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Meinster's origins are more vague. He isn't the prey of a female vamp like Bates is in "Lust For A Vampire". Instead, he's damned by his own unspeakable desires.


The movie suggests that he got that way by falling in with a bad crowd; whether he was victimized or welcomed his seduction isn't touched on at all, which is where our subjective readings come in. The main difference between Meinster and Dracula is that Dracula is the very fountainhead of vampirism, and Meinster just a disciple -- not even that, necessarily, but surely a contaminant of his disciples. He's not a man who has commanded armies, like Dracula, but a spoilt nobleman who not only still lives with his mother but continues to feed on her like an infant.

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Just the fact that no other male vampire like Meinster who isn't outwardly dark and scary really ever appears in another Hammer vampire film seems telling to me.


He may not be outwardly dark, but that makes those bloodshot eyes burn all the more wickedly. I find Baron Meinster scarier than most of Lee's Dracula appearances because he is more openly transgressive, putting the bite on his mother, his nanny (and probable wet-nurse) and Van Helsing himself; also, his physical being seems to take a greater leap from "normal" to "vampire" than does Lee, who is imperious and indomitable in either mode. There is also the feeling that Meinster was probably monstrous in terms of his immorality before his immortality was ever an issue. When we see Marianne run into Meinster's arms, as he is putting on his cape with a flourish, it may be Peel's greatest moment in the picture. He hasn't done anything yet, but you just know the devil has been let out of his bottle and that all hell's about to break loose.