.
It has all the elements. The slaughter of the cockerel.
The inherent vileness of evil triumphant.
The obscenities.
The marking of the supplicants.
The human sacrifice. Now, that of course, could be faked.
But it is the symbolism that counts.
The worship of blood.
Well, I can understand young kids taking a flyer just for kicks, but...
we're talking about sophisticated, mature adults.
It isn't unique.
The notorious Hellfire club of the 18th century
was comprised solely of the elite brains of this country.
The wisest men of Asia were firmly convinced that human blood was the elixir of youth.
And those who adhere to the cult of vampirism
are usually sophisticated, mature adults.
These are the people who fully realize it's tremendous potential.
One of these men could be motivating force.
The menace.
And the power.
Are these men involved this whole business because they're under some kind of threat?
Or drugs?
Or hypnosis.
This particular evil is more potent and more addictive than heroin, I assure you.
And the end result is just as fatal.
I'd like to see inside Pelham House.
- Yes, but they're already alerted. - Coffee, Grandfather?
What a pleasant surprise. Thank you.
- You know my granddaughter, Inspector? - Yes, indeed.
- Nice to see you again, Jessica. - Hello.
Jessica, this is Mr. Peter Torrence.
Excuse me.
Jessica is my right hand.
Sometimes, I think she knows more about my work than I do myself.
There's little sense in trying to keep secrets from her.
She has an ingrained curiosity.
The hallmark of a true scientist.
Do you take milk and sugar in your coffee, Mr. Torrence?
No, plain black.
Thanks you.
Well, I still think it would be worth a trip out to Crocks again.
- What? - Pelham House.
I'd still like to take a look inside.
Oh, Professor Julian Keeley!
- You know him? - I've met him.
He's been here once or twice.
But you know him, Grandfather. You know him very well.
- Is that true, sir? - Yes, I know him.
We met at Oxford. He was reading biochemistry.
When I saw that photograph, I just couldn't believe it.
Not Keeley! I was going to tell you...
later.
Old college chums and all that.
I thought I might see him first, speak to him.
Find out if he's really involved.
- Why not. - Heh?
Well, it's worth a try.
Chances are that a friend could get more out of him than you or I.
Yes, it's worth a try.
Julian?
I finished. It's all finished. I finished it.
Hello, Julian. It's Lorrimer.
Oh, Lorrimer.
- Lorrimer Van Helsing. - Oh, no.
You told me anytime I was...
Lorrimer... Van Helsing.
Wait... Not terribly convenient just now.
What I mean is...
I'm sorry, I happened to be in the neighborhood and just thought I'd pop in.
- I'm busy. - On what?
What are you working on these days?
I must say you have some splendid equipment here.
- I'm sorry if I startled you. - I was concentrating.
Leave that, will you!
- What's wrong, Julian? - Nothing.
Nothing.
I'm...
just a bit tense, Lorrimer.
You know...
sleepless nights...
mental fatigue...
I... I have been ill.
A sort of temporary breakdown, but I'll be over it soon.
My dear chap, I'm so sorry.
The project...
I had a deadline, you see.
It had to be completed by the 23rd of this month.
Always fighting the clock!
But I did what they wanted me to and I've still time to spare.
All the answers just came...
quite suddenly.
It happens like that occasionally, doesn't it?
That is...
There's still time before the 23rd, isn't there?
Evil rules, you know.
It really does.
Evil and violence are the only two measures that hold any power.
Look at the world.
Chaos.
It is a pre-ordained pattern.
Violence, greed, intolerance, sloth, jealousy.
The deadly sins.
Or the deadly virtues.
The supreme being is the Devil, Lorrimer!
Serve him and he offers you immortality. He removes death, the common enemy.
Nothing is too vile.
Nothing is too dreadful,
too awful.
You need to know the terror...
the horror, Lorrimer.
You need to feel the thrill of disgust...
the beauty of obscenity.
Julian, in God's name!
What is it you're working on?
Julian!
- Help me. Help me, Lorrimer. - Julian!
These notes, they refer to a new strain of bacillus pestis!
Bubonic plague!
The Black Death!
No cure for it. Not a preventative technique...
but a means of accelerating it!
I had to do it!
I found the new strain...
bacillus pestius!
But more virulent than any known specie.
