Dracula: Prince of Darkness - Prologue

Prologue

The story opens with the final scenes from Dracula, showing Dracula’s death at the hands of Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) accompanied by narration:

"After a reign of hideous terror, spanning more than a century, the King of the Undead was finally traced to his lair high in the Carpathian mountains. Throughout the decades, many had sought to destroy him. All had failed. Here at last was an adversary armed with sufficient knowledge of the ways of the vampire, to bring about the final and absolute destruction. This then was his fate. Thousands had been enslaved by the obscene cult of vampirism. Now, the fountainhead himself perished. Only the memory remained. The memory of the most evil and terrible creature who ever set his seal on civilization."

Using a makeshift crucifix, Van Helsing forces the Count into the destructive rays of the sun. Eventually, Dracula (Christopher Lee) is destroyed and he crumbles to dust in the sunlight. As the wind blows away his ashes, only the Count's ring remains.