![]() ![]() The performers are high flying and brimming with wild energy – and that level of skill on screen is magnetizing.Ĭushing spends much of the film informing and then hiding, since he isn’t quite the martial arts expert literally every single one of his co-stars is, but he gets to shine in the final moments when it comes down to a battle for the ages: Van Helsing vs. The frenzied nature of shooting the fights like this makes the film feel bigger, especially when high quality stunt work is involved. The most impressive part about the action set pieces is their size the choreography is staged so there are multiple layers to every skirmish. ![]() Hammer and Shaw made sure to pack this film with plenty of eyeball candy, most of which is combat action with horror taking a bit of a backseat to all the fisticuffs. Listen, if watching Chinese vampires with scarred, ghoulish faces, wearing golden masks, and fighting kung-fu while Peter Cushing looks on in horror doesn’t sound remotely appealing then this isn’t the film for you. Many lives are lost on both sides, but Van Helsing and the group carry on for one final showdown with these legendary bloodsuckers. The journey to the village is perilous, with the golden vampires and their army attacking along the way. Ching wants Van Helsing to help rid their village of the vampires, and he’ll have Ching’s seven deadly siblings as backup. Van Helsing believes the remaining six golden vampires are still out there, terrorizing the same village.Ī student of Van Helsing’s, Hsi Ching ( David Chiang), tells the professor the legend is true and he has a medallion as proof to back it up. ![]() He tells the story of the seven golden vampires, the town they lorded over, and how a villager was able to defeat one using a medallion each vampire has around their neck. Van Helsing ( Peter Cushing) lecturing a class about Chinese vampire myths. Kah isn’t given much of an option as to whether or not he agrees and soon Drac is using Kah’s body to make his way to China. Dracula agrees… on the condition he can possess Kah’s body and escape his castle prison. It’s a mash-up that seems almost too crazy to work… but it does.Ī prologue set in Transylvania, 1804, finds Kah ( Chan Shen), High Priest of the Temple of the Seven Golden Vampires, seeking out Count Dracula ( John Forbes-Robertson) to aid in restoring the vampires’ fading powers. The production brings together the Gothic atmosphere of Hammer’s British horror and the lightning-fast hand and foot action from the most prolific studio in the game, with genre veteran Peter Cushing donning his Van Helsing hat one last time. cut was trimmed by around 20 minutes and re-titled “The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula”, which isn’t quite as cool as the original title. History has been kinder to the film than audiences of the day, with it now being seen as a mostly awesome adventure filled with plenty of chop-socky and bloodletting. Both Hammer and Shaw are venerable institutions of their respective genres – horror and kung-fu - producing some of the greatest films those fans have seen, but the amalgamation of the two hit with a dull thud. Audiences of 1974 mostly ignored what, to me, is one of cinema’s most ass-kicking pairings: the spawn of Hammer Film Productions paired with Shaw Brothers Studio, “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires”. ![]()
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