I grew the bacilli in agar and then exposed them to radio-active neutrons.
Any infected creature suffers the most indescribable symptoms.
Flesh...
literally rots on the bones
and the contagion spreads by touch like wildfire.
Everything accelerates beyond any imagination.
Within seconds, the disease takes over the whole system.
And the bacilli is growing in these petri dishes?
They are now fully matured.
They can live in a saline solution indefinitely.
Why the plague bacillus, Julian?
You, Professor Julian Keeley, awarded the Nobel prize for science and humanity.
Why, Julian?
You're going to tell me who commissioned you to work on this, this atrocity.
And what is so important to you, and to them, about the 23rd of this month?
Otherwise, I shall have no alternative, but to report this whole matter to higher authorities.
Don't blame me.
It's not my fault.
He threatened me. My work's all finished.
Oh, dear God.
Look, you heard what my grandfather said. I know his work.
I might spot something you could overlook.
- I'm sorry Jessica, it's just out of the question. - We're not playing games.
Actually, there is a way you can be of use to us, Jessica.
- How? - By waiting here!
And if by some chance we shouldn't be back within an hour
get on to Gasby at the Island 356 and tell him what happened, will you?
And ah... be quiet.
State your name and business, please.
Murray, Inspector Murray. Police.
Well, you are the law.
What is it?
- Police, mum. - Police?
What can the police possibly want with us?
Apparently there was some sort of disturbance in the roadway just outside your gates last night.
Some nearby residents complained.
There are no nearby residents.
It was a very still night. Perhaps the sound carried.
Didn't you hear anything?
Yes, as a matter of fact I did. Some hooligans on motorcycles.
I hardly thought it worth reporting.
The complainants felt that the hooligans might be using this house as a rallying point.
It's ridiculous, of course, but we have to look into these things.
How very bizarre.
They are supposed to hide in the dark corners of Pelham House, are they?
Oh, please, let's get out of here! Oh, please, take me away!
Peter, please, don't leave me here!
- Oh, please, help me! - Jane.
Help me!
Stop him! She's a vampire!
Peter!
- Pull yourself free, man. - I can't.
Keeley behaved like a man demented, obsessed.
Utterly lost.
All but the last vestige of sanity had left him.
His words were prompted by some force, some nightmare outside himself.
It was a shadow, a specter, that haunts us all.
Murray, why the hell didn't you get your people to raid Pelham House?
You should've called them the moment you got out of the damn place.
As a matter of fact.
I'm sorry, Colonel, Inspector Murray was quite right.
By the time the police would have got there, they would have found nothing.
Nothing?
What about that Chinese woman?
What about all those unfortunate creatures in the cellar?
We are not dealing with ordinary criminals, Colonel Matthews,
Nor with enemy agents.
These people have powers beyond anything you can imagine.
It didn't help Professor Keeley.
Well, he's out of it now, anyway.
One down and 3 to go.
Keeley Foundation, who started it?
- Whose money is behind it? - Thank you.
Some tycoon called Denham. D.D. Denham.
There's very little known about him.
He lives in the heart of the Denham building. No, thank you.
He allows no press interviews or photographs.
- A recluse. - Denham.
- It means something? - A link, possibly a major one.
Yes, here we are. The Denham Group of companies: Chemicals, oil, banks.
Board of directors: Denham himself...
The Right Honorable John Porter, Lord Carradine
General Freeborn,
and Keeley.
An Uncle Tom copy an all.
This man.
- Denham? - Perhaps Hansen was right?
I think he was.
You've already seen the manifestation of vampirism.
The cult lives, it breathes, it spreads its vileness like a contagion.
Like the plague.
My family has fought this corruption for generations.
Each time it was destroyed so it has risen again, like the Phoenix.
But hell bent on revenge. Only this time...
this time I believe its not merely a personal vendetta...
but something infinitely more far-reaching.
The plague bacillus, Pelham House, the mental destruction of intellectuals,
such as Professor Keeley and the others.
It is all an integral part of a means to a definite end.
The real force, the shadow I spoke of, is more sinister...
more obscene than any monstrosity you can think of.
Lord of corruption, master of the undead...
Count Dracula.
Is there really such a creature?
You should have been in that bloody cellar, Colonel.
Incredible.
