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The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires
[Anchor Bay]
1974; color
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Starring: Peter Cushing, Julie Ege, David Chiang, Robin Stewart & John Forbes-Robertson
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Did you ever wonder what would happen if the Shaw Brothers teamed up with Hammer Studios to make one movie that fused the former's skill for creating action packed, high kicking chop-sockey films with the latter's penchant for making slow paced, atmospheric horror films? Truth be told, neither did I. Seeing as how this film was released in 1974, and I would have been two or three years old at the time of it's production, it would have been quite unusual for me to be wondering about such things as a toddler. Nonetheless, somebody was thinking enough about the pairing to make it happen and The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires is the result. (Which is not a complaint, mind you, just an observation.) Not surprisingly, a few different edited versions of this film are in circulation and it was released under a slew of different titles; 7 Brothers Of Dracula, 7 Golden Vampires, The Last Warning, Seven Golden Vampires: The Last Warning, Dracula And The Seven Golden Vampires, The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula, 7 Brothers Versus Dracula, and - my personal favorite, as well as the most accurate, title - 7 Brothers And A Sister Meet Dracula. (And those are just the alternate titles for release in the UK and USA!) Also not surprisingly, this film is a little more than a little over the top but would you, or any respectable b-movie fan, want a kung fu horror movie to be any other way? No, we wouldn't. I'm not gonna spoil anything or detail the whole plotline for this one; mostly because I had trouble following it and had to keep asking the Kommandant to explain it to me. In short though, the basic idea is this: in the remote village of Ping Kuei a deadly curse looms over the town. Actually, the curse is only deadly if you're a nubile young woman, otherwise your life will be spared and you just have to live in fear on behalf of your daughter, sister, friend, etc. If you have the misfortune of being born female and living long enough to become nubile, your fate involves fanged fellas who like to ingest the blood of nubile young women all night and sleep soundly through every day. Elsewhere, a professor with the surname Van Helsing (played by Hammer's staple vampire slayer Peter Cushing) is trying to educate some impressionable city dwelling twenty-somethings about the ever present threat of vampirism. Most of them pay him no mind but one young man does. One who hails from the town where the young girls regularly get drained of their blood by vampires, of course. He spontaneously decides to try and convince the Professor to travel to said village and help him put an end to the curse once and for all. Given Van Helsing's interest in the subject, he doesn't need much convincing and after adding some extraneous characters to the entourage like his son and some blond chick with a funny accent - along with the previously mentioned brothers and sister - the group embarks on their journey. Along the way they fight people. Then they arrive at the vampires' dilapidated homestead and fight some more people. Until there are only a few people left. Not in the world; but the cast. This one could easily be enjoyed by either Hammer fans or Shaw Brothers fans but is best left to those who put more value on entertainment than movie-making.
—Bunny
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