Dracula A.D. 1972 ending explained (spoilers)

[discussadmin]

Inside St Botolph's church, Van Helsing cannot rouse his granddaughter on the altar from Dracula's hypnotic powers, so he leaves her as bait. Then he goes out into the churchyard and digs a hole, places upright stakes in the bottom, and conceals this trap. When the vampire enters the church to initiate Jessica into the cult of the undead, Van Helsing steps out from the shadows and shouts at Dracula to look upon his face, and to remember. A flashback reminds us of Van Helsing's grandfather despatching Dracula in 1872. This bloody memory draws Dracula from the endangered Jessica to attack Van Helsing. Dracula gets stuck with the vampire hunter's lethal silver blade, but unfortunately he still has power left to make Jessica remove the implement from him. Van Helsing runs outside, Dracula in fast pursuit; the first man clears the covered trap; Dracula falls in and becomes impaled, face down. Van Helsing drives the monster's body onto the spikes with a sexton's shovel. Jessica screams: the evil trance is broken. She sees the body of her dead boyfriend, and sobs. Her grandfather comforts her, and reassures her with the inscription from the family tombstone: Rest in Final Peace. Jessica now knows the answer to her earlier question 'Why Final?' It is Final because Dracula and the Van Helsings have fought down the years, and now Dracula is destroyed, and perhaps the Van Helsings can rest too.