My department is being closed down. Orders of John Porter.
Half my staff have been arrested. Two have been killed.
They've labeled us subversives and the heavies are damn well looking for us
and all this because of a vampire?
- Van Helsing, for Gods sake. - Jessica, you should be resting.
- Oh, I'm all right, Grandfather. - Thank you.
I destroyed Count Dracula once.
It was more than two years ago in St. Bartolph's church yard.
But this creature can live again, by reincarnation.
It requires a disciple, someone well versed in ritual.
- The Chinese woman, Chin Yang. - Possibly.
She would have to know the exact location of Dracula's grave.
I passed the site of St. Bartolph's tonight.
The church yard has long since vanished. An office block has been built there now.
That new building is about two years.
Well, if it's been there for 2 years
That means this "thing" has been around since then.
So it would seem.
And those women in the cellar...
Their names have probably been on the files of your missing persons bureau for 2 years.
Anyway, that new office block belongs to the Denham group of companies.
Now, I don't know whether the fifth guest was D.D. Denham,
but this I do know, vampires are spectral creatures.
Their image casts no reflection in a mirror.
Nor can the lens of a camera record their likeness.
- So there was someone there. - Or some thing.
Your man Hanson saw it, but his camera couldn't record it.
How the hell do you fight a vampire?
Cloves of Garlic!
There are many ways.
The symbols of good are used to combat the forces of evil.
The crucifix, the word of God, as written in the Holy Bible.
Clear running water, symbolizing purity.
- And it lives in mortal dread of silver. - Anything else?
The Hawthorn tree, which provided Christ with his crown of thorns.
The light of day.
And a wooden stake driven though the heart.
What about the 23rd, the date that Keeley mentioned?
Yes indeed, the 23rd of this month.
That I fear is the worst of all.
It is the Sabot for the undead.
What significance has that?
There are satanic circles which govern our fate.
And the fate of Earth, perhaps even the universe.
Now, throughout history
there are certain times, certain dates
which are marked by awesome catastrophes.
Each event is carefully plotted and a definite pattern emerges.
Every disaster this world has ever suffered
coincides with a point wherein these circles meet and cross.
In this century alone they heralded the outbreak of 2 devastating world wars.
- And another disaster is imminent? - Could be.
The 23rd, that's the day after tomorrow.
No, this must happen tomorrow at midnight.
Why, it's even sooner.
At that hour, the devil holds a balance of power.
He marshals his disciples, the living and the dead.
In satanic cabals it is the celebration of supreme blasphemy,
- Sabot for the undead. - I've heard of the witches Sabot.
No, this date is much more important, more profound.
Even more significant than the night of Walpurgis.
Now, Keeley said the bacillus had to ready by the 23rd.
Why?
The date chosen by Dracula himself
the 23rd day of this 11th month.
The emerging pattern, you see
the night of the soulless ones.
And in the turmoil and fear that follows, a group of
warped men emerge to take control.
A politician, a soldier, an industrialist, a landowner.
But Dracula will eventually end up with a totally barren Earth.
With only diseased and dead bodies to feed on,
surely even the vampire himself would perish.
Perhaps, deep in his subconscious, that is what he really wants.
And end to it all.
He is a cursed immortal
existing on violence, fear and dread.
And supposing... just suppose he yearns for final peace. What then?
He'd want to bring down the whole universe with him.
The ultimate revenge.
Thousands dying of the plague.
Like the shadow of death itself
one figure scything it's way through the terror and anguish:
Count Dracula.
It is the biblical prophecy of Armageddon.
Nothing,
nothing at all.
It all seems so unbelievable by the light of day.
- But it's not. - Hmm.
Well, what's going on?
It won't do you any good hanging around here.
Professor Van Helsing is still at home, I'm with the colonel down in the car.
- We'll just be hanging around. - Yes, I know.
Well, they're all right, sir, a bit impatient, of course, but...
Colonel?
- It'll be getting dark soon. - We should have heard something by now.
It's a sniper! Get down!
That was a bullet!
- It didn't hear a shot. - He's using a silencer!
Could be anywhere.
Better get the hell out of here. If he gets us pinned down...
Run like hell!
Come on, Jessie, the road can't be far away.
I Can't!
Look, Jessica, he's only playing with us
He could pick us off at any time.
Now, come on, come on!
Thank God, the Colonel's car's still there! Come on!
Come on, Colonel, let's get the engine started.
Let's get moving!
- Look out! - Stop!
Good evening, I'd like to see Mr. Denham. Mr. D.D. Denham.
I'm sorry, sir, no one sees Mr. Denham. No one at all.
Ever.
If you were to mention my name, I'm sure he'd see me.
- Van Helsing. - Waste of time, sir, I assure you.
Excuse me.
Security reception.
Yes, sir. But my standing instructions...
Yes, sir.
You're to go up to Mr. Denham's private apartment, sir.
Thank you.
Doesn't that thing make you feel self conscious?
All part of the job.
Take the lift and press the red button.
It'll stop right outside his suite.
And, sir... you're not carrying a camera, are you?
- My instructions... - No, no camera.
- Professor Van Helsing. - Mr. Denham.
- I have been expecting you. - I rather thought you might.
Please sit down.
I have been expecting you ever since Julian Keeley took his own life.
Or was he murdered?
He was a servant of this foundation.
I am the master.
His nerves failed him.
The project he was working on was enough to shatter anyone's nerve.
It is merely a deterrent, nothing more.
There is a group of us who are determined that the decadence of the present day
can and will be halted.
A new political regime is planned.
To lend weight to ones arguments amid the rush and whirl of humanity
it is sometimes necessary to be persuasive.
Persuasive?
Now there are a few vague rituals, it is true.
A little occultism, a touch of mysticism at Pelham House, nothing more.
Evil begets evil.
There is an unholy aura in this place.
And it is not a question of a little occultism or a touch of mysticism, Mr. Denham!
It is vampirism, and there's a host of damned souls at Pelham House.
What are you going to do with me? You can't let me go, can you?
I know too much.
Do you mind if I smoke? It's a bad habit, I know, but...
helps me concentrate.
I'm sorry.
Am I to suffer the same fate as Professor Keeley?
You are an interfering man, Professor.
Do not meddle, or you will have to deal with me.
You are Count Dracula!
Of course...
Mr. Denham, the powerful recluse.
Here you are safe.
No one expects to see him.
Not in the day time.
Tui Deo gloria. Nisi Dominus Frustra.
Foolish man, bullets can not harm me.
A silver bullet, Dracula.
- Kill him! - He threatened you!
It cannot be made so simple for him.
Not for Van Helsing,
Nor for his granddaughter.
- Where is Jessica? - I have her hidden away.
- I suggest you go and find her! - I will, I promise you.
- But first you must help me. - Help you?
I to want to get away from this place. I'm as much a prisoner as you are.
- Yes, but you live here. - Not by choice.
In God's name!
Jessica.
Please, God...
On this, the eve of the Sabat of the undead...
I call upon you to witness my supreme triumph.
Van Helsing, I choose the spawn your blood
to be my consort.
The instrument of my final conquest.
Swifter, more awesome than the Black Death.
The Plague!
In the first moments, every muscle, every fiber will be afire with
torment and agony.
In the days to come, you will pray for death.
Release.
And so you'll destroy every living soul on this earth.
You're left with an empty world to command.
Is that what you want, Count Dracula?
A last blaze of utter horror and violence?
The ghastly annihilation of an entire planet?
Is this your own death wish?
I have chosen 4 messengers of death,
Four horsemen of my created apocalypse,
Four carriers of the plague who will infect their miserable brethren.
You, Van Helsing, are now one of the four.
The body of your granddaughter will never be corrupted.
It will be her joy
to walk at my side.
Four carriers?
Us? You mean us?
You said we would use the plague only as a deterrent.
To hold governments to ransom.
- You promised us power. - We served you faithfully.
Silence!
The girl that you love is mine already
and through her you will yet do my bidding.
In your name!
For you!
Everything.
We did exactly as we were commanded!
In return, you promised...
Are you open to any deals?
Hurry! Get Jessica away!
Get her away, man. Hurry!
My revenge has spread over centuries and has just begun!
Jessica! Jessica!
How the hell do you fight a vampire?
There are many ways. The symbols of good are used to combat the forces of evil.
The Hawthorn tree, which provided Christ with his crown of thorns.
Count Dracula!
Dracula!
March, 11, 2011